After
Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingts Jours
Jules Verne1872
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Time and Time Again
Ben Elton2014
An ex-soldier travels back to 1914 to prevent the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He attempts to stop WWI before it begins.
Same propulsive register, still historical
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Time Patrol (Time Patrol #1-4 + 6 omnibus)
Poul Anderson
Agents of a secret organization travel through history to prevent changes to the timeline that would erase the future.
Same propulsive register, still adventure
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Ante la bandera (Face au drapeau)
Jules Verne1897
A pirate kidnaps a mad scientist and his attendant to secure a powerful explosive. The attendant attempts to alert the world from a secret island.
Same propulsive register, still adventure
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Conquistador
S. M. Stirling2003
In 1946, a soldier discovers a portal to a parallel North America where Europeans never arrived and begins to colonize it in secret.
Same propulsive register, still adventure
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Foundation's Edge
Isaac Asimov1982
Two factions search for a hidden planet and the origin of humanity. The plot follows political maneuvering and scientific deduction.
Same propulsive register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
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-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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-1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
Ivanhoe
Walter Scott1800
A Saxon knight returns to 12th-century England to win back his inheritance and the woman he loves amidst Norman conflict.
propulsive → epic, still adventure
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
propulsive → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
Same propulsive register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
propulsive → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak+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.
Same propulsive register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
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-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
propulsive → clinical, still historical
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
Moby Dick
Herman Melville1851
A sailor joins a whaling voyage led by a captain seeking revenge on a specific whale. Large sections digress into the mechanics of 1850s whaling.
propulsive → meditative, still adventure
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
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-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose0bleak+3
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-1·prose0·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
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.
propulsive → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
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.
propulsive → elegiac
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
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.
propulsive → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
