LitQueuelitqueue

After

Keeping It Real

Justina Robson2006

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Friday

    Robert A. Heinlein1982

    An artificial human works as a secret courier on a chaotic future Earth. She completes various missions while seeking a sense of belonging.

    Same wry register, still cyberpunk

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    wry → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • VAS

    Steve Tomasula2002

    A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.

    wry → clinical, still cyberpunk

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+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.

    wry → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Undead and Unwed

    MaryJanice Davidson2004

    After dying in a car crash, a fashion-obsessed woman wakes up as a vampire. She resists the local undead community's claim that she is their queen.

    wry → playful, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Split Infinity

    Piers Anthony1980

    A man travels between a high-tech world of games and a parallel world of magic. He must master both systems to avoid being assassinated.

    wry → playful, still science fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Night Pleasures

    Sherrilyn Kenyon2002

    An immortal warrior and a skeptical accountant are handcuffed together while being hunted by supernatural predators.

    wry → playful, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Warbound

    Larry Correia2013

    In an alternate 1930s, people with magical abilities fight a war against a trans-dimensional threat. It is the final book in a trilogy.

    wry → propulsive, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    wry → propulsive, still cyberpunk

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    Same wry register

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    wry → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    wry → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    wry → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

    wry → bleak, still urban fantasy

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Market Forces

    Richard K. Morgan2004

    In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.

    wry → sardonic, still cyberpunk

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • Random Acts of Senseless Violence

    Jack Womack1994

    A twelve-year-old girl records her life in a diary as New York City collapses into riots and hyperinflation. Her family falls into poverty.

    wry → bleak, still cyberpunk

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2