After
Starter Villain
John Scalzi2023
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose+1bleak0
Interesting Facts about Space
Emily Austin2024
A woman obsessed with space and true crime navigates her phobias, dating life, and a difficult relationship with her mother. She fears she is watched.
Same wry register, still humor
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Storm Front
Jim Butcher2000
A wizard detective in Chicago investigates a double murder involving ritual magic. He must find the killer before he becomes the next target.
Same wry register
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Old Man's War
John Scalzi2005
Senior citizens trade their old bodies for genetically enhanced young ones to fight in a space war. Survival earns them a new life on a colony.
Same wry register
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
The Punch Escrow
Tal M. Klein2017
A man is accidentally duplicated during a teleportation malfunction in 2147. He must evade a global corporation that wants to eliminate the error.
Same wry register, still technothriller
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Lives of Tao
Wesley Chu2013
An out-of-shape IT consultant is recruited by an ancient alien parasite living inside his brain. The alien trains him to be a secret agent.
Same wry register
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
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.
wry → sardonic
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
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.
wry → meditative
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
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.
wry → playful
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+3bleak+3
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.
wry → sardonic
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+3
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
The 22 Murders of Madison May
Max Barry2021
A journalist pursues a killer who murders the same woman across multiple parallel realities. The story follows her jumps between different lives.
wry → propulsive, still technothriller
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose+1bleak0
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir2021
A man wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia and two dead crewmates. He must use scientific experiments to remember his mission and save the sun.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
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
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Red Rising
Pierce Brown2014
A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
Slower
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
wry → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
wry → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak0
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
pace-2·prose+3·bleak0
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
wry → playful
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
wry → cold
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+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.
wry → bleak
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+3bleak+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.
wry → bleak
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
wry → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
Watchmen
Alan Moore1986
Retired masked vigilantes investigate the murder of a former teammate. The story takes place in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war.
wry → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
