After

The Hands of the Emperor

Victoria Goddard2018

pace
prose
structure
bleakness

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

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Owlknight (Valdemar
Mercedes Lackey1999
A young mage discovers his missing parents are alive in enemy territory. He leads a rescue mission while balancing his new life and love.
Same warm register, still high fantasy
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A Closed and Common Orbit
Becky Chambers2016
An artificial intelligence is transferred into a synthetic human body. She learns to navigate physical existence with the help of an engineer.
Same warm register, still found family
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T.J. Klune2023
A human and his three robots live in hiding until an old android's past brings a hunt to their door. They travel to rescue their captured creator.
Same warm register, still found family
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pace0prose0bleak0
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Steve Miller2013
A young man living in an underground city on a trade planet hides his identity while navigating local gang conflicts and family secrets.
Same warm register, still found family
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Sharon Lee2010
A young pilot trains at a military academy while navigating the complex social hierarchies of the Liaden Universe. It is a coming-of-age story.
Same warm register, still found family
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Denser prose

pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
warm → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
pace0prose+2bleak+2
In Green's Jungles
Gene Wolfe2000
A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.
warm → elegiac
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

3 more ↓

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Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
warm → clinical
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
pace0prose+2bleak+2
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.
warm → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
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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.
warm → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

Faster

pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
warm → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
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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.
warm → propulsive
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pace+2prose-1bleak0
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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.
warm → wry, still found family
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
pace+2prose-1bleak+1
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.
warm → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
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John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
warm → playful, still found family
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Slower

pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
warm → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
warm → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

3 more ↓

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Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950
An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.
warm → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
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Unfinished Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien1980
A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.
warm → meditative, still high fantasy
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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.
warm → playful
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Heavier

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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.
warm → cold
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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.
warm → bleak
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3 more ↓

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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.
warm → 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.
warm → elegiac
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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.
warm → bleak
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