Cryptonomicon

Rainbows End

Vernor Vinge2006

A recovered Alzheimer's patient navigates a future of ubiquitous augmented reality. He is caught in a conspiracy involving mind control.

Same wry register, still conspiracy

pace0·prose0·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.

wry → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

VAS

Steve Tomasula2002

A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.

wry → clinical, still cyberpunk

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

wry → sardonic

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Walking Disaster

Jamie McGuire2013

This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.

wry → propulsive

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

This Man

Jodi Ellen Malpas2013

An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.

wry → tense

pace+1·prose-2·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.

Same wry register

pace+1·prose-2·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.

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Lost in Time

A.G. Riddle2022

A man is exiled to the Triassic period for a murder he didn't commit while his daughter tries to bring him back.

wry → propulsive, still techno-thriller

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Akira, Vol. 1

Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984

In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.

pace+2·prose-2·bleak+1

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.

wry → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

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.

wry → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·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.

wry → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

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.

wry → clinical, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

Down to a Sunless Sea

David Graham1979

A commercial pilot flies a plane full of passengers while nuclear war destroys the world below. They search for a place to land and survive.

wry → tense, still techno-thriller

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

Market Forces

Richard K. Morgan2004

In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.

wry → sardonic, still cyberpunk

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2