After
The Book of All Skies
Greg Egan2021
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The Compound
Aisling Rawle2025
Twenty contestants compete on a reality show in a desert compound while the outside world collapses. They trade survival needs for luxuries.
thoughtful → dark, still scifi
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ..
Frank Herbert1974
thoughtful → tense, still scifi
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The Expanse
James S. A. Corey2018
A crew on a salvaged ship is caught in a conspiracy involving a mysterious substance and a cold war between Earth, Mars, and the Belt.
thoughtful → tense, still scifi
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Shadows in Flight
Orson Scott Card2012
Bean and his children travel through space at relativistic speeds while searching for a cure to their giantism. It is a sequel to Shadow of the Giant.
thoughtful → meditative, still scifi
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Songs from the Stars
Norman Spinrad1980
In a post-nuclear world, a tribe of artists and surfers encounters a high-tech culture from space. It explores the clash of their philosophies.
thoughtful → earnest, still scifi
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
thoughtful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace0prose+2bleak0
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.
thoughtful → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
thoughtful → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak0
- pace0prose+2bleak0
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.
thoughtful → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak0
- pace0prose+2bleak0
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.
thoughtful → dreamlike
pace0·prose+2·bleak0
To recover
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
thoughtful → wry, still survival
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
Redshirts
John Scalzi2012
Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.
thoughtful → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown2003
A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.
thoughtful → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James2000
A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.
thoughtful → earnest
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
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.
thoughtful → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
thoughtful → wry, still survival
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
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.
thoughtful → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
All Systems Red
Martha Wells2017
A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.
thoughtful → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
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.
thoughtful → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
thoughtful → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
thoughtful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak-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.
thoughtful → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak-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.
thoughtful → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-1prose+2bleak-2
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.
thoughtful → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2
- pace-1prose+2bleak-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.
thoughtful → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
One Second After
William R. Forstchen2009
An EMP strike destroys the American power grid. A history professor attempts to manage the starvation and societal collapse of his small town.
thoughtful → bleak, still survival
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
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The Fifth Science
Exurb1a2019
Twelve stories trace the rise and fall of a human empire through the discovery of a science of the mind. It spans 100,000 years of history.
thoughtful → elegiac, still scifi
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
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.
thoughtful → cold
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
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.
thoughtful → bleak
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
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.
thoughtful → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
