Still haunted by The Gone World? You’re not alone. If you crave more stories where time fractures, reality dissolves, and secrets stretch across the multiverse, this list is for you. These 20 mind-bending reads explore speculative tech, existential h...
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Yes, it’s the list’s namesake. But it rewards a second read. Look for new clues.
The Gone World – Tom Sweterlitsch
One of my top picks: Salvage crew boards a ghost ship. Claustrophobic, creepy, and full of cosmic dread.
Dead Silence – S.A. Barnes
A space-folding experiment breaks reality in horrifying ways. Fast-paced and paranoid. This is actually part of a series that has a common thread but each book can be read completely standalone.
The Fold – Peter Clines
Alternate realities and identity unravel. Thriller pacing with multiverse consequences.
Dark Matter – Blake Crouch
A memory plague distorts time itself. Big stakes and mind-bending twists. 5. Upgrade – Blake Crouch
Recursion – Blake Crouch
Biotech thriller with transhumanism themes. Fast, intense, and speculative
Upgrade – Blake Crouch
Multiverse scifi. She can travel between universes — but only if she’s dead in them. Thoughtful and thrilling.
The Space Between Worlds – Micaiah Johnson
Reality reboots across time periods. Elegant, layered, and disorienting in the best way.
Eversion – Alastair Reynolds
Descent into darkness, manipulation, and tech-enhanced isolation. Not time travel, but the mood fits.
The Luminous Dead – Caitlin Starling
A plane lands twice. Reality splits. Bureaucracy collapses. Wild and deeply philosophical.
The Anomaly – Hervé Le Tellier
A time-traveling killer. A survivor hunting him across fractured timelines.
The Shining Girls – Lauren Beukes
Such a fun book! Teleportation tech goes wrong — and creates a duplicate. Snarky but deeply existential.
The Punch Escrow – Tal M. Klein
Hell exists — and it’s under us. An epic mix of horror, exploration, and dread.
The Descent – Jeff Long
Monuments from the future appear in the present. Causality collapses.
The Chronoliths – Robert Charles Wilson
A terraformed planet evolves its own intelligence. Philosophical and unnerving.
Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky
ubtle time travel, simulation theory, and literary dread. Haunting and slow-burning
Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel
Time loop meets espionage. Every life he lives changes the world slightly more.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August – Claire North
He breaks the utopia he was born into. A flawed narrator in a fractured world.
All Our Wrong Todays – Elan Mastai
Teleporting soldiers get scrambled across timelines. Military sci-fi with a fractured narrative.
The Light Brigade – Kameron Hurley
Two agents on opposite sides of a time war fall in love through letters. Poetic and cerebral.
This Is How You Lose the Time War – Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
