After
Tyrannosaur Canyon
Douglas Preston2005
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster
More like it
Same propulsive register, still techno-thriller
- pace0prose0bleak0
Nexus
Ramez Naam2012
A scientist develops a nanotech drug that links minds and is hunted by government agencies. It is a high-speed global conspiracy thriller.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Freedom™
Daniel Suarez2010
An autonomous computer program reorganizes global society into a decentralized network. A group of rebels fights to maintain human agency.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Map of bones
James Rollins2004
Sigma Force agents track stolen magi relics through a series of puzzles and global locations. It combines Vatican history with high-tech weaponry.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Arctic Rising
Tobias S. Buckell2012
A UN Polar Guard pilot discovers a conspiracy involving a corporate geoengineering project in the melted Arctic. She is hunted by mercenaries.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Daemon
Leinad Zeraus2006
A deceased game designer leaves behind a computer program that begins killing people and restructuring society. It is a high-tech manhunt.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+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.
propulsive → sardonic
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Medusa
Clive Cussler2009
The NUMA team investigates a missing undersea lab and a bathysphere attack. They uncover a corporate plot involving a deadly virus and jellyfish.
Same propulsive register, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
Plum Lucky
Janet Evanovich2007
Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum chases a man who stole a horse and a bag of money. Her grandmother and a mysterious ally join the pursuit.
propulsive → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose-1bleak-1
The cat who blew the whistle
Lilian Jackson Braun1994
A journalist and his two Siamese cats investigate a missing railroad enthusiast and a bank scandal. It is a small-town mystery.
propulsive → playful
pace-2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
Larceny and Old Lace
Tamar Myers1996
An antique shop owner investigates the murder of her aunt, who was strangled with a bell pull. She navigates the local collectibles market for clues.
propulsive → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
Popped
Carol Higgins Clark2003
Private investigator Regan Reilly travels to a balloon festival in New Mexico to solve a series of equipment sabotages.
propulsive → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → meditative
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → meditative, still adventure
pace-3·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace-1prose0bleak+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
- pace-1prose0bleak+2
The White Plague
Frank Herbert1982
A molecular biologist creates a gender-targeted plague to kill every woman on Earth after his family dies in a bombing.
propulsive → bleak, still techno-thriller
pace-1·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Fail-safe
Eugene Burdick1962
A mechanical failure sends American bombers to nuke Moscow, forcing the President to negotiate a desperate solution to avoid total war.
propulsive → tense, still techno-thriller
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+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.
propulsive → cold
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-2prose0bleak+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.
propulsive → bleak
pace-2·prose0·bleak+2
