After
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Connie Willis1998
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
Same playful register, still time travel
- pace0prose0bleak0
Roadmarks
Roger Zelazny1979
A man drives a literal road that connects all of history and alternate timelines. He is being hunted by assassins hired by his own son.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Mammoth
John Varley2005
The discovery of a frozen mammoth and a prehistoric man wearing a modern wristwatch triggers a time-travel investigation.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream
G. C. Edmondson1965
A wooden Navy research ship is struck by lightning and transported back in time, encountering Vikings and other eras.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
City of Death
James Goss2012
The Doctor and his companions visit 1979 Paris and discover a plot involving Leonardo da Vinci and an alien race hidden in time.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+1
No Time Like the Past
Jodi Taylor2015
Historians from St. Mary's Institute travel through time to observe major historical events while trying to avoid altering the timeline.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
Denser prose
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
Perhaps the Stars
Ada Palmer2021
A global war between ideological factions reaches its conclusion. The story is told through a dense, 18th-century style narrative voice.
playful → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Lost in Time
A.G. Riddle2022
A man is exiled to the Triassic period for a murder he didn't commit while his daughter tries to bring him back.
playful → propulsive, still time travel
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
playful → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
playful → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
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.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
Same playful register
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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.
Same playful register
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
Heavier
playful → bleak, still time travel
- pace-1prose0bleak+3
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.
pace-1·prose0·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
Behold the Man
Michael Moorcock1968
A man uses a time machine to travel to 28 AD to meet Jesus. Finding only a disabled man who cannot fulfill the gospels, he takes the role himself.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak+3
The Year of the Quiet Sun
Wilson Tucker1970
A social scientist travels forward in time to document the collapse of the United States through racial conflict and nuclear war.
pace-1·prose0·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
The Gone World
Tom Sweterlitsch2018
An investigator travels to possible futures to solve a murder and stop an approaching apocalypse. The timeline changes based on her observations.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
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.
playful → cold
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
