After
The Saint of Bright Doors
Vajra Chandrasekera2023
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Saint of Bright Doors
Vajra Chandrasekera2023
A man trained by his mother to assassinate his divine father flees to a city of magical doors. He joins a support group for people with similar pasts.
Same meditative register, still literary fantasy
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Children of Dune
Frank Herbert1976
The twin heirs of Paul Atreides navigate political conspiracies and their own evolving biology to secure the future of the desert planet.
Same meditative register, still chosen one
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- pace0prose0bleak0
Shrine of Stars
Paul J. McAuley1999
A young man travels through the ruins of a Dyson sphere in the far future. He searches for technology to save his people from extinction.
Same meditative register, still chosen one
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Neverness
David Zindell1988
In a city at the end of time, a pilot joins a guild of mathematicians who navigate space through complex proofs. He seeks a secret DNA code.
Same meditative register, still chosen one
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1 more ↓ ↑
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The Man in the High Castle
Philip K. Dick1962
In 1962, the Axis powers rule a partitioned America. Multiple characters interact with a banned book that depicts an Allied victory.
Same meditative register
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Denser prose
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Rakesfall
Vajra Chandrasekera2024
Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.
meditative → 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.
meditative → sardonic
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
meditative → dreamlike
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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.
meditative → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
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.
Same meditative register
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
To recover
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James2000
A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.
meditative → earnest
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
The Duke and I
Julia Quinn2000
A duke and a debutante enter a fake courtship to avoid social pressure. They navigate Regency London's marriage market while hiding their deal.
meditative → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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On Dublin Street
Samantha Young2012
An American woman in Scotland enters a sex-only arrangement with her roommate's brother to avoid emotional intimacy. It is a contemporary romance.
meditative → warm
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Night Pleasures
Sherrilyn Kenyon2002
An immortal warrior and a skeptical accountant are handcuffed together while being hunted by supernatural predators.
meditative → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace0prose-2bleak-2
Honeysuckle Summer
Sherryl Woods2010
A woman with severe anxiety and agoraphobia after an abusive marriage finds support from a local deputy. He helps her re-enter the world.
meditative → warm
pace0·prose-2·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+2prose-2bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
meditative → wry
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-2bleak-2
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.
meditative → propulsive, still chosen one
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
meditative → wry
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-2bleak-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.
meditative → propulsive
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-2bleak-2
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.
meditative → playful
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
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.
meditative → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-1prose+1bleak-1
Endless Things
John Crowley2007
A scholar travels to Europe to find a secret history of magic hidden within real-world myths. This is the conclusion of a four-book cycle.
Same meditative register, still literary fantasy
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
Same meditative register
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- pace-1prose+1bleak-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.
Same meditative register
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose0bleak-2
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.
meditative → elegiac
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Heavier
- pace0prose0bleak+1
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.
meditative → cold
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- pace0prose-1bleak+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.
meditative → bleak
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
meditative → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
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.
meditative → elegiac
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
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.
meditative → bleak
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
