After
January Fifteenth
Rachel Swirsky2022
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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The Measure
Nikki Erlick2022
Every person on Earth receives a box containing a string that reveals their lifespan. The story follows an ensemble dealing with the fallout.
Same earnest register, still ensemble cast
pace0·prose0·bleak0
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Star Trek Deep Space Nine - Avatar Book One
S. D. Perry2001
Following a devastating war, the crew of a space station must prevent a new conflict after a surprise attack kills hundreds of people.
Same earnest register, still ensemble cast
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose+1bleak-1
New York 2140
Kim Stanley Robinson2017
In a flooded future New York, residents live in the upper floors of skyscrapers. Multiple characters navigate the city's new economy and tides.
Same earnest register, still cli-fi
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The Great Transition
Nick Fuller Googins2023
A family lives in a world recovering from climate collapse. When the mother disappears, the father and daughter must find her.
Same earnest register, still cli-fi
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Mother of Storms
John Barnes1994
Nuclear explosions in the ocean trigger a massive hurricane that threatens the planet. Multiple characters track the storm via a global VR network.
earnest → tense, still cli-fi
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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-2·prose+2·bleak+1
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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
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
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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
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
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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
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
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Artemis
Andy Weir2017
A porter and smuggler on a lunar colony takes a high-stakes sabotage job to pay off a debt. She uses technical knowledge to solve problems.
earnest → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
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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
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
earnest → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
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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.
earnest → warm
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An Offer From a Gentleman
Julia Quinn2001
The illegitimate daughter of an earl works as a servant for her stepmother. She sneaks into a masquerade ball and meets Benedict Bridgerton.
earnest → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
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Arctic Rising
Tobias S. Buckell2012
A UN Polar Guard pilot discovers a conspiracy involving a corporate geoengineering project in the melted Arctic. She is hunted by mercenaries.
earnest → propulsive, still cli-fi
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
earnest → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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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
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
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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+1·prose-1·bleak-1
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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+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.
earnest → 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.
earnest → meditative
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
earnest → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
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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.
earnest → playful
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Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
earnest → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
Heavier
earnest → bleak, still cli-fi
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The Sheep Look Up
John Brunner1972
The United States collapses under total environmental toxicity and corporate greed. It follows several characters through a series of disasters.
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The Sea and Summer
George Turner1987
In a future Melbourne drowned by rising seas, the population is divided into the employed 'Sweet' and the welfare-dependent 'Swill'.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Deluge
Stephen Markley2023
A large cast of characters navigates the political, social, and environmental collapse of America over several decades of climate change.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
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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
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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
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
