After
Extinction
Douglas Preston2024
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster
More like it
Same propulsive register, still techno-thriller
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Upgrade
Blake Crouch2022
A government agent is infected with a virus that begins rewriting his DNA to increase his intelligence and physical capabilities.
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Timeline
Michael Crichton1999
Historians travel to 1357 France using quantum technology to rescue their professor. They must survive the Hundred Years' War to return home.
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- pace0prose0bleak0
Nexus
Ramez Naam2012
A scientist develops a nanotech drug that links minds and is hunted by government agencies. It is a high-speed global conspiracy thriller.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Freedom™
Daniel Suarez2010
An autonomous computer program reorganizes global society into a decentralized network. A group of rebels fights to maintain human agency.
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Lexicon
Max Barry2013
A secret organization trains recruits to use specific words as tools for mind control. A talented runaway becomes a top student in their school.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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.
propulsive → sardonic
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Radiance
Catherynne M. Valente2015
A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
Same propulsive register, still techno-thriller
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Digital Fortress
Dan Brown1998
The NSA's code-breaking supercomputer encounters an unbreakable algorithm. A cryptographer and a professor race to find the kill code.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Medusa
Clive Cussler2009
The NUMA team investigates a missing undersea lab and a bathysphere attack. They uncover a corporate plot involving a deadly virus and jellyfish.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
Redshirts
John Scalzi2012
Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.
propulsive → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
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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.
propulsive → earnest
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
propulsive → wry
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+2bleak0
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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-3prose+2bleak0
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.
propulsive → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
Heavier
- pace-1prose0bleak+2
Down to a Sunless Sea
David Graham1979
A commercial pilot flies a plane full of passengers while nuclear war destroys the world below. They search for a place to land and survive.
propulsive → tense, still techno-thriller
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace-1prose0bleak+2
The White Plague
Frank Herbert1982
A molecular biologist creates a gender-targeted plague to kill every woman on Earth after his family dies in a bombing.
propulsive → bleak, still techno-thriller
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Fail-safe
Eugene Burdick1962
A mechanical failure sends American bombers to nuke Moscow, forcing the President to negotiate a desperate solution to avoid total war.
propulsive → tense, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+1bleak+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.
propulsive → cold
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-2prose0bleak+2
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.
propulsive → bleak
pace-2·prose0·bleak+2
