After
The Stainless Steel Rat
Harry Harrison1961
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
4 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from, nothing faster
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
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 science fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
Running from the Deity
Alan Dean Foster2005
An empathic traveler and his flying snake land on a primitive planet to investigate an ancient threat to the galaxy.
Same playful register, still space opera
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Chilling Effect
Valerie Valdes2019
A spaceship captain completes dangerous missions to pay off a ransom for her kidnapped sister. The crew includes a pilot who is a sentient plant.
Same playful register, still space opera
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Assistant to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer2023
A woman takes a job as an administrative assistant to a local villain to support her family. She manages his office while ignoring his evil deeds.
Same playful register
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak0
On a Pale Horse
Piers Anthony1983
After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.
Same playful register
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
playful → dreamlike
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
In the Night Garden
Catherynne M. Valente2006
A girl with tattooed eyelids tells a prince interlocking stories of monsters and folklore. The narrative is a series of nested myths.
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
The Claw of the Conciliator
Gene Wolfe1981
An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges1945
A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak0
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien1939
A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.
Same playful register
pace-2·prose+3·bleak0
- pace-3prose+3bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
playful → meditative
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-3prose+3bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
playful → meditative
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+3bleak+2
Boneland
Alan Garner2012
An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.
playful → elegiac
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+3bleak+1
The Habitation of the Blessed
Catherynne M. Valente2010
A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.
playful → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+3bleak+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, still science fiction
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+3bleak+1
Unfinished Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien1980
A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.
playful → meditative
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace-2prose+2bleak+3
We
Yevgeny Zamyatin1983
A mathematician in a glass-walled city keeps a diary as he begins to doubt the logic of his totalitarian state.
playful → cold, still science fiction
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Bound for Glory
Woody Guthrie1943
The folk singer recounts his life traveling across Depression-era America via freight trains and migrant camps.
playful → melancholy, still space opera
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
The Fifth Season
N. K. Jemisin2015
A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.
playful → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
Pet Sematary
Stephen King1983
A family moves to Maine and discovers a burial ground that can return the dead to life. They use it, and the consequences are absolute.
playful → tense
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
The Poppy War
R.F. Kuang2018
A war orphan enters a military academy and discovers shamanic powers. She leads a unit into a total war inspired by 20th-century Chinese history.
playful → bleak
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
