After
The Repeat Year
Andrea Lochen2013
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak+1
This Time Tomorrow
Emma Straub2022
A woman visiting her dying father wakes up in 1996 as her sixteen-year-old self. She relives her youth while trying to change his future.
earnest → tender, still contemporary
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Sourdough
Robin Sloan2017
A lonely software engineer inherits a sentient sourdough starter from two brothers. She begins baking bread that has unusual effects on people.
earnest → playful, still contemporary
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The White Dragon
Anne McCaffrey1978
A young nobleman accidentally bonds with a stunted white dragon. He must balance his duties as a leader with his life as a dragonrider.
Same earnest register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
Fredrik Backman2015
A seven-year-old girl delivers letters of apology from her late grandmother to their neighbors. The task reveals the truth behind her stories.
earnest → warm, still contemporary
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Ecotopia
Ernest Callenbach1975
A journalist visits the Pacific Northwest, which has seceded to form an ecological society. He records their social and technical innovations.
Same earnest register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → meditative, still magical realism
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
earnest → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
earnest → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
earnest → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak+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.
earnest → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
earnest → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → meditative, still magical realism
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+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.
earnest → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
earnest → meditative, still magical realism
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
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.
earnest → elegiac, still magical realism
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
Heavier
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
The children's hospital
Chris Adrian2006
The world floods under seven miles of water, leaving a children's hospital as the only dry land. Survivors navigate a new, mythic reality.
earnest → dreamlike, still magical realism
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+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.
earnest → cold
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+3
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.
earnest → bleak
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+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.
earnest → elegiac
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
