
After
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon1991
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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11/22/63
Stephen King2011
A high school teacher travels back to 1958 and lives for five years to prevent the JFK assassination. He must manage the ripple effects of time.
Same earnest register, still time travel
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Enchantment
Orson Scott Card1999
An American graduate student discovers a sleeping princess in Ukraine and travels back to the ninth century. He must navigate ancient magic.
Same earnest register, still fish out of water
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An Accident of Stars
Foz Meadows2016
A teenager falls into a magical world and joins a group of women resisting a conqueror. It focuses on the politics of a multi-world rebellion.
Same earnest register, still fish out of water
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Lord of the fading lands
C. L. Wilson2007
A woodcarver's daughter is identified as the fated mate of a powerful Fey King. She must navigate a magical court to save his people.
Same earnest register, still fish out of water
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Magic Kingdom for Sale — SOLD!
Terry Brooks1986
A grieving lawyer buys a magical kingdom from a Christmas catalog. He arrives to find the land dying and his title contested by a demon.
Same earnest register, still fish out of water
pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose
earnest → meditative
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges1945
A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.
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Soldier of Sidon
Gene Wolfe2006
A mercenary in ancient Egypt loses his memory every time he sleeps. He records his days in a scroll while interacting with gods and spirits.
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3 more ↓ ↑
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Ink
Hal Duncan2007
Gods and mortals clash in a shifting city where reality is written on skin. The story follows a cycle of mythic archetypes across time.
earnest → dreamlike
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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.
earnest → dreamlike
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- pace-1prose+2bleak-1
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.
earnest → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

To recover
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The Husband Hunt
Lynsay Sands2012
A woman attempts to convince her childhood friend to marry her. He resists due to his parents' unhappy marriage until a rescue changes things.
earnest → playful, still historical romance
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Romancing Mister Bridgerton
Julia Quinn2002
A long-time wallflower and her friend's brother discover each other's secrets in Regency London. The plot centers on the identity of a gossip writer.
earnest → warm, still historical romance
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3 more ↓ ↑
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Odessa Sea
Clive Cussler2016
Dirk Pitt investigates a ghost ship in the Black Sea and discovers a conspiracy involving a lost Romanov secret. It is a high-speed adventure.
earnest → propulsive, still adventure
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The Mane Event
Shelly Laurenston2007
A female cop reunites with a childhood friend who is now a lion-shifter. They navigate a romantic attraction while he pursues her in New York.
earnest → playful
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- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Star Nomad
Lindsay Buroker2016
A fighter pilot and a small crew of strangers attempt to escape a system-wide war in a freighter. It is a character-driven space adventure.
earnest → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
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Dungeon Crawler Carl
Matt Dinniman2020
Earth is converted into an 18-level televised death game. A man and a cat must navigate traps and monsters to survive.
earnest → sardonic
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- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Stainless Steel Rat
Harry Harrison1961
A futuristic con man is caught by the Special Corps and forced to use his criminal skills to catch other lawbreakers.
earnest → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
earnest → propulsive
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- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
earnest → propulsive
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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.
earnest → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
earnest → meditative
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- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → elegiac
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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
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Unfinished Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien1980
A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.
earnest → meditative
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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.
earnest → dreamlike
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Heavier
- pace0prose+1bleak+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.
earnest → bleak
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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
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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
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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
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- pace0prose+1bleak+2
Song of Kali
Dan Simmons1985
An American poet travels to Calcutta to find a manuscript by a dead writer. He encounters a cult that worships the goddess of destruction.
earnest → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
