LitQueuelitqueue

After

Miss Subways

David Duchovny2018

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Nice Dragons Finish Last

    Rachel Aaron2014

    The smallest, weakest dragon in a ruthless family is cast out into Detroit. He must survive using diplomacy instead of fire.

    Same playful register, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

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.

    playful → meditative, still magical realism

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    playful → dreamlike, still magical realism

    pace0·prose+2·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.

    playful → elegiac

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

Faster

playful → 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.

    playful → 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.

    playful → sardonic, still urban fantasy

    pace+2·prose0·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.

    playful → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    playful → meditative, still magical realism

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    playful → tender, still magical realism

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Was

    Geoff Ryman1992

    Three timelines connect a Kansas girl in the 1880s, Judy Garland on set, and a dying man in the 1980s. It examines the reality behind the Oz myth.

    playful → elegiac, still magical realism

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    playful → 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.

    playful → bleak

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3