After
Wielding a Red Sword
Piers Anthony1986
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
On a Pale Horse
Piers Anthony1983
After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.
Same playful register, still personification of death
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
The Wishing Game
Meg Shaffer2023
A teacher's aide competes against three others on a private island to win the only new copy of a famous author's final book.
Same playful register, still contemporary fantasy
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
The Bear Went Over the Mountain
William Kotzwinkle1996
A bear finds a manuscript in the woods and travels to New York to publish it under a human alias. He becomes a literary celebrity.
Same playful register, still satire
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
Witches Abroad
Terry Pratchett1991
Three witches travel across a continent to stop a wedding. They encounter various fairy tale tropes and subvert them through common sense.
Same playful register, still satire
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak0
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore
Robin Sloan2012
A laid-off tech worker takes a night shift at a mysterious bookstore. He uses modern data analysis to uncover an ancient secret society.
Same playful register, still contemporary fantasy
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+3bleak+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
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+3bleak0
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.
Same playful register, still satire
pace-1·prose+3·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
Little, Big
John Crowley1981
A man marries into a family living in a massive house where the borders of the natural world blur. It follows several generations over a century.
playful → dreamlike, still contemporary fantasy
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+3bleak+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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
The Claw of the Conciliator
Gene Wolfe1981
An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.
playful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
The Mist
Stephen King1980
A group of townspeople is trapped in a grocery store by a thick mist containing lethal monsters while social order collapses inside.
playful → tense
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Changes
Jim Butcher2010
A wizard discovers he has a daughter who has been kidnapped by vampires. He must race against time and sacrifice his principles to save her.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Promise of Blood
Brian McClellan2013
A Field Marshal stages a bloody coup against his king and must defend the new government using soldiers who gain magic powers from gunpowder.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
A Memory of Light
Robert Jordan2013
The final volume of a long-running series where various nations and magical users unite for a final battle against an ancient evil.
playful → earnest
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
Whalefall
Daniel Kraus2023
A diver searching for his father's remains is swallowed by a sperm whale. He has one hour of oxygen to find a way out of the animal's stomach.
playful → tense
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
Little, Big
John Crowley1981
A man marries into a family living in a massive house where the borders of the natural world blur. It follows several generations over a century.
playful → dreamlike, still contemporary fantasy
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
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
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Tam Lin
Pamela Dean1991
A college student in the 1970s joins a group of classics majors and discovers their theater troupe is tied to a faerie blood sacrifice.
playful → meditative, still contemporary fantasy
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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-2·prose+3·bleak+1
Heavier
playful → sardonic, still satire
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
Doctor Rat
William Kotzwinkle1976
A laboratory rat loyal to his human captors defends the practice of vivisection while animals worldwide begin a bloody revolt.
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
The Vengeance of Rome
Michael Moorcock2006
Pyat, an unreliable narrator and Nazi sympathizer, travels through the 1930s. He observes the rise of fascism while remaining self-deluded.
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
The Sub: A Study in Witchcraft
Thomas M. Disch1999
A substitute teacher discovers she has the power of witchcraft. She uses her abilities to manipulate her small town as her sanity deteriorates.
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+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
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
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
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
