After
The Butcher’s Masquerade
Matt Dinniman2022
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario
Matt Dinniman2021
A man and his cat navigate the second level of a televised alien dungeon. They use game mechanics and explosives to survive.
Same sardonic register, still litrpg
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Death's head
David Gunn2008
A genetically modified soldier with a talking gun and a space-bending parasite carries out wetwork for an interstellar empire.
Same sardonic register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Bad Monkeys
Matt Ruff2007
A woman in a psychiatric ward claims she belongs to a secret vigilante group. The story unfolds through her interrogation and shifting memories.
Same sardonic register
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Damnation Alley
Roger Zelazny1969
A convicted criminal drives an armored vehicle across a post-nuclear American wasteland to deliver a plague vaccine to Boston.
Same sardonic register
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
David Wong2015
A young woman inherits her estranged father's criminal empire in a lawless future city. She must survive assassins using high-tech gadgets.
Same sardonic register
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
Denser prose
- pace-3prose+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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+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.
Same sardonic register
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-2
Artemis
Andy Weir2017
A porter and smuggler on a lunar colony takes a high-stakes sabotage job to pay off a debt. She uses technical knowledge to solve problems.
sardonic → propulsive, still scifi
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace0prose-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.
sardonic → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-1bleak-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.
sardonic → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-2prose-1bleak-2
The Comfort Book
Matt Haig2021
A collection of short reflections, lists, and anecdotes intended to provide mental support. It is a non-linear book of philosophy and memoir.
sardonic → warm
pace-2·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace0prose-1bleak-2
Odessa Sea
Clive Cussler2016
Dirk Pitt investigates a ghost ship in the Black Sea and discovers a conspiracy involving a lost Romanov secret. It is a high-speed adventure.
sardonic → propulsive
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-3prose+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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-3prose+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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-3prose+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.
sardonic → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-2
- pace-3prose+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.
sardonic → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
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.
sardonic → elegiac, still scifi
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+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.
sardonic → cold
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose0bleak+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.
sardonic → bleak
pace-2·prose0·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+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.
sardonic → bleak
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak+1
The Sparrow
Mary Doria Russell1996
A Jesuit priest joins a mission to a newly discovered planet. The story is told in flashbacks after he returns as the sole, traumatized survivor.
sardonic → elegiac
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
