After
Off to Be the Wizard
Scott Meyer2013
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose+1bleak0
The Goblin Reservation
Clifford D. Simak1968
A professor returns to an Earth populated by mythical creatures and time travelers. He tries to sell the secrets of a hidden crystal planet.
Same playful register, still fish out of water
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel
Diana Gabaldon2010
A graphic novel retelling of Outlander from the perspective of Jamie Fraser and his godfather. It follows their encounter with Claire Beauchamp.
playful → tense, still fish out of water
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose+1bleak0
The Practice Effect
David Brin1984
A physicist enters a world where objects improve with use rather than wearing out. He uses this law to build tools and fight a warlord.
Same playful register, still fish out of water
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
The Technicolor Time Machine
Harry Harrison1967
A struggling film producer uses a time machine to travel to the eleventh century to film a Viking movie on location.
Same playful register, still time travel
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Redshirts
John Scalzi2012
Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
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.
playful → sardonic
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
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.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+3bleak+3
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.
playful → sardonic
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+3
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
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.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
Faster
playful → propulsive
- pace+1prose+1bleak0
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir2021
A man wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia and two dead crewmates. He must use scientific experiments to remember his mission and save the sun.
pace+1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
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·prose0·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Red Rising
Pierce Brown2014
A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Recursion
Blake Crouch2019
A detective and a scientist discover a technology that allows people to map and enter memories, causing timelines to rewrite and collapse.
playful → tense
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+2bleak+1
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.
playful → wry
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
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.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak0
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.
Same playful register
pace-2·prose+3·bleak0
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
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.
Same playful register
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
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.
playful → cold
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
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.
playful → bleak, still fish out of water
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+3bleak+3
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.
playful → bleak
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
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.
playful → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
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.
playful → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
