LitQueuelitqueue

After

What Makes This Book So Great: Re-Reading the Classics of Science Fiction & Fantasy

Jo Walton

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

Same playful register

1 more ↓

  • Miss Subways

    David Duchovny2018

    An NYC schoolteacher meets a man who might be a god, leading to a reality-bending journey through the city's myths and subway system.

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

playful → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • At Swim-Two-Birds

    Flann O'Brien1939

    A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.

    Same playful register

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

  • The Claw of the Conciliator

    Gene Wolfe1981

    An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

    A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.

    playful → meditative

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Mind's Eye

    Douglas E. Richards2014

    A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1

  • The Atlantis Gene

    A.G. Riddle2013

    A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Monster Hunter International

    Larry Correia2007

    An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Habitation of the Blessed

    Catherynne M. Valente2010

    A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.

    playful → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Unfinished Tales

    J.R.R. Tolkien1980

    A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.

    playful → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Moonwise

    Greer Gilman1991

    Two women are pulled into a world created by their own folk-tales. The narrative uses dense, archaic language to describe a shifting landscape.

    playful → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Poppy War

    R.F. Kuang2018

    A war orphan enters a military academy and discovers shamanic powers. She leads a unit into a total war inspired by 20th-century Chinese history.

    playful → bleak

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+3

  • The Traitor Baru Cormorant

    Seth Dickinson2015

    An accountant infiltrates the empire that conquered her home to destroy it from within. She uses economics and politics as her primary weapons.

    playful → cold

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3

  • Song of Kali

    Dan Simmons1985

    An American poet travels to Calcutta to find a manuscript by a dead writer. He encounters a cult that worships the goddess of destruction.

    playful → bleak

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3