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

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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 Delay

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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 about minds with paranormal abilities — telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, empathy — and how societies handle those who have them.
  • Stories centered on vampires — blood-drinking undead — whether as predators, love interests, or protagonists.
  • Stories centered on witches and the practice of witchcraft — covens, hedge magic, familiars, and the witch's place in her community.
  • 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 mental unraveling — descent into madness, delusion, and minds at war with themselves.
  • 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 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 The Changeover
                  The Changeover

                  Margaret Mahy · standalone novel · 1984

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                  The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance is a low fantasy novel for young adults by Margaret Mahy, published in 1984 by J. M. Dent in the U.K. It is set in Christchurch in the author's native New Zealand.

                • GU
                  Guardians Universe

                  series · 17 books · 2006

                  similar bycontemporary+1 more

                • Cover of Nargun / Wirrun milieu
                  Nargun / Wirrun milieu

                  series · 4 books · 1973

                  completed

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                  Patricia Wrightson's The Nargun and the Stars follows a boy sent to recover on his relatives' rural Australian property, where he becomes entangled with the Nargun, an ancient stone-being drawn from Aboriginal storytelling traditions, alongside other spirits native to the land. The novel treats the Australian bush as inhabited by beings far older than European settlement, seen through a child's slowly widening awareness. It won the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year in 1974.

                • TM
                  Tomorrow (John Marsden)

                  series · 10 books · 1993

                  completed

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                • Cover of Island of the Sequined Love Nun
                  Island of the Sequined Love Nun

                  Christopher Moore · standalone novel · 1997

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                  Island of the Sequined Love Nun is a novel by American absurdist writer Christopher Moore, published in 1997. It is based partly on the author's personal experiences in Micronesia.

                • Cover of The Zone Unknown
                  The Zone Unknown

                  series · 7 books · 1994

                  completed

                  similar bycontemporary

                • Cover of Beyond the Labyrinth
                  Beyond the Labyrinth

                  Gillian Rubinstein · standalone novel · 1988

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                  Fourteen-year-old Brenton questions the choices in his life when an alien anthropologist arrives to study an ancient Aboriginal tribe that once lived in the area around his home.

                • Cover of Surrender
                  Surrender

                  Sonya Hartnett · standalone novel · 2005

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                  Surrender is a novel written by the award-winning Australian novelist, Sonya Hartnett. It was first published in 2005 in Australia by Walker Books. It is narrated by twenty-year-old Gabriel, who is dying, and twenty-year-old Finnigan, a homeless boy who is Gabriel's only friend.

                • Cover of The Unknown Terrorist
                  The Unknown Terrorist

                  Richard Flanagan · standalone novel · 2006

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                  The Unknown Terrorist is the 2006 fourth novel by the Australian novelist Richard Flanagan.

                • Cover of Inquisitor Poldek Tacit
                  Inquisitor Poldek Tacit

                  series · 3 books · 2015

                  similar by+2 more

                • Cover of Damask Circle
                  Damask Circle

                  series · 3 books · 2001

                  similar bycontemporary+1 more

                • Cover of Del-Del
                  Del-Del

                  Victor Kelleher · standalone novel · 1991

                  similar bycontemporary+1 more

                  Del-Del is a psychological young adult novel written by Australian author Victor Kelleher and published in 1992. It deals with themes of loss and apparent demonic possession.

                • Cover of The Gathering
                  The Gathering

                  Isobelle Carmody · standalone novel · 1993

                  similar bycontemporary+1 more

                  The Gathering is an allegorical 1993 Australian young adults' novel written by fantasy author Isobelle Carmody. The book was published by Puffin Books Australia in 1993, The Gathering has sold over 70 000 copies in Australia and New Zealand alone. The book was a joint recipient of the 1993 Children's Peace Literature Award and was also named Book of the Year in 1994 by the Children's Book Council of Australia. In 1994, the novel was also integrated into the literature curriculum for the junior years of Secondary Education in the Australian state of Victoria.

                • Cover of Lauele Universe Stories
                  Lauele Universe Stories

                  series · 13 books · 2012

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                • Cover of Fires of Eden
                  Fires of Eden

                  Dan Simmons · standalone novel · 1994

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                  A comedy/horror novel, set near the Mauna Loa volcano of Hawaii, structured along two main threads of action. The first thread, set in the present at the coastal resort of Mauna Pele, follows Eleanor Perry during a series of disappearances and killings involving guests of the resort. The second thread, set in 1866 and consisting of journal entries, follows the exploits of the author Samuel Clemens during his visit to the same location. Best described as mythological horror.

                • Cover of My Blood Approves
                  My Blood Approves

                  series · 6 books · 2010

                  similar bycontemporary

                • Cover of Rushing to Paradise
                  Rushing to Paradise

                  J. G. Ballard · standalone novel · 1994

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                  Rushing to Paradise is a novel by British author J. G. Ballard, first published in 1994.

                • Cover of Dreaming Down-Under
                  Dreaming Down-Under

                  series · 3 books · 1998

                  similar byoceaniacontemporary

                • Cover of Evil Genius (Catherine Jinks)
                  Evil Genius (Catherine Jinks)

                  series · 3 books · 2005

                  similar bycontemporary

                • Cover of The Family from Zyrgon
                  The Family from Zyrgon

                  series · 2 books · 1985

                  similar by+2 more

                • Cover of Dreamhunter Duet
                  Dreamhunter Duet

                  series · 2 books · 2005

                  similar by+2 more

                  Dreamhunter (2005) and Dreamquake (2007) are two fantasy novels, written by New Zealand author Elizabeth Knox. The former title was nominated for Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2006, and was an American Library Association best book of 2007. Dreamquake received recognition as an Honor Book for the Michael L. Printz Award in 2008. The U.K. title of Dreamhunter is The Rainbow Opera.

                • Cover of The Tricksters
                  The Tricksters

                  Margaret Mahy · standalone novel · 1986

                • RS
                  Roland Smith's Cryptid Series

                  series · 5 books · 1998

                  similar bycontemporary

                • Cover of Reason Cansino
                  Reason Cansino

                  series · 3 books · 2005

                  similar bycontemporary+1 more