After
The Future of Another Timeline
Annalee Newitz2019
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
Same propulsive register, still time travel
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Trinity Paradox
Doug Beason1991
A modern anti-nuclear activist is transported back to 1945 Los Alamos. She must decide whether to sabotage the first atomic bomb test.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Time Ships
Stephen Baxter1995
The Time Traveller returns to the future only to find his previous actions have created a series of divergent, massive timelines.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
A Murder in Time
Julie McElwain2016
An FBI agent is transported from a modern crime scene to 1815 London. She must use 21st-century forensics to catch a serial killer.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Cross-Time Engineer
Leo Frankowski1989
A 20th-century engineer is transported to 13th-century Poland. He uses modern technology to prepare the country for a Mongol invasion.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Island in the Sea of Time
S.M. Stirling
The island of Nantucket is transported back to 1250 BC. The modern inhabitants must use their technology to survive and deal with Bronze Age tribes.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- 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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
propulsive → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Ghost Ship
Clive Cussler2014
Kurt Austin survives a yacht sinking but suffers from conflicting memories. He investigates a global cybercrime conspiracy to find the truth.
Same propulsive register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Killer Blonde
Laura Levine2004
A freelance writer investigates a murder in the Hamptons after a socialite is killed. She balances the case with her work for a demanding boss.
propulsive → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Two for the dough
Janet Evanovich1996
An inexperienced bounty hunter tracks a man who jumped bail for shooting his friend. She competes with a vice cop to find him first.
propulsive → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Love on the Brain
Ali Hazelwood2022
A neuroscientist must co-lead a NASA project with a man she believes has hated her since grad school.
propulsive → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Better Off Dead
Lee Child2021
Jack Reacher investigates a staged car crash in Arizona and infiltrates a dangerous local crew to find a missing woman.
Same propulsive register
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
Lost in Time
A.G. Riddle2022
A man is exiled to the Triassic period for a murder he didn't commit while his daughter tries to bring him back.
Same propulsive register, still time travel
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
propulsive → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
Same propulsive register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
propulsive → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
Same propulsive register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-1
Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury1946
A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.
propulsive → elegiac
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-2prose0bleak-1
For Us, the Living
Robert A. Heinlein2003
A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.
propulsive → earnest
pace-2·prose0·bleak-1
Heavier
propulsive → bleak, still time travel
- pace-1prose0bleak+2
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.
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
Behold the Man
Michael Moorcock1968
A man uses a time machine to travel to 28 AD to meet Jesus. Finding only a disabled man who cannot fulfill the gospels, he takes the role himself.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak+2
The Year of the Quiet Sun
Wilson Tucker1970
A social scientist travels forward in time to document the collapse of the United States through racial conflict and nuclear war.
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
The Gone World
Tom Sweterlitsch2018
An investigator travels to possible futures to solve a murder and stop an approaching apocalypse. The timeline changes based on her observations.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+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.
propulsive → cold
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
