The Gate to Women's Country

A Calculated Life

Anne Charnock2013

A genetically modified woman with hyper-analytical skills works as a data forecaster. She begins to question her corporate-controlled existence.

Same clinical register, still dystopian

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

clinical → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

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.

clinical → sardonic, still secret society

pace0·prose+2·bleak0

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.

clinical → meditative

pace0·prose+2·bleak0

Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers

Lois P. Frankel

A career coach lists 101 behaviors women use in the workplace that may hinder their advancement. Each entry provides a specific tip for change.

clinical → earnest

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Redshirts

John Scalzi2012

Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown2003

A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

clinical → propulsive, still secret society

pace+2·prose-1·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.

clinical → propulsive

pace+2·prose-1·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.

clinical → propulsive, still dystopian

pace+2·prose0·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.

clinical → wry

pace+2·prose-1·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.

clinical → meditative

pace-1·prose+2·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.

clinical → bleak, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+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.

clinical → elegiac

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

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.

clinical → bleak, still dystopian

pace+1·prose+1·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.

clinical → sardonic, still dystopian

pace+1·prose+2·bleak+1

A Scanner Darkly

Philip K. Dick1977

An undercover narcotics agent in a near-future California becomes addicted to the drug he is investigating and begins to spy on himself.

clinical → bleak, still dystopian

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1