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After

He Who Fights with Monsters

Shirtaloon2021

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Nine Princes in Amber

    Roger Zelazny1970

    A man with amnesia discovers he is a prince of a city that is the only true reality. He fights his siblings for the throne across dimensions.

    Same sardonic register, still portal fantasy

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • The Tourmaline

    Paul Park2006

    A girl from our world navigates a magical, alternate-history Europe where Romania is a superpower. The narrative is dense and non-linear.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+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.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover

    Sarah MacLean2015

    A disgraced noblewoman secretly runs a London gambling den. A journalist attempts to expose her identity, leading to a confrontation.

    sardonic → playful

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Cetaganda

    Lois McMaster Bujold1996

    Miles Vorkosigan attends a state funeral on a genetically-obsessed planet. He becomes entangled in a mystery involving the imperial succession.

    sardonic → wry

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Loitering with Intent

    Muriel Spark1981

    A novelist takes a job editing memoirs for a strange society. She discovers that her employer is manipulating the members to mimic her fiction.

    sardonic → playful

    pace0·prose+2·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The hike

    Drew Magary2016

    A man goes for a walk in the woods and becomes trapped on a path filled with surreal monsters. He must finish the hike to return to his family.

    Same sardonic register, still portal fantasy

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Blackflame

    Will Wight2017

    Lindon and Yerin undergo intense training to master a destructive new magical path. The focus is on their rapid growth in power and technique.

    sardonic → propulsive, still progression fantasy

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

    Stephen King1987

    A gunslinger on a beach enters doors into the minds of people in 20th-century New York to pull them into his world.

    sardonic → propulsive, still portal fantasy

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

  • 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.

    sardonic → dreamlike, still portal fantasy

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

  • Unfinished Tales

    J.R.R. Tolkien1980

    A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.

    sardonic → meditative

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    sardonic → tense

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    sardonic → bleak

    pace0·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.

    sardonic → cold

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2