LitQueuelitqueue

After

Time Storm

Gordon R. Dickson1977

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Seed of Light

    Edmund Cooper1959

    Ten people leave a dying Earth on a ship designed to sustain their descendants for centuries. The story follows the generations that follow.

    Same meditative register, still post-apocalyptic

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Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    meditative → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    Same meditative register, still science fiction

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • The crystal world

    Richard Aldington1937

    A collection of prose poems and lyrics documenting the end of a love affair. The narrator uses crystalline imagery to track emotional decay.

    meditative → elegiac, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Mane Event

    Shelly Laurenston2007

    A female cop reunites with a childhood friend who is now a lion-shifter. They navigate a romantic attraction while he pursues her in New York.

    meditative → playful

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  • Mile High

    Liz Tomforde2023

    A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

    meditative → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Behind the Net

    Stephanie Archer2024

    A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.

    meditative → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Akira, Vol. 1

    Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984

    In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.

    meditative → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • The Lake House

    James Patterson

    A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.

    meditative → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    meditative → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same meditative register

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • After London

    Richard Jefferies1885

    Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.

    meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

  • Looking Backward, 2000-1887

    Edward Bellamy1888

    A man falls into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000 to find the United States transformed into a socialist utopia.

    meditative → earnest, still science fiction

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-2

Heavier

meditative → elegiac, still science fiction

3 more ↓

  • Hard to be a god

    Аркадий Стругацкий2014

    An observer from a technologically advanced Earth lives undercover on a planet stuck in a medieval state. He must watch atrocities without helping.

    meditative → bleak, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Zone One

    Colson Whitehead2011

    A sweeper squad clears Manhattan of lingering zombies and catatonic 'stragglers.' The focus is on the protagonist's memories and the city's decay.

    meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+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.

    meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1