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Timeline

Michael Crichton1999

5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Lexicon

    Max Barry2013

    A secret organization trains recruits to use specific words as tools for mind control. A talented runaway becomes a top student in their school.

    Same propulsive register, still techno-thriller

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

    propulsive → dreamlike

    pace-3·prose+2·bleak+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.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+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.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    Same propulsive register

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-3·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-3·prose+2·bleak-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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-3·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

propulsive → bleak, still time travel

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    pace-2·prose0·bleak+2

  • Down to a Sunless Sea

    David Graham1979

    A commercial pilot flies a plane full of passengers while nuclear war destroys the world below. They search for a place to land and survive.

    propulsive → tense, still techno-thriller

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

  • 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.

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2