Hopeland

Desolation Road

Ian McDonald1988

A collection of eccentric characters settles a town on a terraformed Mars over several decades. It uses a prose style similar to magical realism.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

dreamlike → sardonic

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

dreamlike → meditative

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

dreamlike → meditative

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Alpine for you

Maddy Hunter2003

A woman leads a group of senior citizens on a tour of the Swiss Alps. When a passenger dies, she must investigate her fellow travelers.

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf

Molly Harper2011

A librarian in Alaska finds her neighbor caught in a trap and discovers he is a werewolf. They investigate a series of local attacks together.

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.

dreamlike → wry

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

dreamlike → wry, still found family

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-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.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

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.

dreamlike → playful, still found family

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Dandelion Wine

Ray Bradbury1946

A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.

dreamlike → elegiac, still magical realism

pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Little, Big

John Crowley1981

A man marries into a family living in a massive house where the borders of the natural world blur. It follows several generations over a century.

Same dreamlike register, still magical realism

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.

dreamlike → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

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.

dreamlike → cold

pace0·prose0·bleak+2

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.

dreamlike → bleak

pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

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.

dreamlike → bleak

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2