After

Polgara The Sorceress

David Eddings1997

pace
prose
structure
bleakness

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

pace0prose0bleak+1
The Wheel of Time
Robert Jordan1990
A group of villagers is hunted by monsters, leading one young man to discover he is a reincarnated figure destined to save or break the world.
wry → earnest, still epic fantasy
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
pace+1prose0bleak+1
The High Druids Blade
Terry Brooks2014
Paxon Leah uses an ancestral sword to rescue his kidnapped sister. He discovers his own magic and joins the Druids to stop a sorcerer.
wry → earnest, still epic fantasy
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
pace+1prose0bleak+1
The complete ElfQuest
Wendy Pini1985
A tribe of forest-dwelling elves is forced from their home by humans and searches for other elven tribes in a high-fantasy world.
wry → earnest, still epic fantasy
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
pace0prose0bleak+1
In the wet
Nevil Shute1953
A dying man in the Australian bush experiences a vision of the year 1983. He follows a pilot serving the Queen in a fractured British Empire.
wry → earnest, still framing device
pace0·prose0·bleak+1

1 more ↓

pace0prose0bleak0
Storm Warning
Mercedes Lackey1994
The kingdom of Valdemar prepares for war against an Eastern Empire led by a ruler with unknown magical powers.
wry → earnest, still epic fantasy
pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

pace0prose+2bleak+1
The Citadel of the Autarch
Gene Wolfe1983
Severian reaches the front lines of a war and fulfills his prophecy. The story concludes his journey through a dying, far-future Earth.
wry → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
pace0prose+2bleak+2
Sometimes a Great Notion
Ken Kesey1964
A family of independent loggers in Oregon refuses to join a local strike. The perspective shifts rapidly between characters, often mid-paragraph.
wry → elegiac
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

3 more ↓

pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
pace0prose+2bleak+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.
wry → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
pace0prose+2bleak+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.
wry → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

Faster

pace+2prose0bleak+1
A Memory of Light
Robert Jordan2013
The final volume of a long-running series where various nations and magical users unite for a final battle against an ancient evil.
wry → earnest, still epic fantasy
pace+2·prose0·bleak+1
pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
Same wry register
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

3 more ↓

pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
wry → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
Same wry register
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
pace+2prose-1bleak+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.
wry → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1

Slower

pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
wry → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

3 more ↓

pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
wry → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Unfinished Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien1980
A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.
wry → meditative, still high fantasy
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
wry → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

pace0prose+2bleak+3
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Marlon James2019
A hunter with a supernatural sense of smell joins a group to find a missing child. The journey through mythical Africa is violent and hallucinatory.
wry → bleak, still epic fantasy
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
pace0prose+1bleak+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.
wry → cold
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3

3 more ↓

pace0prose0bleak+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.
wry → bleak
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
pace0prose+2bleak+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.
wry → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
pace0prose+1bleak+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.
wry → elegiac
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3