LitQueuelitqueue

After

North Wind

Gwyneth Jones1994

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Inheritor

    C. J. Cherryh1996

    A human diplomat acts as the sole translator between his species and the alien atevi. He navigates political tension and cultural misunderstandings.

    cold → meditative, still first contact

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • All Those Vanished Engines

    Paul Park2014

    Three linked stories follow the Park family through an alternate history where the American Civil War ended in a two-nation settlement.

    cold → dreamlike

    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.

    cold → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    cold → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

    John Gray1992

    A guide to heterosexual relationships that attributes communication conflicts to inherent psychological differences between men and women.

    cold → earnest

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Wildfire

    Hannah Grace2023

    Two college students who had a one-night stand discover they are working as counselors at the same summer camp.

    cold → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Love Her or Lose Her

    Tessa Bailey2020

    A woman enrolls her distant, ex-soldier husband in a marriage boot camp to save their relationship and pursue her dream of opening a restaurant.

    cold → playful

    pace+1·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.

    cold → 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.

    cold → 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.

    cold → 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.

    cold → meditative

    pace-1·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.

    cold → elegiac

    pace-1·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.

    cold → earnest

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Fiasco

    Stanisław Lem1986

    Humans on a spaceship attempt to force communication with an alien civilization that refuses to respond. It ends in a total failure of logic.

    cold → clinical, still first contact

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    Same cold register

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    cold → bleak

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+1