After
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
4 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier, nothing denser
More like it
Same bleak register
- pace0prose0bleak0
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Marlon James2019
A hunter with a supernatural sense of smell joins a group to find a missing child. The journey through mythical Africa is violent and hallucinatory.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Echopraxia
Peter Watts2014
A biologist is caught on a mission toward the sun alongside a pilot and a group of transhuman monks. It explores consciousness and evolution.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Sugar Rain
Paul Park1989
During a revolution against a theocracy, a doctor in exile tries to protect his family while a new, pragmatic faith rises.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Purple Cloud
M. P. Shiel1901
After becoming the first man to reach the North Pole, a sailor returns to find a toxic cloud has killed everyone else on Earth.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak0
A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick1977
An undercover narcotics agent in a near-future California becomes addicted to the drug he is investigating and begins to spy on himself.
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
To recover
- pace+1prose-3bleak-3
The Sentinel
Lee Child2020
A drifter helps an IT manager targeted by criminals after a cyberattack. He uses physical force to protect the man and uncover a conspiracy.
bleak → propulsive
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-3bleak-3
Dark Lover
J. R. Ward2005
A vampire king seeks revenge against the slayers who killed his parents while protecting a woman discovering her own supernatural heritage.
bleak → propulsive, still urban fantasy
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-3bleak-3
On a Pale Horse
Piers Anthony1983
After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.
bleak → playful, still urban fantasy
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-3bleak-3
Night Pleasures
Sherrilyn Kenyon2002
An immortal warrior and a skeptical accountant are handcuffed together while being hunted by supernatural predators.
bleak → playful, still urban fantasy
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-3bleak-3
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire
Kerrelyn Sparks2005
A vampire who broke a fang kidnaps a dentist who is afraid of blood. She is hiding from the mafia while he needs his smile repaired.
bleak → playful, still urban fantasy
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-3
Faster
bleak → propulsive, still urban fantasy
- pace+2prose-3bleak-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.
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
Warbound
Larry Correia2013
In an alternate 1930s, people with magical abilities fight a war against a trans-dimensional threat. It is the final book in a trilogy.
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-3bleak-3
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
bleak → wry
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+2prose-3bleak-3
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.
bleak → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+2prose-3bleak-3
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.
bleak → wry
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-3
Slower
- pace-1prose0bleak-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.
bleak → dreamlike
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
- pace-1prose0bleak-2
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.
bleak → meditative
pace-1·prose0·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak-2
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.
bleak → meditative
pace-1·prose0·bleak-2
- pace-1prose0bleak-3
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.
bleak → playful
pace-1·prose0·bleak-3
- pace-1prose0bleak-2
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.
bleak → playful
pace-1·prose0·bleak-2
