After
Neon Lotus
Marc Laidlaw1988
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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Mindplayers
Pat Cadigan1987
A woman caught using illegal mind-altering technology is forced to train as a 'pathosfinder' who enters the minds of others.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Mona Lisa Overdrive
William Gibson1988
Four separate storylines converge in the matrix and the real world. A prostitute, an orphan, and a superstar are caught in a corporate plot.
dreamlike → elegiac, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak+1
Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone
Ian McDonald1994
A student discovers images that can reprogram the human brain. He flees across Japan to escape those who want to use the images as weapons.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
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Islands in the Net
Bruce Sterling1988
A corporate PR specialist travels to data-haven islands to investigate a murder. She becomes entangled in global political and economic sabotage.
dreamlike → clinical, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Troika
Stepan Chapman1997
An old woman, a jeep, and a dinosaur cross a desert under three suns. Their identities and memories shift as they try to reach a distant city.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
dreamlike → clinical, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak+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.
Same dreamlike register
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Against the Day
Thomas Pynchon2006
A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.
dreamlike → playful
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
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
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
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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
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
To recover
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Murderbot Diaries
Martha Wells2023
A self-aware security android hacks its governor module to watch soap operas while protecting humans. It navigates corporate conspiracies.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
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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, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
dreamlike → playful
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
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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.
dreamlike → playful
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Headcrash
Bruce Bethke1995
A computer programmer loses his job and enters a virtual reality underworld to seek revenge on the corporate elite. It is a satire of 1990s tech.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
dreamlike → propulsive, still cyberpunk
- pace+1prose-2bleak-1
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.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-2bleak+1
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.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Nexus
Ramez Naam2012
A scientist develops a nanotech drug that links minds and is hunted by government agencies. It is a high-speed global conspiracy thriller.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
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Freedom™
Daniel Suarez2010
An autonomous computer program reorganizes global society into a decentralized network. A group of rebels fights to maintain human agency.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
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Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
David Wong2015
A young woman inherits her estranged father's criminal empire in a lawless future city. She must survive assassins using high-tech gadgets.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+1bleak+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.
Same dreamlike register
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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-2·prose+1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-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.
dreamlike → playful
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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-2·prose+1·bleak0
Heavier
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Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
dreamlike → cynical, still cyberpunk
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Market Forces
Richard K. Morgan2004
In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Random Acts of Senseless Violence
Jack Womack1994
A twelve-year-old girl records her life in a diary as New York City collapses into riots and hyperinflation. Her family falls into poverty.
dreamlike → bleak, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
Hellspark
Janet Kagan1988
A linguist travels to a new planet to investigate a murder. She must determine if the local species is sentient while navigating a conspiracy.
dreamlike → tense, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Golem100
Alfred Bester1980
In a future city, a group of women accidentally summon a psychic monster that commits acts of extreme violence while investigators track it.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak+2