LitQueuelitqueue

After

Solitaire

Kelley Eskridge2002

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • World Made by Hand

    James Howard Kunstler2008

    Residents of a small New York town navigate a summer without electricity or global trade. They rely on manual labor and local bartering.

    Same meditative register, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • In Green's Jungles

    Gene Wolfe2000

    A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.

    meditative → elegiac

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • Star Maker

    Olaf Stapledon1937

    A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.

    meditative → elegiac, still speculative fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·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.

    meditative → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Mane Event

    Shelly Laurenston2007

    A female cop reunites with a childhood friend who is now a lion-shifter. They navigate a romantic attraction while he pursues her in New York.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·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.

    meditative → propulsive, still cyberpunk

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Mile High

    Liz Tomforde2023

    A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

meditative → propulsive, still cyberpunk

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    meditative → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    meditative → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Skin Game

    Jim Butcher2014

    Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same meditative register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • After London

    Richard Jefferies1885

    Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.

    meditative → elegiac, still speculative fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • News from nowhere, or, An epoch of rest, being some chapters from a utopian romance

    William Morris1890

    A Victorian man wakes up in the year 2102. He explores a socialist agrarian society where private property and money have been abolished.

    Same meditative register, still speculative fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Postmortal

    Drew Magary2011

    A lawyer records his life after a cure for aging is discovered. Society slowly collapses under the weight of overpopulation and eternal life.

    meditative → sardonic, still speculative fiction

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+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.

    meditative → sardonic, still cyberpunk

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+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.

    meditative → bleak, still cyberpunk

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1