After
Stable Strategies and Others
Eileen Gunn2004
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
Same sardonic register, still satire
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Little Heroes
Norman Spinrad1987
A record company creates a computer-generated rock star to bypass human musicians. A cynical aging rocker is hired to give the digital avatar soul.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Tonguing the Zeitgeist
Lance Olsen1994
In a corporate future, a musician is surgically and mentally altered to fit a commercial image. It is a satire of media and body modification.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose-1bleak0
Transmetropolitan
Warren Ellis1998
A foul-mouthed journalist in a high-tech future investigates political corruption while dealing with a terminal brain parasite.
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Slaughtermatic
Steve Aylett1998
A bank heist goes wrong when a time-traveling version of the protagonist appears in the vault. Reality and virtual simulations begin to blur.
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Wetware
Rudy Rucker1988
In a future where robots have gained independence, a bopper attempts to create a biological hybrid. It is a satire of evolution and corporate greed.
sardonic → playful, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
sardonic → clinical, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak+1
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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
Against the Day
Thomas Pynchon2006
A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.
sardonic → playful
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
William S. Burroughs
A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
To recover
Same sardonic register, still satire
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson1992
A pizza delivery driver and a teenage skateboarder investigate a digital virus that can crash the brains of hackers in a corporate-run Los Angeles.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Headcrash
Bruce Bethke1995
A computer programmer loses his job and enters a virtual reality underworld to seek revenge on the corporate elite. It is a satire of 1990s tech.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-2bleak-1
Murderbot Diaries
Martha Wells2023
A self-aware security android hacks its governor module to watch soap operas while protecting humans. It navigates corporate conspiracies.
Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Savages
Tom Holt2015
A group of modern office workers is transported into a traditional fantasy world and must apply corporate logic to survive.
sardonic → playful, still satire
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-2bleak-1
Vampires Are Forever
Lynsay Sands2008
A woman suspects her business partner is a vampire after he attempts to bite her. He tries to convince her they are fated mates.
sardonic → playful
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-2bleak-1
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.
sardonic → propulsive, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Slaughtermatic
Steve Aylett1998
A bank heist goes wrong when a time-traveling version of the protagonist appears in the vault. Reality and virtual simulations begin to blur.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose-2bleak+1
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.
sardonic → propulsive, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-2·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-2bleak0
Get Jiro!
Anthony Bourdain2012
In a future Los Angeles, master chefs rule as warlords. A sushi chef who kills rude customers is caught between two warring food factions.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace+1·prose-2·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+1bleak+1
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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-1
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.
sardonic → playful
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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.
sardonic → playful
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
Heavier
- pace0prose-1bleak+2
Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
sardonic → cynical, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess1962
A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak+2
The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin1972
A photographer moves to a suburb where the wives are unnervingly submissive. She investigates whether the local men are replacing them with robots.
sardonic → tense, still satire
pace0·prose-1·bleak+2
- pace0prose-1bleak+2
Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut1963
A writer researches the creator of the atomic bomb and discovers a substance that freezes all water. He joins an island cult.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace0·prose-1·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah2023
Prisoners in a private American penal system fight to the death in televised matches for a chance at freedom.
sardonic → bleak, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
