Soon I Will Be Invincible

All Our Wrong Todays

Elan Mastai2017

A man from a techno-utopian 2016 accidentally travels back in time and returns to our version of reality. He tries to decide which world to save.

Same wry register, still science fiction

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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.

wry → dreamlike

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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.

wry → meditative, still science fiction

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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.

wry → elegiac

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Girl, Wash Your Face

Rachel Hollis2018

The author lists twenty common lies she once believed about herself and provides personal anecdotes and advice to dismantle them.

wry → earnest

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Unfinished

Priyanka Chopra Jonas2021

The actress details her childhood in India, her time in American schools, and her transition from pageantry to a global film career.

wry → earnest

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Weekends Required

Sydney Landon2013

An assistant performs a burlesque routine for her boss at a bachelor party, changing their professional dynamic into a romantic pursuit.

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The Martian

Andy Weir2011

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

Same wry register

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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.

wry → propulsive

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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.

Same wry register

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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.

wry → meditative

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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.

wry → playful

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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.

wry → playful

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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.

wry → tense, still science fiction

pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2

The Running Man

Richard Bachman

A man enters a deadly reality show to fund medical care for his daughter. He must survive thirty days while the entire world hunts him for money.

wry → propulsive, still science fiction

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

Strangers

Gardner Dozois1978

An artist living among the alien Cian on a distant planet falls in love with a local woman and attempts to navigate their incompatible biology.

wry → elegiac, still science fiction

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