A Song for a New Day

Oath of Fealty

Larry Niven1981

Residents of a high-tech, self-contained arcology in Los Angeles defend their surveillance-heavy utopia against outside activists.

Same earnest register, still dystopian

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

earnest → sardonic, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

City of Saints and Madmen

Jeff Vandermeer2001

A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

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.

earnest → sardonic, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Alpine for you

Maddy Hunter2003

A woman leads a group of senior citizens on a tour of the Swiss Alps. When a passenger dies, she must investigate her fellow travelers.

pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

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

earnest → wry

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf

Molly Harper2011

A librarian in Alaska finds her neighbor caught in a trap and discovers he is a werewolf. They investigate a series of local attacks together.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

earnest → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

earnest → propulsive, still dystopian

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

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.

earnest → wry

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-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.

earnest → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

earnest → bleak, still dystopian

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

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.

Same earnest register, still sci-fi

pace-2·prose0·bleak-1

The Testament of Jessie Lamb

Jane Rogers2011

A teenager decides to volunteer for a medical program that will end her life to save humanity from a biological catastrophe.

Same earnest register, still dystopian

pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood1985

In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.

earnest → cold, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

Watchmen

Alan Moore1986

Retired masked vigilantes investigate the murder of a former teammate. The story takes place in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war.

earnest → bleak, still dystopian

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2