After
Phule's Company
Robert Lynn Asprin1990
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Butterfly Kid
Chester Anderson1967
Hippie protagonists in Greenwich Village discover that a new drug allows them to manifest hallucinations into reality to fight an alien invasion.
Same playful register, still comedy
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The Android's Dream
John Scalzi2006
A diplomat must find a specific, genetically engineered sheep to prevent an interstellar war. The story is a fast-paced, irreverent space comedy.
Same playful register, still comedy
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Chilling Effect
Valerie Valdes2019
A spaceship captain completes dangerous missions to pay off a ransom for her kidnapped sister. The crew includes a pilot who is a sentient plant.
Same playful register, still comedy
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Off to Be the Wizard
Scott Meyer2013
A hacker discovers reality is a computer program and flees to the Middle Ages to pose as a wizard. He joins a group of other time-traveling men.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Year zero
Reid, Robert2012
Aliens discover that Earth's music is the best in the galaxy and they owe humanity trillions in copyright fines.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
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.
playful → sardonic
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
Valis
Philip K. Dick1981
A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
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.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+3bleak+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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Lines of Departure
Marko Kloos2014
An officer fights an interstellar war against alien giants while Earth collapses into poverty. It follows military campaigns across space.
playful → tense, still military sci-fi
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The Android's Dream
John Scalzi2006
A diplomat must find a specific, genetically engineered sheep to prevent an interstellar war. The story is a fast-paced, irreverent space comedy.
Same playful register, still comedy
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
Hell Divers
Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016
Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.
playful → tense, still military sci-fi
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
A Plague of Demons
Keith Laumer1965
A secret agent investigates the disappearance of entire battalions. He discovers an alien invasion and has his brain transplanted into a giant tank.
playful → propulsive, still military sci-fi
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
Fortune's Pawn
Rachel Bach
A power-armored mercenary joins the crew of a suspicious cargo ship to earn enough money for her elite military dreams.
playful → propulsive, still military sci-fi
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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+3·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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+3·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
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+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak0
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
pace-2·prose+3·bleak0
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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+3·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Kaleidoscope Century
John Barnes1995
A mercenary wakes every ten years to a new body and a changing world. He uncovers his own history of atrocities across the 21st century.
playful → bleak, still military sci-fi
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
Dark Age
Pierce Brown2019
An outlawed revolutionary fights a losing war on Mercury while an exiled heir attempts to reclaim a space empire. It is a violent military epic.
playful → propulsive, still military sci-fi
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood1985
In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.
playful → cold
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
Doomsday Book
Connie Willis1992
A student travels to 14th-century England while a virus spreads in the present. She arrives during the Black Death due to a technical error.
playful → bleak
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+3bleak+3
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.
playful → bleak
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+3
