LitQueuelitqueue

After

Arcadia

Iain Pears2015

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Collapsium

    Wil McCarthy2000

    Two rival scientists use programmable matter and black holes to manipulate the solar system. A disaster threatens to destroy the sun.

    Same playful register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf

    Marlon James2019

    A hunter with a supernatural sense of smell joins a group to find a missing child. The journey through mythical Africa is violent and hallucinatory.

    playful → bleak

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Rakesfall

    Vajra Chandrasekera2024

    Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.

    playful → dreamlike, still literary

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Glass Bead Game

    Hermann Hesse1972

    In a future academic province, a scholar masters an abstract system that synthesizes all human knowledge and arts.

    playful → elegiac, still literary

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Starter Villain

    John Scalzi2023

    A substitute teacher inherits his uncle's secret supervillain business, including a volcano lair and talking cats.

    playful → wry

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Playing with Fire

    Gena Showalter2006

    A barista gains elemental superpowers after being poisoned and must flee from a government agent. They eventually work together to escape.

    Same playful register

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Wyrd Sisters

    Terry Pratchett1988

    Three witches intervene in the politics of a kingdom to ensure a hidden heir returns to the throne. It is a comedic subversion of Macbeth.

    Same playful register

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    playful → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-1

  • For Us, the Living

    Robert A. Heinlein2003

    A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.

    playful → earnest

    pace-2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Kolyma tales

    Varlam SHALAMOV1980

    Short stories documenting daily life and survival in a Soviet labor camp. The prose is detached and focuses on the physical reality of starvation.

    playful → clinical

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2

Heavier

playful → bleak, still time travel

3 more ↓

  • The Fifth Science

    Exurb1a2019

    Twelve stories trace the rise and fall of a human empire through the discovery of a science of the mind. It spans 100,000 years of history.

    playful → elegiac, still literary

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Year of the Quiet Sun

    Wilson Tucker1970

    A social scientist travels forward in time to document the collapse of the United States through racial conflict and nuclear war.

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak+2

  • The Gone World

    Tom Sweterlitsch2018

    An investigator travels to possible futures to solve a murder and stop an approaching apocalypse. The timeline changes based on her observations.

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2