After
They found Atlantis
Dennis Wheatley1935
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Maître du monde
Jules Verne1902
A government agent investigates a mysterious vehicle that travels on land, sea, and air. He tracks a rogue inventor across the United States.
Same tense register, still adventure
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Blackout
Connie Willis2010
Three historians from 2060 travel to WWII-era England. They become trapped when their exit points fail and must survive the Blitz.
Same tense register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Jurassic Park
Michael Crichton1990
Scientists and children are trapped on an island where cloned dinosaurs have escaped. The story focuses on the failure of complex systems.
Same tense register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Mote in God's Eye
Larry Niven1974
Humans make first contact with an alien species in a distant star system. The crew must decipher the biology and motives of the 'Moties'.
Same tense register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Persepolis Rising
James S. A. Corey2017
Thirty years after the previous book, an isolationist empire invades the solar system with superior technology. The aging Rocinante crew resists.
Same tense register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
tense → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
tense → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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-1·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron
Julia Quinn2022
A graphic novel adaptation of a fictional melodrama where an orphan flees a cruel aunt and encounters a man in a remote castle.
tense → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Odessa Sea
Clive Cussler2016
Dirk Pitt investigates a ghost ship in the Black Sea and discovers a conspiracy involving a lost Romanov secret. It is a high-speed adventure.
tense → propulsive, still adventure
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
tense → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Smokin' Seventeen
Janet Evanovich2011
A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.
tense → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose0bleak-1
The Book of Hope
Jane Goodall2021
A dialogue-based book where Jane Goodall discusses her life's work and her reasons for remaining optimistic about the environment.
tense → earnest
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
tense → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
tense → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
tense → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
tense → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
tense → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Moby Dick
Herman Melville1851
A sailor joins a whaling voyage led by a captain seeking revenge on a specific whale. Large sections digress into the mechanics of 1850s whaling.
tense → meditative, still adventure
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
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.
tense → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
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.
tense → cold
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose0bleak+2
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.
tense → bleak
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
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.
tense → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
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.
tense → elegiac
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
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.
tense → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
