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After

The Daughters' War

Christopher Buehlman

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More like it

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  • Chronicles of the Black Company (The Chronicles of the Black Company, #1-3)

    Glen Cook

    A cynical mercenary company works for a powerful sorceress. The story is told through the journals of the group's doctor and historian.

    elegiac → sardonic, still grimdark

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • The Light and the Dark

    Mikhail Shishkin2013

    Two lovers exchange letters that transcend time and space. One writes from a domestic life while the other writes from the front lines of a war.

    Same elegiac register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

    A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • To Sir Phillip, With Love

    Julia Quinn2003

    Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.

    elegiac → warm

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • All Rhodes Lead Here

    Mariana Zapata2021

    A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.

    elegiac → warm

    pace-1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Hannah's List

    Debbie Macomber2010

    A widower receives a letter from his late wife suggesting three women he should date. He begins to interact with each woman over the following year.

    elegiac → warm

    pace-1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Unfinished Tales

    J.R.R. Tolkien1980

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

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-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.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

Heavier

elegiac → bleak, still grimdark

3 more ↓

  • The Iron Dragon's Daughter

    Michael Swanwick1993

    A changeling girl works in a Dickensian factory building sentient iron dragons. She attempts to escape a world of cynical magic and cruelty.

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Forge of darkness

    Steven Erikson2012

    A civil war begins in an ancient realm of darkness. The narrative follows aristocrats and soldiers as their society fractures into factions.

    Same elegiac register, still grimdark

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Mordew

    Alex Pheby2020

    A boy living in a slum discovers he has the power to create life from magical mud. He is taken in by a Master who rules a dark, decaying city.

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1