Pattern Recognition

Distress

Greg Egan1995

A journalist investigates a new mental illness and a physics conference where scientists attempt to find a Theory of Everything.

Same clinical register, still cyberpunk

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Islands in the Net

Bruce Sterling1988

A corporate PR specialist travels to data-haven islands to investigate a murder. She becomes entangled in global political and economic sabotage.

Same clinical register, still cyberpunk

pace0·prose-1·bleak0

Null States

Malka Older2017

An investigator for a global micro-democracy system travels to a failed state to probe a governor's death. It focuses on geopolitical data.

Same clinical register, still cyberpunk

pace0·prose0·bleak0

The Dervish House

Ian McDonald2010

Six characters navigate a week of political and technological intrigue in a near-future Istanbul. The story centers on an old dervish house.

clinical → meditative, still cyberpunk

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Nova Swing

M. John Harrison2006

In a city bordering a reality-warping zone, a travel agent and a detective deal with illegal artifacts. The prose is dense and non-linear.

clinical → cold, still cyberpunk

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

City of Saints and Madmen

Jeff Vandermeer2001

A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.

clinical → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown2009

Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.

clinical → propulsive, still thriller

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

clinical → propulsive, still cyberpunk

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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·prose-2·bleak-1

Akira, Vol. 1

Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984

In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.

pace+1·prose-2·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.

clinical → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+1·bleak+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.

clinical → meditative

pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

Dr. Adder

K. W. Jeter1984

In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.

clinical → cynical, still cyberpunk

pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

Market Forces

Richard K. Morgan2004

In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.

clinical → sardonic, still cyberpunk

pace0·prose-1·bleak+2