The Skewed Throne

Dissolution

Richard Lee Byers2002

Four drow in the city of Menzoberranzan investigate why their goddess has gone silent and their magic is failing.

Same tense register, still dark fantasy

pace0·prose0·bleak0

The Warrior Prophet

R. Scott Bakker2005

During a holy war, a monk with the power to manipulate thoughts positions himself as a messiah to seize control of the crusading armies.

tense → cold, still grimdark

pace-1·prose+2·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.

tense → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

Ficciones

Jorge Luis Borges1945

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

tense → meditative

pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi2022

A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

tense → playful

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Smokin' Seventeen

Janet Evanovich2011

A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.

tense → playful

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron

Julia Quinn2022

A graphic novel adaptation of a fictional melodrama where an orphan flees a cruel aunt and encounters a man in a remote castle.

tense → playful

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

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.

tense → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·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.

tense → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·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.

tense → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

tense → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·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.

tense → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

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.

tense → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

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.

tense → elegiac, still dark fantasy

pace-1·prose+1·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+2·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.

tense → sardonic, still grimdark

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1