LitQueuelitqueue

After

Oh Pure and Radiant Heart

Lydia Millet2005

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America

    Robert Charles Wilson2009

    In a post-oil America ruled by a repressive church, a young man chronicles the rise of his friend, the nephew of the President.

    Same elegiac register, still alternate history

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

elegiac → dreamlike, still alternate history

3 more ↓

  • Seven Surrenders

    Ada Palmer2017

    The leaders of global Hives struggle to maintain a centuries-long peace as secrets emerge. The narrator is biased and uses archaic language.

    elegiac → sardonic

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Star Maker

    Olaf Stapledon1937

    A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.

    Same elegiac register, still speculative fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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

elegiac → playful

3 more ↓

  • Apprentice to the Villain

    Hannah Nicole Maehrer2024

    Evie Sage assists an evil overlord while a magical threat endangers their kingdom. The story follows their workplace dynamic and a looming siege.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

    Steven D. Levitt

    An economist uses data to investigate the incentives behind real-world phenomena like cheating teachers and falling crime rates.

    elegiac → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

    A.J. Jacobs

    A journalist spends one year attempting to follow every rule and commandment in the Bible as literally as possible.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

    elegiac → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Hav

    Jan Morris2006

    A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.

    Same elegiac register, still alternate history

    pace-1·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-1·prose+1·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Elvissey

    Jack Womack1993

    Travelers from a corporate dystopia visit an alternate 1954 to kidnap Elvis Presley. They find a version of him that is dangerous and unstable.

    elegiac → bleak, still alternate history

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica

    John Batchelor1983

    A man born in Sweden travels south as Europe collapses into war. He eventually leads a group of refugees to found a new society in Antarctica.

    elegiac → bleak, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Blood of Angels

    Johanna Sinisalo2011

    A father grieving his son discovers a portal to another world while bees disappear globally. It explores ecological collapse and grief.

    Same elegiac register, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1