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After

Midnight Lamp

Gwyneth Jones2003

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Rise of Endymion

    Dan Simmons1997

    A man protects a young messiah from a galactic church that uses resurrection to control humanity. It concludes a four-book series.

    Same elegiac register, still science fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Infinite Jest

    David Foster Wallace1996

    A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.

    elegiac → sardonic, still dystopian

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    elegiac → sardonic, still dystopian

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business

    Dick Van Dyke2011

    Dick Van Dyke recounts his career from radio to sitcoms and film. He focuses on his work ethic, his co-stars, and his personal struggles.

    elegiac → warm

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Love Unscripted

    Tina Reber2010

    An A-list movie star hides in a small-town pub to escape fans and falls for the owner. The story follows the logistical strain of his fame.

    elegiac → warm

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Stainless Steel Rat

    Harry Harrison1961

    A futuristic con man is caught by the Special Corps and forced to use his criminal skills to catch other lawbreakers.

    elegiac → playful, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Test

    Sylvain Neuvel2019

    An immigrant takes a British citizenship test that turns into a high-stakes psychological simulation. It is a short, dialogue-heavy novella.

    elegiac → tense, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    elegiac → sardonic, still dystopian

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

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-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Looking Backward, 2000-1887

    Edward Bellamy1888

    A man falls into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000 to find the United States transformed into a socialist utopia.

    elegiac → earnest, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    elegiac → bleak, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

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

    pace0·prose0·bleak+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.

    elegiac → cold, still dystopian

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    elegiac → bleak, still dystopian

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1