After
The Grace of Kings
Ken Liu2015
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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Grace of Kings
Ken Liu2015
Two men from different classes lead a rebellion against an empire and then struggle over how to rule. It uses a silkpunk aesthetic.
Same earnest register, still epic fantasy
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The Book of Etta
Meg Elison2017
In a world where women are rare and enslaved, Etta travels as a male scavenger. She leads a mission to rescue women from a brutal dictator.
Same earnest register, still rebellion
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The Elves of Cintra
Terry Brooks2008
A group of survivors travels through a post-apocalyptic landscape to find a safe haven. They use magic to fight off mutated monsters.
Same earnest register, still epic fantasy
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He, She and It
Marge Piercy1991
In a corporate-run future, a woman returns to a Jewish free town and helps program an illegal, sentient cyborg designed to protect the community.
Same earnest register
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Crown of renewal
Elizabeth Moon2014
A half-elven king and a forest scout navigate the return of magic to their land. It concludes the Paladin of Shadows series.
Same earnest register, still epic fantasy
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Denser prose
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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.
earnest → sardonic
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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.
earnest → meditative
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
earnest → sardonic
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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.
earnest → dreamlike
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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.
earnest → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
To recover
earnest → playful
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The Pursuit
Janet Evanovich2016
An FBI agent tracks down a kidnapped con man she was secretly working with. The chase moves from Hawaii to the remote mountains of Europe.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
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Rock Chick Revenge
Kristen Ashley2018
Ava seeks vengeance against the men who hurt her, leading to a confrontation involving a private security team. It is a romance with heavy action.
pace0·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Brutal Prince
Sophie Lark2020
The heirs of two rival Chicago mafia families are forced into an arranged marriage to prevent a gang war.
earnest → sardonic
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Castle of Wizardry
David Eddings1984
A young sorcerer and his companions travel across a continent to return a powerful artifact to its rightful throne.
earnest → playful, still epic fantasy
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Play Dead
David Rosenfelt2007
A defense attorney tries to prove a man's innocence by using a golden retriever as a witness to a five-year-old murder.
earnest → wry
pace0·prose-2·bleak-2
Faster
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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
earnest → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
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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.
earnest → propulsive
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
earnest → wry
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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.
earnest → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
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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.
earnest → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-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.
earnest → meditative
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
earnest → meditative
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
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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.
earnest → playful
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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.
earnest → playful
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Heavier
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Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Marlon James2019
A hunter with a supernatural sense of smell joins a group to find a missing child. The journey through mythical Africa is violent and hallucinatory.
earnest → bleak, still epic fantasy
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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.
earnest → cold
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
earnest → bleak
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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.
earnest → bleak
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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.
earnest → elegiac
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
