After
The Other Side of Morning
A.F. Allen2005
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace-1prose0bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Einstein’s Dreams
Alan Lightman1993
A young Albert Einstein dreams of thirty different worlds where time functions in strange ways while he works at a Swiss patent office.
Same elegiac register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Fire on the Mountain
Terry Bisson1988
In an alternate 1959, a successful John Brown raid has led to a sovereign Black nation. The story follows a family during a Mars mission launch.
Same elegiac register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+2
The Dog Stars
Peter Heller2012
A pilot and his dog live at a small airport after a flu pandemic kills most of humanity. He flies his Cessna into the unknown to find a radio signal.
Same elegiac register, still literary
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Private Rites
Julia Armfield2024
Three sisters navigate a flooded, perpetually raining London following their father's death. The narrative focuses on grief and sibling ritual.
Same elegiac register, still literary
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
Denser prose
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Rakesfall
Vajra Chandrasekera2024
Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.
elegiac → dreamlike, still literary
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+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.
elegiac → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+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.
elegiac → sardonic
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
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.
elegiac → meditative
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
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.
elegiac → meditative
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+2prose-2bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
elegiac → wry
pace+2·prose-2·bleak0
- pace+2prose-2bleak0
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.
elegiac → propulsive
pace+2·prose-2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
elegiac → wry
pace+2·prose-2·bleak0
- pace+2prose-2bleak+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.
elegiac → propulsive
pace+2·prose-2·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-2bleak0
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.
elegiac → playful
pace+2·prose-2·bleak0
Slower
- pace-1prose+1bleak+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.
elegiac → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+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.
elegiac → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak+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.
elegiac → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose0bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak+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.
Same elegiac register, still literary
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace+1prose0bleak+3
The Fifth Science
Exurb1a2019
Twelve stories trace the rise and fall of a human empire through the discovery of a science of the mind. It spans 100,000 years of history.
Same elegiac register, still literary
pace+1·prose0·bleak+3
- pace0prose0bleak+3
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.
elegiac → cold
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
elegiac → bleak
pace0·prose-1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
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.
elegiac → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose0bleak+3
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.
Same elegiac register
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
