After
Early Riser
Jasper Fforde2018
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Cryoburn
Lois McMaster Bujold2010
Miles Vorkosigan investigates a cryonics corporation on a planet where the dead are preserved. He uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy.
Same wry register, still mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Cool War
Frederik Pohl1981
In a future of extreme energy shortages, a minister is blackmailed into becoming a saboteur. He travels the world to undermine rival nations.
Same wry register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Vigilant
James Alan Gardner1999
A member of an elite monitoring group investigates a conspiracy involving a past alien plague and her father's medical legacy.
Same wry register, still conspiracy
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Up the Line
Robert Silverberg1969
A time-travel courier takes tourists to historical events but risks paradoxes by pursuing a woman in the past. It is a satirical look at causality.
Same wry register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Lock In
John Scalzi2014
An FBI agent uses a robotic body to investigate a murder. He is one of many people whose minds are 'locked in' their bodies by a global virus.
Same wry register, still conspiracy
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
wry → sardonic, still satire
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon1937
A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.
wry → elegiac, still speculative fiction
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
Same wry register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
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.
wry → playful, still mystery
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
wry → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
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.
wry → warm
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Odessa Sea
Clive Cussler2016
Dirk Pitt investigates a ghost ship in the Black Sea and discovers a conspiracy involving a lost Romanov secret. It is a high-speed adventure.
wry → propulsive, still conspiracy
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
Same wry register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-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.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-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.
Same wry register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
Skin Game
Jim Butcher2014
Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Blood on the dining-room floor
Gertrude Stein1948
A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.
wry → playful, still mystery
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak-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.
wry → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood1985
In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.
wry → cold, still speculative fiction
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess1962
A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+2
The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin1972
A photographer moves to a suburb where the wives are unnervingly submissive. She investigates whether the local men are replacing them with robots.
wry → tense, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut1963
A writer researches the creator of the atomic bomb and discovers a substance that freezes all water. He joins an island cult.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah2023
Prisoners in a private American penal system fight to the death in televised matches for a chance at freedom.
wry → bleak, still satire
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
