Explore from Neurovance — Hidden Sci-Fi

The Dividing Sky

Jill Tew · 2024

In a corporate dystopia, a memory seller and a law enforcer are forced together when she loses her memories.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory trade · illegal memories · corporate control · class divide · fugitive chase · forced proximity · amnesia romance · enemies to lovers · humanity vs system · resistance awakening

Setting labels: near future · futuristic city · dystopian future · corporate state · privatized society · hypercapitalist world · metro city · wilderness · no-man's-land

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1513

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Hujan

Tere Liye · 2016

In a futuristic, disaster-scarred world, a young woman seeks to erase painful memories tied to love and loss.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory erasure · post-disaster survival · star-crossed lovers · friendship bond · environmental collapse · future technology · lost memories

Setting labels: near future · 2040s · 2050 · dystopian future · post-apocalyptic · unnamed locations · tropical region · scientific future · disaster aftermath

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1606

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QualityLand 2.0

Marc-Uwe Kling · 2020 · QualityLand

In a near-future algorithmic dystopia, interwoven characters face pursuit, politics, and escalating absurdity.

Why this is here

Premise labels: near-future dystopia · AI society · algorithmic control · surveillance capitalism · level system · digital identity · right to be forgotten · climate crisis · machine therapy · killer robot

Setting labels: near future · dystopian future · algorithmic society · digital world · self-driving cars · big-data world

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1689

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The Unhappening of Genesis Lee

Shallee McArthur · 2014

A memory-perfect teen must stop a thief stealing lives—while her own memories begin to vanish.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory theft · stored memories · genetically enhanced humans · social divide · thief hunt · identity crisis

Setting labels: near future · future society · city setting · closed community · urban dystopia · futuristic technology · science fiction world · class divide

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1694

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Count Zero

William Gibson · 2006 · Sprawl

A mercenary, a hacker, and an art dealer are drawn into a corporate-cybernetic conspiracy in the Sprawl.

Why this is here

Premise labels: corporate espionage · cyberspace hacker · art investigation · mercenary extraction · biochip theft · multiple protagonists · AI intrigue · virtual reality

Setting labels: near future · cyberpunk future · dystopian future · corporate-controlled world · urban megacity · cyberspace · virtual reality · global economy · Sprawl

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1723

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Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century

Kim Fu · 2022

Twelve uncanny stories twist modern life, turning grief, technology, and desire into strange new monsters.

Why this is here

Premise labels: modern monsters · small-world distortions · human condition · speculative twists · everyday uncanny · tech consequences · memory loss · grief and longing · coming of age · human frailty

Setting labels: modern world · near future · futuristic · contemporary · dystopian future · everyday reality · surreal reality · high-tech future · suburbia · workplace

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1733

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The End of Eternity

Isaac Asimov · 1971

A time-traveling fixer falls in love and risks unraveling the system that edits humanity’s past for the greater good.

Why this is here

Premise labels: time travel · timeline manipulation · controlled history · hidden organization · forbidden love · butterfly effect

Setting labels: future centuries · outside time · alternate reality · humanity-wide · dystopian future · galactic-scale

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1749

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Paycheck

Philip K. Dick · 1953

A memory-wiped engineer receives odd trinkets instead of his paycheck and must use them to survive and uncover the truth.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory wipe · future clues · on the run · corporate secret · time-scooping · predestination · survival puzzle

Setting labels: dystopian future · police state · corporate power · authoritarian government · industrial workplace · near future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1754

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Alex + Ada, Vol. 3

Jonathan Luna, Sarah Vaughn · 2015 · Alex + Ada

In a near-future where sentient androids are outlawed, Alex and Ada fight to stay together and free.

Why this is here

Premise labels: android sentience · forbidden love · robot rights · near-future dystopia · escape from authorities · human-android relationship

Setting labels: near future · not-so-distant future · futuristic society · cyborg-like tech · corporate age

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1764

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Robot Uprisings

Daniel H. Wilson · 2014

A themed anthology of short fiction imagining robot uprisings, AI rebellion, and the human cost of future tech gone wrong.

Why this is here

Premise labels: robot uprising · AI rebellion · technological revolt · machine takeover · robot apocalypse · near-future threat

Setting labels: near future · post-apocalyptic future · post-robot rebellion · technological future · household technology · AI-mediated world · dystopian future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1794

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Specimen

Shay Savage · 2016

A memory-wiped super soldier wakes in a lab and must decide whether his doctor is his guide, lover, or jailer.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory loss · laboratory experiment · super soldier · corporate war · doctor-patient bond · engineered attraction · identity mystery · trust issues · altered human

Setting labels: laboratory · dystopian future · post-apocalyptic Earth · corporate-controlled world · war-torn future · science experiment setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1802

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Glasshouse

Charles Stross · 2006

An amnesiac future fugitive hides inside a 20th-century social experiment that soon turns sinister.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory wipe · amnesiac protagonist · assassination threat · future society · social experiment · identity crisis · body swap · closed system · undercover mission · post-scarcity future

Setting labels: far future · 27th century · posthuman society · space colonies · wormhole network · simulation · recreated 20th century · 1950s suburbia · 1990s simulation · sealed environment

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1805

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The Original

Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal · 2020

A cloned woman must hunt her original in four days while uncovering the truth behind a murder and her reality.

Why this is here

Premise labels: clone hunt · identity crisis · self versus self · memory loss · murder investigation · government surveillance · immortality cost · replica mission · truth seeking · forced replacement

Setting labels: near future · futuristic society · dystopian future · altered reality · virtual overlay · surveillance state · global government · high tech world · post-work society

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1805

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The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 4: The Minority Report

Philip K. Dick · 1987

Early Philip K. Dick stories of warped reality, war, precognition, and mind-bending ideas in a classic SF collection.

Why this is here

Premise labels: high-concept ideas · future shock · paranoia · precognition · time travel · post-apocalyptic survival · sentient machines · memory manipulation · media manipulation · alternate reality · alien encounter · war aftermath · technology backlash · identity crisis · twist premise

Setting labels: future Earth · post-apocalyptic Earth · spacefaring future · near future · dystopian future · alternate reality · interplanetary setting · Cold War era future · America · technological society · classic SF future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1812

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The Confessions

Paul Bradley Carr · 2025

When a decision-making AI goes offline and secrets flood the world by mail, its creator must stop the collapse before it’s too late.

Why this is here

Premise labels: rogue AI · decision-making AI · AI shutdown · social collapse · secret exposure · confession letters · blackmail · near-future crisis · tech dependency · moral reckoning · race against time · cat and mouse

Setting labels: near future · speculative future · worldwide · global · United States · California · analog world · AI-controlled society · dystopian future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1813

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Mind's Eye

Douglas E. Richards · 2014 · Nick Hall

An amnesiac man with brain implants can read minds and surf the web by thought, while assassins hunt him for answers.

Why this is here

Premise labels: amnesia · brain implants · mind reading · thought-controlled internet · man on the run · assassins · identity mystery · technology threat · conspiracy · cat-and-mouse chase

Setting labels: near future · technological future · digital society · wired world · not too distant future · contemporary future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1818

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Volatile Memory

Seth Haddon · 2025 · The Volatile Memory Duology

A scavenger finds a sentient animal mask, and the two are pulled into a revenge-fueled, queer sci-fi chase.

Why this is here

Premise labels: scavenger · sentient AI · body ownership · revenge quest · sapphic romance · tech hunt · manhunt · identity crisis · corporate dystopia · two minds one body

Setting labels: space · far future · dystopian future · corporate society · capitalist dystopia · interstellar setting · tech-saturated world · repressive society · space scavenger culture

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1835

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Total Recall

Piers Anthony · 1990

A memory-implant gone wrong sends a man racing to Mars, where he uncovers a buried identity and alien secrets.

Why this is here

Premise labels: synthetic memory · false identity · memory implant · dream vs reality · Martian rebellion · corporate tyranny · secret past · alien technology · terraforming · espionage

Setting labels: Mars · future Earth · 2084 · future sci-fi · Martian colony · terraforming setting · space age · corporate-controlled world

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1843

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The Quantum Thief

Hannu Rajaniemi · 2010 · Jean le Flambeur

An amnesiac master thief is dragged into a Mars heist where memory, identity, and time itself are the real prizes.

Why this is here

Premise labels: master thief · memory recovery · prison break · heist mission · mystery investigation · identity recovery · mind theft · cat-and-mouse chase · post-singularity society

Setting labels: Mars · solar system future · far future · post-singularity · posthuman future · moving city · mobile city · virtual prison · digital world · alternative reality · space society · ubiquitous encryption · memory-mediated society · privacy-focused society

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1850

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These Memories Do Not Belong to Us

Yiming Ma · 2025

In a future where memories are bought, edited, and banned, a son risks everything to share his mother’s forbidden past.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory transfer · memory commodification · memory censorship · authoritarian surveillance · inherited memories · banned memories · state control · history control · truth suppression · memory as evidence · memory inheritance · resistance through remembering · illegal knowledge

Setting labels: future China · authoritarian state · dystopian future · postwar future · global superpower · occupied America · near future · shared-memory society · surveilled society · alternate history · global war aftermath · reeducation state

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1865

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Synners

Pat Cadigan · 1991

A sprawling cyberpunk ensemble in near-future Los Angeles, where brain-linked media tech and corporate greed push reality to the brink.

Why this is here

Premise labels: brain-computer interface · virtual reality · hacker culture · media industry · tech dependency · network collapse · human-machine merge · information overload · corporate control · sentient AI

Setting labels: near future · future Los Angeles · corporate dystopia · networked society · virtual world · media-saturated world · urban future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1875

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Betrayal

Pippa DaCosta · 2017 · The 1000 Revolution

An ex-smuggler and a rogue synthetic stowaway collide in a violent, corporate-controlled space future full of secrets.

Why this is here

Premise labels: smuggler · synthetic person · killer AI · memory transfer · on-the-run · corporate oppression · hidden past · revenge

Setting labels: space · intergalactic · nine systems · dystopian future · corporate future · military fleet · spaceship setting · lawless frontier

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1875

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Version Control

Dexter Palmer · 2016

A near-future marriage, a troubled physicist, and a device that may rewrite reality pull one woman into an eerie puzzle.

Why this is here

Premise labels: near future · causality violation · time travel · marriage crisis · grief · alternate reality · technology and society

Setting labels: near future · alternate reality · United States · information age · high-tech future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1879

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The Golden Age

John C. Wright · 2003 · The Golden Oecumene

An amnesiac heir in a dazzling post-human solar-system utopia probes a buried past that may shatter his world.

Why this is here

Premise labels: amnesia mystery · identity quest · far-future society · utopian instability · memory recovery · conspiracy discovery · transhuman future · self-investigation

Setting labels: solar system · far future · 10,000 years in future · interplanetary society · utopian society · post-singularity · virtual reality · transhuman society · engineered planets · augmented reality

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1883

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