After
The Atrocity Archives
Charles Stross2004
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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The Rhesus Chart
Charles Stross2014
An IT specialist for a secret occult agency investigates a series of banking anomalies that suggest vampires have entered the financial sector.
Same sardonic register, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Red Dust
Paul J. McAuley1993
A technician on a terraformed Mars travels across a landscape of decaying biotech and competing factions. It is a picaresque cyberpunk western.
Same sardonic register, still reluctant hero
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Player of Games
Iain Banks1988
A champion of a post-scarcity society travels to a repressive empire to play their national game, where the winner becomes the ruler.
Same sardonic register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose-1bleak0
Work Done for Hire
Joe Haldeman2014
A former sniper turned writer is hired to write a script, then receives a real rifle and a hit list. He must decide whether to kill for money.
Same sardonic register, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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Schismatrix
Bruce Sterling1985
Abelard Lindsay travels the solar system as humanity splits into warring factions of cybernetic Mechanists and genetic Shapers.
Same sardonic register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- 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
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon1937
A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.
sardonic → elegiac, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
Same sardonic register
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
Valis
Philip K. Dick1981
A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.
sardonic → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
To recover
- pace0prose-2bleak-1
On a Pale Horse
Piers Anthony1983
After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.
sardonic → playful, still urban fantasy
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-2bleak-1
Grunge
Larry Correia2016
A Marine killed in a bombing is resurrected to hunt supernatural creatures. He joins a private company that kills monsters for government bounties.
Same sardonic register, still urban fantasy
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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California Demon
Julie Kenner2006
A suburban mother balances raising her children with her secret life as a retired demon hunter. She must return to work when monsters reappear.
sardonic → playful, still urban fantasy
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace0prose-2bleak-1
Dark Lover
J. R. Ward2005
A vampire king seeks revenge against the slayers who killed his parents while protecting a woman discovering her own supernatural heritage.
sardonic → propulsive, still urban fantasy
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace0prose-2bleak-1
Royally Screwed
Emma Chase2016
A crown prince visiting Manhattan pursues a bakery worker who threw a pie at him. The story follows their class-clash courtship.
sardonic → playful
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Fold
Peter Clines2015
A man with a perfect memory joins a team investigating a teleportation device. He notices small, impossible discrepancies in the people returning.
sardonic → tense, still cosmic horror
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
Lexicon
Max Barry2013
A secret organization trains recruits to use specific words as tools for mind control. A talented runaway becomes a top student in their school.
sardonic → propulsive, still urban fantasy
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
sardonic → propulsive, still urban fantasy
pace+1·prose-2·bleak0
- pace+1prose-2bleak0
Warbound
Larry Correia2013
In an alternate 1930s, people with magical abilities fight a war against a trans-dimensional threat. It is the final book in a trilogy.
sardonic → propulsive, still urban fantasy
pace+1·prose-2·bleak0
- pace+1prose-2bleak0
Lost in Time
A.G. Riddle2022
A man is exiled to the Triassic period for a murder he didn't commit while his daughter tries to bring him back.
sardonic → propulsive, still techno-thriller
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
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
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.
sardonic → bleak, still urban fantasy
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose-1bleak+2
The Deep
Nick Cutter2015
A veterinarian travels to a research station at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to help his brother find a cure for a global plague.
sardonic → bleak, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose-1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Echopraxia
Peter Watts2014
A biologist is caught on a mission toward the sun alongside a pilot and a group of transhuman monks. It explores consciousness and evolution.
sardonic → bleak, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Beyond the Aquila Rift
Alastair Reynolds2001
A spaceship crew wakes from cold sleep to find they have overshot their destination by light-years. They must face the reality of their location.
sardonic → bleak, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Negative Space
B.R. Yeager2020
Four teenagers in a decaying New Hampshire town use a drug made from local parasites. They navigate hallucinations and a string of suicides.
sardonic → bleak, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
