LitQueuelitqueue

After

Watchmen

Alan Moore1986

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

Same bleak register, still dystopian

1 more ↓

  • The Deluge

    Stephen Markley2023

    A large cast of characters navigates the political, social, and environmental collapse of America over several decades of climate change.

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

bleak → sardonic, still dystopian

3 more ↓

  • Riddley Walker

    Russell Hoban1980

    A twelve-year-old boy travels across a primitive, post-nuclear England. The story is written entirely in a broken, phonetic future dialect.

    bleak → meditative, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    bleak → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The transparent society

    David Brin1998

    This nonfiction work argues that total transparency and mutual surveillance are better for freedom than trying to hide from the state.

    bleak → elegiac, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Two for the dough

    Janet Evanovich1996

    An inexperienced bounty hunter tracks a man who jumped bail for shooting his friend. She competes with a vice cop to find him first.

    bleak → playful

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Fifty Shades of Grey

    E.L. James2000

    A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.

    bleak → earnest

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Neon Gods

    Katee Robert2021

    In a modern city-state, Persephone flees an arranged marriage to Zeus by entering the underworld. She strikes a deal with Hades to stay there.

    bleak → tense

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    bleak → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • 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.

    bleak → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Red Rising

    Pierce Brown2014

    A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.

    bleak → propulsive, still dystopian

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • For Us, the Living

    Robert A. Heinlein2003

    A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.

    bleak → earnest

    pace-2·prose-1·bleak-3

  • Hav

    Jan Morris2006

    A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.

    bleak → elegiac

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-2

  • Kolyma tales

    Varlam SHALAMOV1980

    Short stories documenting daily life and survival in a Soviet labor camp. The prose is detached and focuses on the physical reality of starvation.

    bleak → clinical

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0