After
The ugly little boy
Isaac Asimov1991
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Time and Again
Jack Finney1970
An artist is recruited by the government to travel to 1882 New York via self-hypnosis. He must observe the past without altering it.
tender → earnest, still time travel
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Summer of Love
Lisa Mason1994
A time traveler from a sterile future arrives in 1967 San Francisco. He observes the hippie movement while searching for a specific girl.
tender → earnest, still time travel
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
- pace+1prose0bleak-1
The Accidental Time Machine
Joe Haldeman2007
A research assistant builds a device that jumps forward in time at increasing intervals. He travels further into the future with every activation.
tender → playful, still soft sci-fi
pace+1·prose0·bleak-1
- pace+1prose0bleak-2
The Door into Summer
Robert A. Heinlein1957
An engineer is tricked into a thirty-year cryogenic sleep by his business partner. He wakes up in 2000 and seeks a way to use time travel for revenge.
tender → wry, still time travel
pace+1·prose0·bleak-2
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak-1
A Murder in Time
Julie McElwain2016
An FBI agent is transported from a modern crime scene to 1815 London. She must use 21st-century forensics to catch a serial killer.
tender → propulsive, still time travel
pace+1·prose0·bleak-1
Denser prose
- pace+1prose+2bleak0
Perhaps the Stars
Ada Palmer2021
A global war between ideological factions reaches its conclusion. The story is told through a dense, 18th-century style narrative voice.
tender → meditative
pace+1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
tender → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak0
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.
tender → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak0
- pace0prose+2bleak0
Shadow & Claw
Gene Wolfe1983
A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.
tender → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak0
- pace0prose+2bleak0
Radiance
Catherynne M. Valente2015
A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.
tender → dreamlike
pace0·prose+2·bleak0
To recover
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
Untamed
Glennon Doyle2020
A woman recounts leaving her marriage and rebuilding her life after falling in love with another woman. It is a series of personal manifestos.
tender → earnest
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
Shopaholic & Baby
Sophie Kinsella2007
A woman with a shopping addiction navigates pregnancy while discovering her celebrity obstetrician is her husband's ex-girlfriend.
tender → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
Kelly Harms2019
An overworked single mother takes a summer break in New York City for a makeover and a dating life. She rediscovers her identity apart from her kids.
tender → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Thich Nhat Hanh1998
A Buddhist monk provides short meditations and breathing exercises for daily life. It focuses on finding calm in routine activities.
tender → meditative
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
Redshirts
John Scalzi2012
Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.
tender → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
Lost in Time
A.G. Riddle2022
A man is exiled to the Triassic period for a murder he didn't commit while his daughter tries to bring him back.
tender → propulsive, still time travel
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-1bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
tender → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-1bleak-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.
tender → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-1bleak-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.
tender → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-1bleak-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.
tender → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
tender → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak-1
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.
tender → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak-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.
tender → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-1prose+2bleak-2
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Douglas R. Hofstadter1979
An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.
tender → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2
- pace-1prose+2bleak-1
Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
tender → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace0prose0bleak+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.
tender → bleak, still time travel
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
On the Beach
Nevil Shute1957
Survivors in Australia wait for a lethal radiation cloud to arrive after a nuclear war. They spend their final months in quiet, domestic routines.
tender → elegiac, still soft sci-fi
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
Behold the Man
Michael Moorcock1968
A man uses a time machine to travel to 28 AD to meet Jesus. Finding only a disabled man who cannot fulfill the gospels, he takes the role himself.
tender → bleak, still time travel
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+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.
tender → bleak, still time travel
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose+1bleak+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.
tender → bleak, still time travel
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
