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 The Wrong Branch

anchored on:fantasysword and sorcerysecondary worldfriendshipadventurous

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 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 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 Ranger's Apprentice: The Early Years
                  Ranger's Apprentice: The Early Years

                  series · 3 books · 2011

                  completed

                  part of Ranger's Apprentice

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  Ranger's Apprentice: The Early Years is a book series by John Flanagan. It is a prequel to the original Ranger's Apprentice series. The series follows Halt and Crowley and is preceded by the short story "The Hibernian" in the book The Lost Stories, which is the 11th installment to the Ranger's Apprentice series.

                • Cover of Redwall
                  Redwall

                  series · 22 books · 1986

                  completed

                  part of Redwall Universe

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy+1 more

                  Redwall is Brian Jacques's long-running series of fantasy novels for young readers, set within the redwall-universe of Redwall Abbey and its community of anthropomorphic animals. It opened in 1986 with the mouse Matthias searching for the lost sword of the legendary Martin the Warrior to defend the abbey from the invading rat Cluny the Scourge, and grew across 22 largely stand-alone novels published through 2011, each set in a different generation of the abbey's history and following its mice, otters, badgers, and vermin adversaries.

                • Cover of The Scarecrow and His Servant
                  The Scarecrow and His Servant

                  Philip Pullman · standalone novel · 2004

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  The Scarecrow and his Servant is a 2004 children's novel by Philip Pullman. It tells the story of a scarecrow who comes alive after being struck by lightning and sets out on a quest with Jack, an orphan he hires as his servant. As he goes on his quest he tries to reach Spring Valley to claim it for his own. He has many troubles along the way such as a bird who ate his brain and being on a deserted island.

                • Cover of The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread
                  The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread

                  Kate DiCamillo · standalone novel · 2003

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  The Tale of Despereaux is a 2003 children's fantasy novel by American author Kate DiCamillo. The main plot follows the adventures of a mouse named Despereaux Tilling, as he sets out on his quest to save a captured human princess from the villainous rats. The book won the 2004 Newbery Medal award and has been adapted into a film and a video game loosely based on the book, as well as a stage musical.

                • Cover of Deeplight
                  Deeplight

                  Frances Hardinge · standalone novel · 2019

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  Deeplight is a young adult fantasy novel by Frances Hardinge, published October 31, 2019 by Macmillan Children's Books. It is her 9th novel.

                • Cover of The Riyria Chronicles
                  The Riyria Chronicles

                  series · 6 books · 2013

                  part of Riyria

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  The Riyria Chronicles is a series of high fantasy novels by Michael J. Sullivan, published since 2013 by Orbit Books. The series consists of five books, in order of publication: The Crown Tower, The Rose and the Thorn, The Death of Dulgath, The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter and Drumindor. They are prequels to Sullivan's Riyria Revelations series.

                • Cover of Protector of the Small
                  Protector of the Small

                  series · 4 books · 1999

                  part of Tortall

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy+1 more

                  The Protector of the Small quartet is a series of young adult fantasy books by American writer Tamora Pierce. The novels explore themes of adolescence, as well as feminism and multiculturalism.

                • Cover of The Marvellous Land of Snergs
                  The Marvellous Land of Snergs

                  E. A. Wyke-Smith · standalone novel · 1927

                  similar byfriendshipadventurousfantasysecondary world

                  The Marvellous Land of Snergs is a children's fantasy, written by Edward Wyke-Smith and illustrated by the Punch cartoonist George Morrow. It was originally published in Britain by Ernest Benn in September 1927, and later published in the U.S. in 1928 by Harper & Brothers. It is notable as an inspiration source for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

                • Cover of The School for Good and Evil
                  The School for Good and Evil

                  series · 8 books · 2013

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy+1 more

                  The School for Good and Evil is a series of books by Soman Chainani based on fairy tales. The first novel in the series was published on May 14, 2013. The series is set in a fictional widespread location known as the Endless Woods.

                • Cover of The Hobbit
                  The Hobbit

                  series · 2 books · 1937

                  completed

                  part of Tolkien's legendarium

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  The Hobbit (1937) is J. R. R. Tolkien's children's fantasy novel following the reluctant burglar Bilbo Baggins, who joins a company of dwarves and the wizard Gandalf on a journey to reclaim treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug. It stands as a complete adventure on its own, but shares its setting with the rest of Tolkien's legendarium and leads into the events of The Lord of the Rings.

                • Cover of Narnia
                  Narnia

                  series · 26 books · 1950

                  part of Narnia Universe

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven portal fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, the series is set in the fictional realm of Narnia, a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts, and talking animals. It narrates the adventures of various children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the Narnian world. Except in The Horse and His Boy, the protagonists are all children from the real world who are magically transported to Narnia, where they are sometimes called upon by the lion Aslan to protect Narnia from evil. The books span the entire history of Narnia, from its creation in The Magician's Nephew to its eventual destruction in The Last Battle.

                • Cover of The Mistmantle Chronicles
                  The Mistmantle Chronicles

                  series · 6 books · 2005

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  The Mistmantle Chronicles is a series of children's novels by M. I. McAllister about anthropomorphic squirrels, hedgehogs, otters, and moles. The protagonist is a pale, honey-coloured Eurasian red squirrel named Urchin. The series is set in a world of islands that appears to lack any large landmasses.

                • Cover of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz
                  Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz

                  series · 11 books · 2007

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasysword and sorcery+1 more

                  Garth Nix's Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz stories follow a scarred mercenary swordsman and his constant companion, a sentient puppet animated by the spirit of a formidable sorcerer, sent as agents to put down dangerous rogue gods across a wide fantasy world. Rather than one continuous novel, the series unfolds through linked novellas and short stories gathered into standalone collections, mixing swashbuckling action with dry, understated humor. The two collections compile stories published from 2007 into the early 2020s.

                • Cover of My Father's Dragon
                  My Father's Dragon

                  series · 4 books · 1948

                  completed

                  similar byadventurousfantasysecondary world+1 more

                • Cover of Jim Knopf
                  Jim Knopf

                  series · 1 book · 1960

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                • Cover of Brotherband Chronicles
                  Brotherband Chronicles

                  series · 9 books · 2011

                  completed

                  part of Ranger's Apprentice

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                  Hal, Stig, and a crew of Skandian teenagers considered too unpromising for the elite warrior bands are thrown together as the underdog 'Herons' and forced to compete against tougher rival crews in a brutal open-sea trial that's supposed to be a game. John Flanagan's Brotherband Chronicles, set in the same world as Ranger's Apprentice, follows the Herons as they earn respect the hard way and get pulled into real dangers well beyond the training exercise. Shipboard tactics, seamanship, and team loyalty matter as much as any single hero's skill.

                • Cover of The Circle Reforged
                  The Circle Reforged

                  series · 3 books · 2005

                  part of Circle of Magic

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy+1 more

                  The Will of the Empress opens The Circle Reforged, reuniting the four young mages of Tamora Pierce's earlier Circle of Magic quartet as adults, now called to travel together again when one of their own is pressured into an unwanted marriage that could cost her freedom and her magic. The trilogy continues Pierce's world of craft-based magic with a more grown-up cast. It was published between 2005 and 2013.

                • Cover of Tiger and Del
                  Tiger and Del

                  series · 10 books · 1985

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldsword and sorceryfantasy

                  Jennifer Roberson's fantasy series pairs Tiger, a desert-born sword-dancer from the south, with Del, a Northern swordswoman trained in her own tradition of blade-magic, as reluctant partners across a hostile borderland. Beginning with Sword-Dancer and continuing across six numbered novels, the series follows their partnership, and eventual romance, through decades of adventures and shifting political stakes.

                • Cover of Circle of Magic (Tamora Pierce)
                  Circle of Magic (Tamora Pierce)

                  series · 4 books · 1997

                  part of Circle of Magic

                  similar byfriendshipsecondary worldfantasy+1 more

                  Four children who don't fit in anywhere else -- Sandry, Tris, Daja, and Briar -- are brought together at the Winding Circle temple community, where each discovers a form of magic no one recognized in them: thread, weather, smithcraft, and plants. Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic quartet follows their training under unconventional teachers and their growing bond as chosen family, as they learn to turn overlooked, everyday skills into real power. Set in the world of Emelan, it treats craft-based magic as seriously as any wizard's spellbook.

                • Cover of The Wizards of Once
                  The Wizards of Once

                  series · 4 books · 2017

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy+1 more

                  Cressida Cowell's The Wizards of Once is set in a world split between Wizards, who wield magic, and Warriors, who don't -- except that Xar, son of the King of Wizards, can't cast a single spell, and Wish, daughter of the Warrior Queen, secretly possesses a banned magical object. When the two collide in the wildwood while hunting a deadly witch, their meeting sets off an adventure that could reshape both their peoples. The series continues across Twice Magic, Knock Three Times, and Never and Forever.

                • Cover of The Princess and the Goblin
                  The Princess and the Goblin

                  series · 2 books · 1871

                  completed

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                • Cover of Conan Universe
                  Conan Universe

                  series · 205 books · 1932

                  part of Hyborian Age

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldsword and sorceryfantasy

                  The Conan books are sword and sorcery fantasies featuring the character of Conan the Cimmerian originally created by Robert E. Howard. Written by numerous authors and issued by numerous publishers, they include both novels and short stories, the latter assembled in various combinations over the years by the several publishers. The character has proven durably popular, resulting in Conan stories being produced after Howard's death by such later writers as Poul Anderson, Leonard Carpenter, Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, Roland J. Green, John C. Hocking, Robert Jordan, Sean A. Moore, Björn Nyberg, Andrew J. Offutt, Steve Perry, John Maddox Roberts, Harry Turtledove, and Karl Edward Wagner. Some of these writers finished incomplete Conan manuscripts by Howard, or rewrote Howard stories which originally featured different characters. Most post-Howard Conan stories, however, are completely original works. In total, more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories featuring the Conan character have been written by authors other than Howard. This article describes and discusses notable book editions of the Conan stories.

                • Cover of Knight and Rogue
                  Knight and Rogue

                  series · 6 books · 2007

                  similar byfriendshipadventuroussecondary worldfantasy

                • Cover of Forgotten Realms: The Legend of Drizzt
                  Forgotten Realms: The Legend of Drizzt

                  series · 39 books · 1988

                  part of Forgotten Realms

                  similar byadventuroussecondary worldfantasy+2 more

                  The Legend of Drizzt is a series of fantasy novels by R. A. Salvatore that began in 1988, and consists of 39 books as of August 15, 2023. They are based in the Forgotten Realms setting in the dimension of Abeir-Toril on the continent Faerûn in the Dungeons & Dragons universe currently published and owned by Wizards of the Coast. It combines the series The Dark Elf Trilogy, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, Legacy of the Drow, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, and other sets into an abridged compilation. Drizzt Do'Urden is the main character of most of the books.