LitQueuelitqueue

After

Mississippi Blues

Kathleen Ann Goonan1997

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Stations of the Tide

    Michael Swanwick1991

    A bureaucrat hunts a wizard through a world undergoing a massive tidal shift. The narrative uses shifting perspectives and dense allusions.

    Same dreamlike register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

Same dreamlike register

3 more ↓

  • City of Saints and Madmen

    Jeff Vandermeer2001

    A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    dreamlike → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    dreamlike → meditative

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Year zero

    Reid, Robert2012

    Aliens discover that Earth's music is the best in the galaxy and they owe humanity trillions in copyright fines.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous!

    Rory Freedman

    The authors use aggressive language to argue for a vegan diet and the elimination of processed sugar and caffeine.

    dreamlike → sardonic

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Steamed

    Katie MacAlister2010

    A modern woman is transported to a Victorian steampunk world. She must navigate a romance with a local inventor while trying to return home.

    dreamlike → playful, still steampunk

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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-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·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.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace+2·prose-2·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.

    dreamlike → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → bleak

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    dreamlike → elegiac

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • 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.

    dreamlike → bleak

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2