After
A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick1977
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier
More like it
Same bleak register, still dystopian
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HARM
Brian Aldiss2007
A British Muslim man is detained and tortured in a secret prison. He hallucinates a second life on a distant planet to escape the pain.
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Salt
Adam Roberts2000
Two groups of colonists with opposing ideologies settle on a salt-covered planet, leading to a total breakdown of their society.
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The Sea and Summer
George Turner1987
In a future Melbourne drowned by rising seas, the population is divided into the employed 'Sweet' and the welfare-dependent 'Swill'.
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334
Thomas M. Disch1972
Interconnected stories depict the lives of residents in a New York housing project in the 2020s. It focuses on poverty and social stagnation.
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Guernica Night
Barry N. Malzberg1975
In a future where suicide is a social norm, a man navigates a society obsessed with death. The prose is dense and repetitive.
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Denser prose
bleak → sardonic, still dystopian
- pace0prose+1bleak0
Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
William S. Burroughs
A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.
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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.
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
bleak → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
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In Green's Jungles
Gene Wolfe2000
A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.
bleak → elegiac, still unreliable narrator
pace0·prose+1·bleak-1
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VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
bleak → clinical
pace0·prose+1·bleak-1
To recover
bleak → playful
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Play
Kylie Scott2014
A drummer for a famous rock band hires a woman to pose as his girlfriend to improve his public image. They live together to sell the lie.
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Vampires Are Forever
Lynsay Sands2008
A woman suspects her business partner is a vampire after he attempts to bite her. He tries to convince her they are fated mates.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Mane Event
Shelly Laurenston2007
A female cop reunites with a childhood friend who is now a lion-shifter. They navigate a romantic attraction while he pursues her in New York.
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Mile High
Liz Tomforde2023
A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.
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Behind the Net
Stephanie Archer2024
A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.
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Faster
- pace+2prose-2bleak-2
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.
bleak → sardonic, still dystopian
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
bleak → wry
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
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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
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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+2·prose-1·bleak-1
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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.
bleak → wry
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3
Slower
- pace-1prose+1bleak-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.
bleak → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose+1bleak-2
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.
bleak → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
bleak → meditative
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Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
Same bleak register, still dystopian
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Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury1946
A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.
bleak → elegiac
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