LitQueuelitqueue

After

Patriots

James Wesley, Rawles1999

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same earnest register, still post-apocalyptic

1 more ↓

  • Songs from the Stars

    Norman Spinrad1980

    In a post-nuclear world, a tribe of artists and surfers encounters a high-tech culture from space. It explores the clash of their philosophies.

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

  • Radiance

    Catherynne M. Valente2015

    A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.

    earnest → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

earnest → playful

3 more ↓

  • Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron

    Julia Quinn2022

    A graphic novel adaptation of a fictional melodrama where an orphan flees a cruel aunt and encounters a man in a remote castle.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Comfort Book

    Matt Haig2021

    A collection of short reflections, lists, and anecdotes intended to provide mental support. It is a non-linear book of philosophy and memoir.

    earnest → warm

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    earnest → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Damnation Alley

    Roger Zelazny1969

    A convicted criminal drives an armored vehicle across a post-nuclear American wasteland to deliver a plague vaccine to Boston.

    earnest → sardonic, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+2·prose0·bleak-1

  • Equations of Life

    Simon Morden2011

    A Russian physics student in a post-apocalyptic London gets caught between warring factions. It is a fast-paced cyberpunk thriller.

    earnest → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+2·prose0·bleak0

  • Plague War

    Jeff Carlson1967

    A researcher flees the American government to distribute a vaccine for a nanotech plague that has killed most of the population.

    earnest → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+2·prose0·bleak0

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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-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.

    earnest → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    earnest → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

earnest → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic

3 more ↓

  • The Walking Dead: Compendium One

    Robert Kirkman2009

    A sheriff wakes from a coma into a zombie apocalypse. He leads a group of survivors through various temporary shelters over several years.

    earnest → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • One Second After

    William R. Forstchen2009

    An EMP strike destroys the American power grid. A history professor attempts to manage the starvation and societal collapse of his small town.

    earnest → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Death of Grass

    John Christopher1956

    A virus kills the world's grass and grain, causing total societal collapse. A family attempts to flee London for a farm in the north.

    earnest → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1