After
The Star Fraction
Ken MacLeod1995
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Saturn's Children
Charles Stross2008
In a future where humans are extinct, an android courier transports a package across the solar system while being hunted by rival factions.
Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Null States
Malka Older2017
An investigator for a global micro-democracy system travels to a failed state to probe a governor's death. It focuses on geopolitical data.
sardonic → clinical, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Schismatrix
Bruce Sterling1985
Abelard Lindsay travels the solar system as humanity splits into warring factions of cybernetic Mechanists and genetic Shapers.
Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Red Dust
Paul J. McAuley1993
A technician on a terraformed Mars travels across a landscape of decaying biotech and competing factions. It is a picaresque cyberpunk western.
Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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Stable Strategies and Others
Eileen Gunn2004
Short stories featuring corporate workers who use genetic engineering to become more competitive. The tone is satirical and surreal.
Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
Against the Day
Thomas Pynchon2006
A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.
sardonic → playful
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
sardonic → clinical, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- 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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
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
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
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
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
To recover
- pace+1prose-2bleak-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.
sardonic → propulsive, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace0prose-2bleak-1
The 4-Hour Workweek
Timothy Ferriss2006
A guide to lifestyle design that explains how to automate a business and outsource life tasks to achieve a four-hour workweek.
sardonic → wry
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Split Infinity
Piers Anthony1980
A man travels between a high-tech world of games and a parallel world of magic. He must master both systems to avoid being assassinated.
sardonic → playful
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace0prose-2bleak-1
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon
Kimberly Lemming2021
A spice trader saves a demon while intoxicated and joins his quest to kill a witch. The story features frequent sexual content and humor.
sardonic → playful
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-2bleak-1
The Stainless Steel Rat
Harry Harrison1961
A futuristic con man is caught by the Special Corps and forced to use his criminal skills to catch other lawbreakers.
sardonic → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
Faster
sardonic → propulsive, still cyberpunk
- pace+1prose-2bleak-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.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-2bleak+1
Akira, Vol. 1
Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984
In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-2bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
sardonic → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-2bleak-1
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
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-2bleak0
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-2·bleak0
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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-1
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Douglas R. Hofstadter1979
An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.
sardonic → playful
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
sardonic → playful
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
Heavier
- pace0prose-1bleak+2
Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
sardonic → cynical, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-1·bleak+2
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Market Forces
Richard K. Morgan2004
In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.
Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Random Acts of Senseless Violence
Jack Womack1994
A twelve-year-old girl records her life in a diary as New York City collapses into riots and hyperinflation. Her family falls into poverty.
sardonic → bleak, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
Hellspark
Janet Kagan1988
A linguist travels to a new planet to investigate a murder. She must determine if the local species is sentient while navigating a conspiracy.
sardonic → tense, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Golem100
Alfred Bester1980
In a future city, a group of women accidentally summon a psychic monster that commits acts of extreme violence while investigators track it.
Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak+2