LitQueuelitqueue

After

Tales of Soldiers and Civilians and Other Stories [36 stories]

Ambrose Bierce2000

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

Same sardonic register, still horror

1 more ↓

  • Exquisite Corpse

    Poppy Z. Brite1996

    Two serial killers meet in New Orleans and collaborate on the abduction and murder of a young man. The prose details extreme physical violence.

    sardonic → bleak, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Ambergris

    Jeff VanderMeer2020

    This collection follows the history of a city built atop a subterranean race. It uses fake histories, journals, and detective noir.

    sardonic → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The Bride of Lammermoor

    Walter Scott1800

    In 1703 Scotland, two lovers from feuding families attempt to stay together despite political instability and a family curse.

    sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Hamlet

    William Shakespeare

    A prince of Denmark is told by a ghost that his uncle killed his father. He feigns madness while deciding whether to take revenge.

    sardonic → meditative, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Warrior Rising

    P.C. Cast2008

    Goddesses transport a modern woman to ancient Troy to seduce and distract Achilles. It is a lighthearted fish-out-of-water romance.

    sardonic → playful

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Dream Park

    Steven Barnes1981

    A security chief investigates a real death during a high-stakes holographic role-playing game. The story tracks the game mechanics and the murder.

    sardonic → propulsive

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Last Question

    Isaac Asimov2007

    A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.

    sardonic → meditative

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Intercepts

    T.J. Payne2020

    A worker at a government facility monitors human test subjects driven insane by sensory deprivation. The experiment enters his private life.

    sardonic → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak0

  • Infected

    Bobby Adair

    A slow-acting virus turns the population into aggressive predators. The story follows a survivor navigating the initial societal collapse.

    sardonic → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Undead Day One

    R.R. Haywood

    A supermarket manager attempts to survive the first twenty-four hours of a zombie outbreak in England. The story is told in real-time.

    sardonic → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • A Month in the Country

    J. L. Carr1980

    A WWI veteran spends a summer in a quiet village restoring a medieval mural in a church. He reflects on his trauma while observing local life.

    sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The night land

    William Hope Hodgson1972

    Millions of years after the sun dies, a man leaves an underground fortress to rescue a woman. The prose uses archaic, repetitive syntax.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Kolyma tales

    Varlam SHALAMOV1980

    Short stories documenting daily life and survival in a Soviet labor camp. The prose is detached and focuses on the physical reality of starvation.

    sardonic → clinical, still historical fiction

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0