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John Sladek1983

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same sardonic register, still satire

1 more ↓

  • Galápagos

    Kurt Vonnegut1820

    A ghost watches a group of tourists stranded on an island for a million years. Human biology slowly adapts to the environment over generations.

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Denser prose

Same sardonic register, still satire

3 more ↓

  • Seven Surrenders

    Ada Palmer2017

    The leaders of global Hives struggle to maintain a centuries-long peace as secrets emerge. The narrator is biased and uses archaic language.

    Same sardonic register

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  • A Clockwork Orange

    Anthony Burgess1962

    A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.

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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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To recover

sardonic → playful, still satire

3 more ↓

  • Rich People Problems

    Kevin Kwan2017

    An extended family gathers in Singapore as their matriarch lies dying. They scheme against one another to inherit a massive estate.

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  • Wielding a Red Sword

    Piers Anthony1986

    An Indian prince avoids an arranged marriage by accepting the supernatural office of War. He wields a sword that draws him into a conflict in Hell.

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  • Extract from Captain Stormfield's visit to heaven

    Mark Twain1909

    A sea captain dies and travels through space for thirty years, only to find that the afterlife is not what he expected.

    sardonic → wry, still satire

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Faster

Same sardonic register, still satire

3 more ↓

  • Slaughtermatic

    Steve Aylett1998

    A bank heist goes wrong when a time-traveling version of the protagonist appears in the vault. Reality and virtual simulations begin to blur.

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  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    sardonic → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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

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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.

    sardonic → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • The Pale King

    David Foster Wallace2011

    An unfinished, experimental novel about the mundane daily operations of an IRS processing center in 1985 Illinois.

    Same sardonic register, still satire

    pace-2·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.

    sardonic → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Cat's Cradle

    Kurt Vonnegut1963

    A writer researches the creator of the atomic bomb and discovers a substance that freezes all water. He joins an island cult.

    Same sardonic register, still satire

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    sardonic → bleak, still satire

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • This Is the Way the World Ends

    James Morrow1986

    A man buys a suit to survive a nuclear war and is put on trial by the ghosts of people who will never be born. It is a satire of nuclear policy.

    Same sardonic register, still satire

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1