After
The Sheep Look Up
John Brunner1972
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier
More like it
Same bleak register, still dystopian
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The Deluge
Stephen Markley2023
A large cast of characters navigates the political, social, and environmental collapse of America over several decades of climate change.
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The Sea and Summer
George Turner1987
In a future Melbourne drowned by rising seas, the population is divided into the employed 'Sweet' and the welfare-dependent 'Swill'.
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Watchmen
Alan Moore1986
Retired masked vigilantes investigate the murder of a former teammate. The story takes place in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war.
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Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah2023
Prisoners in a private American penal system fight to the death in televised matches for a chance at freedom.
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1 more ↓ ↑
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American War
Omar El Akkad2017
A girl grows up in a displaced persons camp during a second American Civil War fought over fossil fuels.
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Denser prose
bleak → sardonic, still dystopian
- pace-1prose+1bleak-1
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.
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Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
William S. Burroughs
A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.
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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.
bleak → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
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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.
bleak → sardonic
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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.
bleak → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
To recover
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
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.
bleak → playful
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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.
bleak → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
bleak → earnest
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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
bleak → 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.
bleak → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
Faster
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Get Jiro!
Anthony Bourdain2012
In a future Los Angeles, master chefs rule as warlords. A sushi chef who kills rude customers is caught between two warring food factions.
bleak → sardonic, still dystopian
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
bleak → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
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.
bleak → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Red Rising
Pierce Brown2014
A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.
bleak → propulsive, still dystopian
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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.
bleak → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
Slower
- pace-2prose+1bleak-1
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.
bleak → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+1bleak-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.
bleak → 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.
bleak → meditative
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Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
Same bleak register, still dystopian
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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.
bleak → elegiac
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