Lust

Dreams Before the Start of Time

Anne Charnock2017

A multi-generational look at a family navigating the evolution of reproductive technology. It spans decades of social and ethical shifts.

tender → meditative, still speculative fiction

pace0·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.

tender → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+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.

tender → sardonic

pace0·prose+1·bleak+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.

tender → meditative

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Wallbanger

Alice Clayton2012

Caroline is kept awake by her neighbor's loud sexual encounters. She confronts him, leading to a relationship built on banter and frustration.

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Fifty Shades of Grey

E.L. James2000

A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.

tender → earnest

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

tender → warm

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

tender → wry

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

tender → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

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.

tender → playful

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

tender → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

After London

Richard Jefferies1885

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

tender → elegiac, still speculative fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

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.

tender → meditative, still speculative fiction

pace-1·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.

tender → bleak, still speculative fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+2

The Blood of Angels

Johanna Sinisalo2011

A father grieving his son discovers a portal to another world while bees disappear globally. It explores ecological collapse and grief.

tender → elegiac, still speculative fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+2

Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Lynn Crosbie2016

A teenager wakes up in a hospital next to a resurrected Kurt Cobain. They form a band and a codependent relationship that leads to violence.

tender → dreamlike, still speculative fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+2