After
Annihilation
Jeff VanderMeer2014
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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Area X
Jeff VanderMeer2014
Expeditions enter a coastal zone where nature is being rewritten by an alien force. The narrative shifts from field logs to bureaucratic mystery.
Same dreamlike register, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
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The Body Library
Jeff Noon2018
A detective in a city built on stories investigates a murder where words become physical. He experiences the world through shifting narratives.
Same dreamlike register, still weird fiction
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Shambleau, and others
C. L. Moore1953
A collection of pulp stories following space outlaw Northwest Smith as he encounters psychic predators and ancient horrors on other planets.
Same dreamlike register, still cosmic horror
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Chlorine
Jade Song2023
A competitive swimmer becomes obsessed with the idea that she is a mermaid. Her transformation involves graphic, self-inflicted body modification.
Same dreamlike register, still unreliable narrator
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1 more ↓ ↑
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The Troika
Stepan Chapman1997
An old woman, a jeep, and a dinosaur cross a desert under three suns. Their identities and memories shift as they try to reach a distant city.
Same dreamlike register, still unreliable narrator
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
Same dreamlike register, still weird fiction
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Empty Space
M. John Harrison2012
Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.
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City of Saints and Madmen
Jeff Vandermeer2001
A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon1937
A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.
dreamlike → elegiac, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
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Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany1975
An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.
Same dreamlike register, still unreliable narrator
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
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Too Like the Lightning
Ada Palmer2016
In a 25th-century utopia, a convict narrates the discovery of a boy who can perform miracles. The prose uses 18th-century styles and gender terms.
dreamlike → sardonic, still unreliable narrator
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
To recover
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This Girl
Colleen Hoover2013
A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.
dreamlike → earnest
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The Score
Elle Kennedy2016
A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.
dreamlike → playful
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3 more ↓ ↑
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To Sir Phillip, With Love
Julia Quinn2003
Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.
dreamlike → warm
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All Rhodes Lead Here
Mariana Zapata2021
A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.
dreamlike → warm
pace-1·prose-2·bleak-2
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Hannah's List
Debbie Macomber2010
A widower receives a letter from his late wife suggesting three women he should date. He begins to interact with each woman over the following year.
dreamlike → warm
pace-1·prose-2·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
dreamlike → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
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Ready Player One
Ernest Cline2008
A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.
dreamlike → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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All Systems Red
Martha Wells2017
A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.
dreamlike → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
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Skin Game
Jim Butcher2014
Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.
dreamlike → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
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The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
dreamlike → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany1975
An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.
Same dreamlike register, still unreliable narrator
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-1
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino1972
Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.
dreamlike → meditative
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3 more ↓ ↑
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Beelzebub's tales to his grandson
Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950
An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.
dreamlike → meditative
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Night Land
William Hope Hodgson2014
In the distant future, a man leaves the last human stronghold to find a woman across a sunless, monster-filled wasteland.
Same dreamlike register, still cosmic horror
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Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury1946
A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.
dreamlike → elegiac
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Heavier
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Absolution
Jeff VanderMeer2024
A prequel and sequel to the Southern Reach trilogy. It explores the early origins of Area X through multiple perspectives and decades.
Same dreamlike register, still cosmic horror
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The Deep
Nick Cutter2015
A veterinarian travels to a research station at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to help his brother find a cure for a global plague.
dreamlike → bleak, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Echopraxia
Peter Watts2014
A biologist is caught on a mission toward the sun alongside a pilot and a group of transhuman monks. It explores consciousness and evolution.
dreamlike → bleak, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
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Beyond the Aquila Rift
Alastair Reynolds2001
A spaceship crew wakes from cold sleep to find they have overshot their destination by light-years. They must face the reality of their location.
dreamlike → bleak, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
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Negative Space
B.R. Yeager2020
Four teenagers in a decaying New Hampshire town use a drug made from local parasites. They navigate hallucinations and a string of suicides.
dreamlike → bleak, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
