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After

LAST WATCH (Night Watch)

Sergeĭ Lukʹi͡anenko2006

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Free Live Free

    Gene Wolfe1984

    Four strangers live in an old man's house to help him find a lost object. The narrative stays strictly within their limited perceptions.

    cynical → wry, still urban fantasy

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

    William S. Burroughs

    A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.

    cynical → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+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.

    cynical → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    cynical → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

cynical → playful, still urban fantasy

3 more ↓

  • Electric Idol

    Katee Robert2022

    In a modern-day Olympus, Eros is ordered to kill Psyche but chooses to enter a fake marriage with her to protect her from his mother.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Dragons Wild

    Robert Asprin2008

    A con artist discovers he is a dragon and moves to New Orleans to use his skills in the criminal underworld.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • California Demon

    Julie Kenner2006

    A suburban mother balances raising her children with her secret life as a retired demon hunter. She must return to work when monsters reappear.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

cynical → propulsive, still urban fantasy

3 more ↓

  • Magic Bites

    Ilona Andrews2007

    In a future Atlanta where magic and technology fluctuate, mercenary Kate Daniels investigates her guardian's murder. It is an urban fantasy.

    cynical → sardonic, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Touch the dark

    Karen Chance2006

    A clairvoyant woman is forced to work for a vampire senator to escape a mob boss. She navigates a supernatural underworld with high-speed action.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Hounded

    Kevin Hearne2011

    A two-thousand-year-old Druid lives in modern Arizona and runs an occult bookshop. He must fight a vengeful Irish god who wants his sword.

    cynical → wry, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

    cynical → meditative

    pace-2·prose+1·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.

    cynical → elegiac

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-2

  • For Us, the Living

    Robert A. Heinlein2003

    A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.

    cynical → earnest

    pace-2·prose-1·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    cynical → bleak

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    cynical → elegiac

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    cynical → bleak

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1