After
Recursion
Blake Crouch2019
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster
More like it
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Millennium
John Varley1983
Time travelers from a dying future kidnap passengers from doomed airplanes to repopulate their timeline.
Same tense register, still time travel
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Pegasus in Flight
Anne McCaffrey1990
Telepaths and telekinetics work to build a space station while a streetwise girl with a gift for languages is recruited into their ranks.
Same tense register, still time travel
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak-1
The Man Who Folded Himself
David Gerrold1973
A college student inherits a belt that allows him to travel through time. He spends his life visiting, and often sleeping with, versions of himself.
tense → meditative, still time travel
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Memories
Mike McQuay1987
A man travels back in time to 19th-century Texas to prevent a future disaster. He struggles with his own memory and a corporate conspiracy.
Same tense register, still time travel
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Logan's run
William F. Nolan1967
In a future where everyone is executed at age 21, an enforcer becomes a fugitive. He attempts to reach a rumored sanctuary.
Same tense register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Rakesfall
Vajra Chandrasekera2024
Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Empty Space
M. John Harrison2012
Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-2
The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown2009
Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.
tense → propulsive
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-2prose-1bleak-2
This Girl
Colleen Hoover2013
A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.
tense → earnest
pace-2·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
The Score
Elle Kennedy2016
A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.
tense → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
Walking Disaster
Jamie McGuire2013
This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.
tense → propulsive
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
This Man
Jodi Ellen Malpas2013
An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.
Same tense register
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-3prose+2bleak0
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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-3prose+2bleak-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.
tense → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+2bleak-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.
tense → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-3prose+1bleak-2
Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury1946
A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.
tense → elegiac
pace-3·prose+1·bleak-2
- pace-3prose0bleak-2
For Us, the Living
Robert A. Heinlein2003
A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.
tense → earnest
pace-3·prose0·bleak-2
Heavier
tense → bleak, still time travel
- pace-2prose0bleak+1
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.
pace-2·prose0·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak+1
Behold the Man
Michael Moorcock1968
A man uses a time machine to travel to 28 AD to meet Jesus. Finding only a disabled man who cannot fulfill the gospels, he takes the role himself.
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose0bleak+1
The Year of the Quiet Sun
Wilson Tucker1970
A social scientist travels forward in time to document the collapse of the United States through racial conflict and nuclear war.
pace-2·prose0·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
The Gone World
Tom Sweterlitsch2018
An investigator travels to possible futures to solve a murder and stop an approaching apocalypse. The timeline changes based on her observations.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak+1
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.
tense → cold
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
