LitQueuelitqueue

After

One More for the Road

Ray Bradbury2002

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • In the wet

    Nevil Shute1953

    A dying man in the Australian bush experiences a vision of the year 1983. He follows a pilot serving the Queen in a fractured British Empire.

    nostalgic → earnest, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose-1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Shadow & Claw

    Gene Wolfe1983

    A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.

    nostalgic → meditative

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Radiance

    Catherynne M. Valente2015

    A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.

    nostalgic → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Star Maker

    Olaf Stapledon1937

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

    nostalgic → elegiac, still speculative fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Unidentified Redhead

    Alice Clayton2013

    A 33-year-old actress returns to LA and begins a secret relationship with a younger, famous leading man. It follows their career and dating hurdles.

    nostalgic → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    nostalgic → meditative

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • A Peach of a Murder

    Livia J. Washburn2006

    A retired teacher and her friends investigate a murder at a peach festival in a small Texas town. The story includes recipes for peach-based dishes.

    nostalgic → warm

    pace0·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.

    nostalgic → 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.

    nostalgic → 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.

    nostalgic → 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.

    nostalgic → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • After London

    Richard Jefferies1885

    Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.

    nostalgic → elegiac, still speculative fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • News from nowhere, or, An epoch of rest, being some chapters from a utopian romance

    William Morris1890

    A Victorian man wakes up in the year 2102. He explores a socialist agrarian society where private property and money have been abolished.

    nostalgic → meditative, still speculative fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    nostalgic → bleak, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • 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.

    nostalgic → elegiac, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • Where Did You Sleep Last Night

    Lynn Crosbie2016

    A teenager wakes up in a hospital next to a resurrected Kurt Cobain. They form a band and a codependent relationship that leads to violence.

    nostalgic → dreamlike, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2