
After
Covert Game (A GhostWalker Novel)
Christine Feehan2018
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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Fated
Rebecca Zanetti2011
A genetically engineered vampire discovers a woman who is the key to his species' survival and kidnaps her to protect her from a virus.
Same tense register, still paranormal romance
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Dauntless
Jack Campbell2006
A legendary captain is recovered from cryosleep to lead a fleet home through enemy territory. The focus is on fleet tactics and physics.
Same tense register, still military sci-fi
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The Risen Empire
Scott Westerfeld2003
An immortal Emperor battles a cult that worships artificial intelligence. The story follows a starship captain and a planetary hostage.
Same tense register, still military sci-fi
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Alterant
Sherrilyn Kenyon2011
A half-demon investigator must recapture three escaped fugitives to clear her name. She navigates a secret society of supernatural hunters.
Same tense register, still paranormal romance
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Janissaries
Jerry Pournelle1979
A group of mercenaries is rescued from a failed mission by aliens and transported to a planet where humans from different eras coexist.
Same tense register, still military sci-fi
pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose
tense → dreamlike
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Rakesfall
Vajra Chandrasekera2024
Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.
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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.
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
tense → sardonic
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Valis
Philip K. Dick1981
A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.
tense → meditative
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Shadow & Claw
Gene Wolfe1983
A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.
tense → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover
tense → playful, still paranormal romance
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Big bad beast
Shelly Laurenston2011
A wolf-shifter Marine investigates a hybrid fighting ring while dealing with her persistent boss. It is a paranormal romance set in an urban world.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
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Carnal Secrets
Suzanne Wright2014
A wolf shifter tracks down a woman he believes is his fated mate. She resists his claim while they deal with pack politics and threats.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

3 more ↓ ↑
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After Dark
Jayne Castle
A para-archaeologist finds a body in a museum and hires a dangerous man to help her navigate a city on an alien planet.
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Night Pleasures
Sherrilyn Kenyon2002
An immortal warrior and a skeptical accountant are handcuffed together while being hunted by supernatural predators.
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Megan's Mark
Lora Leigh2006
A sheriff's deputy with psychic empathy tracks a killer alongside a genetically engineered feline-human hybrid who claims her as his mate.
tense → earnest, still paranormal romance
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster
Same tense register, still military sci-fi
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Hell Divers
Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016
Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

- pace+1prose0bleak+1
Lines of Departure
Marko Kloos2014
An officer fights an interstellar war against alien giants while Earth collapses into poverty. It follows military campaigns across space.
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

3 more ↓ ↑
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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
tense → wry
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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.
tense → propulsive
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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.
tense → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
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.
tense → meditative
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- pace-2prose+2bleak-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.
tense → playful
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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.
tense → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier
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Kaleidoscope Century
John Barnes1995
A mercenary wakes every ten years to a new body and a changing world. He uncovers his own history of atrocities across the 21st century.
tense → bleak, still military sci-fi
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Dark Age
Pierce Brown2019
An outlawed revolutionary fights a losing war on Mercury while an exiled heir attempts to reclaim a space empire. It is a violent military epic.
tense → propulsive, still military sci-fi
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
tense → cold
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Doomsday Book
Connie Willis1992
A student travels to 14th-century England while a virus spreads in the present. She arrives during the Black Death due to a technical error.
tense → bleak
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Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.
tense → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
