After
Bóvedas de acero
Isaac Asimov1987
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose+1bleak0
The Robot Novels
Isaac Asimov1954
A human detective and a robot partner solve murders on a crowded Earth and a sparse outer world. The stories use logic to test robotic laws.
Same clinical register, still buddy cop
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Head On
John Scalzi2018
FBI agents investigate a death in a professional sport where players control robotic bodies. It is a near-future police procedural.
clinical → wry, still sci-fi mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Battlefield Earth
L. Ron Hubbard1984
One thousand years after an alien invasion, a young man leads a human rebellion. He learns to use the invaders' technology to fight back.
clinical → propulsive, still dystopian
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak-1
Too Many Magicians
Randall Garrett1966
In an alternate 1966 where magic is a science, an investigator and a sorcerer solve a locked-room murder at a convention.
clinical → wry, still buddy cop
pace0·prose+1·bleak-1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak0
Marooned in Realtime
Vernor Vinge1986
The last few hundred humans on Earth must solve a murder after one of their own is left outside a time-suspension field for decades.
clinical → meditative, still sci-fi mystery
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
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.
clinical → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+3bleak+1
Against the Day
Thomas Pynchon2006
A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.
clinical → playful
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+3bleak+1
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.
clinical → sardonic, still dystopian
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+3bleak+1
In Green's Jungles
Gene Wolfe2000
A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.
clinical → elegiac
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
William S. Burroughs
A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.
clinical → sardonic, still dystopian
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
To recover
- pace-1prose+1bleak-1
The Robots of Dawn
Isaac Asimov1983
A detective and his robot partner travel to a space colony to solve the murder of a humanoid robot. The case hinges on robotic laws.
clinical → cerebral, still buddy cop
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace0prose+1bleak-1
Ethan of Athos
Lois McMaster Bujold1986
A doctor from an all-male planet travels into deep space to find new genetic material and encounters women for the first time.
clinical → wry
pace0·prose+1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak-1
The Most Human Human
Brian Christian2011
A writer competes as a human confederate in the Turing Test. He examines the history of AI and what specific traits distinguish humans from code.
clinical → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace0prose+1bleak-1
Kitty Goes to Washington
Carrie Vaughn2006
A werewolf radio host testifies at a Senate hearing and navigates political threats from a hostile senator and a vampire mistress.
clinical → wry
pace0·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace0prose+1bleak-1
Headcrash
Bruce Bethke1995
A computer programmer loses his job and enters a virtual reality underworld to seek revenge on the corporate elite. It is a satire of 1990s tech.
clinical → sardonic
pace0·prose+1·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
Red Rising
Pierce Brown2014
A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.
clinical → propulsive, still dystopian
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
Logan's run
William F. Nolan1967
In a future where everyone is executed at age 21, an enforcer becomes a fugitive. He attempts to reach a rumored sanctuary.
clinical → tense, still dystopian
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose+1bleak0
The Demolished Man
Alfred Bester1953
In a future where telepathic police make premeditated crime impossible, a businessman plans a murder. He uses a catchy song to block his thoughts.
clinical → propulsive, still noir
pace+1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
The Running Man
Richard Bachman
A man enters a deadly reality show to fund medical care for his daughter. He must survive thirty days while the entire world hunts him for money.
clinical → propulsive, still dystopian
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak0
The Long Run
Daniel Keys Moran1989
A genetically engineered outlaw with the ability to interface with computers runs from a global police force. He attempts a final heist.
clinical → propulsive, still dystopian
pace+1·prose+1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
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.
clinical → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak0
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.
clinical → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+3bleak0
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.
clinical → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak0
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
clinical → bleak, still dystopian
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+3bleak-1
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Douglas R. Hofstadter1979
An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.
clinical → playful
pace-2·prose+3·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick1977
An undercover narcotics agent in a near-future California becomes addicted to the drug he is investigating and begins to spy on himself.
clinical → bleak, still noir
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood1985
In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.
clinical → cold, still dystopian
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
Watchmen
Alan Moore1986
Retired masked vigilantes investigate the murder of a former teammate. The story takes place in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war.
clinical → bleak, still dystopian
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+3bleak+2
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess1962
A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.
clinical → sardonic, still dystopian
pace0·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
The Testament of Jessie Lamb
Jane Rogers2011
A teenager decides to volunteer for a medical program that will end her life to save humanity from a biological catastrophe.
clinical → earnest, still dystopian
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
