LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book

J.R.R. Tolkien1962

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Redemption in Indigo

    Karen Lord2010

    A woman leaves her husband and encounters a trickster who can manipulate time. The story follows her choices through a West African folk lens.

    playful → warm, still mythic fiction

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → elegiac, still mythic fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    playful → dreamlike, still mythic fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • The Dragon and the Unicorn

    A. A. Attanasio1994

    A celestial being takes human form to engineer the birth of King Arthur. The narrative spans centuries and involves gods, demons, and atoms.

    playful → meditative, still mythic fiction

    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.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·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.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·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.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → dreamlike, still mythic fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    playful → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → tense

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+3

  • 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.

    playful → bleak

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+3

  • 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.

    playful → cold

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+3