LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Little Country

Charles de Lint1991

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Redemption in Indigo

    Karen Lord2010

    A woman leaves her husband and encounters a trickster who can manipulate time. The story follows her choices through a West African folk lens.

    Same warm register, still mythic fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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, still mythic fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Vellum

    Hal Duncan2005

    Humans transformed into angels and demons fight across a multiverse for a book that controls reality. The narrative jumps through time and myth.

    warm → dreamlike, still mythic fiction

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

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

    warm → meditative

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

Faster

warm → propulsive, still urban fantasy

3 more ↓

  • Battle Ground

    Jim Butcher2020

    A wizard leads the supernatural defense of Chicago against an invading army led by a Titan. The book is a single, continuous battle.

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+2

  • Blood Engines

    Tim Pratt2007

    A sorceress who uses blood magic to power her spells defends her city from a rival. She makes ruthless choices to maintain her power.

    warm → sardonic, still urban fantasy

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+2

  • Sandman Slim

    Richard Kadrey2009

    A magician crawls out of Hell to hunt the people who murdered his girlfriend in Los Angeles. He uses black magic and a stolen shotgun.

    warm → sardonic, still urban fantasy

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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

  • 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, still mythic fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Centaur

    Algernon Blackwood1911

    A traveler on a ship becomes obsessed with a man and his son who seem to be remnants of an older, non-human world.

    warm → dreamlike, still mythic fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu

    Andrus Kivirähk2015

    A boy in medieval Estonia learns the ancient language of snakes to command animals as his forest culture is erased by Christian invaders.

    warm → elegiac, still mythic fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+3

  • A Matter of Blood

    Sarah Pinborough2010

    A detective investigates a serial killer in a London plagued by a failing economy and a supernatural virus. The tone is consistently grim.

    warm → bleak, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+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