Memory and Dream

Whiskey and Water

Elizabeth Bear2007

A crippled magician investigates a murder in New York while caught between Faerie factions. The story deals with the cost of past choices.

tender → elegiac, still urban fantasy

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

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.

tender → elegiac, still mythic fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

tender → dreamlike, still mythic fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

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.

tender → dreamlike, still mythic fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Walking Disaster

Jamie McGuire2013

This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.

tender → propulsive

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

And One Last Thing...

Molly Harper2010

After a public divorce, a woman moves to a small town to start over and finds herself pursued by a local deputy.

tender → wry

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Dark Lover

J. R. Ward2005

A vampire king seeks revenge against the slayers who killed his parents while protecting a woman discovering her own supernatural heritage.

tender → propulsive, still urban fantasy

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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·prose-1·bleak+1

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.

tender → sardonic, still urban fantasy

pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1

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.

tender → sardonic, still urban fantasy

pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

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.

tender → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

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.

tender → dreamlike, still mythic fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Unfinished Tales

J.R.R. Tolkien1980

A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.

tender → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

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.

tender → elegiac, still mythic fiction

pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

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.

tender → bleak, still urban fantasy

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

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.

tender → bleak

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2