LitQueuelitqueue

After

Blood Music

Greg Bear1985

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Rosewater Redemption

    Tade Thompson2019

    The final book in the Wormwood trilogy follows the aftermath of an alien invasion in Nigeria as humans and aliens struggle for sovereignty.

    clinical → tense, still biopunk

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    clinical → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Schild's Ladder

    Greg Egan2002

    Physicists in the far future attempt to stop an expanding vacuum bubble that threatens to consume the universe. It focuses on theoretical physics.

    clinical → meditative, still hard scifi

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    clinical → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Fifty Shades of Grey

    E.L. James2000

    A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.

    clinical → earnest

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    clinical → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    clinical → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    clinical → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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+1·bleak-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+1·bleak-2

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    clinical → playful

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → bleak, still body horror

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+1

  • The Cipher

    Kathe Koja1991

    A couple discovers a black hole in their apartment floor that physically and mentally alters anything that enters it.

    clinical → bleak, still body horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Red Spider White Web

    Misha1990

    In a corporate-owned wasteland, an artist survives by scavenging. The prose is dense and focuses on body modification and urban decay.

    clinical → dreamlike, still body horror

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1