Prince of Fools

The Iron Dragon's Daughter

Michael Swanwick1993

A changeling girl works in a Dickensian factory building sentient iron dragons. She attempts to escape a world of cynical magic and cruelty.

sardonic → bleak, still dark fantasy

pace0·prose0·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 dark fantasy

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Ficciones

Jorge Luis Borges1945

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

sardonic → meditative

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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.

sardonic → playful

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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.

sardonic → wry

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Ten Big Ones

Janet Evanovich2004

Stephanie Plum witnesses a gang hit and becomes a target herself. She balances the threat with her ongoing romantic indecision.

sardonic → playful

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Perfection

R.L. Mathewson2011

A woman tries to ignore her neighbor, a man with a massive appetite who constantly steals her food. They bicker until a relationship forms.

sardonic → playful

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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.

sardonic → propulsive

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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

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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.

sardonic → propulsive

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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.

sardonic → 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.

sardonic → 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.

sardonic → dreamlike

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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 dark fantasy

pace-1·prose0·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+1·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

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