After
The Bezzle
Cory Doctorow2024
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
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·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Brain Twister
Mark Phillips1959
An FBI agent investigates a series of impossible crimes involving telepathy. It is a lighthearted mystery set in a futuristic 1970s.
sardonic → playful, still mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Bannerless
Carrie Vaughn2017
In a post-collapse society where birth is a regulated privilege, an investigator looks into a mysterious death. It follows the protocol of a mystery.
sardonic → earnest, still mystery
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Interface
Neal Stephenson1994
A presidential candidate receives a brain implant that connects him to real-time polling data. A shadowy group uses him to manipulate the public.
Same sardonic register, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Dervish Is Digital
Pat Cadigan2000
A police officer investigates a murder committed in a virtual reality world where the suspect is a digital consciousness.
Same sardonic register, still mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Radiance
Catherynne M. Valente2015
A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
The Sentinel
Lee Child2020
A drifter helps an IT manager targeted by criminals after a cyberattack. He uses physical force to protect the man and uncover a conspiracy.
sardonic → propulsive
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
The Case of the Rolling Bones
Erle Stanley Gardner1939
Perry Mason defends a wealthy man accused of murdering a blackmailer. The case involves a sanitarium escape and loaded dice.
sardonic → tense, still mystery
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Two-Dollar bill
Stuart Woods2005
Attorney Stone Barrington deals with a flamboyant Texas con man who is being pursued by the CIA.
sardonic → wry, still mystery
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Thraxas
Martin Millar
An overweight, beer-drinking private investigator with minor magical abilities solves crimes in a corrupt fantasy city.
sardonic → wry
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Ghost Ship
Clive Cussler2014
Kurt Austin survives a yacht sinking but suffers from conflicting memories. He investigates a global cybercrime conspiracy to find the truth.
sardonic → propulsive, still techno-thriller
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
sardonic → propulsive, still techno-thriller
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
Deception Point
Dan Brown2001
An intelligence analyst is sent to the Arctic to verify a NASA discovery. She finds evidence of a hoax that threatens the presidential election.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Lake House
James Patterson
A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The Book of the Dead
Douglas Preston2006
An FBI agent tracks his brilliant, murderous brother through a New York museum. The plot involves ancient Egyptian artifacts and a series of murders.
sardonic → tense, still techno-thriller
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
sardonic → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Blood on the dining-room floor
Gertrude Stein1948
A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.
sardonic → playful, still mystery
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak-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+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Down to a Sunless Sea
David Graham1979
A commercial pilot flies a plane full of passengers while nuclear war destroys the world below. They search for a place to land and survive.
sardonic → tense, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
The Doomsday Book
Joel Levy2006
This nonfiction guide analyzes various global catastrophe scenarios, from nuclear war to pandemics, and calculates the probability of each.
sardonic → tense, still mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+2
The White Plague
Frank Herbert1982
A molecular biologist creates a gender-targeted plague to kill every woman on Earth after his family dies in a bombing.
sardonic → bleak, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
Fail-safe
Eugene Burdick1962
A mechanical failure sends American bombers to nuke Moscow, forcing the President to negotiate a desperate solution to avoid total war.
sardonic → tense, still techno-thriller
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
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.
sardonic → cold
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
