After
The Electric State
Simon Stålenhag2017
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic
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Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Kate Wilhelm1976
A wealthy family clones themselves to survive a global collapse. The story follows three generations as the clones lose the ability to innovate.
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Mockingbird
Walter Tevis1980
In a future where humans are illiterate and drugged, a suicidal android manages the world. A man teaches himself to read and begins to wake up.
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Dover Beach
Richard Bowker1987
A private investigator searches for a scientist in a post-nuclear Britain. He travels through a landscape of ruins and small settlements.
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Road Out of Winter
Alison Stine2020
Winter never ends, and a young woman travels across a frozen Appalachia to find a place where plants can still grow.
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Idlewild
Nick Sagan2003
A student at a school for the elite wakes up with no memory. He discovers he is in a virtual reality simulation while a virus kills the real world.
elegiac → tense, still post-apocalyptic
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Denser prose
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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.
elegiac → playful
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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.
elegiac → dreamlike
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3 more ↓ ↑
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VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
elegiac → clinical, still cyberpunk
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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.
elegiac → dreamlike
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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.
elegiac → sardonic
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To recover
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This Girl
Colleen Hoover2013
A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.
elegiac → earnest
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
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The Score
Elle Kennedy2016
A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.
elegiac → playful
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3 more ↓ ↑
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All Rhodes Lead Here
Mariana Zapata2021
A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.
elegiac → warm
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Hannah's List
Debbie Macomber2010
A widower receives a letter from his late wife suggesting three women he should date. He begins to interact with each woman over the following year.
elegiac → warm
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
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The Comfort Book
Matt Haig2021
A collection of short reflections, lists, and anecdotes intended to provide mental support. It is a non-linear book of philosophy and memoir.
elegiac → warm
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
Faster
elegiac → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose0bleak0
Equations of Life
Simon Morden2011
A Russian physics student in a post-apocalyptic London gets caught between warring factions. It is a fast-paced cyberpunk thriller.
pace+2·prose0·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
elegiac → propulsive, still cyberpunk
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
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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.
elegiac → tense, still post-apocalyptic
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
elegiac → wry
pace+2·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.
elegiac → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+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.
elegiac → 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.
elegiac → meditative
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- pace-1prose+2bleak-2
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.
elegiac → playful
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- pace-1prose+2bleak-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.
elegiac → playful
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Heavier
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
elegiac → cynical, still cyberpunk
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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.
Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
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.
Same elegiac register, still post-apocalyptic
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
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.
elegiac → bleak, still post-apocalyptic
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
One Second After
William R. Forstchen2009
An EMP strike destroys the American power grid. A history professor attempts to manage the starvation and societal collapse of his small town.
elegiac → bleak, still post-apocalyptic
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
