After

Ecotopia

Ernest Callenbach1975

pace
prose
structure
bleakness

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

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Mizora
Mary E. Bradley Lane1890
A Russian noblewoman escapes Siberian exile and discovers an all-female civilization at the North Pole. It is a detailed utopian travelogue.
Same earnest register, still utopian
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
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For Us, the Living
Robert A. Heinlein2003
A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.
Same earnest register, still utopian
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
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Time and Again
Jack Finney1970
An artist is recruited by the government to travel to 1882 New York via self-hypnosis. He must observe the past without altering it.
Same earnest register, still fish out of water
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pace0prose0bleak+1
Summer of Love
Lisa Mason1994
A time traveler from a sterile future arrives in 1967 San Francisco. He observes the hippie movement while searching for a specific girl.
Same earnest register, still fish out of water
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1 more ↓

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Becoming Alien
Rebecca Ore1988
A human teenager is recruited by a multi-species galactic federation. He must learn to live and think like an alien to survive.
Same earnest register, still fish out of water
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Denser prose

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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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
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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.
earnest → sardonic
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3 more ↓

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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.
earnest → meditative
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pace0prose+2bleak+2
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.
earnest → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
pace0prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → dreamlike, still epistolary
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

Faster

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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
earnest → wry, still epistolary
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
earnest → propulsive
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3 more ↓

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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.
earnest → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
pace+2prose-1bleak+1
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.
earnest → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
earnest → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

pace-1prose0bleak0
Mizora
Mary E. Bradley Lane1890
A Russian noblewoman escapes Siberian exile and discovers an all-female civilization at the North Pole. It is a detailed utopian travelogue.
Same earnest register, still utopian
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

3 more ↓

pace-1prose+1bleak0
A Modern Utopia
H. G. Wells1900
Two travelers are transported to a parallel Earth where a global state manages all human activity. The book outlines the planet's social systems.
earnest → meditative, still utopian
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
pace-1prose+2bleak0
The description of a new world
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle
A woman travels through a portal to a world of animal-headed people. She becomes Empress and debates philosophy with her new subjects.
earnest → meditative, still utopian
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.
earnest → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

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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.
earnest → cold
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
pace0prose0bleak+3
Doomsday Book
Connie Willis1992
A student travels to 14th-century England while a virus spreads in the present. She arrives during the Black Death due to a technical error.
earnest → bleak, still fish out of water
pace0·prose0·bleak+3

3 more ↓

pace0prose+2bleak+3
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.
earnest → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
pace0prose+1bleak+3
The Sparrow
Mary Doria Russell1996
A Jesuit priest joins a mission to a newly discovered planet. The story is told in flashbacks after he returns as the sole, traumatized survivor.
earnest → elegiac
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
pace+1prose+1bleak+3
Watchmen
Alan Moore1986
Retired masked vigilantes investigate the murder of a former teammate. The story takes place in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war.
earnest → bleak
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3