The Spear Cuts Through Water

The Lathe of Heaven

Ursula K. Le Guin1971

A man’s dreams physically alter reality. His psychiatrist uses a machine to manipulate these dreams, attempting to reshape the world by force.

Same dreamlike register

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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

pace0·prose0·bleak0

The Raw Shark Texts

Steven Hall2007

An amnesiac follows letters from his former self to escape a conceptual shark that eats memories. It uses experimental typography and puzzles.

Same dreamlike register

pace0·prose0·bleak0

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

Patricia A. McKillip1974

A wizard's daughter lives in isolation with a collection of mythical animals. Her solitude ends when she is given a human infant to raise.

Same dreamlike register, still high fantasy

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

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.

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+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.

pace-2·prose+1·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

While It Lasts

Abbi Glines2013

A college baseball player works on a farm over the summer to avoid jail after a DUI. He falls for a woman who is grieving her late fiancé.

dreamlike → warm

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

dreamlike → wry

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

Same dreamlike register

pace-2·prose+1·bleak+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.

dreamlike → meditative

pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

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.

dreamlike → cold

pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

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.

dreamlike → bleak

pace-1·prose-1·bleak+2