Thirteen

Analog/Virtual and Other Simulations of Your Future

Lavanya Lakshminarayan2020

A mosaic of stories set in a future Bangalore where social status is tied to technological productivity. Citizens are ranked by their digital merit.

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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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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

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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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Murderbot Diaries

Martha Wells2023

A self-aware security android hacks its governor module to watch soap operas while protecting humans. It navigates corporate conspiracies.

Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk

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A Galaxy Unknown

Thomas DePrima2010

An ensign uses her tactical skills to rise through the ranks of a space navy while fighting pirates and internal bureaucracy.

sardonic → earnest, still military sci-fi

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Redshirts

John Scalzi2012

Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

sardonic → playful

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Hell Divers

Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016

Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.

sardonic → tense, still military sci-fi

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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.

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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.

Same sardonic register, still dystopian

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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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Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

sardonic → bleak, still dystopian

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Stand on Zanzibar

John Brunner1968

A fragmented portrait of an overpopulated 2010. The story uses news feeds and slogans to track a spy and a student in a corporate-run world.

Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk

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Kaleidoscope Century

John Barnes1995

A mercenary wakes every ten years to a new body and a changing world. He uncovers his own history of atrocities across the 21st century.

sardonic → bleak, still cyberpunk

pace0·prose-1·bleak+1

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.

sardonic → cold, still dystopian

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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

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