LitQueuelitqueue

After

Destroyermen

Richard Tennent2012

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 more ↓

  • How High We Go in the Dark

    Sequoia Nagamatsu2022

    A series of interconnected stories follow humanity's struggle to survive and grieve after an ancient plague is released from the permafrost.

    Same elegiac register, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • The crystal world

    Richard Aldington1937

    A collection of prose poems and lyrics documenting the end of a love affair. The narrator uses crystalline imagery to track emotional decay.

    Same elegiac register, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Nova Express

    William S. Burroughs1964

    An experimental narrative uses the cut-up technique to depict a war between intergalactic criminals and the police. It is a collage of imagery.

    elegiac → sardonic, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-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.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

elegiac → playful, still science fiction

3 more ↓

  • The Last Question

    Isaac Asimov2007

    A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.

    elegiac → meditative, still science fiction

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Dream Park

    Steven Barnes1981

    A security chief investigates a real death during a high-stakes holographic role-playing game. The story tracks the game mechanics and the murder.

    elegiac → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Butterfly Kid

    Chester Anderson1967

    Hippie protagonists in Greenwich Village discover that a new drug allows them to manifest hallucinations into reality to fight an alien invasion.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Akira, Vol. 1

    Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984

    In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.

    elegiac → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Lake House

    James Patterson

    A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.

    elegiac → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    elegiac → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-3

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2