The Child Garden

The Drowned World

J. G. Ballard1962

In a flooded, sweltering London, a biologist studies the returning prehistoric flora. He begins to succumb to the environment's psychic pull.

Same dreamlike register, still dystopian

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace1996

A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.

dreamlike → sardonic, still dystopian

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

City of Saints and Madmen

Jeff Vandermeer2001

A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

William S. Burroughs

A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.

dreamlike → sardonic, still dystopian

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Steal Like an Artist

Austin Kleon2012

A series of short, illustrated principles for creative work. It focuses on remixing existing ideas and establishing productive daily habits.

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Big Magic

Elizabeth Gilbert2015

The author shares her philosophy on the creative process through personal anecdotes. It focuses on overcoming fear and pursuing curiosity.

dreamlike → warm

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Year zero

Reid, Robert2012

Aliens discover that Earth's music is the best in the galaxy and they owe humanity trillions in copyright fines.

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Red Rising

Pierce Brown2014

A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.

dreamlike → propulsive, still dystopian

pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

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.

dreamlike → wry

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

dreamlike → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

dreamlike → bleak, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+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.

dreamlike → playful

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-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.

dreamlike → cold, still dystopian

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Watchmen

Alan Moore1986

Retired masked vigilantes investigate the murder of a former teammate. The story takes place in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war.

dreamlike → bleak, still dystopian

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess1962

A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.

dreamlike → sardonic, still dystopian

pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1