After
How to Stop Time
Matt Haig2017
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Sky Coyote
Kage Baker1999
A cyborg operative for a time-traveling corporation poses as a god to relocate a Native American tribe before their destruction.
meditative → wry, still historical
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
Time and Time Again
Ben Elton2014
An ex-soldier travels back to 1914 to prevent the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He attempts to stop WWI before it begins.
meditative → propulsive, still historical
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak0
From Time to Time
Jack Finney1995
A man travels back in time to 1911 to prevent the sinking of the Titanic and alter the course of the twentieth century.
meditative → elegiac, still historical
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Fountains of Paradise
Arthur C. Clarke1979
An engineer in the 22nd century attempts to build a 36,000-kilometer space elevator. He must overcome technical, political, and religious hurdles.
Same meditative register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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The Speed of Dark
Elizabeth Moon2002
An autistic man works for a pharmaceutical company that offers an experimental treatment to make him 'normal'. He weighs the cost of the change.
Same meditative register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace0prose+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.
meditative → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
Empty Space
M. John Harrison2012
Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.
meditative → dreamlike
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+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.
Same meditative register
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+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.
meditative → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose+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.
meditative → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
This Girl
Colleen Hoover2013
A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.
meditative → earnest
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Score
Elle Kennedy2016
A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.
meditative → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Jesse Q. Sutanto2023
An elderly tea shop owner finds a corpse and decides to investigate the suspects herself. She uses cooking and mothering to extract information.
meditative → warm
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
To Sir Phillip, With Love
Julia Quinn2003
Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.
meditative → warm
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
All Rhodes Lead Here
Mariana Zapata2021
A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.
meditative → warm
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
meditative → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-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.
meditative → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-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.
meditative → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-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.
meditative → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-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.
meditative → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-1prose+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.
meditative → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
meditative → clinical, still historical
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+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.
Same meditative register
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+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.
Same meditative register
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+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.
meditative → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace0prose+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.
meditative → cold
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+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.
meditative → bleak
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak+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.
meditative → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
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.
meditative → elegiac
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
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.
meditative → bleak
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
