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In the Midst of Life. Tales of Civilians

Ambrose Bierce1891

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

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  • Exquisite Corpse

    Poppy Z. Brite1996

    Two serial killers meet in New Orleans and collaborate on the abduction and murder of a young man. The prose details extreme physical violence.

    sardonic → bleak, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

sardonic → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

3 more ↓

  • The Bride of Lammermoor

    Walter Scott1800

    In 1703 Scotland, two lovers from feuding families attempt to stay together despite political instability and a family curse.

    sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

    Cormac McCarthy

    A teenager rides with a scalp-hunting gang across the 1850s border. The violence is the subject, not the obstacle.

    sardonic → cold, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Android Karenina

    Лев Толстой2010

    The text of Tolstoy's classic is modified to include robots, cyborgs, and space travel in a 19th-century Russian setting.

    sardonic → elegiac, still horror

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Warrior Rising

    P.C. Cast2008

    Goddesses transport a modern woman to ancient Troy to seduce and distract Achilles. It is a lighthearted fish-out-of-water romance.

    sardonic → playful

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Wielding a Red Sword

    Piers Anthony1986

    An Indian prince avoids an arranged marriage by accepting the supernatural office of War. He wields a sword that draws him into a conflict in Hell.

    sardonic → playful

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Year zero

    Reid, Robert2012

    Aliens discover that Earth's music is the best in the galaxy and they owe humanity trillions in copyright fines.

    sardonic → playful

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Intercepts

    T.J. Payne2020

    A worker at a government facility monitors human test subjects driven insane by sensory deprivation. The experiment enters his private life.

    sardonic → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak0

  • Infected

    Bobby Adair

    A slow-acting virus turns the population into aggressive predators. The story follows a survivor navigating the initial societal collapse.

    sardonic → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Undead Day One

    R.R. Haywood

    A supermarket manager attempts to survive the first twenty-four hours of a zombie outbreak in England. The story is told in real-time.

    sardonic → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • A Month in the Country

    J. L. Carr1980

    A WWI veteran spends a summer in a quiet village restoring a medieval mural in a church. He reflects on his trauma while observing local life.

    sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The night land

    William Hope Hodgson1972

    Millions of years after the sun dies, a man leaves an underground fortress to rescue a woman. The prose uses archaic, repetitive syntax.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    sardonic → clinical, still historical fiction

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0