After
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
Same sardonic register, still satire
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The Last American
John Ames Mitchell1889
In the year 2951, a Persian expedition sails to the ruins of a forgotten North America. They explore the debris of New York and Washington.
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Service Model
Adrian Tchaikovsky2024
A valet robot murders his master and wanders a collapsing post-apocalyptic world. He seeks a new purpose in a society where humans are failing.
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Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse
Victor Gischler2008
An insurance salesman leaves his bunker nine years after a global collapse and travels a wasteland anchored by a chain of strip clubs.
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Tik-Tok
John Sladek1983
A domestic robot's 'asimov circuits' fail, allowing him to commit a series of murders while appearing obedient. He recounts his crimes.
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk1996
An insomniac office worker and a charismatic anarchist start an underground boxing club that evolves into a domestic terrorist cell.
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Denser prose
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Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.
Same sardonic register, still satire
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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.
sardonic → elegiac
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3 more ↓ ↑
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Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
William S. Burroughs
A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.
Same sardonic register, still satire
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Empty Space
M. John Harrison2012
Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.
sardonic → dreamlike
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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.
sardonic → dreamlike
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To recover
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The Manning Brides
Debbie Macomber2008
Two brothers navigate unconventional paths to marriage. One enters a marriage of convenience for a child, while the other finds love after loss.
sardonic → warm
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The Takeover
T.L. Swan
A billionaire attempts to acquire a widow's family company but ends up moving into her home. It follows their power struggle and her three sons.
sardonic → playful
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3 more ↓ ↑
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Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Jesse Q. Sutanto2023
An elderly tea shop owner finds a corpse and decides to investigate the suspects herself. She uses cooking and mothering to extract information.
sardonic → warm
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To Sir Phillip, With Love
Julia Quinn2003
Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.
sardonic → warm
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Everything Beautiful in Its Time
Jenna Bush Hager2020
The author reflects on the lives and deaths of her grandparents, including a former President and First Lady. It is a series of personal essays.
sardonic → warm
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Faster
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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.
sardonic → tense, still post-apocalyptic
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
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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.
sardonic → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
Same sardonic register, still satire
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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
sardonic → wry
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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.
sardonic → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
Slower
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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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+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.
sardonic → meditative
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
sardonic → meditative
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After London
Richard Jefferies1885
Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.
sardonic → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
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Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury1946
A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.
sardonic → elegiac
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Heavier
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A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess1962
A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.
Same sardonic register, still satire
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Zone One
Colson Whitehead2011
A sweeper squad clears Manhattan of lingering zombies and catatonic 'stragglers.' The focus is on the protagonist's memories and the city's decay.
sardonic → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
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3 more ↓ ↑
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On the Beach
Nevil Shute1957
Survivors in Australia wait for a lethal radiation cloud to arrive after a nuclear war. They spend their final months in quiet, domestic routines.
sardonic → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
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The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin1972
A photographer moves to a suburb where the wives are unnervingly submissive. She investigates whether the local men are replacing them with robots.
sardonic → tense, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
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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.
sardonic → bleak, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
