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Tales of Nevèrÿon

Samuel R. Delany

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Similar in premise + setting

These books are ranked using the premise + setting labels extracted for Tales of Nevèrÿon. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: sword-and-sorcery deconstruction, slave revolt, civilization on the brink, power and language, money economy, metafictional frame, interlinked tales, cultural change

Setting labels used: ancient world, barbarian setting, imperial court, island cultures, mountain villages, mythic world, borderland civilization, long-ago land

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + setting embeddings are close.

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Warrior of the Altaii

Robert Jordan · 2019

A nomadic warrior leader fights drought, rivals, and ominous magic to save his people from collapse.

Why this is here

Premise labels: nomadic warrior culture · resource crisis · drought survival · political conflict · prophecy · magic user visitor · parallel world contact · civilization vs wilderness

Setting labels: plains · steppe · nomadic society · barbarian fantasy · sword and sorcery world · other world · harsh climate · mountain boundary

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2223

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Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was

Angélica Gorodischer · 1983 · Kalpa Imperial

A mythic cycle of tales traces the rise, fall, and reinvention of an imagined empire through many storytellers’ voices.

Why this is here

Premise labels: imaginary empire · rise and fall · imperial history · oral history · storytelling about power · mythic chronicle

Setting labels: imaginary empire · ancient empire · mythic setting · timeless setting · North and South · borderless empire

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2234

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Aliens: Phalanx

Scott Sigler · 2020 · Aliens / Predator / Prometheus Universe

A young runner in a bronze-age human hold must help save her world from the demons stalking its mountains.

Why this is here

Premise labels: pre-industrial survival · alien infestation · last stand · humanity on the brink · resource scarcity · trade between strongholds · weapon discovery · female warrior aspiration · outpost politics

Setting labels: alien planet · medieval society · bronze age · pre-industrial world · mountain strongholds · isolated keeps · feudal society · post-apocalyptic world · fantasy-like setting · rural/tribal society

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2261

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The Veiled Throne

Ken Liu · 2021 · The Dandelion Dynasty

An epic, multi-POV fantasy of dynastic politics, cross-cultural conflict, and a wildly unexpected cooking competition.

Why this is here

Premise labels: imperial politics · war across cultures · dynastic succession · cross-cultural conflict · innovation under pressure · storytelling as power

Setting labels: secondary world · imperial court · war-torn realm · naval journey · foreign land · across cultures · large-scale epic setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2279

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The Languages of Pao

Jack Vance · 2002

An exiled heir returns to a politically fragile world where engineered languages become tools of power and rebellion.

Why this is here

Premise labels: linguistic relativity · language shapes thought · social engineering · cultural transformation · dynastic intrigue · exiled heir · planetary conflict · power struggle · language invention · worldview change

Setting labels: planetary setting · alien societies · interstellar trade · far future · single-planet civilization · agrarian society · harsh outer planet · spacefaring world · cultural isolation

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2397

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Night's Master

Tanith Lee · 1978 · Tales from the Flat Earth

A demon prince toys with mortals across a mythic flat-earth world in linked dark fairy tales.

Why this is here

Premise labels: demon lord · human meddling · mythic world · interlinked tales · worldbuilding

Setting labels: flat earth · underworld · overworld · ancient world · preindustrial world · mythic past · fantasy realm · cosmic world model

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2422

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The Price of Power

Michael Michel · 2025 · Dreams of Dust and Steel

A disgraced prince, an orphaned heir, a seer, and a doomed ascendant are pushed toward choices that may save or end their world.

Why this is here

Premise labels: power cost · political intrigue · succession crisis · world-ending threat · dark prophecy · quest for power · redemption arc · sacrifice

Setting labels: secondary world · continental scale · wartime · court politics · mountain quest · kingdom-level conflict · multiple regions · mythic fantasy world

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2425

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Tuyo

Rachel Neumeier · 2020 · Tuyo

A war-sacrificed warrior survives enemy captivity and must help forge trust across a culture clash to stop a hidden threat.

Why this is here

Premise labels: hostage exchange · enemy captivity · cross-cultural conflict · war sacrifice · enemy alliance · shared enemy · political intrigue · cultural exchange · mind control · memory manipulation

Setting labels: winter country · summer country · borderlands · tribal society · military society · feudal society · nomadic culture · harsh climate · fantasy world · alternate geography

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2461

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Necessity

Jo Walton · 2016 · Thessaly

A Platonic utopia on an alien world faces first contact, a missing goddess, and a time-spanning rescue quest.

Why this is here

Premise labels: Plato's Republic · experimental society · first contact · recontact · divine intervention · time travel quest · lost deity · future civilization

Setting labels: ancient Mediterranean · distant planet · far future · alien planet · interstellar setting · city-state setting · constructed utopia · mythic reality · time travel setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2461

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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Mark Twain · 2007

A 19th-century Yankee wakes in King Arthur's Britain and tries to remake it with modern science, wit, and satire.

Why this is here

Premise labels: time travel · fish-out-of-water · anachronistic knowledge · modernization · culture clash · satire of chivalry · social criticism · civilizational contrast

Setting labels: 6th century England · King Arthur's court · Camelot · 19th century New England · 19th century America · medieval setting · Arthurian world · mythic Dark Ages · industrial age

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2462

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The Price of Spring

Daniel Abraham · 2009 · Long Price Quartet

Fifteen years after war and infertility, a poet, an emperor’s daughter, and a new magic must decide whether peace can survive.

Why this is here

Premise labels: after-war recovery · forced alliance · fertility crisis · reviving magic · political reconciliation · magical consequences

Setting labels: secondary world · postwar world · imperial court · city-states · cross-cultural setting · fantasy kingdom

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2483

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Court of Lions

Somaiya Daud · 2020 · Mirage

A body-double rebel navigates a colonial court, a fragile friendship, and two tangled romances while fighting for her people.

Why this is here

Premise labels: body double · rebel infiltration · court intrigue · colonial resistance · forbidden romance · political maneuvering · succession conflict · dual romance

Setting labels: planetary empire · court setting · spacefaring world · Moroccan-inspired setting · colonized world · royal court · tribal regions · interstellar setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2486

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