After
Vurt
Jeff Noon1993
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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Borne
Jeff VanderMeer2017
A scavenger in a biotech-ruined city adopts a changing organism. She hides it from her partner while a giant flying bear terrorizes the ruins.
Same dreamlike register, still biopunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
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Nymphomation
Jeff Noon1997
In a futuristic Manchester, a secret society uses a mathematical lottery to manipulate the public. The story follows a man investigating the game.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
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Fairyland
Paul J. McAuley1995
A gene-hacker in a gritty future Europe creates 'dolls' for a crime lord, only for the bio-engineered creatures to evolve and rebel.
dreamlike → tense, still cyberpunk
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- pace0prose0bleak0
The Troika
Stepan Chapman1997
An old woman, a jeep, and a dinosaur cross a desert under three suns. Their identities and memories shift as they try to reach a distant city.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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Necroville
Ian McDonald1994
In a future where the dead are resurrected via nanotechnology to serve as a legal underclass, five people navigate a night of celebration.
Same dreamlike register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
Same dreamlike register, still weird fiction
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
City of Saints and Madmen
Jeff Vandermeer2001
A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
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Empty Space
M. John Harrison2012
Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace1996
A sprawling narrative centered on a tennis academy, a halfway house, and a lethal film. The text includes hundreds of pages of detailed endnotes.
dreamlike → sardonic
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
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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.
dreamlike → meditative
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
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Nova Express
William S. Burroughs1964
An experimental narrative uses the cut-up technique to depict a war between intergalactic criminals and the police. It is a collage of imagery.
dreamlike → sardonic
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
To recover
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline2008
A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.
dreamlike → propulsive, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown2009
Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.
dreamlike → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Walking Disaster
Jamie McGuire2013
This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.
dreamlike → propulsive
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This Man
Jodi Ellen Malpas2013
An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.
dreamlike → tense
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Real Murders
Charlaine Harris1990
A librarian in a small Georgia town belongs to a club that studies famous crimes. A real murder occurs that mimics a historical case.
dreamlike → wry
pace0·prose-2·bleak-2
Faster
dreamlike → propulsive, still cyberpunk
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline2008
A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
Liege-Killer
Christopher Hinz1987
Genetically engineered assassins wake from stasis to hunt humans in orbital colonies. Two specialists must track them down.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak0
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
dreamlike → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
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.
dreamlike → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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.
Same dreamlike register
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-1
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.
dreamlike → meditative
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
dreamlike → meditative
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- pace-2prose0bleak-2
Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury1946
A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.
dreamlike → elegiac
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For Us, the Living
Robert A. Heinlein2003
A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.
dreamlike → earnest
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Heavier
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Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
dreamlike → cynical, still cyberpunk
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Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.
dreamlike → bleak, still weird fiction
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Market Forces
Richard K. Morgan2004
In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.
dreamlike → sardonic, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
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Maelstrom
Peter Watts2001
A bio-engineered virus spreads through the global network while a woman navigates a flooded, post-apocalyptic landscape.
dreamlike → bleak, still biopunk
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Random Acts of Senseless Violence
Jack Womack1994
A twelve-year-old girl records her life in a diary as New York City collapses into riots and hyperinflation. Her family falls into poverty.
dreamlike → bleak, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
