Loreful
HomeDiscover
Search series, authors…⌘K
Loreful

Reading orders for SF/F series and shared universes — with your place kept in every one.

Explore

UniversesSeriesWorksAuthorsAtlas

Help

FAQAboutSite map

Account & legal

Sign inCreate accountPrivacyTerms

Data

Built on ISFDB, Wikipedia, Wikidata and Open Library. Curated reading orders carry their reasoning on the page; the rest follow publication order. Data sources & licenses

© Loreful · data: ISFDB · CC BY

More like 1939

anchored on:early 20th century

but

Mood

The mood the book leaves you in.

  • The reading experience is propelled by journeys, exploration, and physical risk; excitement and forward momentum dominate over dread or introspection.
  • Joy and loss are deliberately mixed; the resolution grants characters something real while taking something else away, leaving warmth and sorrow together.
  • The book demands work from the reader — dense prose, difficult structure, unfamiliar ideas, or morally uncomfortable material — as part of its intended effect.
  • Grim events, cruelty, or despair dominate the atmosphere, and the book does not soften them with comfort or comic relief.
  • The atmosphere is quietly unsettling — wrongness, unease, and the uncanny pervade the book without necessarily escalating into overt horror.
  • The book is built to move the reader; character feeling is foregrounded and major scenes aim at a strong emotional response.
  • Humor is a primary aim and the prose plays for laughs — comic situations, wit, or dialogue produce sustained comedy, not occasional levity.
  • The book insists that things can improve; effort and decency are shown to matter, and the arc bends toward better outcomes even through hardship.
  • The book teaches as it goes — real facts, history, science, or craft are conveyed in enough depth that learning is part of the reading experience.
  • The book is designed to uplift and motivate, presenting perseverance or achievement in a way that invites the reader to aspire or act.
  • The overall register is cheerful and easygoing; stakes are kept gentle and the book avoids dwelling on pain or dread.
  • Withheld information drives the experience; the book sustains enigmas and secrets the reader wants resolved, whatever its genre.
  • The book is contemplative and inward-looking, giving more weight to thought, memory, and meaning than to external events.
  • The book works as comfort reading — low tension, a soothing pace, and an atmosphere the reader can unwind in.
  • Grief, loss, or melancholy set the dominant register, and the book lets sorrow stand rather than resolving it into comfort.
  • Sustained suspense is the point; the book keeps the reader braced for what happens next through danger, pressure, or impending revelation.
  • Playful invention and charm define the register — fanciful conceits, light absurdity, and a narration that delights in its own oddity.

About

What the story runs on.

  • Stories in which extraterrestrial beings are central — as characters, cultures, or the object of the plot.
  • Stories about minds with paranormal abilities — telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, empathy — and how societies handle those who have them.
  • Stories in which staying alive against nature, catastrophe, or scarcity is the central problem.
  • Stories of lovers kept apart by law, family, faith, or station, where the obstacle to love is the plot.
  • Stories in which a friendship — its making, testing, or loss — is the emotional center.
  • Stories of growing up — a young protagonist crossing from childhood into adult knowledge and responsibility.
  • Stories about who a character truly is — self-discovery, doubled lives, and the search for a self.
  • Stories about mourning — living through the death of a loved one and what loss does to the survivors.
  • Stories in which a buried family truth — hidden parentage, crimes, or shames — surfaces and reorders the present.
  • Stories driven by maneuvering for power — factions, conspiracies, and statecraft conducted in shadow.
  • Stories in which war itself is the subject — combat, occupation, and what warfare does to soldiers and civilians.
  • Stories organized around investigating a killing — the case, the clues, and the pursuit of the killer, in any genre's clothing.

Shelf

Where it sits in the library.

    • Fiction built on magic or other supernatural elements that have no scientific explanation.
    • Secondary-world fantasy at large scale, where the fate of nations or the world turns on the protagonists' struggle.
    • Fantasy set in a recognizably modern city or contemporary world where the supernatural intrudes on everyday life.
    • Fantasy that blends in horror's atmosphere and imagery, keeping a fantastical frame around grim or frightening material.
    • Action-driven fantasy following warriors or rogues with personal stakes against sorcerous threats, rather than world-spanning conflicts.
    • Fantasy set in a real historical period or a close analogue of one, with magic woven into the era.
    • Fantasy in which protagonists cross from the ordinary world into another world through a portal or similar passage.
    • Fiction that retells or reworks a traditional fairy tale in a new form or setting.
    • Fantasy drawing directly on myths, legends, and folklore, retelling them or building on their figures and logic.
    • Fantasy of ghosts, vampires, shapeshifters, psychics, and similar phenomena, usually set in an otherwise ordinary world.
    • Fiction mixing science-fictional trappings with overtly magical or impossible elements in one setting.
    • Low-stakes fantasy emphasizing comfort, community, and everyday pleasures over conflict and peril.
    • Speculative fiction of pervasive moral ambiguity, violence, and cynicism that rejects heroic conventions — fantasy and SF alike.
      • Fiction that extrapolates from science and technology — future societies, space travel, or speculative inventions — within at least nominally natural laws.
      • Science fiction of interstellar scope — starships, galactic polities, and adventure across star systems.
      • Science fiction committed to scientific rigor, where technical plausibility constrains the story.
      • Science fiction centered on armed forces and warfare, told largely from a military point of view.
      • Science fiction of networked, corporate-dominated near futures, pairing high technology with social decay.
      • Science fiction styled on nineteenth-century steam-powered technology, often in a Victorian or pseudo-Victorian setting.
      • Fiction depicting an oppressive or catastrophic society, presented as a warning.
      • Fiction set after civilization's collapse, following survivors in the ruins of the old world.
      • Fiction in which characters move between past and future, and the mechanics or consequences of that travel drive the plot.
      • Fiction exploring a world where a historical event went differently and history diverged from ours.
      • Science fiction about humanity's first encounter and communication with an alien intelligence.
      • Science fiction in which extraterrestrial forces attack or occupy Earth and humanity resists.
      • Fiction whose primary aim is to frighten or unsettle the reader through dread, menace, or the monstrous.
      • Horror of vast, indifferent, incomprehensible entities before which humanity is insignificant, in the Lovecraft tradition.
      • Horror of decaying houses, buried family secrets, and oppressive atmosphere in the Gothic literary tradition.
      • Horror centered on hauntings and the returning dead.
      • Horror located in the mind — paranoia, obsession, and unreliable perception rather than external monsters.
      • Horror built around the reanimated dead and survival amid their outbreaks.
      • Horror defined by explicit, transgressive gore that refuses to cut away from violence.
      • Speculative fiction of the strange and uncanny that resists both natural explanation and standard genre categories.
      • Fiction organized around solving a crime or puzzle, typically following an investigator toward the identification of a culprit.
      • A puzzle-first mystery that lays out clues so the culprit's identity can be deduced before the reveal.
      • Crime fiction of moral ambiguity, fatalism, and hard-edged style, set among the corrupt and the doomed.
      • A mystery following the realistic routines of police work — forensics, interviews, and case-building.
      • A gentle mystery with an amateur sleuth, a small community, and violence kept off the page.
      • A mystery set in a past era, where the investigation works within that period's methods and society.
      • Fast-paced fiction driven by imminent danger, pursuit, or high-stakes conspiracy, built to sustain tension.
      • A thriller of espionage — agents, tradecraft, and intelligence services in conflict.
      • A thriller centered on lawyers and the courtroom, where litigation carries the suspense.
      • A thriller driven by detailed contemporary or near-future technology, often military or scientific.
      • A thriller whose tension comes from mental states and manipulation between characters rather than external action.
      • Fiction whose central plot is a romantic relationship and its development toward an emotionally satisfying resolution.
      • Romance in which one or both partners are supernatural beings, blending fantasy elements into the love story.
      • A fantasy-romance hybrid in which the romantic arc and the fantasy plot carry equal weight.
      • Romance set in a past era, with courtship shaped by the period's society and manners.
      • Romance set in the present day, without supernatural or historical elements.
      • Fiction set in a real past period, where the historical setting materially shapes characters and events.
        • General and literary fiction emphasizing prose style, character interiority, or formal ambition over genre plot conventions.
        • Fiction in a realistic world where magical events occur and are treated as ordinary, in the tradition of Latin American literature.
        • Fiction that ridicules people, institutions, or society in order to criticize them.
        • Fiction of dreamlike, irrational imagery and logic that breaks from realistic representation.
        • Fiction that plays with narrative convention through metafiction, fragmentation, and self-reference.
        • Fiction propelled by journeys, exploration, and physical peril, where action and survival carry the plot.
        • Adventure fiction of ships and seafaring — naval engagements, voyages, and life at sea.
        • Fiction of the American frontier West — gunmen, ranchers, and lawmen, typically in the late nineteenth century.
        • Fiction centered on soldiers, campaigns, and the experience of warfare, historical or imagined.
          • Fiction written primarily to amuse, using comedic situations, wit, or parody as its organizing principle.
            • Multi-generational fiction following a family or dynasty across decades, with inheritance and kinship as the through-line.
              • Fiction whose world runs on explicit game mechanics — levels, stats, and skills that characters can see and exploit.
                • Fiction about costumed or superpowered heroes and their conflicts with comparable villains.

                Practical

                How long a commitment, whether it stands alone, and whether it has finished.

                Tap a chip to ask for it · tap again to rule it out · once more to clear. Numbers show what would be left.

                • Cover of Cryptonomicon
                  Cryptonomicon

                  Neal Stephenson · standalone novel · 1999

                  similar byhistorical fictionour worldearly 20th century

                  There are two main timelines in this novel. This first is during World War II, and follows the lives of three cryptologists: Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse (American), Alan Turing (British), and Rudolf von Hacklheber (German), as well as the strange exploits of Detachment 2702. The second timeline takes place during the present, filled with the offspring of the main characters in the first timeline. They are preoccupied with the construction of a data haven.

                • Cover of The Deep
                  The Deep

                  Alma Katsu · standalone novel · 2020

                  similar byhistorical fictionour worldearly 20th century

                  The Deep is a 2020 historical fiction horror novel written by Alma Katsu. It was published in the United Kingdom through Bantam Press and in the United States through G. P. Putnam's Sons.

                • Cover of Empire of the Sun
                  Empire of the Sun

                  series · 2 books · 1984

                  completed

                  similar byhistorical fiction+2 more

                  J. G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun draws on his own childhood to follow Jim, a British boy separated from his parents in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II and interned in a civilian camp for the rest of the war. Ballard revisited the same period and a version of the same character years later in The Kindness of Women, a more explicitly fictionalized continuation into Jim's adult life. Empire of the Sun is the more directly autobiographical and better-known of the two.

                • Cover of Volk
                  Volk

                  Piers Anthony · standalone novel · 1996

                  similar byhistorical fictionour worldearly 20th century

                  Set During World War II, Volk is the story of friendship that transcends politics and war. Lane is an American fighter pilot; Quality, an American pacifist Quaker; and Ernst, a Nazi.

                • Cover of A Thread of Grace
                  A Thread of Grace

                  Mary Doria Russell · standalone novel · 2005

                  similar byhistorical fictionearly 20th century

                • Cover of Allan Quatermain
                  Allan Quatermain

                  series · 25 books · 1885

                  similar by+1 more

                  Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines, its one sequel Allan Quatermain (1887), twelve prequel novels and four prequel short stories, totalling eighteen works. An English professional big game hunter and adventurer, in film and television he has been portrayed by Richard Chamberlain, Sean Connery, Cedric Hardwicke, Patrick Swayze and Stewart Granger among others.

                • Cover of Pacific War
                  Pacific War

                  series · 2 books · 2007

                  similar byearly 20th century+2 more

                • Cover of Forever
                  Forever

                  Pete Hamill · standalone novel · 2002

                  similar byhistorical fictionour worldearly 20th century

                  A Druid & Irishman, immigrating to the American Colonies gets "cursed" to live forever as long as he remains on Manhattan Island — the story of his journey through time from the mid 1600's through the aftermath of the World Trade Center on 9-11.

                • Cover of Kirby O'Donnell
                  Kirby O'Donnell

                  series · 5 books · 1934

                  completed

                  similar byearly 20th century+1 more

                • Cover of The Night Tiger
                  The Night Tiger

                  Yangsze Choo · standalone novel · 2019

                  similar byearly 20th century

                • Cover of Gregory Sallust
                  Gregory Sallust

                  series · 4 books · 1934

                  completed

                  similar by+2 more

                  Dennis Wheatley's Gregory Sallust novels follow a resourceful, ruthless British secret agent operating against Nazi Germany, beginning with Black August's vision of a Britain collapsing into anarchy and continuing through wartime espionage across occupied Europe. The series, spanning the 1930s to the 1960s, mixes political thriller with Wheatley's taste for scheming villains and narrow escapes.

                • Cover of Bright's Passage
                  Bright's Passage

                  Josh Ritter · standalone novel · 2011

                  similar byhistorical fictionour worldearly 20th century

                  Bright's Passage is the debut novel by singer/songwriter Josh Ritter. It is published by Dial Press and was released June 28, 2011. The first chapter had been previously released for free download on Ritter's official website.

                • Cover of Front Lines
                  Front Lines

                  series · 3 books · 2016

                  similar byhistorical fictionearly 20th century+1 more

                • Cover of Fantastic Fiction of H. Rider Haggard
                  Fantastic Fiction of H. Rider Haggard

                  series · 8 books · 1895

                  completed

                  similar by+2 more

                • Cover of Earth's Children
                  Earth's Children

                  series · 6 books · 1980

                  similar byhistorical fiction+1 more

                  Earth's Children is a series of epic historical fiction novels written by Jean M. Auel set circa 30,000 years before the present day. There are six novels in the series. Although Auel had previously mentioned in interviews that there would be a seventh novel, publicity announcements for the sixth confirmed that it would be the final book in the sequence.

                • Cover of Dark Talents
                  Dark Talents

                  series · 3 books · 2017

                  similar byearly 20th century+2 more

                • Cover of After Such Knowledge
                  After Such Knowledge

                  series · 7 books · 1953

                  completed

                  similar by+2 more

                  After Such Knowledge is James Blish's loosely linked trilogy on the costs of forbidden or dangerous knowledge. It opens with A Case of Conscience, in which a Jesuit scientist studying a seemingly sinless alien race is forced to weigh what he finds against his own faith, continues with the historical novel Doctor Mirabilis about the medieval friar and scientist Roger Bacon, and closes with the two-part Black Easter, in which a magician is hired to loose Hell's demons upon the world for a single day. The three books share a theme rather than a continuous plot or cast.

                • Cover of Blood Red, Snow White
                  Blood Red, Snow White

                  Marcus Sedgwick · standalone novel · 2007

                  similar byhistorical fictionour worldearly 20th century

                  Blood Red, Snow White is a historical novel by Marcus Sedgwick published in 2007. It is a novel set during the Russian Revolution, a fictionalised account of the time the author Arthur Ransome spent in Russia. It was shortlisted for the 2007 Costa Children's Book Award.

                • Cover of Lovecraft's Book
                  Lovecraft's Book

                  Richard A. Lupoff · standalone novel · 1985

                  similar byhistorical fictionour worldearly 20th century

                  Lovecraft's Book is an alternate history novel by American author Richard A. Lupoff. It was released in 1985 by Arkham House in an edition of 3,544 copies. It was the author's first book published by Arkham House.

                • Cover of The Metropolitans
                  The Metropolitans

                  Carol Goodman · standalone novel · 2017

                  similar byhistorical fictionour worldearly 20th century

                  Meeting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the day Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, four thirteen-year-olds help track down a missing book of Arthurian legends that may hold the key to preventing a second attack on American soil.

                • Cover of The Mouse That Roared
                  The Mouse That Roared

                  series · 6 books · 1955

                  completed

                  similar by+1 more

                  The Mouse That Roared launches Leonard Wibberley's satirical series about the tiny fictional Duchy of Grand Fenwick, a European microstate whose leaders declare war on the United States purely to lose quickly and collect the postwar reconstruction aid given to defeated nations. The 1955 novel uses Fenwick's mismatched ambitions to poke fun at Cold War politics and the nuclear arms race, and Wibberley kept the joke going across four more novels into the 1970s. Later entries send the duchy into further absurd confrontations with the wider world, including a race to the Moon and a scheme on Wall Street.

                • Cover of The Years of Rice and Salt
                  The Years of Rice and Salt

                  Kim Stanley Robinson · standalone novel · 2002

                  similar byhistorical fictionour world

                  What if the Black Death had killed nearly everyone in Europe instead of a third of it? Kim Stanley Robinson opens on that premise with a Mongol scout named Bold, who finds a Hungarian city emptied by plague and only narrowly escapes execution meant to contain the contagion; sold into slavery, he ends up serving aboard a Chinese treasure fleet alongside a young African companion. From there the novel follows a recurring cast of souls, reincarnated across centuries and identifiable book to book by the first letter of their names, through an alternate history in which Islamic and Chinese civilizations, not a devastated Europe, shape the world's future.

                • Cover of All Souls
                  All Souls

                  series · 5 books · 2011

                  similar by+1 more

                  A Discovery of Witches is a 2011 historical-fantasy novel and the debut novel by American scholar Deborah Harkness. It follows Diana Bishop, a history of science professor at Yale University, as she embraces her magical blood after finding a long-thought-lost manuscript and engages in a forbidden romance with a charming vampire, Matthew Clairmont.

                • Cover of Aunt Jane's Nieces
                  Aunt Jane's Nieces

                  series · 7 books · 1906

                  completed

                  similar byearly 20th century