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After

Best served cold

Joe Abercrombie2009

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same sardonic register, still grimdark

1 more ↓

  • The Skewed Throne

    Joshua Palmatier2006

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    sardonic → tense, still grimdark

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    sardonic → bleak, still grimdark

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

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

    sardonic → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

To recover

sardonic → propulsive

3 more ↓

  • This Man

    Jodi Ellen Malpas2013

    An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.

    sardonic → tense

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Ready Player One

    Ernest Cline2008

    A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Better Off Dead

    Lee Child2021

    Jack Reacher investigates a staged car crash in Arizona and infiltrates a dangerous local crew to find a missing woman.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    sardonic → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·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.

    sardonic → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Monster Hunter International

    Larry Correia2007

    An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.

    sardonic → propulsive

    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.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·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.

    sardonic → meditative

    pace-2·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.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

sardonic → bleak, still grimdark

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    sardonic → elegiac, still grimdark

    pace-1·prose+1·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+2·bleak+1

  • The Wisdom of Crowds

    Joe Abercrombie2021

    A violent revolution overthrows the social order in a fantasy industrial city. Characters from all social classes struggle to survive the purges.

    Same sardonic register, still grimdark

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1