LitQueuelitqueue

After

California

Edan Lepucki2014

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same tense register, still dystopian

1 more ↓

  • The forever ship

    Francesca Haig2017

    Twin siblings on opposite sides of a post-nuclear class divide reach a final confrontation. One twin is a psychic, the other a leader.

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tense → sardonic, still dystopian

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Winterlong

    Elizabeth Hand1990

    In a decaying, post-apocalyptic Washington D.C., a girl with empathic powers is drawn into the plots of a decadent ruling class.

    tense → dreamlike, still dystopian

    pace0·prose+2·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.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

tense → playful

3 more ↓

  • Lauren's Barbarian

    Ruby Dixon2017

    A woman is abducted by aliens and abandoned on an ice planet, where she is found by a blue-skinned hunter who believes she is his mate.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Every Boy's Got One

    Meg Cabot2004

    Told through emails and travel logs, two adversarial witnesses travel to Italy for their friends' secret elopement.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Love Hypothesis

    Ali Hazelwood2021

    A biology PhD candidate enters a fake relationship with a young professor to satisfy a friend. They navigate academic politics and attraction.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tense → sardonic, still dystopian

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    tense → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

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.

    tense → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

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

    tense → bleak, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

    An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

    tense → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2

Heavier

tense → bleak, still dystopian

3 more ↓

  • Yol

    Cormac McCarthy

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Wolves

    Simon Ings2014

    Two friends navigate a near-future Britain collapsing under environmental decay and augmented reality addiction. It is a study of memory.

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The People of the Ruins

    Edward Shanks1920

    A man wakes up in a future England that has regressed into a primitive, feudal society. He navigates the ruins of a collapsed civilization.

    tense → elegiac, still dystopian

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1