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After

Turing & Burroughs

Rudy Rucker2012

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same playful register, still mad scientist

1 more ↓

  • White Devils

    Paul J. McAuley2004

    An investigator in the Congo is attacked by genetically engineered creatures. He uncovers a corporate conspiracy involving illegal experiments.

    playful → tense, still biopunk

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+1

Denser prose

playful → dreamlike, still alternate history

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.

    playful → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1

  • In Green's Jungles

    Gene Wolfe2000

    A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Soft Machine

    William S. Burroughs1961

    A non-linear narrative uses the cut-up technique to describe body modification and mind control. It is a surrealist exploration of biological traps.

    playful → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

Same playful register

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Behind the Net

    Stephanie Archer2024

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

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

  • She Went All the Way

    Meg Cabot2002

    A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak0

  • 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.

    Same playful register

    pace+1·prose-2·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.

    playful → meditative

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

  • Hav

    Jan Morris2006

    A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.

    playful → elegiac, still alternate history

    pace-2·prose0·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.

    Same playful register

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Pump Six and Other Stories

    Paolo Bacigalupi2008

    Eleven short stories depict futures shaped by genetic engineering and environmental collapse. The focus is on human survival in ruined worlds.

    playful → bleak, still biopunk

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+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.

    playful → cold

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+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.

    playful → bleak

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak+2