LitQueuelitqueue

After

Storm Front

Jim Butcher2000

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Hollow Places

    T. Kingfisher2020

    A woman finds a portal to a concrete labyrinth behind a wall. She and her neighbor explore a world where monsters react to human thoughts.

    Same wry register, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    wry → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+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-2·prose+3·bleak+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.

    wry → meditative

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Men at Arms

    Terry Pratchett1993

    The Ankh-Morpork City Watch recruits new members, including a werewolf and a dwarf, to stop a killer using a forbidden firearm.

    Same wry register

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Off to Be the Wizard

    Scott Meyer2013

    A hacker discovers reality is a computer program and flees to the Middle Ages to pose as a wizard. He joins a group of other time-traveling men.

    wry → playful

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

  • Dragon Bound

    Thea Harrison2011

    A woman steals a penny from a dragon's hoard, forcing her into the world of a powerful Wyr leader. It follows their immediate, forced connection.

    wry → propulsive, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Faster

wry → propulsive, still urban fantasy

3 more ↓

  • Warbound

    Larry Correia2013

    In an alternate 1930s, people with magical abilities fight a war against a trans-dimensional threat. It is the final book in a trilogy.

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • Something from the Nightside

    Simon R. Green2003

    A private eye with the ability to find anything returns to a hidden, magical London underworld. He takes a case to find a missing daughter.

    wry → sardonic, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Claimed By Shadow (Cassandra Palmer Series, Book 2)

    Karen Chance2007

    A clairvoyant who can travel through time is magically bound to a master vampire while various factions try to seize her power.

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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-2·prose+3·bleak0

  • 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-2·prose+3·bleak-1

  • 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.

    wry → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Watchmen

    Alan Moore1986

    Retired masked vigilantes investigate the murder of a former teammate. The story takes place in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war.

    wry → bleak

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2