After
Lost Futures
Lisa Tuttle1992
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Bridge
Iain Banks1986
An amnesiac man lives on a massive, endless bridge. He explores its social strata and surreal architecture while trying to remember his identity.
Same dreamlike register, still speculative fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Chlorine
Jade Song2023
A competitive swimmer becomes obsessed with the idea that she is a mermaid. Her transformation involves graphic, self-inflicted body modification.
Same dreamlike register, still psychological horror
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Acceptance
Jeff VanderMeer2014
The final expedition enters Area X as the narrative shifts between the past and present to explain the zone's origin.
Same dreamlike register, still unreliable narrator
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Bold as Love
Gwyneth Jones2001
In a near-future Britain collapsing from climate change, a trio of rock stars is thrust into positions of revolutionary political power.
Same dreamlike register, still speculative fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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Jagannath: Stories
Karin Tidbeck2012
A collection of short stories featuring surreal scenarios and body horror. Characters include a child born in a tin and people floating beyond time.
Same dreamlike register, still speculative fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
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.
Same dreamlike register, still unreliable narrator
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
In Green's Jungles
Gene Wolfe2000
A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.
dreamlike → elegiac, still unreliable narrator
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak-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.
dreamlike → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose+1bleak0
Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon1937
A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.
dreamlike → elegiac, still speculative fiction
pace+1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace+1prose+1bleak-1
The Fractal Prince
Hannu Rajaniemi2012
A post-human thief is sent to Earth to steal a memory from a city made of digital ghosts. The prose uses dense, unexplained jargon.
Same dreamlike register
pace+1·prose+1·bleak-1
To recover
dreamlike → playful
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Vampires Are Forever
Lynsay Sands2008
A woman suspects her business partner is a vampire after he attempts to bite her. He tries to convince her they are fated mates.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
The Mane Event
Shelly Laurenston2007
A female cop reunites with a childhood friend who is now a lion-shifter. They navigate a romantic attraction while he pursues her in New York.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Mile High
Liz Tomforde2023
A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Behind the Net
Stephanie Archer2024
A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
She Went All the Way
Meg Cabot2002
A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+2prose-2bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
dreamlike → wry
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-2bleak-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.
dreamlike → propulsive
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-2bleak-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.
dreamlike → wry
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-2bleak-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.
dreamlike → propulsive
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-2bleak-2
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
dreamlike → playful
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
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.
Same dreamlike register, still unreliable narrator
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-1prose+1bleak-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.
dreamlike → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak-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.
dreamlike → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose0bleak0
After London
Richard Jefferies1885
Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.
dreamlike → elegiac, still speculative fiction
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak-2
News from nowhere, or, An epoch of rest, being some chapters from a utopian romance
William Morris1890
A Victorian man wakes up in the year 2102. He explores a socialist agrarian society where private property and money have been abolished.
dreamlike → meditative, still speculative fiction
pace-1·prose0·bleak-2
Heavier
- pace0prose0bleak+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.
dreamlike → cold, still speculative fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin1972
A photographer moves to a suburb where the wives are unnervingly submissive. She investigates whether the local men are replacing them with robots.
dreamlike → tense, still psychological horror
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Harlan Ellison2009
A sentient supercomputer keeps the last five humans alive to torture them eternally. It is a short story about absolute power and spite.
dreamlike → bleak, still psychological horror
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
The Postmortal
Drew Magary2011
A lawyer records his life after a cure for aging is discovered. Society slowly collapses under the weight of overpopulation and eternal life.
dreamlike → sardonic, still speculative fiction
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
Negative Space
B.R. Yeager2020
Four teenagers in a decaying New Hampshire town use a drug made from local parasites. They navigate hallucinations and a string of suicides.
dreamlike → bleak, still psychological horror
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
