After
Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone
Ian McDonald1994
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace+1prose0bleak-1
Mindplayers
Pat Cadigan1987
A woman caught using illegal mind-altering technology is forced to train as a 'pathosfinder' who enters the minds of others.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose0·bleak-1
- pace+1prose0bleak-1
Neon Lotus
Marc Laidlaw1988
A woman travels to a high-tech version of Tibet to fulfill her father's final wish. She encounters Buddhist mysticism integrated with robotics.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose0·bleak-1
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Count Zero
William Gibson1986
A mercenary and a young hacker navigate a corporate war involving biochips and digital deities. The story follows three separate plotlines.
dreamlike → cold, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
村上春樹2011
Two parallel stories follow a data processor in a high-tech city and a newcomer to a walled town. The two worlds eventually intersect.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Kairos
Gwyneth Jones1988
In a collapsing near-future Britain, characters navigate chemical hallucinations and a breakdown of reality caused by a new drug.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
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.
Same dreamlike register
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
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.
dreamlike → sardonic
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
dreamlike → meditative
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
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.
Same dreamlike register
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
dreamlike → clinical, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
To recover
- pace+2prose-2bleak-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.
dreamlike → propulsive, still cyberpunk
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James2000
A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.
dreamlike → earnest
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Neon Gods
Katee Robert2021
In a modern city-state, Persephone flees an arranged marriage to Zeus by entering the underworld. She strikes a deal with Hades to stay there.
dreamlike → tense
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Murderbot Diaries
Martha Wells2023
A self-aware security android hacks its governor module to watch soap operas while protecting humans. It navigates corporate conspiracies.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Starter Villain
John Scalzi2023
A substitute teacher inherits his uncle's secret supervillain business, including a volcano lair and talking cats.
dreamlike → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
Faster
dreamlike → propulsive, still cyberpunk
- pace+2prose-2bleak-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.
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-2bleak0
Akira, Vol. 1
Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984
In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.
pace+2·prose-2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
Nexus
Ramez Naam2012
A scientist develops a nanotech drug that links minds and is hunted by government agencies. It is a high-speed global conspiracy thriller.
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
Freedom™
Daniel Suarez2010
An autonomous computer program reorganizes global society into a decentralized network. A group of rebels fights to maintain human agency.
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
David Wong2015
A young woman inherits her estranged father's criminal empire in a lawless future city. She must survive assassins using high-tech gadgets.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
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.
Same dreamlike register
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-1prose+1bleak-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.
dreamlike → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak-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.
dreamlike → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose+1bleak-2
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.
dreamlike → playful
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2
- pace-1prose+1bleak-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.
dreamlike → playful
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
dreamlike → cynical, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
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.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
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.
dreamlike → bleak, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+2prose0bleak+1
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.
dreamlike → tense, still cyberpunk
pace+2·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
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.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1