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After

The Silver Wind

Nina Allan2019

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Impossible Bird

    Patrick O'Leary2002

    A man searches for his brother who was abducted by aliens. The narrative shifts through layers of memory and dreamlike logic.

    Same dreamlike register, still slipstream

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → elegiac

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • Feersum Endjinn

    Iain Banks1994

    Four characters navigate a crumbling megastructure on a dying Earth. One quarter of the book is written in phonetic, non-standard spelling.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace+1·prose+1·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.

    Same dreamlike register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

dreamlike → playful

3 more ↓

  • Mile High

    Liz Tomforde2023

    A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Behind the Net

    Stephanie Archer2024

    A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • She Went All the Way

    Meg Cabot2002

    A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    dreamlike → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    dreamlike → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → earnest

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Hav

    Jan Morris2006

    A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.

    dreamlike → elegiac

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • Kolyma tales

    Varlam SHALAMOV1980

    Short stories documenting daily life and survival in a Soviet labor camp. The prose is detached and focuses on the physical reality of starvation.

    dreamlike → clinical

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

dreamlike → bleak, still time travel

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+1

  • The Man Who Melted

    Jack Dann1984

    A man searches a chaotic, future Europe for his wife while a telepathic virus causes people to lose their identities.

    Same dreamlike register, still slipstream

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1