After

Thief of Time

Terry Pratchett2001

pace
prose
structure
bleakness

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

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Extract from Captain Stormfield's visit to heaven
Mark Twain1909
A sea captain dies and travels through space for thirty years, only to find that the afterlife is not what he expected.
Same wry register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak0
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Night Watch
Terry Pratchett2002
A police commander is sent back in time thirty years and must mentor his younger self during a violent city-wide revolution.
Same wry register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
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The Bear Went Over the Mountain
William Kotzwinkle1996
A bear finds a manuscript in the woods and travels to New York to publish it under a human alias. He becomes a literary celebrity.
wry → playful, still satire
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pace0prose0bleak+1
Convenience store woman
村田沙耶香2018
A woman who finds comfort in the rigid rules of a convenience store faces pressure to change her life. She mimics others to appear normal.
Same wry register, still satire
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1 more ↓

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Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron
Jasper Fforde2009
In a future where social status is determined by the colors one can see, a young man uncovers the flaws in the rigid hierarchy.
Same wry register, still satire
pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Denser prose

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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.
wry → playful, still satire
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
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Dæmonomania
John Crowley2000
In the third book of the Aegypt cycle, characters in the 1970s and the Renaissance navigate secret histories and alchemy. It is a slow study.
wry → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

3 more ↓

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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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges1945
A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.
wry → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Faster

pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Matt Dinniman2020
Earth is converted into an 18-level televised death game. A man and a cat must navigate traps and monsters to survive.
wry → sardonic
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Stainless Steel Rat
Harry Harrison1961
A futuristic con man is caught by the Special Corps and forced to use his criminal skills to catch other lawbreakers.
wry → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

3 more ↓

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Mind's Eye
Douglas E. Richards2014
A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
pace+1prose-1bleak+1
The Atlantis Gene
A.G. Riddle2013
A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.
wry → propulsive, still race against time
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1
pace+1prose-1bleak+1
Monster Hunter International
Larry Correia2007
An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

Slower

pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
wry → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
wry → elegiac
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3 more ↓

pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
wry → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Unfinished Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien1980
A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.
wry → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
pace-2prose+2bleak+2
The Pale King
David Foster Wallace2011
An unfinished, experimental novel about the mundane daily operations of an IRS processing center in 1985 Illinois.
wry → sardonic, still satire
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

Heavier

wry → sardonic, still satire

pace0prose+1bleak+3
Doctor Rat
William Kotzwinkle1976
A laboratory rat loyal to his human captors defends the practice of vivisection while animals worldwide begin a bloody revolt.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
pace-1prose+1bleak+3
The Vengeance of Rome
Michael Moorcock2006
Pyat, an unreliable narrator and Nazi sympathizer, travels through the 1930s. He observes the rise of fascism while remaining self-deluded.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3

3 more ↓

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The Sub: A Study in Witchcraft
Thomas M. Disch1999
A substitute teacher discovers she has the power of witchcraft. She uses her abilities to manipulate her small town as her sanity deteriorates.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
pace0prose+1bleak+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.
wry → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
pace0prose0bleak+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.
wry → tense
pace0·prose0·bleak+3