After
Kill Process
William Hertling2016
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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Attack Surface
Cory Doctorow2020
A cybersecurity expert builds surveillance tools for dictators while secretly helping her activist friends evade them.
propulsive → tense, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Punch Escrow
Tal M. Klein2017
A man is accidentally duplicated during a teleportation malfunction in 2147. He must evade a global corporation that wants to eliminate the error.
propulsive → wry, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
God Game
Danny Tobey2020
High schoolers play an augmented reality game run by an AI that claims to be God. The game begins to manipulate their real lives.
Same propulsive register, still technothriller
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Noor
Nnedi Okorafor2021
A heavily augmented woman and a nomadic herdsman flee across a high-tech Nigeria. They are pursued by a corporation that monitors everything.
Same propulsive register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Machinehood
S. B. Divya2021
In 2095, a bodyguard and her sister-in-law face a terrorist group demanding rights for artificial intelligences and genetically modified humans.
Same propulsive register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Against the Day
Thomas Pynchon2006
A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.
propulsive → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
propulsive → clinical, still cyberpunk
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- 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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+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.
propulsive → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace+1prose-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.
Same propulsive register, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Starter Villain
John Scalzi2023
A substitute teacher inherits his uncle's secret supervillain business, including a volcano lair and talking cats.
propulsive → wry, still technothriller
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Spellman Files
Lisa Lutz2007
A private investigator works for her family's firm while her parents and sister spy on her. She tries to solve a disappearance and her own life.
propulsive → wry
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Sea of Greed
Clive Cussler2018
Kurt Austin investigates the destruction of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The trail leads to a billionaire with a plan to end the oil age.
Same propulsive register
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Modern Romance
Aziz Ansari2015
A comedian and a sociologist analyze how technology and culture have changed dating. It uses data and interviews to compare eras.
propulsive → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
Same propulsive register, still cyberpunk
- pace+1prose-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.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Akira, Vol. 1
Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984
In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The 22 Murders of Madison May
Max Barry2021
A journalist pursues a killer who murders the same woman across multiple parallel realities. The story follows her jumps between different lives.
Same propulsive register, still technothriller
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.
propulsive → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose+1bleak0
Accelerando
Charles Stross2005
Three generations of a family navigate the rapid evolution of technology toward a singularity. The pace accelerates as humanity is outpaced by AI.
propulsive → wry, still cyberpunk
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.
propulsive → 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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+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.
propulsive → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
propulsive → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
Heavier
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
propulsive → cynical, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Market Forces
Richard K. Morgan2004
In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.
propulsive → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Random Acts of Senseless Violence
Jack Womack1994
A twelve-year-old girl records her life in a diary as New York City collapses into riots and hyperinflation. Her family falls into poverty.
propulsive → bleak, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Hellspark
Janet Kagan1988
A linguist travels to a new planet to investigate a murder. She must determine if the local species is sentient while navigating a conspiracy.
propulsive → tense, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
Golem100
Alfred Bester1980
In a future city, a group of women accidentally summon a psychic monster that commits acts of extreme violence while investigators track it.
propulsive → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2