After
There Is No Antimemetics Division
qntm2008
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak-1
The Fold
Peter Clines2015
A man with a perfect memory joins a team investigating a teleportation device. He notices small, impossible discrepancies in the people returning.
Same tense register, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
- pace-1prose0bleak0
The Last Astronaut
David Wellington2019
A disgraced commander leads a mission to intercept an alien object entering the solar system. The crew discovers the object is not a ship.
Same tense register, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Recursion
Blake Crouch2019
A detective and a scientist discover a technology that allows people to map and enter memories, causing timelines to rewrite and collapse.
Same tense register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Ship of Fools
Richard Paul Russo2001
The crew of a decaying generation ship discovers a mysterious planet and an empty alien vessel. It is a horror story about a search for meaning.
Same tense register, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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Maplecroft
Cherie Priest2014
Lizzie Borden uses her axe to fight cosmic monsters in this epistolary horror novel. The story is told through journals and letters.
Same tense register, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+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.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Rakesfall
Vajra Chandrasekera2024
Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-3prose+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.
tense → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon1937
A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.
tense → elegiac, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
To recover
tense → playful
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
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.
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
Royally Screwed
Emma Chase2016
A crown prince visiting Manhattan pursues a bakery worker who threw a pie at him. The story follows their class-clash courtship.
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose-1bleak-2
The Princess
Lori Wick2006
In the fictional land of Pendaran, a prince enters an arranged marriage with a commoner who must learn the ways of the royal court.
tense → warm
pace-2·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace0prose-1bleak-2
Grunge
Larry Correia2016
A Marine killed in a bombing is resurrected to hunt supernatural creatures. He joins a private company that kills monsters for government bounties.
tense → sardonic
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
A Galaxy Unknown
Thomas DePrima2010
An ensign uses her tactical skills to rise through the ranks of a space navy while fighting pirates and internal bureaucracy.
tense → earnest
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-3prose+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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-3prose+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.
tense → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+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.
tense → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-3prose+2bleak0
Night Land
William Hope Hodgson2014
In the distant future, a man leaves the last human stronghold to find a woman across a sunless, monster-filled wasteland.
tense → dreamlike, still cosmic horror
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-3prose+1bleak-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.
tense → elegiac
pace-3·prose+1·bleak-2
Heavier
tense → bleak, still cosmic horror
- pace-1prose0bleak+1
The Deep
Nick Cutter2015
A veterinarian travels to a research station at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to help his brother find a cure for a global plague.
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Echopraxia
Peter Watts2014
A biologist is caught on a mission toward the sun alongside a pilot and a group of transhuman monks. It explores consciousness and evolution.
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Beyond the Aquila Rift
Alastair Reynolds2001
A spaceship crew wakes from cold sleep to find they have overshot their destination by light-years. They must face the reality of their location.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
Negative Space
B.R. Yeager2020
Four teenagers in a decaying New Hampshire town use a drug made from local parasites. They navigate hallucinations and a string of suicides.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose0bleak+1
The Jaunt
Stephen King2009
A father explains the history of teleportation to his family while they wait to travel. He describes the danger of being awake during the trip.
Same tense register, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
