After
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing denser
More like it
Same sardonic register, still satire
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
William S. Burroughs
A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose-1bleak0
The Wanting Seed
Anthony Burgess1962
In an overpopulated future, a couple navigates a society that enforces infertility. The state eventually collapses into cannibalism and war.
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace0prose-1bleak0
Bête
Adam Roberts2014
A farmer kills a cow that has been given artificial intelligence. He navigates a future where animals can argue for their own right to live.
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace0prose-1bleak0
Messiah
Gore Vidal1954
A mortician starts a religion based on the idea that death is better than life. It follows the movement's rise into a global death cult.
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Against the Day
Thomas Pynchon2006
A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.
sardonic → playful, still postmodern
pace0·prose0·bleak0
To recover
sardonic → warm
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
Sundays at Tiffany's
James Patterson2008
A lonely woman is reunited with her childhood imaginary friend, who has returned to her life as a physical man.
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Jesse Q. Sutanto2023
An elderly tea shop owner finds a corpse and decides to investigate the suspects herself. She uses cooking and mothering to extract information.
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
Play
Kylie Scott2014
A drummer for a famous rock band hires a woman to pose as his girlfriend to improve his public image. They live together to sell the lie.
sardonic → playful
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
Final Offer
Lauren Asher2023
An alcoholic heir returns to his family's lake house to secure his inheritance. He finds his ex-girlfriend living there with a child he never knew.
sardonic → earnest
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
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.
sardonic → playful, still satire
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+2prose-3bleak-1
Get Jiro!
Anthony Bourdain2012
In a future Los Angeles, master chefs rule as warlords. A sushi chef who kills rude customers is caught between two warring food factions.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
sardonic → wry
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
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.
sardonic → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
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.
sardonic → wry
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-3bleak-1
Skin Game
Jim Butcher2014
Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.
sardonic → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-1prose0bleak0
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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury1946
A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.
sardonic → elegiac
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-2bleak-2
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.
sardonic → earnest
pace-1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-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.
sardonic → elegiac
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose0bleak+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
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess1962
A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah2023
Prisoners in a private American penal system fight to the death in televised matches for a chance at freedom.
sardonic → bleak, still satire
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
HARM
Brian Aldiss2007
A British Muslim man is detained and tortured in a secret prison. He hallucinates a second life on a distant planet to escape the pain.
sardonic → bleak, still satire
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
William S. Burroughs
A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
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.
sardonic → cold, still dystopian
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
