After
The Book of Koli
Mike Carey2020
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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The Waters Rising
Sheri S. Tepper2010
A princess travels across a flooded world to find an ancient power. The story follows her quest to stop the Sea King from drowning humanity.
Same earnest register, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
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Hawkmistress!
Marion Zimmer Bradley1982
A girl with the ability to speak to animals flees an arranged marriage and joins a rebellion. She disguises herself as a boy to train hawks.
Same earnest register, still science fantasy
pace0·prose0·bleak0
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The Long Tomorrow
Leigh Brackett1955
In a post-nuclear America where technology is banned by law, a boy finds a radio and seeks a rumored secret city of scientists.
Same earnest register, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
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Dragonsblood
Todd McCaffrey2005
A plague threatens the dragons of Pern. A young woman travels back in time to find a cure before the planet's defenses fail.
Same earnest register, still science fantasy
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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Mutant
Henry Kuttner1953
Telepathic mutants live in a post-nuclear society where they are feared by humans. They must choose between peaceful coexistence and conflict.
Same earnest register, still post-apocalyptic
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Denser prose
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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.
earnest → meditative, still science fantasy
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
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Rakesfall
Vajra Chandrasekera2024
Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.
earnest → dreamlike, still science fantasy
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Riddley Walker
Russell Hoban1980
A twelve-year-old boy travels across a primitive, post-nuclear England. The story is written entirely in a broken, phonetic future dialect.
earnest → meditative, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
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Winterlong
Elizabeth Hand1990
In a decaying, post-apocalyptic Washington D.C., a girl with empathic powers is drawn into the plots of a decadent ruling class.
earnest → dreamlike, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
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The Arrows of Time
Greg Egan2013
On a ship where time runs backward for some, travelers face a physics-based crisis. It explores the causality of messages sent from the future.
earnest → meditative
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To recover
earnest → propulsive
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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.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
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The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown2009
Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires
Molly Harper2012
A human woman works as a daytime assistant for vampires. She breaks her professional rules to help a poisoned client survive.
earnest → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
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Ice Planet Barbarians
Ruby Dixon2021
A group of human women are stranded on a frozen world and rescued by blue, horned aliens. The story focuses on survival and biological attraction.
earnest → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
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Secondhand Spirits
Juliet Blackwell2009
A vintage shop owner who can feel the history of clothes uses her magic to solve a murder. She must find a killer while hiding her identity.
earnest → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Hell Divers
Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016
Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.
earnest → tense, still post-apocalyptic
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
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Akira, Vol. 1
Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984
In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.
earnest → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
earnest → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
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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.
earnest → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
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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.
earnest → 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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
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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.
earnest → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
earnest → meditative
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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.
earnest → playful
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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.
earnest → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
Heavier
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Winterlong
Elizabeth Hand1990
In a decaying, post-apocalyptic Washington D.C., a girl with empathic powers is drawn into the plots of a decadent ruling class.
earnest → dreamlike, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Zone One
Colson Whitehead2011
A sweeper squad clears Manhattan of lingering zombies and catatonic 'stragglers.' The focus is on the protagonist's memories and the city's decay.
earnest → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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On the Beach
Nevil Shute1957
Survivors in Australia wait for a lethal radiation cloud to arrive after a nuclear war. They spend their final months in quiet, domestic routines.
earnest → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
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The Walking Dead: Compendium One
Robert Kirkman2009
A sheriff wakes from a coma into a zombie apocalypse. He leads a group of survivors through various temporary shelters over several years.
earnest → bleak, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose-1·bleak+2
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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.
earnest → bleak, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
