LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Raw Shark Texts

Steven Hall2007

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories

    Ray Bradbury2005

    A collection of short stories exploring time travel, space exploration, and the future. The prose focuses on atmosphere and metaphor.

    Same dreamlike register

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Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same dreamlike register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Rakesfall

    Vajra Chandrasekera2024

    Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.

    Same dreamlike register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Empty Space

    M. John Harrison2012

    Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.

    Same dreamlike register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

dreamlike → playful

3 more ↓

  • Vampires Are Forever

    Lynsay Sands2008

    A woman suspects her business partner is a vampire after he attempts to bite her. He tries to convince her they are fated mates.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Mane Event

    Shelly Laurenston2007

    A female cop reunites with a childhood friend who is now a lion-shifter. They navigate a romantic attraction while he pursues her in New York.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

  • This Girl

    Colleen Hoover2013

    A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.

    dreamlike → earnest

    pace-1·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

    dreamlike → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak0

  • 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.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·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.

    dreamlike → meditative

    pace-2·prose+1·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.

    dreamlike → elegiac

    pace-2·prose0·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.

    dreamlike → earnest

    pace-2·prose-1·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Negative Space

    B.R. Yeager2020

    Four teenagers in a decaying New Hampshire town use a drug made from local parasites. They navigate hallucinations and a string of suicides.

    dreamlike → bleak, still psychological horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • Nod

    Adrian Barnes2012

    A global epidemic of insomnia causes society to collapse in six days. A writer who can still sleep observes the descent into psychosis.

    dreamlike → bleak, still psychological horror

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

  • The Man Who Melted

    Jack Dann1984

    A man searches a chaotic, future Europe for his wife while a telepathic virus causes people to lose their identities.

    Same dreamlike register, still slipstream

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+2