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Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century

Kim Fu

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Similar in premise + setting

These books are ranked using the premise + setting labels extracted for Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: modern monsters, small-world distortions, human condition, speculative twists, everyday uncanny, tech consequences, memory loss, grief and longing, coming of age, human frailty

Setting labels used: modern world, near future, futuristic, contemporary, dystopian future, everyday reality, surreal reality, high-tech future, suburbia, workplace

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + setting embeddings are close.

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Your Utopia

Bora Chung · 2024

Eight Korean sci-fi stories explore AI, immortality, grief, and social injustice in bleak, wry near-future worlds.

Why this is here

Premise labels: immortality research · AI emotions · posthuman survival · cannibalism pandemic · dystopian futures · late capitalism · technology and society · human-machine relations · environmental collapse

Setting labels: near future · distant future · post-apocalyptic · posthuman · dystopian · spacefaring · corporate setting · urban apartment building · desolate planet

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1417

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You Will Never Be Forgotten: Stories

Mary South · 2020

Ten dark, formally inventive stories use tech, grief, and bizarre premises to expose how fragile people really are.

Why this is here

Premise labels: technology and grief · technology and trauma · technology and alienation · technology and connection · modern life disruption · near-future society · darkly absurd premises · human flaw exposed

Setting labels: near future · contemporary · dystopian · speculative world · tech-saturated society · internet culture · nursing home · summer camp · hospital · warehouse · hostel · search engine company

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1616

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Mockingbird

Walter Tevis · 1999

In a dying future, a self-taught reader, a rebel woman, and a suicidal android collide in a robot-run world.

Why this is here

Premise labels: literacy loss · robot-run society · human extinction · suicidal android · reading as rebellion · end-of-world decline · lost knowledge · technology dependence

Setting labels: future America · New York City · 25th century · far future · distant future · post-apocalyptic world · decaying city · robot-managed society · dystopian future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1663

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The Possibility of an Island

Michel Houellebecq · 2005

A cynical comedian’s life and future clones expose a bleak experiment in sex, aging, faith, and immortality.

Why this is here

Premise labels: immortality · cloning · aging crisis · cult involvement · future humanity · human extinction · posthuman life · love and death · youth obsession · social critique

Setting labels: near future · far future · post-apocalyptic world · France · Paris · Spain · Lanzarote · Almeria · dystopian society · cloned society · deserted landscape

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1678

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UnWorld

Jayson Greene · 2025

In a near-future world of AI uploads, a grieving mother and three others circle a death that may hide a deeper truth.

Why this is here

Premise labels: grief aftermath · AI consciousness · uploaded minds · personhood debate · memory and identity · mysterious death · suicide or accident · human-machine blur · AI rights

Setting labels: near future · digital future · technological dystopia · suburban setting · virtual reality · AI-saturated world · slightly off-present

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1684

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MindWar

Douglas E. Richards · 2016 · Nick Hall

A near-future thriller about brain-implant mind reading, betrayal, and a race to stop a catastrophic terror plot.

Why this is here

Premise labels: mind reading · brain implants · terror plot · future technology · ESP · privacy invasion · secret betrayal · human evolution

Setting labels: near future · future world · stunning future · technology-forward world · current-day-adjacent · speculative reality

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1687

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Version Control

Dexter Palmer · 2016

A near-future marriage, a troubled physicist, and a device that may rewrite reality pull one woman into an eerie puzzle.

Why this is here

Premise labels: near future · causality violation · time travel · marriage crisis · grief · alternate reality · technology and society

Setting labels: near future · alternate reality · United States · information age · high-tech future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1697

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Sorry Please Thank You

Charles Yu · 2012

A surreal short-story collection where tech, corporate life, and metafiction become lenses on loneliness and identity.

Why this is here

Premise labels: outsourced emotions · virtual worlds · video game characters · zombie encounter · alternate selves · parallel universes · wish device · corporate dystopia · identity crisis · loneliness · commodified feelings · metafictional premise

Setting labels: near future · alternate reality · multiverse · computer-generated world · video game world · corporate workplace · call center · big-box store · spacefaring setting · dystopian future · surreal reality · contemporary America

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1699

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Кубик

Саша Козлов · 2024

Six linked sci-fi stories in shifting realities slowly reveal a hidden pattern, forcing readers to solve the puzzle.

Why this is here

Premise labels: parallel realities · alternative timelines · future variants · time fracture · memory loss · knowledge of future · last human · apocalyptic isolation · hidden connection · puzzle structure · shared characters

Setting labels: alternate reality · dark future · post-apocalyptic world · surreal reality · multiple worlds · time-bent setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1700

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Hujan

Tere Liye · 2016

In a futuristic, disaster-scarred world, a young woman seeks to erase painful memories tied to love and loss.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory erasure · post-disaster survival · star-crossed lovers · friendship bond · environmental collapse · future technology · lost memories

Setting labels: near future · 2040s · 2050 · dystopian future · post-apocalyptic · unnamed locations · tropical region · scientific future · disaster aftermath

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1718

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Terminal Boredom: Stories

Izumi Suzuki · 2021

Seven bleak, prescient sci-fi stories trace alienation, gender, and numbness in futures that feel eerily present.

Why this is here

Premise labels: dystopian future · post-apocalyptic society · gender politics · population control · screen addiction · alienation · technological mediation · interplanetary politics · human drift · social collapse

Setting labels: near future · post-apocalyptic · dystopian · Tokyo · space colonization · interplanetary · alien worlds · matriarchal society · future Earth · cybernetic future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1723

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Spectators

Brian K. Vaughan · 2025

Two ghosts drift through a collapsing future, watching humanity’s appetite for sex, violence, and spectacle.

Why this is here

Premise labels: voyeurism · sex and violence · ghost story · afterlife observation · end times · apocalypse · spectatorhood · social commentary

Setting labels: future New York City · dystopian future · afterlife · post-apocalyptic · world in collapse · limbo · earthbound ghosts · futuristic city

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1724

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