LitQueuelitqueue

After

Corrupting Dr. Nice

John Kessel1997

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Eyre Affair

    Jasper Fforde2001

    In an alternate 1985, a literary detective pursues a villain who can enter books and kidnap characters. The world features dodo pets and time travel.

    Same playful register, still alternate history

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Too Like the Lightning

    Ada Palmer2016

    In a 25th-century utopia, a convict narrates the discovery of a boy who can perform miracles. The prose uses 18th-century styles and gender terms.

    playful → sardonic, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Radiance

    Catherynne M. Valente2015

    A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.

    playful → dreamlike, still alternate history

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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.

    playful → sardonic, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    playful → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    playful → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Hav

    Jan Morris2006

    A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.

    playful → elegiac, still alternate history

    pace-2·prose+1·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.

    Same playful register

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Elvissey

    Jack Womack1993

    Travelers from a corporate dystopia visit an alternate 1954 to kidnap Elvis Presley. They find a version of him that is dangerous and unstable.

    playful → bleak, still alternate history

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+3

  • Hellspark

    Janet Kagan1988

    A linguist travels to a new planet to investigate a murder. She must determine if the local species is sentient while navigating a conspiracy.

    playful → tense, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3

  • The Running Man

    Richard Bachman

    A man enters a deadly reality show to fund medical care for his daughter. He must survive thirty days while the entire world hunts him for money.

    playful → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+3