LitQueuelitqueue

After

Here

Richard McGuire2014

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same meditative register

1 more ↓

  • Earth abides

    George Rippey Stewart1949

    A man survives a global plague and observes the slow decay of infrastructure and the rise of a new, simpler society over several decades.

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

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.

    Same meditative register

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

  • 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.

    Same meditative register

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+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.

    meditative → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

To recover

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.

    Same meditative register

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

  • Still Life

    Louise Penny2005

    Chief Inspector Armand Gamache investigates the death of a beloved resident in a quiet Quebec village. The focus is on local character study.

    meditative → warm

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • On a Pale Horse

    Piers Anthony1983

    After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

Faster

meditative → propulsive

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Recursion

    Blake Crouch2019

    A detective and a scientist discover a technology that allows people to map and enter memories, causing timelines to rewrite and collapse.

    meditative → tense

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Accelerando

    Charles Stross2005

    Three generations of a family navigate the rapid evolution of technology toward a singularity. The pace accelerates as humanity is outpaced by AI.

    meditative → wry

    pace+2·prose+2·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • For Us, the Living

    Robert A. Heinlein2003

    A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.

    meditative → earnest

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Hav

    Jan Morris2006

    A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.

    meditative → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Kolyma tales

    Varlam SHALAMOV1980

    Short stories documenting daily life and survival in a Soviet labor camp. The prose is detached and focuses on the physical reality of starvation.

    meditative → clinical

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    meditative → bleak

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+2

  • The Sparrow

    Mary Doria Russell1996

    A Jesuit priest joins a mission to a newly discovered planet. The story is told in flashbacks after he returns as the sole, traumatized survivor.

    meditative → elegiac

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+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.

    meditative → bleak

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak+2