LitQueuelitqueue

After

Always Coming Home

Ursula K. Le Guin1985

5 of 6 directions open — nothing denser

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Glass Bead Game

    Hermann Hesse1972

    In a future academic province, a scholar masters an abstract system that synthesizes all human knowledge and arts.

    Same elegiac register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Fifty Shades of Grey

    E.L. James2000

    A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.

    elegiac → earnest

    pace+1·prose-3·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    elegiac → wry

    pace+2·prose-3·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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-3·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    elegiac → wry

    pace+2·prose-3·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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-3·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.

    elegiac → wry

    pace+2·prose-3·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • After London

    Richard Jefferies1885

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

    Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    Same elegiac register

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

Heavier

Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic

3 more ↓

  • The Walking Dead: Compendium One

    Robert Kirkman2009

    A sheriff wakes from a coma into a zombie apocalypse. He leads a group of survivors through various temporary shelters over several years.

    elegiac → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-3·bleak+2

  • One Second After

    William R. Forstchen2009

    An EMP strike destroys the American power grid. A history professor attempts to manage the starvation and societal collapse of his small town.

    elegiac → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak+2

  • The Death of Grass

    John Christopher1956

    A virus kills the world's grass and grain, causing total societal collapse. A family attempts to flee London for a farm in the north.

    elegiac → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak+2