LitQueuelitqueue

After

All Clear (Oxford Time Travel, 4)

Connie Willis

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • They'd Rather Be Right

    Frank Riley1957

    Telepaths build a superintelligent machine that can only be used by those with an 'open mind.' It grants immortality and heals the body.

    Same earnest register, still science fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Nova Express

    William S. Burroughs1964

    An experimental narrative uses the cut-up technique to depict a war between intergalactic criminals and the police. It is a collage of imagery.

    earnest → sardonic, still science fiction

    pace0·prose+2·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, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    earnest → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

earnest → playful

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    pace0·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.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Real Murders

    Charlaine Harris1990

    A librarian in a small Georgia town belongs to a club that studies famous crimes. A real murder occurs that mimics a historical case.

    earnest → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Lake House

    James Patterson

    A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.

    earnest → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    earnest → wry

    pace+2·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+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → clinical, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • A Dream of John Ball / A king's Lesson

    William Morris1888

    A man dreams himself back to the 1381 Peasants' Revolt. He discusses social equality and the future of labor with the rebel leader John Ball.

    earnest → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Hard to be a god

    Аркадий Стругацкий2014

    An observer from a technologically advanced Earth lives undercover on a planet stuck in a medieval state. He must watch atrocities without helping.

    earnest → bleak, still science fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Behold the Man

    Michael Moorcock1968

    A man uses a time machine to travel to 28 AD to meet Jesus. Finding only a disabled man who cannot fulfill the gospels, he takes the role himself.

    earnest → bleak, still time travel

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • The Year of the Quiet Sun

    Wilson Tucker1970

    A social scientist travels forward in time to document the collapse of the United States through racial conflict and nuclear war.

    earnest → bleak, still time travel

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2