Zero K

The Story of General Dann and Mara's daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog

Doris Lessing2005

In a cooling, flooded world, a man travels north with a child-soldier and a dog to find knowledge for his struggling civilization.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Empty Space

M. John Harrison2012

Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.

meditative → dreamlike

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

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.

Same meditative register

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

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.

meditative → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

The Score

Elle Kennedy2016

A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.

meditative → playful

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

To Sir Phillip, With Love

Julia Quinn2003

Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.

meditative → warm

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

All Rhodes Lead Here

Mariana Zapata2021

A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.

meditative → warm

pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

meditative → wry

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

meditative → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

meditative → playful

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

Same meditative register

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

After London

Richard Jefferies1885

Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.

meditative → elegiac, still speculative fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

News from nowhere, or, An epoch of rest, being some chapters from a utopian romance

William Morris1890

A Victorian man wakes up in the year 2102. He explores a socialist agrarian society where private property and money have been abolished.

Same meditative register, still speculative fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak-2

The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica

John Batchelor1983

A man born in Sweden travels south as Europe collapses into war. He eventually leads a group of refugees to found a new society in Antarctica.

meditative → bleak, still speculative fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

The Blood of Angels

Johanna Sinisalo2011

A father grieving his son discovers a portal to another world while bees disappear globally. It explores ecological collapse and grief.

meditative → elegiac, still speculative fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Lynn Crosbie2016

A teenager wakes up in a hospital next to a resurrected Kurt Cobain. They form a band and a codependent relationship that leads to violence.

meditative → dreamlike, still speculative fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1