LitQueuelitqueue

After

Lost in the Garden

Adam S. Leslie2024

5 of 6 directions open — nothing denser

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Light Pirate

    Lily Brooks-Dalton2023

    A girl is born in Florida during a catastrophic hurricane as the state slowly succumbs to rising seas. The story follows her life across decades.

    Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak0

To recover

elegiac → playful, still science fiction

3 more ↓

  • The Last Question

    Isaac Asimov2007

    A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.

    elegiac → meditative, still science fiction

    pace0·prose-3·bleak-2

  • Dream Park

    Steven Barnes1981

    A security chief investigates a real death during a high-stakes holographic role-playing game. The story tracks the game mechanics and the murder.

    elegiac → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace0·prose-3·bleak-2

  • The Butterfly Kid

    Chester Anderson1967

    Hippie protagonists in Greenwich Village discover that a new drug allows them to manifest hallucinations into reality to fight an alien invasion.

    pace0·prose-3·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-3·bleak0

  • The Lake House

    James Patterson

    A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.

    elegiac → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose-3·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    elegiac → wry

    pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-1

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-2

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-1

Heavier

Same elegiac register, still science fiction

3 more ↓

  • Hard to be a god

    Аркадий Стругацкий2014

    An observer from a technologically advanced Earth lives undercover on a planet stuck in a medieval state. He must watch atrocities without helping.

    elegiac → bleak, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Zone One

    Colson Whitehead2011

    A sweeper squad clears Manhattan of lingering zombies and catatonic 'stragglers.' The focus is on the protagonist's memories and the city's decay.

    Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • On the Beach

    Nevil Shute1957

    Survivors in Australia wait for a lethal radiation cloud to arrive after a nuclear war. They spend their final months in quiet, domestic routines.

    Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace-1·prose-2·bleak+1