The Plot to Save Socrates

To Say Nothing of the Dog

Connie Willis1998

A time traveler goes to the Victorian era to find a missing piece of pottery. The plot is a comedy of errors involving cats, dogs, and rowing.

Same playful register, still time travel

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

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.

playful → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

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.

playful → sardonic

pace-1·prose+2·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.

playful → meditative

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Pawn of Prophecy

David Eddings1982

A farm boy travels with a storyteller and a sorceress to recover a stolen magical orb. It is a traditional quest through various kingdoms.

playful → earnest

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Being a Green Mother

Piers Anthony1987

Orb, the daughter of Fate, assumes the role of Nature. She uses her magical songs to manage the world's ecology and confront a demonic threat.

playful → earnest

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Warrior Rising

P.C. Cast2008

Goddesses transport a modern woman to ancient Troy to seduce and distract Achilles. It is a lighthearted fish-out-of-water romance.

Same playful register

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

playful → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·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.

playful → wry

pace+1·prose-1·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.

playful → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

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·bleak0

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·bleak-1

For Us, the Living

Robert A. Heinlein2003

A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.

playful → earnest

pace-2·prose0·bleak-1

The Year of the Quiet Sun

Wilson Tucker1970

A social scientist travels forward in time to document the collapse of the United States through racial conflict and nuclear war.

pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

The Gone World

Tom Sweterlitsch2018

An investigator travels to possible futures to solve a murder and stop an approaching apocalypse. The timeline changes based on her observations.

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood1985

In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.

playful → cold

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2