After
Trips to the Moon
Lucian of Samosata1887
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Cool War
Frederik Pohl1981
In a future of extreme energy shortages, a minister is blackmailed into becoming a saboteur. He travels the world to undermine rival nations.
Same wry register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace-1prose0bleak0
The Meteor Hunt
Jules Verne2006
Two rival astronomers compete for the rights to a meteor made of solid gold. The story follows the global chaos caused by its descent to Earth.
Same wry register, still satire
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
The Cyberiad
Stanisław Lem1965
Two rival robotic 'constructors' travel the universe competing to build the most elaborate and often disastrous machines.
Same wry register, still satire
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak0
Fuzzy Nation
John Scalzi2011
A prospector on a corporate-owned planet discovers a species of small, fuzzy creatures that might be sentient. He uses the law to protect them.
Same wry register, still science fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Mort
Terry Pratchett1987
Death hires a clumsy teenager as an apprentice. When the boy saves a princess intended to die, he accidentally creates an alternate reality.
Same wry register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Nova Express
William S. Burroughs1964
An experimental narrative uses the cut-up technique to depict a war between intergalactic criminals and the police. It is a collage of imagery.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
wry → sardonic, still science fiction
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- 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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- 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.
wry → meditative, still science fiction
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
wry → playful, still science fiction
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
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.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
The Lake House
James Patterson
A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.
wry → propulsive, still science fiction
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.
Same wry register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- 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.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- 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.
wry → meditative, still science fiction
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- 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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- 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.
wry → 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.
wry → playful
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.
wry → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
Hard to be a god
Аркадий Стругацкий2014
An observer from a technologically advanced Earth lives undercover on a planet stuck in a medieval state. He must watch atrocities without helping.
wry → bleak, still science fiction
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
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.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+3
The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin1972
A photographer moves to a suburb where the wives are unnervingly submissive. She investigates whether the local men are replacing them with robots.
wry → tense, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
- pace0prose0bleak+3
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.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
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.
wry → bleak, still satire
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
