The House of Sundering Flames

Asunder

Kerstin Hall2024

A woman who can preserve souls in jars must navigate a city of immortals to save her partner. The magic involves significant body horror.

Same tense register, still dark fantasy

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Tours of the Black Clock

Steve Erickson1989

A ghostwriter for Hitler's private pornography lives in a surreal version of the 20th century where history and memory blur.

tense → dreamlike, still alternate history

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.

tense → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Ficciones

Jorge Luis Borges1945

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

tense → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Electric Idol

Katee Robert2022

In a modern-day Olympus, Eros is ordered to kill Psyche but chooses to enter a fake marriage with her to protect her from his mother.

pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

Grunge

Larry Correia2016

A Marine killed in a bombing is resurrected to hunt supernatural creatures. He joins a private company that kills monsters for government bounties.

tense → sardonic, still urban fantasy

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi2022

A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

tense → playful

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

tense → sardonic

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

tense → 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.

tense → propulsive

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-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.

tense → 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.

tense → 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.

tense → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

Queen of the Conquered

Kacen Callender2019

A noblewoman with mind-control powers enters a royal competition to kill the colonizers who murdered her family.

tense → bleak, still dark fantasy

pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

Empire of the Damned

Jay Kristoff2024

A vampire hunter protects the Holy Grail while navigating a war between rival vampire bloodlines. The world is trapped in a permanent night.

tense → bleak, still dark fantasy

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

The Damnation Game

Clive Barker1985

An ex-con becomes a bodyguard for a billionaire who made a deal with a supernatural gambler. The debt comes due through gore and resurrection.

tense → bleak, still dark fantasy

pace0·prose0·bleak+1