The Death of the Necromancer

Red Team Blues

Cory Doctorow2023

A 67-year-old forensic accountant living in a luxury bus is hired to find a stolen encryption key in Silicon Valley.

pace0·prose-1·bleak0

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+1·bleak+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.

wry → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Radiance

Catherynne M. Valente2015

A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.

wry → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Hot mahogany

Stuart Woods2008

A lawyer guards a former spy with amnesia who restores antique furniture. They uncover a conspiracy linked to the man's service in Vietnam.

Same wry register, still mystery

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

The Pursuit

Janet Evanovich2016

An FBI agent tracks down a kidnapped con man she was secretly working with. The chase moves from Hawaii to the remote mountains of Europe.

wry → playful

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Rock Chick Revenge

Kristen Ashley2018

Ava seeks vengeance against the men who hurt her, leading to a confrontation involving a private security team. It is a romance with heavy action.

wry → playful

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

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, still found family

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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+1·prose-2·bleak0

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi2022

A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

wry → playful, still found family

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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-2·prose+1·bleak0

Blood on the dining-room floor

Gertrude Stein1948

A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

wry → playful, still mystery

pace-2·prose+1·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+1·bleak-1

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

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

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·prose0·bleak+2