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After

The Man Who Folded Himself

David Gerrold1973

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Hollow World

    Michael J. Sullivan2014

    A terminally ill man builds a time machine and travels to a future where humanity has eliminated war, disease, and gender.

    meditative → earnest, still time travel

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • VAS

    Steve Tomasula2002

    A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.

    meditative → clinical

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    meditative → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    Same meditative register

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

meditative → playful

3 more ↓

  • She Went All the Way

    Meg Cabot2002

    A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Mile High

    Liz Tomforde2023

    A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Behind the Net

    Stephanie Archer2024

    A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

meditative → propulsive, still time travel

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    meditative → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Recursion

    Blake Crouch2019

    A detective and a scientist discover a technology that allows people to map and enter memories, causing timelines to rewrite and collapse.

    meditative → tense, still time travel

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same meditative register

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    meditative → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

  • For Us, the Living

    Robert A. Heinlein2003

    A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.

    meditative → earnest

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-1

Heavier

meditative → bleak, still time travel

3 more ↓

  • The Year of the Quiet Sun

    Wilson Tucker1970

    A social scientist travels forward in time to document the collapse of the United States through racial conflict and nuclear war.

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Gone World

    Tom Sweterlitsch2018

    An investigator travels to possible futures to solve a murder and stop an approaching apocalypse. The timeline changes based on her observations.

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    meditative → cold

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2