After
The green millennium
Fritz Leiber1953
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
Same playful register, still satire
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Bear Went Over the Mountain
William Kotzwinkle1996
A bear finds a manuscript in the woods and travels to New York to publish it under a human alias. He becomes a literary celebrity.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Witches Abroad
Terry Pratchett1991
Three witches travel across a continent to stop a wedding. They encounter various fairy tale tropes and subvert them through common sense.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Savages
Tom Holt2015
A group of modern office workers is transported into a traditional fantasy world and must apply corporate logic to survive.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Lamb
Christopher Moore2002
Jesus's childhood friend Biff is resurrected in the modern day to write a gospel about their travels through the East to learn magic and kung fu.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1-5)
Douglas Adams
An Englishman travels the universe after Earth is destroyed to make way for a bypass. The narrative relies on wordplay and philosophical absurdity.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien1939
A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.
Same playful register, still satire
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
In the Night Garden
Catherynne M. Valente2006
A girl with tattooed eyelids tells a prince interlocking stories of monsters and folklore. The narrative is a series of nested myths.
playful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
The Claw of the Conciliator
Gene Wolfe1981
An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.
playful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges1945
A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Matt Dinniman2020
Earth is converted into an 18-level televised death game. A man and a cat must navigate traps and monsters to survive.
playful → sardonic
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Stainless Steel Rat
Harry Harrison1961
A futuristic con man is caught by the Special Corps and forced to use his criminal skills to catch other lawbreakers.
Same playful register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Mind's Eye
Douglas E. Richards2014
A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.
playful → propulsive, still conspiracy
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
The Atlantis Gene
A.G. Riddle2013
A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.
playful → propulsive, still conspiracy
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Monster Hunter International
Larry Correia2007
An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
Boneland
Alan Garner2012
An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.
playful → elegiac
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
The Habitation of the Blessed
Catherynne M. Valente2010
A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Unfinished Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien1980
A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Moonwise
Greer Gilman1991
Two women are pulled into a world created by their own folk-tales. The narrative uses dense, archaic language to describe a shifting landscape.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
Heavier
playful → sardonic, still satire
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Doctor Rat
William Kotzwinkle1976
A laboratory rat loyal to his human captors defends the practice of vivisection while animals worldwide begin a bloody revolt.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
The Vengeance of Rome
Michael Moorcock2006
Pyat, an unreliable narrator and Nazi sympathizer, travels through the 1930s. He observes the rise of fascism while remaining self-deluded.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
The Sub: A Study in Witchcraft
Thomas M. Disch1999
A substitute teacher discovers she has the power of witchcraft. She uses her abilities to manipulate her small town as her sanity deteriorates.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
The Fifth Season
N. K. Jemisin2015
A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.
playful → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose0bleak+3
Pet Sematary
Stephen King1983
A family moves to Maine and discovers a burial ground that can return the dead to life. They use it, and the consequences are absolute.
playful → tense
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
