After
The rules of backyard cricket
Jock Serong2016
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier
More like it
Same sardonic register, still noir
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When Gravity Fails
George Alec Effinger1987
A private investigator in a futuristic Middle Eastern city hunts a serial killer who uses high-tech personality-altering implants.
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Zoo City
Lauren Beukes2010
In a version of Johannesburg where criminals are magically tethered to animals, a woman searches for a missing pop star.
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
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Gun, with Occasional Music
Jonathan Lethem1994
A private eye investigates a murder in a future where animals are evolved into citizens and people use drugs to manage their karma.
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Effendi
Jon Courtenay Grimwood2002
A detective in an alternate-history Alexandria investigates a murder involving a young girl. The case uncovers a high-level political conspiracy.
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut1963
A writer researches the creator of the atomic bomb and discovers a substance that freezes all water. He joins an island cult.
Same sardonic register
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Denser prose
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City of Saints and Madmen
Jeff Vandermeer2001
A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.
sardonic → dreamlike
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Sometimes a Great Notion
Ken Kesey1964
A family of independent loggers in Oregon refuses to join a local strike. The perspective shifts rapidly between characters, often mid-paragraph.
sardonic → elegiac
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
sardonic → dreamlike
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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.
Same sardonic register
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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.
sardonic → meditative
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To recover
- pace+1prose-1bleak-3
The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown2009
Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.
sardonic → propulsive
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A Veiled Deception
Annette Blair2009
A vintage shop owner investigates a murder during her sister's wedding preparations to clear her family's name.
sardonic → playful
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3 more ↓ ↑
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It Starts with Us
Colleen Hoover2022
A single mother navigates a new relationship with her first love while managing a jealous ex-husband. The story alternates perspectives.
sardonic → earnest
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Assistant to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer2023
A woman takes a job as an administrative assistant to a local villain to support her family. She manages his office while ignoring his evil deeds.
sardonic → playful
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Walking Disaster
Jamie McGuire2013
This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.
sardonic → propulsive
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Faster
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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
sardonic → wry
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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.
sardonic → propulsive
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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.
sardonic → wry
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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.
sardonic → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
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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.
sardonic → playful
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Slower
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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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+2bleak-2
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.
sardonic → meditative
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
sardonic → meditative
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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.
sardonic → elegiac
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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.
sardonic → earnest
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