Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline

George Saunders1996

Six stories and a novella set in a decaying, corporate-run America. Characters navigate theme parks and dystopian bureaucracies.

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

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.

pace0·prose+2·bleak+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.

sardonic → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

Same sardonic register, still unreliable narrator

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Rich People Problems

Kevin Kwan2017

An extended family gathers in Singapore as their matriarch lies dying. They scheme against one another to inherit a massive estate.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Wielding a Red Sword

Piers Anthony1986

An Indian prince avoids an arranged marriage by accepting the supernatural office of War. He wields a sword that draws him into a conflict in Hell.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown2003

A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

sardonic → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

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.

sardonic → propulsive, still chosen one

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Red Rising

Pierce Brown2014

A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.

sardonic → propulsive, still dystopian

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

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.

sardonic → wry

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-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.

sardonic → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

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.

Same sardonic register, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

sardonic → bleak, still dystopian

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

HARM

Brian Aldiss2007

A British Muslim man is detained and tortured in a secret prison. He hallucinates a second life on a distant planet to escape the pain.

sardonic → bleak, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

Same sardonic register, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

The Testament of Jessie Lamb

Jane Rogers2011

A teenager decides to volunteer for a medical program that will end her life to save humanity from a biological catastrophe.

sardonic → earnest, still dystopian

pace-1·prose0·bleak+1