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 Farthing

anchored on:alternate historypolitical intriguealternate earthmid 20th centurytensemystery & detective+6 more

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 venturing into space to explore — survey missions, astronauts, and the frontier of the unknown beyond Earth.
  • Stories structured as a quest — a journey undertaken to find, deliver, or destroy something of great import.
  • 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 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 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 Fatherland
                  Fatherland

                  Robert Harris · standalone novel · 1992

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensedarkpolitical intriguetotalitarianismmurder investigationalternate historymystery & detective+1 more

                  Twenty years after Nazi Germany won the Second World War, Berlin is preparing to celebrate Adolf Hitler's seventy-fifth birthday when detective Xavier March is called to investigate a body pulled from a lake, ostensibly an accident, but one that leads him to a string of suspiciously staged deaths among senior Nazi officials. Ordered off the case by the Gestapo but quietly told to keep going by his own superior, March teams up with an American journalist, Charlie Maguire, and starts following a trail toward Swiss bank accounts and a secret the regime has spent two decades burying. Robert Harris's alternate-history debut novel.

                • Cover of Small Change
                  Small Change

                  series · 4 books · 2006

                  similar bytensemid 20th centurypolitical intriguetotalitarianismdarkalternate historybritish islesalternate earth+4 more

                  The Small Change trilogy is a series of alternate history thriller novels by the author Jo Walton that were published from 2006 to 2008. The series are set in a Europe in which the United Kingdom exits World War II in 1941. As the series begins, Britain itself slides toward fascism. The series has three books:Farthing Tor Books August 8, 2006, ISBN 0-7653-1421-5, ISBN 978-0-7653-1421-5 Ha'penny, Tor Books; Reprint edition July 1, 2008, ISBN 0-7653-5808-5, ISBN 978-0-7653-5808-0 Half a Crown, Tor Books; September 30, 2008, ISBN 0-7653-1621-8, ISBN 978-0-7653-1621-9

                • Cover of Dominion
                  Dominion

                  C. J. Sansom · standalone novel · 2012

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensepolitical intriguedarktotalitarianismalternate historybritish islesthriller & suspense

                  Dominion is a 2012 alternative history novel by British author C. J. Sansom. It is a political thriller set in the early 1950s against the backdrop of a Britain that has become a satellite state of Nazi Germany. The point of divergence from actual history is that Lord Halifax, rather than Winston Churchill, succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister in May 1940 leading to an armistice with Germany.

                • Cover of SS-GB
                  SS-GB

                  Len Deighton · standalone novel · 1978

                  similar bydarktensepolitical intriguemurder investigationalternate historybritish islesmystery & detectivescience fiction+1 more

                  It's November 1941 in a Britain that lost the war: Operation Sea Lion succeeded, Churchill was executed, and the King is a prisoner in his own Tower of London. Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer, still working homicide for the Metropolitan Police under German occupation, catches what looks like a routine case, a well-dressed man murdered above an antiques shop, until the body's oddities point toward something far more dangerous than burglary gone wrong. Archer's investigation collides with occupation politics, the British resistance, and rival factions of the SS and the German Army, each wanting the case to go a different way. Len Deighton's alternate-history spy thriller.

                • Cover of Maggot Moon
                  Maggot Moon

                  Sally Gardner · standalone novel · 2012

                  similar bymid 20th centurydarktensetotalitarianismalternate earthalternate history+1 more

                  Maggot Moon is a young adult novel written by Sally Gardner, illustrated by Julian Crouch, and published February 12, 2013 by Candlewick Press. The book takes place in an alternate timeline of 1956 as the characters live in "The Motherland," telling a tale of what could have happened had the Nazis won the Second World War.

                • Cover of The Manchurian Candidate
                  The Manchurian Candidate

                  Richard Condon · standalone novel · 1959

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensepolitical intriguedarktotalitarianismthriller & suspense

                  The Manchurian Candidate (1959), by Richard Condon, is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. The novel has been adapted into a feature film twice; the first is The Manchurian Candidate (1962), which deals with anti-communist hysteria in U.S. politics, and the second is The Manchurian Candidate (2004), which deals with corporate interference in the U.S. government.

                • Cover of The Iron Dream
                  The Iron Dream

                  Norman Spinrad · standalone novel · 1972

                  similar bymid 20th centurydarktotalitarianismalternate earthalternate historyscience fiction

                  Contains "The Lord of the Swastika", a Science Fiction Novel by Adolf Hitler, plus an afterword by Homer Whipple. In this universe, Adolf Hitler (1889-1953) emigrated to the US in 1919 and became a popular science fiction author, fan and illustrator. "The Lord of the Swastika" won a posthumous Hugo in 1955.

                • Cover of The Midwich Cuckoos
                  The Midwich Cuckoos

                  John Wyndham · standalone novel · 1957

                  similar bymid 20th centurydarktensebritish islesscience fiction

                  The Midwich Cuckoos is a 1957 science fiction novel written by the English author John Wyndham. It tells the tale of an English village in which the women become pregnant by brood parasitic aliens. The book has been praised by many critics, including the dramatist Dan Rebellato, who called it "a searching novel of moral ambiguities", and the novelist Margaret Atwood, who called the book Wyndham's "chef d'œuvre". The book has been adapted for film, radio, and television.

                • Cover of Animal Farm: A Fairy Story
                  Animal Farm: A Fairy Story

                  George Orwell · standalone novel · 1945

                  similar bymid 20th centurypolitical intriguedarktotalitarianismbritish isles

                  WorldCat: "Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal."

                • Cover of The Kraken Wakes
                  The Kraken Wakes

                  John Wyndham · standalone novel · 1953

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensedarkscience fiction+1 more

                  " Behind a spectacular meteor shower actually hides the beginning of an invasion by a mysterious and powerful alien race. Earth's life is disrupted by the attacks of extraterrestrials whose war machines, emerging from the depths of the oceans, seem indestructible. The coalitioned forces of the whole world are worthless, powerless in the face of the indecipherable and deadly plans of a superior intelligence, capable of bringing the entire planet to the brink of catastrophe" Goodreads May 20, 2022

                • Cover of When the Sleeper Wakes
                  When the Sleeper Wakes

                  H. G. Wells · standalone novel · 1899

                  similar bydarktensepolitical intriguetotalitarianismbritish islesscience fiction

                  Graham, an insomniac Englishman in 1890s London, takes a course of sleep-inducing drugs and falls into a coma that lasts two centuries. He wakes in the year 2100 to find his investments have compounded, through a ruling body called the White Council, into effective ownership of most of the world's wealth and power, making him, on paper, humanity's master, and in practice, its prisoner, held under guard while the Council governs in his name. A rebel faction led by a man named Ostrog frees him, hoping to use his symbolic authority to spark an uprising against the Council. An early H. G. Wells dystopia about inherited power and manufactured consent.

                • Cover of The Apollo Murders
                  The Apollo Murders

                  Chris Hadfield · standalone novel · 2021

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensepolitical intriguemurder investigationalternate historythriller & suspense

                  The Apollo Murders is a 2021 alternate history, thriller novel by Canadian retired astronaut and writer Chris Hadfield. It was first published in October 2021 in the United States by Little, Brown and Company, and in the United Kingdom by Quercus. The book is Hadfield's debut novel, and is the first in his Apollo Murders series, followed later by The Defector in 2023 and Final Orbit in 2025. Hadfield had previously published three non-fiction books, his first being his autobiography, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth (2013).

                • Cover of Fail-Safe
                  Fail-Safe

                  Harvey Wheeler & Eugene Burdick · standalone novel · 1962

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensedarkthriller & suspense+1 more

                  Fail-Safe is a bestselling American novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. Expanded from Wheeler's short story "Abraham '59", it was initially serialized in three installments in the Saturday Evening Post on October 13, 20, and 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

                • Cover of Shift
                  Shift

                  Dale Peck & Tim Kring · standalone novel · 2010

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensedarkpolitical intriguealternate historythriller & suspense

                  Shift is a 2010 alternative history book by Tim Kring and Dale Peck and is the first book in the Gates of Orpheus trilogy, originally titled as the Flag of Orpheus trilogy. The book was released on August 10, 2010 in the United States by Crown Publishing and centers around a series of secretive government experiments with LSD and its repercussions. Kring has stated that he first began work on the novel after the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and intended to make use of multiple forms of media to promote the novel and further its storyline.

                • Cover of Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas?
                  Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas?

                  Bryce Zabel · standalone novel · 2013

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensepolitical intriguedarkalternate historythriller & suspense

                  "What if Kennedy survived Dallas? President John F. Kennedy has lived through the ambush in Dealey Plaza. America holds its collective breath, seeing its president nearly executed in broad daylight. But as the country marches on, the office of the President finds itself under a much more insidious type of fire. Political scandal, an endless war, and a country coming apart at the seams take the 1960's in a terrifying new direction, and both John and his attorney-general brother, Bobby, struggle to stay ahead of their enemies, political and otherwise, and steer America toward a greater future." (synopsis from OCLC)

                • Cover of Winter Kills
                  Winter Kills

                  Richard Condon · standalone novel · 1974

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensepolitical intriguedarkalternate historythriller & suspense

                  A thinly-veiled alternate history of the Kennedy assassination.

                • Cover of The Children of Men
                  The Children of Men

                  P. D. James · standalone novel · 1992

                  similar bydarktensepolitical intriguetotalitarianismbritish islesscience fiction

                  "The human race has become infertile, and under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiatt, the Warden of England the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly his life is changed irrevocably, as he faces agonising choices which could affect the future of mankind." (pdjames.co.uk)

                • Cover of Century Rain
                  Century Rain

                  Alastair Reynolds · standalone novel · 2004

                  similar bymid 20th centurymurder investigationalternate historymystery & detectivescience fiction+2 more

                  Century Rain is a 2004 noir science fiction alternative history mystery novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds (ISBN 0-575-07436-1).

                • Cover of Falling Angel
                  Falling Angel

                  William Hjortsberg · standalone novel · 1978

                  similar bymid 20th centurydarktensemurder investigationmystery & detective

                  Falling Angel is a 1978 horror novel by American writer William Hjortsberg. Written in a hardboiled detective style with supernatural themes, it was adapted into the 1987 film Angel Heart.

                • Cover of The Plot Against America
                  The Plot Against America

                  Philip Roth · standalone novel · 2004

                  similar bydarktensepolitical intriguetotalitarianismalternate historyscience fiction

                  Roosevelt is defeated in 1940 by Charles Lindbergh, who guides the US towards fascism and anti-Semitism.

                • Cover of Lord of the Flies
                  Lord of the Flies

                  William Golding · standalone novel · 1954

                  similar bymid 20th centurydarktense+2 more

                  Lord of the Flies is the 1954 debut novel of British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of prepubescent British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves that lead to a descent into savagery. The novel's themes include morality, leadership, and the tension between civility and chaos.

                • Cover of A Report from Group 17
                  A Report from Group 17

                  Robert C. O'Brien · standalone novel · 1972

                  similar bymid 20th centurytensedarkpolitical intriguethriller & suspensescience fiction

                  A Report from Group 17, published in 1972, is a science-fiction thriller written by Robert Leslie Conly under his pen name Robert C. O'Brien. Set in Washington, D.C., during the Cold War, the story deals particularly with the danger of developing bioweapons. The potential cause of conflict is a resurgence of Nazism in Europe. A 12-year-old girl who lives near a Soviet estate in Maryland becomes a victim of intrigue when she is kidnapped for use as an experimental subject. Themes include the threat of modern war to human survival, the moral responsibility of scientists, and the importance of both individual freedom and sympathetic instincts. Following two novels for children, A Report from Group 17 was the first of two dystopian novels that O'Brien wrote for adults. His last novel, Z for Zachariah (1974), depicts a conflict between two survivors of a nuclear war and deals with similar themes.

                • Cover of The Death of Grass
                  The Death of Grass

                  John Christopher · standalone novel · 1956

                  similar bymid 20th centurydarktensebritish islesscience fiction

                  The Death of Grass is a 1956 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel written by the English author Sam Youd under the pen name John Christopher. The plot concerns a virus that kills off grass species, including rice and wheat. The Death of Grass was the first of several post-apocalyptic novels written by Youd. The novel was written in a matter of weeks and liberated him from his day job.

                • Cover of Bioshock: Rapture
                  Bioshock: Rapture

                  John Shirley · standalone novel · 2011

                  similar bymid 20th centurydarktensepolitical intriguescience fiction

                  BioShock: Rapture is a 2011 science fiction novel written by John Shirley, published by Tor Books in the United States and by Titan Books in the United Kingdom. Rapture forms part of the BioShock retrofuturistic media franchise created by Ken Levine and published by 2K Games and developed by several studios, including Irrational Games and 2K Marin. A prequel to the first BioShock game the novel tells the story of how Andrew Ryan founded the underwater city of Rapture. The book follows multiple BioShock characters. The cover art was designed by Craig Mullins, who also produced the cover art for BioShock 2. It was released July 19, 2011.