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After

The Book of M

Peng Shepherd2018

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More like it

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  • The Brief History of the Dead

    Kevin Brockmeier2006

    The dead live in a city as long as someone on Earth remembers them. When a virus hits, the city shrinks until only one living woman remains.

    Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Tours of the Black Clock

    Steve Erickson1989

    A ghostwriter for Hitler's private pornography lives in a surreal version of the 20th century where history and memory blur.

    elegiac → dreamlike, still magical realism

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • The Claw of the Conciliator

    Gene Wolfe1981

    An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

    A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.

    elegiac → meditative, still magical realism

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Score

    Elle Kennedy2016

    A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.

    elegiac → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Smokin' Seventeen

    Janet Evanovich2011

    A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.

    elegiac → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

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  • Mind's Eye

    Douglas E. Richards2014

    A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Atlantis Gene

    A.G. Riddle2013

    A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Monster Hunter International

    Larry Correia2007

    An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Boneland

    Alan Garner2012

    An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.

    Same elegiac register

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • The Habitation of the Blessed

    Catherynne M. Valente2010

    A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-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.

    elegiac → meditative, still magical realism

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Doctor Rat

    William Kotzwinkle1976

    A laboratory rat loyal to his human captors defends the practice of vivisection while animals worldwide begin a bloody revolt.

    elegiac → sardonic, still dystopian

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Gradual

    Christopher Priest2016

    A composer travels between islands where time passes at different rates. He observes how these temporal shifts isolate him from his family.

    elegiac → melancholy, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Memory Police

    Yoko Ogawa1994

    Objects vanish from an island and from the residents' memories. A novelist hides her editor from the police who enforce the disappearances.

    Same elegiac register, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1