After
Sourdough
Robin Sloan2017
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace-1prose0bleak0
The Repeat Year
Andrea Lochen2013
An intensive care nurse wakes up on New Year's Day and realizes she is reliving the previous year. She attempts to fix her failed relationship.
playful → earnest, still magical realism
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Ringworld
Larry Niven1970
Four explorers travel to a massive artificial ring around a distant star. The story focuses on the mechanics and scale of the structure.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Connie Willis1998
A time traveler goes to the Victorian era to find a missing piece of pottery. The plot is a comedy of errors involving cats, dogs, and rowing.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams1979
After Earth is destroyed, a man travels the universe with an alien friend and an electronic guidebook. The story relies on absurdist logic.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fforde2001
In an alternate 1985, a literary detective pursues a villain who can enter books and kidnap characters. The world features dodo pets and time travel.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+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.
playful → meditative, still magical realism
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
playful → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Deep Wheel Orcadia
Harry Josephine Giles2021
A verse novel written in the Orcadian dialect follows a community on a space station. It focuses on the arrival of a researcher and local life.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
playful → clinical
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
playful → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
playful → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
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.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
Same playful register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+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.
playful → meditative, still magical realism
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+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.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
playful → meditative, still magical realism
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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.
playful → elegiac, still magical realism
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
The children's hospital
Chris Adrian2006
The world floods under seven miles of water, leaving a children's hospital as the only dry land. Survivors navigate a new, mythic reality.
playful → dreamlike, still magical realism
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
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.
playful → cold
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak+3
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.
playful → bleak
pace-1·prose0·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.
playful → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
The Sparrow
Mary Doria Russell1996
A Jesuit priest joins a mission to a newly discovered planet. The story is told in flashbacks after he returns as the sole, traumatized survivor.
playful → elegiac
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
