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The Kingdoms
Natasha Pulley
2021 · Science fiction
How it reads
The Kingdoms is science fiction (alternate-history time-travel, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in no single period, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, war and love. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, one viewpoint
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- identity, war, love
- Ending style
- bittersweet
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
The gracekeepersKirsty LoganShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, bittersweet ending- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the WorldHaruki MurakamiShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- SpinRobert Charles WilsonShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
The dog starsPeter HellerShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- I Cannot Get You Close Enough: Three NovellasEllen GilchristShares: melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, bittersweet ending
- ContactCarl SaganShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, bittersweet ending
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