After

Dover Beach

Richard Bowker1987

pace
prose
structure
bleakness

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic

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World of Trouble
Ben H. Winters2014
With an asteroid weeks from hitting Earth, a detective searches for his missing sister. He navigates a collapsing society to find her.
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Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Kate Wilhelm1976
A wealthy family clones themselves to survive a global collapse. The story follows three generations as the clones lose the ability to innovate.
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The Electric State
Simon Stålenhag2017
A girl and her robot drive across a 1997 American West littered with the ruins of massive drones. The story is told through prose and paintings.
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Mockingbird
Walter Tevis1980
In a future where humans are illiterate and drugged, a suicidal android manages the world. A man teaches himself to read and begins to wake up.
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1 more ↓

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On the Beach
Nevil Shute1957
Survivors in Australia wait for a lethal radiation cloud to arrive after a nuclear war. They spend their final months in quiet, domestic routines.
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Denser prose

elegiac → dreamlike

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City of Saints and Madmen
Jeff Vandermeer2001
A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.
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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.
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3 more ↓

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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.
elegiac → sardonic
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Valis
Philip K. Dick1981
A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.
elegiac → meditative
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Shadow & Claw
Gene Wolfe1983
A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.
elegiac → meditative
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To recover

elegiac → playful

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The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
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Smokin' Seventeen
Janet Evanovich2011
A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.
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3 more ↓

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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
elegiac → wry
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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
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The Comfort Book
Matt Haig2021
A collection of short reflections, lists, and anecdotes intended to provide mental support. It is a non-linear book of philosophy and memoir.
elegiac → warm
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Faster

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Hell Divers
Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016
Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.
elegiac → tense, still post-apocalyptic
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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.
elegiac → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic
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3 more ↓

pace+2prose-1bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
elegiac → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
pace+2prose-1bleak-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.
elegiac → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
pace+2prose-1bleak-2
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
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Slower

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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.
elegiac → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
pace-1prose+2bleak-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.
elegiac → meditative
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3 more ↓

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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
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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.
elegiac → playful
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Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
elegiac → playful
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Heavier

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A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick1977
An undercover narcotics agent in a near-future California becomes addicted to the drug he is investigating and begins to spy on himself.
elegiac → bleak, still noir
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Watchmen
Dave Gibbons1986
Retired costumed vigilantes investigate a conspiracy after one of their own is murdered. The story uses a comic-within-a-comic and backmatter.
elegiac → cold, still noir
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3 more ↓

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Zone One
Colson Whitehead2011
A sweeper squad clears Manhattan of lingering zombies and catatonic 'stragglers.' The focus is on the protagonist's memories and the city's decay.
Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
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On the Beach
Nevil Shute1957
Survivors in Australia wait for a lethal radiation cloud to arrive after a nuclear war. They spend their final months in quiet, domestic routines.
Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
pace+1prose-1bleak+1
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-1·bleak+1