After
Bookshops & Bonedust
Travis Baldree2023
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
Same warm register, still cozy fantasy
- pace0prose0bleak0
Under the Whispering Door
TJ Klune2021
A selfish lawyer dies and waits in a supernatural tea shop to transition to the afterlife. He befriends the shopkeeper and other ghosts.
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- pace0prose0bleak0
The Spellshop
Sarah Beth Durst2024
A librarian flees a revolution with illegal spellbooks to open a jam shop on a remote island. She hides her magic while befriending the locals.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Garden Spells
Sarah Addison Allen2007
Two sisters reunite in their family home in North Carolina, where they tend a garden of magical plants and an apple tree that shows the future.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
Sangu Mandanna2024
A former high-mage runs a magical inn with a talking fox. She seeks a spell to restore her lost powers while managing guests.
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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The Hands of the Emperor
Victoria Goddard2018
The personal secretary to an immortal emperor takes his first vacation in decades. The story focuses on bureaucracy, culture, and friendship.
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Denser prose
warm → dreamlike
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
In the Night Garden
Catherynne M. Valente2006
A girl with tattooed eyelids tells a prince interlocking stories of monsters and folklore. The narrative is a series of nested myths.
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
The Claw of the Conciliator
Gene Wolfe1981
An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges1945
A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.
warm → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose+2bleak0
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien1939
A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.
warm → playful
pace0·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
warm → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Matt Dinniman2020
Earth is converted into an 18-level televised death game. A man and a cat must navigate traps and monsters to survive.
warm → sardonic
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Stainless Steel Rat
Harry Harrison1961
A futuristic con man is caught by the Special Corps and forced to use his criminal skills to catch other lawbreakers.
warm → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Mind's Eye
Douglas E. Richards2014
A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.
warm → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
The Atlantis Gene
A.G. Riddle2013
A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.
warm → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Monster Hunter International
Larry Correia2007
An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.
warm → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
warm → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Boneland
Alan Garner2012
An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.
warm → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
The Habitation of the Blessed
Catherynne M. Valente2010
A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.
warm → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Unfinished Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien1980
A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.
warm → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Moonwise
Greer Gilman1991
Two women are pulled into a world created by their own folk-tales. The narrative uses dense, archaic language to describe a shifting landscape.
warm → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
The Fifth Season
N. K. Jemisin2015
A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.
warm → bleak
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace+1prose0bleak+3
Pet Sematary
Stephen King1983
A family moves to Maine and discovers a burial ground that can return the dead to life. They use it, and the consequences are absolute.
warm → tense
pace+1·prose0·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Poppy War
R.F. Kuang2018
A war orphan enters a military academy and discovers shamanic powers. She leads a unit into a total war inspired by 20th-century Chinese history.
warm → bleak
pace+1·prose0·bleak+3
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson2015
An accountant infiltrates the empire that conquered her home to destroy it from within. She uses economics and politics as her primary weapons.
warm → cold
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
Song of Kali
Dan Simmons1985
An American poet travels to Calcutta to find a manuscript by a dead writer. He encounters a cult that worships the goddess of destruction.
warm → bleak
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
