LitQueuelitqueue

After

The time keeper

Mitch Albom2011

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Being a Green Mother

    Piers Anthony1987

    Orb, the daughter of Fate, assumes the role of Nature. She uses her magical songs to manage the world's ecology and confront a demonic threat.

    Same earnest register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

earnest → meditative, still magical realism

3 more ↓

  • The Claw of the Conciliator

    Gene Wolfe1981

    An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.

    earnest → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

  • 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.

    earnest → dreamlike, still magical realism

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

  • 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.

    earnest → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Promise of Blood

    Brian McClellan2013

    A Field Marshal stages a bloody coup against his king and must defend the new government using soldiers who gain magic powers from gunpowder.

    earnest → propulsive

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • A Memory of Light

    Robert Jordan2013

    The final volume of a long-running series where various nations and magical users unite for a final battle against an ancient evil.

    Same earnest register

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Whalefall

    Daniel Kraus2023

    A diver searching for his father's remains is swallowed by a sperm whale. He has one hour of oxygen to find a way out of the animal's stomach.

    earnest → tense

    pace+1·prose+1·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.

    earnest → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

  • 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.

    earnest → meditative, still magical realism

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

  • 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.

    earnest → tender, still magical realism

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

    earnest → tense

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+3

  • 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.

    earnest → bleak

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+3

  • 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.

    earnest → cold

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+3