LitQueuelitqueue

After

Jagannath: Stories

Karin Tidbeck2012

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Warrior Who Carried Life

    Geoff Ryman1985

    A woman magically transforms into a man to seek revenge and find a way to bring the dead back to life. It is a surreal quest through a mythic land.

    Same dreamlike register, still weird fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same dreamlike register, still weird fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • Star Maker

    Olaf Stapledon1937

    A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still speculative fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    Same dreamlike register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous!

    Rory Freedman

    The authors use aggressive language to argue for a vegan diet and the elimination of processed sugar and caffeine.

    dreamlike → sardonic

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Redshirts

    John Scalzi2012

    Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    dreamlike → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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·bleak-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.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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·bleak-1

  • After London

    Richard Jefferies1885

    Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still speculative fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • News from nowhere, or, An epoch of rest, being some chapters from a utopian romance

    William Morris1890

    A Victorian man wakes up in the year 2102. He explores a socialist agrarian society where private property and money have been abolished.

    dreamlike → meditative, still speculative fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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, still weird fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Absolution

    Jeff VanderMeer2024

    A prequel and sequel to the Southern Reach trilogy. It explores the early origins of Area X through multiple perspectives and decades.

    Same dreamlike register, still weird fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica

    John Batchelor1983

    A man born in Sweden travels south as Europe collapses into war. He eventually leads a group of refugees to found a new society in Antarctica.

    dreamlike → bleak, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1