LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Wild Dead

Carrie Vaughn2018

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Songs from the Stars

    Norman Spinrad1980

    In a post-nuclear world, a tribe of artists and surfers encounters a high-tech culture from space. It explores the clash of their philosophies.

    Same earnest register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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+1

  • 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+1

  • Radiance

    Catherynne M. Valente2015

    A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.

    earnest → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Glazed Murder

    Jessica Beck2010

    A donut shop owner finds her rival dead in his shop. She investigates the local community to clear her own name.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Death on Demand

    Carolyn G. Hart1987

    A mystery bookstore owner becomes the lead suspect when a local author is killed. She must find the real murderer to save her business.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Murder is Binding

    Lorna Barrett2008

    A bookstore owner in a small New Hampshire town finds a rival dead. She investigates the local community to clear her own name.

    earnest → warm

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    earnest → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·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.

    earnest → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-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.

    earnest → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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·bleak0

  • Blood on the dining-room floor

    Gertrude Stein1948

    A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

    earnest → playful, still mystery

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    earnest → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

earnest → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic

3 more ↓

  • The Walking Dead: Compendium One

    Robert Kirkman2009

    A sheriff wakes from a coma into a zombie apocalypse. He leads a group of survivors through various temporary shelters over several years.

    earnest → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

  • One Second After

    William R. Forstchen2009

    An EMP strike destroys the American power grid. A history professor attempts to manage the starvation and societal collapse of his small town.

    earnest → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Death of Grass

    John Christopher1956

    A virus kills the world's grass and grain, causing total societal collapse. A family attempts to flee London for a farm in the north.

    earnest → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2