After
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline2008
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
4 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from, nothing faster
More like it
- pace-1prose0bleak+1
Ready Player Two
Ernest Cline2019
Wade Watts discovers a new piece of technology in the Oasis that leads to a global quest. He must solve a riddle while a new rival threatens users.
propulsive → earnest, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Star Kings
Edmond Hamilton1949
A 20th-century man swaps bodies with a prince 200,000 years in the future. He must lead a galactic empire against a tyrant's fleet.
Same propulsive register, still chosen one
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
Opening Moves
Cosimo Yap2016
A man enters a high-stakes virtual reality game to escape his life. He must navigate cyberpunk mechanics and level up to survive.
Same propulsive register, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak0
Artemis
Andy Weir2017
A porter and smuggler on a lunar colony takes a high-stakes sabotage job to pay off a debt. She uses technical knowledge to solve problems.
Same propulsive register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
Frek and the Elixir
Rudy Rucker2004
In the year 3003, a boy leaves his bio-engineered town to find an elixir that can save Earth. The world is filled with surreal transhumanist tech.
propulsive → playful, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
propulsive → clinical, still cyberpunk
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+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.
propulsive → sardonic
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
Slower
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → playful
pace-3·prose+3·bleak0
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → playful
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
propulsive → cynical, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
Market Forces
Richard K. Morgan2004
In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.
propulsive → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Random Acts of Senseless Violence
Jack Womack1994
A twelve-year-old girl records her life in a diary as New York City collapses into riots and hyperinflation. Her family falls into poverty.
propulsive → bleak, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
Hellspark
Janet Kagan1988
A linguist travels to a new planet to investigate a murder. She must determine if the local species is sentient while navigating a conspiracy.
propulsive → tense, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Golem100
Alfred Bester1980
In a future city, a group of women accidentally summon a psychic monster that commits acts of extreme violence while investigators track it.
propulsive → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3