After
Out on Blue Six
Ian McDonald1989
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
Same playful register, still satire
- pace0prose0bleak0
Spondulix: A Romance of Hoboken
Paul Di Filippo2003
A sandwich shop owner in Hoboken deals with a local currency scheme and strange occurrences. It is a satirical look at urban life.
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First Among Sequels
Jasper Fforde2007
Literary detective Thursday Next deals with a commercialized book world and a fictional version of herself while raising a teenager.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
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The Technicolor Time Machine
Harry Harrison1967
A struggling film producer uses a time machine to travel to the eleventh century to film a Viking movie on location.
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Wetware
Rudy Rucker1988
In a future where robots have gained independence, a bopper attempts to create a biological hybrid. It is a satire of evolution and corporate greed.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
1 more ↓ ↑
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Aurelia
R. A. Lafferty1982
A young alien girl lands on Earth to govern it for thirty days. The story uses her perspective to satirize human politics and social norms.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
Denser prose
playful → dreamlike
- pace-2prose+1bleak+2
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.
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
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.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
playful → sardonic, still satire
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
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.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
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.
playful → sardonic, still satire
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
Faster
- pace+1prose-2bleak+1
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.
playful → sardonic, still satire
pace+1·prose-2·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-2bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
playful → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak0
- pace+1prose-2bleak0
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.
playful → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak0
- pace+1prose-2bleak+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.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+1bleak+2
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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+1bleak+1
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.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
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.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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.
Same playful register
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- pace-2prose+1bleak+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.
Same playful register
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess1962
A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.
playful → sardonic, still satire
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose-1bleak+3
The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin1972
A photographer moves to a suburb where the wives are unnervingly submissive. She investigates whether the local men are replacing them with robots.
playful → tense, still satire
pace0·prose-1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
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Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut1963
A writer researches the creator of the atomic bomb and discovers a substance that freezes all water. He joins an island cult.
playful → sardonic, still satire
pace0·prose-1·bleak+3
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Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah2023
Prisoners in a private American penal system fight to the death in televised matches for a chance at freedom.
playful → bleak, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
- pace-1prose-1bleak+3
Make Room! Make Room!
Harry Harrison1966
A detective investigates a murder in a 1999 New York City suffering from extreme overpopulation, food riots, and resource exhaustion.
playful → bleak, still dystopia
pace-1·prose-1·bleak+3
