LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Eyre Affair

Jasper Fforde2001

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Circumpolar!

    Richard A. Lupoff1984

    In an alternate 1920s where the Earth is a disk, pilots race to fly around the world. Historical figures compete in a steampunk setting.

    Same playful register, still alternate history

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • All Those Vanished Engines

    Paul Park2014

    Three linked stories follow the Park family through an alternate history where the American Civil War ended in a two-nation settlement.

    playful → dreamlike, still alternate history

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • City of Saints and Madmen

    Jeff Vandermeer2001

    A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.

    playful → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • In Green's Jungles

    Gene Wolfe2000

    A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    Same playful register, still portal fantasy

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → meditative

    pace-2·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.

    playful → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+1·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.

    playful → bleak

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+3

  • 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.

    playful → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3

  • 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.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3