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After

The Memory Collectors

Dete Meserve2025

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same eerie register, still scifi

1 more ↓

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    eerie → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    eerie → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    eerie → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    eerie → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Fifty Shades of Grey

    E.L. James2000

    A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.

    eerie → earnest

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    eerie → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Akira, Vol. 1

    Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984

    In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.

    eerie → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    eerie → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    eerie → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

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.

    eerie → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    eerie → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    eerie → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

eerie → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic

3 more ↓

  • The Walking Dead: Compendium One

    Robert Kirkman2009

    A sheriff wakes from a coma into a zombie apocalypse. He leads a group of survivors through various temporary shelters over several years.

    eerie → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+1

  • One Second After

    William R. Forstchen2009

    An EMP strike destroys the American power grid. A history professor attempts to manage the starvation and societal collapse of his small town.

    eerie → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Death of Grass

    John Christopher1956

    A virus kills the world's grass and grain, causing total societal collapse. A family attempts to flee London for a farm in the north.

    eerie → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1