Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories

A. S. Byatt1994

Five stories written in the style of traditional folk tales. A narratologist finds a bottle in Turkey and releases a djinn who grants her wishes.

Same meditative register, still fairy tale

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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.

Same meditative register, still magical realism

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Soldier of Sidon

Gene Wolfe2006

A mercenary in ancient Egypt loses his memory every time he sleeps. He records his days in a scroll while interacting with gods and spirits.

Same meditative register

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Ink

Hal Duncan2007

Gods and mortals clash in a shifting city where reality is written on skin. The story follows a cycle of mythic archetypes across time.

meditative → dreamlike

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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.

pace+1·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.

pace+1·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.

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

meditative → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

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.

meditative → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

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.

meditative → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

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.

meditative → dreamlike

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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.

Same meditative register, still magical realism

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Among Others

Jo Walton2011

A teenage girl at a 1970s boarding school copes with her twin's death through books and subtle magic. It is written as a series of diary entries.

meditative → tender, still magical realism

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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.

meditative → tense

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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.

meditative → bleak

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

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.

meditative → cold

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