After
Prey
Michael Crichton2002
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster
More like it
Same tense register, still techno-thriller
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The Fold
Peter Clines2015
A man with a perfect memory joins a team investigating a teleportation device. He notices small, impossible discrepancies in the people returning.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Sphere
Michael Crichton1980
Scientists investigate a spacecraft at the bottom of the ocean. They discover a sphere that manifests their subconscious thoughts into reality.
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
The Puppet Masters
Robert A. Heinlein1951
Secret agents discover slug-like aliens that attach to humans and control their minds. They must stop the invasion while anyone could be a host.
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Brilliance
Marcus Sakey2013
In a world where 1% of people are born with extraordinary mental gifts, a federal agent hunts a gifted terrorist. It is a cat-and-mouse thriller.
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak+1
Alien
Alan Dean Foster1979
A commercial crew investigates a distress signal on a moon and brings an aggressive lifeform back onto their ship.
Same tense register, still sci-fi horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Against the Day
Thomas Pynchon2006
A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.
tense → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+2bleak+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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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.
tense → sardonic
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Digital Fortress
Dan Brown1998
The NSA's code-breaking supercomputer encounters an unbreakable algorithm. A cryptographer and a professor race to find the kill code.
tense → propulsive, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
Sea of Greed
Clive Cussler2018
Kurt Austin investigates the destruction of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The trail leads to a billionaire with a plan to end the oil age.
tense → propulsive
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
Modern Romance
Aziz Ansari2015
A comedian and a sociologist analyze how technology and culture have changed dating. It uses data and interviews to compare eras.
tense → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
Building a Second Brain
Tiago Forte2022
A guide to a digital organization system designed to store and retrieve ideas, notes, and information for long-term projects.
tense → earnest
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
The Last Question
Isaac Asimov2007
A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.
tense → meditative
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-3prose+2bleak+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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+2bleak0
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.
tense → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+2bleak0
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.
tense → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-3prose+2bleak-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.
tense → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-3prose+2bleak0
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.
tense → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
Heavier
- pace-2prose+1bleak+2
Under the skin
Michel Faber2000
A woman picks up hitchhikers in the Scottish Highlands for a corporate harvesting operation. The prose is clinical and detached.
tense → clinical, still sci-fi horror
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose0bleak+2
Down to a Sunless Sea
David Graham1979
A commercial pilot flies a plane full of passengers while nuclear war destroys the world below. They search for a place to land and survive.
Same tense register, still techno-thriller
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak+2
The White Plague
Frank Herbert1982
A molecular biologist creates a gender-targeted plague to kill every woman on Earth after his family dies in a bombing.
tense → bleak, still techno-thriller
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Fail-safe
Eugene Burdick1962
A mechanical failure sends American bombers to nuke Moscow, forcing the President to negotiate a desperate solution to avoid total war.
Same tense register, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+1bleak+2
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.
tense → cold
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2
