LitQueuelitqueue

After

A Drop of Corruption

Robert Jackson Bennett2025

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Curse of Chalion

    Lois McMaster Bujold2001

    A middle-aged man, broken by years of slavery, becomes a tutor to a princess. He must navigate a cursed court to protect his charges.

    tense → earnest, still fantasy

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

tense → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

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

    tense → meditative

    pace0·prose+3·bleak0

  • At Swim-Two-Birds

    Flann O'Brien1939

    A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.

    tense → playful

    pace0·prose+3·bleak-1

  • 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.

    tense → meditative

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Intrigues (Collegium Chronicles #2)

    Mercedes Lackey2010

    A telepathic orphan training at a magical academy is targeted by foreign spies. He must prove his loyalty while uncovering his true parentage.

    tense → earnest, still fantasy

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • On a Pale Horse

    Piers Anthony1983

    After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.

    tense → playful, still fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

  • Tress of the Emerald Sea

    Brandon Sanderson2023

    A girl leaves her island to rescue a friend from a sorceress. She travels across oceans made of dangerous, reactive fungal spores.

    tense → playful, still fantasy

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Mist

    Stephen King1980

    A group of townspeople is trapped in a grocery store by a thick mist containing lethal monsters while social order collapses inside.

    Same tense register

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Changes

    Jim Butcher2010

    A wizard discovers he has a daughter who has been kidnapped by vampires. He must race against time and sacrifice his principles to save her.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak+1

Slower

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.

    tense → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+3·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-1·prose+3·bleak0

  • A Slow Regard of Silent Things

    Patrick Rothfuss2013

    A young woman lives alone in the tunnels beneath a university, finding meaning in discarded objects and daily rituals.

    tense → tender, still fantasy

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    Same tense register

    pace+1·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.

    tense → bleak

    pace+1·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.

    tense → cold

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak+2