After
Riddley Walker
Russell Hoban1980
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing denser
More like it
- pace0prose-1bleak0
The Mercy Journals
Claudia Casper2016
A veteran suffering from PTSD keeps a journal in a post-war world before traveling into the wilderness to find his brother's children.
Same meditative register, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace0prose-1bleak0
The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood2009
Two women survive a man-made plague within the confines of a religious cult. The story moves between their past and the empty present.
meditative → sardonic, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace0prose-1bleak0
Greybeard
Brian W. Aldiss1964
Global sterility has left Earth with no children. An aging couple travels down the Thames as humanity's youngest members enter their fifties.
meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace0prose-1bleak0
Kiteworld
Keith Roberts1985
A society lives under a theocracy that uses giant kites to ward off demons. The story follows several generations across a changing landscape.
meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-2bleak-1
Moon of the Turning Leaves
Waubgeshig Rice2024
Twelve years after a global blackout, an Anishinaabe community leaves their sanctuary to find a new home. It is a slow-paced survival quest.
Same meditative register, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose-2·bleak-1
To recover
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown2009
Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.
meditative → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Neil deGrasse Tyson2017
A summary of the origin of the universe, the laws of physics, and the nature of space and time.
meditative → playful
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
Master of the Five Magics
Lyndon Hardy1980
A man attempts to master five distinct disciplines of magic by following their strict logical laws to save a kingdom.
meditative → earnest
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
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.
meditative → playful
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James2000
A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.
meditative → earnest
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+2prose-3bleak0
Hell Divers
Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016
Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.
meditative → tense, still post-apocalyptic
pace+2·prose-3·bleak0
- pace+2prose-3bleak0
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.
meditative → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic
pace+2·prose-3·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-3bleak-1
Get Jiro!
Anthony Bourdain2012
In a future Los Angeles, master chefs rule as warlords. A sushi chef who kills rude customers is caught between two warring food factions.
meditative → sardonic, still dystopian
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
meditative → wry
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
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.
meditative → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-1prose0bleak0
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.
meditative → dreamlike
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak-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.
Same meditative register
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak-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.
Same meditative register
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak0
After London
Richard Jefferies1885
Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.
meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak+1
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
meditative → bleak, still dystopian
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
Heavier
meditative → bleak, still post-apocalyptic
- pace+1prose-2bleak+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.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
American War
Omar El Akkad2017
A girl grows up in a displaced persons camp during a second American Civil War fought over fossil fuels.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
Wolves
Simon Ings2014
Two friends navigate a near-future Britain collapsing under environmental decay and augmented reality addiction. It is a study of memory.
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
The People of the Ruins
Edward Shanks1920
A man wakes up in a future England that has regressed into a primitive, feudal society. He navigates the ruins of a collapsed civilization.
meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
