After
The Iron Dream
Norman Spinrad1972
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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Yellow Blue Tibia
Adam Roberts2009
Soviet writers are forced by Stalin to invent an alien threat, only to see their fiction become reality decades later.
Same sardonic register, still alternate history
pace0·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace0prose0bleak0
Gateway
Frederik Pohl1976
A prospector recounts his sessions with a robot therapist after finding a fortune on an alien space station. He is haunted by a choice he made.
Same sardonic register, still science fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Ubik
Philip K. Dick1969
A corporate security team survives an assassination attempt, but reality begins to regress into the past. They must find a way to stop time's decay.
Same sardonic register, still science fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk1996
An insomniac office worker and a charismatic anarchist start an underground boxing club that evolves into a domestic terrorist cell.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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The Second Shooter
Nick Mamatas2021
A journalist investigates conspiracy theorists and finds himself pursued by a mysterious figure present at every mass shooting.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
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Nova Express
William S. Burroughs1964
An experimental narrative uses the cut-up technique to depict a war between intergalactic criminals and the police. It is a collage of imagery.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
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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.
Same sardonic register, still science fiction
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
sardonic → dreamlike, still alternate history
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
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Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
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All Those Vanished Engines
Paul Park2014
Three linked stories follow the Park family through an alternate history where the American Civil War ended in a two-nation settlement.
sardonic → dreamlike, still alternate history
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
To recover
sardonic → playful, still science fiction
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
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.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
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.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Year zero
Reid, Robert2012
Aliens discover that Earth's music is the best in the galaxy and they owe humanity trillions in copyright fines.
sardonic → playful, still satire
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
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The Last Question
Isaac Asimov2007
A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.
sardonic → meditative, still science fiction
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
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Rich People Problems
Kevin Kwan2017
An extended family gathers in Singapore as their matriarch lies dying. They scheme against one another to inherit a massive estate.
sardonic → playful, still satire
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
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.
sardonic → playful, still science fiction
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Get Jiro!
Anthony Bourdain2012
In a future Los Angeles, master chefs rule as warlords. A sushi chef who kills rude customers is caught between two warring food factions.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Lake House
James Patterson
A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.
sardonic → propulsive, still science fiction
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
sardonic → wry
pace+1·prose-1·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.
sardonic → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
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.
sardonic → meditative, still science fiction
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
sardonic → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+1bleak-1
Hav
Jan Morris2006
A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.
sardonic → elegiac, still alternate history
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Looking Backward, 2000-1887
Edward Bellamy1888
A man falls into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000 to find the United States transformed into a socialist utopia.
sardonic → earnest, still science fiction
pace-2·prose0·bleak-2
Heavier
- pace0prose+2bleak+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.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin1972
A photographer moves to a suburb where the wives are unnervingly submissive. She investigates whether the local men are replacing them with robots.
sardonic → tense, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Hard to be a god
Аркадий Стругацкий2014
An observer from a technologically advanced Earth lives undercover on a planet stuck in a medieval state. He must watch atrocities without helping.
sardonic → bleak, still science fiction
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
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Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut1963
A writer researches the creator of the atomic bomb and discovers a substance that freezes all water. He joins an island cult.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah2023
Prisoners in a private American penal system fight to the death in televised matches for a chance at freedom.
sardonic → bleak, still satire
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
