Books like 'Word Puppets'
Readers who enjoyed Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy alternate history urban fantasy action / adventure time-travel humor steampunk industrial-era
-
The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud
Rated: 4.62 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsFive months after the events in THE CREEPING SHADOW, we join Lockwood, Lucy, George, Holly, and their associate Quill Kipps on a perilous night mission: they have broken into the booby-trapped Fittes Mausoleum, where the body of the legendary psychic heroine Marissa Fittes lies. Or does it? This is just one of the many questions to be answered in Book 5 of the Lockwood & Co. series...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children -
The Good, The Bad and The History by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSt Mary's is under investigation. Their director has been shot and Max is Number One Suspect. Can things get any worse? We all know the answer to that one.Max needs to get away - fast - and a Brilliant Idea soon leads her to a full-scale uprising in twentieth-century China. If she can come by a historical treasure or two in the process, even better. That is, if she makes it out alive...Categorized as:
time-travel humor fantasy fiction audiobook historical-fiction historical action-adventure -
The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by John Joseph Adams, Stephen King
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe game is afoot! Night Shade Books is proud to present the fantastic adventures of the world's greatest detective — mystery, fantasy, science fiction, horror, no genre can escape the esteemed detective's needle-sharp intellect and intuition... -
The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the globally bestselling author of the Chronicles of St Mary's and Time Police series - the origin story of bounty hunters Smallhope and Pennyroyal.Meet Lady Amelia Smallhope, for whom there is no problem that can't be solved by a drink and a think.And Pennyroyal, for whom there is no problem. Ever.Everyone's favourite bounty hunters. Sorry - recovery agents. No bad guy they can't handle...Categorized as:
time-travel humor fantasy fiction audiobook action-adventure historical-fiction historical -
-
Warbound by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsNew York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author's gritty urban fantasy set in an alternate noir 1930s. A tough P.I. battles an interdimensional monster that wants to suck magic power out of the world. Sequel to Hard Magic and Spellbound. Book Three in the Grimnoir Chronicles...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
The Fall of the House of Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsJohannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy, has come into possession of a vital clue that may lead him to his ultimate goal: a cure for death. The path is vague, however, and certainly treacherous as it takes him into strange territories that, quite literally, no one has ever seen before...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
The Shadows over Marquette by Álex Gilbert
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAriane has found refuge in Illinois, and now plans her rightful return to vampire society. She must stay in control while hiding in nature, while foes old and new converge on her territory... -
The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this thrilling historical fantasy, time-traveling Librarian spy Irene will need to delve deep into a tangled web of loyalty and power to keep her friends safe.Irene is trying to learn the truth about Alberich-and the possibility that he's her father...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk time-travel action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book dragons -
The Brothers Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsHorst Cabal has risen from the dead. Again. Horst, the most affable vampire one is ever likely to meet, is resurrected by an occult conspiracy that wants him as a general in a monstrous army. Their plan: to create a country of horrors, a supernatural homeland. As Horst sees the lengths to which they are prepared to go and the evil they cultivate, he realizes that he cannot fight them alone...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
The Echo Trilogy Collection by Lindsey Sparks
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAll three novels and both Echo Trilogy novellas bundled together!Their love is destined to shatter the boundaries of time...Archaeology grad student Alexandra Larson's world is turned upside down when her mother shares her deepest, darkest secret--that she doesn't know the true identity of Lex's father. The revelation sparks a change within Lex, and her dreams become far too real...Categorized as:
time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history book female-mc fiction historical -
Spellbound by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsDark fantasy goes hardboiled in #2 of the hard-hitting Grimnoir Chronicles by the New York Times best-selling creator of Monster Hunter International... -
Sword and Pen by Rachel Caine
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWith the future of the Great Library in doubt, the unforgettable characters from Ink and Bone must decide if it's worth saving in this thrilling adventure in the New York Times bestselling series.The corrupt leadership of the Great Library has fallen. But with the Archivist plotting his return to power, and the Library under siege from outside empires and kingdoms, its future is uncertain...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book dystopia female-author -
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsWhen the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children -
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsMatt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history animals audiobook book children -
-
Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsA legendary ghost ship. An incredible treasure. A death-defying adventure.Forty years ago, the airship Hyperion vanished with untold riches in its hold. Now, accompanied by heiress Kate de Vries and a mysterious gypsy, Matt Cruse is determined to recover the ship and its treasures...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adaptations alternate-history audiobook book children -
The Convent's Secret by C.J. Archer
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTo find the one man who can fix the magic in Matt’s watch, he and India are led to a convent where the nuns will do anything to keep their secrets private. Including murder? Matt and India must uncover the truth behind the disappearance of the mother superior and two babies given to her care many years ago. But sometimes, the truth is painful and its exposure can have deadly consequences...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book crime female-author -
The Shadow of Water by Jacquelyn Benson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLily Albright can see the future, and it looks like hell. In an England on the brink of war, Lily is plagued by visions of the cataclysmic destruction of London. An ancient prophecy is coming to fruition, and it starts with the gruesome discovery of a corpse in the sewers.To save her city, Lily must untangle a web of conspiracy and violence...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history book female-mc fiction gaslamp -
In Plain Sight by Dan Willis
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen a magical plague is released in a Depression-era New York soup kitchen, private detective Alex Lockerby finds himself in a desperate hunt to catch a madman before he can strike again.His investigations lead Alex to a famous thief, a daring heist, and the search for a mythic book of ancient magic, but none of that brings him any closer to finding the man responsible for the massacre...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book cozy -
The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsJim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors…Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world... -
Twig by Wildbow
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe year is 1921, and a little over a century has passed since a great mind unraveled the underpinnings of life itself. Every week, it seems, the papers announce great advances, solving the riddle of immortality, successfully reviving the dead, the cloning of living beings, or blending of two animals into one... -
Angel Fire by Ella Summers
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsCadence Lightbringer, daughter of an archangel, has trained from birth to one day drink the Nectar of the gods and ascend to the angels’ ranks. She’s always been the perfect soldier. She’s always known exactly where her life is headed. Until she is assigned to a mission with Damiel Dragonsire, Master Interrogator of the Legion of Angels...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alpha-mc alternate-history angels -
The Rising by Ian Tregillis
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe second book in the Alchemy Wars trilogy by Ian Tregillis, an epic tale of liberation and war. Jax, a rogue Clakker, has wreaked havoc upon the Clockmakers' Guild by destroying the Grand Forge. Reborn in the flames, he must begin his life as a free Clakker, but liberation proves its own burden... -
The Magician's Diary by C.J. Archer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPRAISE FOR C.J. ARCHER'S GLASS AND STEELE SERIES: "Part romance, part mystery, part magic; all of which a joy to read." - Dreamer J's Book Reviews "This story has everything I look for in a quality, entertaining piece of fiction. 1) A strong female lead, 2) a dark and mysterious male character (I admit, they are my weakness), 3) eloquent writing, and 4) lots of quirky humor and banter...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book crime -
Marking Time by April White
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSeventeen-year-old tagger Saira Elian can handle anything... a mother who mysteriously disappears, a stranger who stalks her around London, and even the noble English Grandmother who kicked Saira and her mother out of the family...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk time-travel action-adventure alpha-mc alternate-history audiobook book -
-
The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsA corrupt countessA spy in dangerAnd an assassin at largeThe fifth title in Genevieve Cogman's witty and wonderful Invisible Library series, The Mortal Word is a rollicking literary adventure.Peace talks are always tricky, especially when a key diplomat gets stabbed. This rudely interrupts a top-secret summit between the warring dragons and Fae...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk time-travel action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book crime -
The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAfter being commissioned to find a rare book, Librarian Irene and her assistant, Kai, head to Prohibition-era New York and are thrust into the middle of a political fight with dragons, mobsters, and Fae. In a 1920s-esque New York, Prohibition is in force; fedoras, flapper dresses, and tommy guns are in fashion: and intrigue is afoot...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk time-travel action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book dragons -
The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA professional spy for a mysterious Library which harvests fiction from different realities, Irene faces a series of assassination attempts that threaten to destroy her and everything she has worked for.Irene is teaching her new assistant the fundamentals of a Librarian's job, and finding that training a young Fae is more difficult than she expected... -
Stolen Magic by Stephanie Burgis
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen Kat’s family travels to a grand country house on the Devon coast for her sister Angeline’s wedding, Kat is stalked by a dangerous magical enemy - and finds everything she thought she knew about her late mother called into question...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era action-adventure alternate-history book children family fiction -
The Shotgun Arcana by R.S. Belcher
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsR. S. Belcher’s debut novel, The Six-Gun Tarot, was enthusiastically greeted by critics and readers, who praised its wildly inventive mixture of dark fantasy, steampunk, and the Wild West. Now Belcher returns to Golgotha, Nevada, a bustling frontier town that hides more than its fair share of unnatural secrets.1870...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history angels book cosmic-horror -
Hexbreaker by Jordan L. Hawk
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsWill a dark history doom their future together?New York copper Tom Halloran is a man with a past. If anyone finds out he once ran with the notorious O'Connell tunnel gang, he'll spend the rest of his life doing hard time behind bars. But Tom's secret is threatened when a horrible murder on his beat seems to have been caused by the same ancient magic that killed his gang...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history alternate-universe animals -
The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA Librarian’s work is never done, and once Irene has a quick rest after their latest adventure, she is summoned to the Library. The world where she grew up is in danger of veering deep into chaos, and she needs to obtain a particular book to stop this from happening...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk time-travel action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book crime -
Airman by Eoin Colfer
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsOne dark night on the island of Great Saltee, fourteen-year-old Conor is framed for a terrible crime he didn’t commit. Thrown into prison by the dastardly Hugo Bonvilain, Conor is trapped in a seaswept dungeon and branded a traitor. He must escape and clear his name; he wants his old life back – his family, his friends . . . and his princess.Conor knows there is only one way out...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk 21st-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children -
Hard Magic by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsJake Sullivan is a licensed Private Eye—with a seriously hardboiled attitude. He also possesses raw magical talent and the ability to make objects in his vicinity light as a feather or as heavy as depleted uranium, all with a magical thought. It's no wonder the G-men turn to Jake when they need someone to go after a suspected killer who's been knocking off banks in a magic-enhanced crime spree... -
Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWhen Mairelon made Kim his ward, he promised to teach her to be a lady and a magician. But magic proves to be harder than it looks for a girl who has just learned to read, and being a lady is even harder. Before frustration - and Merrill's formidably correct aunt - can drive her mad, a mysterious gentleman attempts to burgle the Merrill town house...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history book children coming-of-age -
-
The Timeseer's Gambit by Kate McIntyre
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt’s been three months since mild-mannered Christopher Buckley began working with Olivia Faraday, the eccentric Deathsniffer. They’ve hunted killers, solved murders, and learned to work together. But their greatest challenges are yet to come…As a brutal heat wave wracks an increasingly unstable Darrington City, someone is killing young priests. Worse, they are using bound elementals to do it...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history alternate-universe book crime -
Time of Trial by Michael Pryor
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the fourth book of this utterly addictive series, magical genius Aubrey Fitzwilliam is heading deep into the heart of enemy territoryluckily, with his friends by his side It may look like a simple wire device, but the Beccaria Cage could be the cure for Aubrey's condition: a way to reunite his body and soul. But can Aubrey solve its mysteries while Dr... -
Word of Honour by Michael Pryor
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSinister plots, schemes within schemes, magical upheavals, and a world to save from evil. As always, Aubrey goes looking for trouble--and finds it, in spades.Magical genius Aubrey Fitzwilliam, along with his loyal friend George, is trying to immerse himself in his new life at university. But for Aubrey life is never straightforward...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history book children-books family fiction -
The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings1870. Maude Stapleton, late of Golgotha, Nevada, is a respectable widow raising a daughter on her own. Few know that Maude belongs to an ancient order of assassins, the Daughters of Lilith, and is as well the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Anne Bonney, the legendary female pirate... -
The Paradox by Charlie Fletcher
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSOMETIMES YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR – SOMETIMES IT LOOKS BACKThose who belong to the secret society called the Oversight know many things. They know cold iron will hold back the beasts in the darkness. They know it is dangerous to stand between two mirrors. And they know that, despite their dwindling numbers, it remains their duty to protect humanity from the supernatural. And vice versa...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book fae female-mc -
Renegade Magic by Stephanie Burgis
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe feisty Kat Stephenson is back in the second installment of the Regency era magical trilogy Kirkus Reviews calls “enjoyable mayhem... -
Chainbreaker by Tara Sim
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsClock mechanic Danny Hart knows he's being watched. But by whom, or what, remains a mystery. To make matters worse, clock towers have begun falling in India, though time hasn't Stopped yet. He'd hoped after reuniting with his father and exploring his relationship with Colton, he'd have some time to settle into his new life. Instead, he's asked to investigate the attacks...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk time-travel action-adventure alternate-history asian-mc audiobook book -
The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSomeone is killing Britain's warlocks.Twenty-two years after the Second World War, a precarious balance of power maintains the peace between Great Britain and the USSR. For decades, the warlocks have been all that stand between the British Empire and the Soviet Union-- a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel... -
The Ink Master's Silence by C.J. Archer
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt should be a happy time for India and Matt, but forces beyond their control conspire to ruin their future. A distraction from their troubles comes in the form of murder. When the editor of The Weekly Gazette is killed, controversial journalist and ink magician Oscar Barratt asks India and Matt to investigate...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book female-author fiction -
Her Majesty's Necromancer by C.J. Archer
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen bodies go missing from the cemetery, Lincoln and the Ministry of Curiosities investigate. But not Charlie. As a housemaid at Lichfield Towers, she doesn't get involved in Ministry business.Instead, she conducts investigations of her own. She searches for details about her real mother, and makes inquiries into Lincoln's background...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book female-mc -
-
Spellbreaker by Charlie N. Holmberg
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsA world of enchanted injustice needs a disenchanting woman in the newest fantasy series by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician.The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk 21st-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book crime -
Rebirth by Craig Zerf
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWill you survive? A series of solar flares smash the world back into the Dark Ages. Chaos follows. Millions die in the post-apocalyptic aftermath.One man is changed by the radiation. Marine Sergeant Hogan. Turning him into a superhuman being. Faster, stronger and able to create magic.He has become - The Forever Man. Oorah!But even he is not ready for what happens next... -
The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsJohannes Cabal and his rather inexact powers of necromancy are back once more. This time, his talents are purchased by The Fear Institute as they hunt for the Phobic Animus - the embodiment of fear...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLet the world burn.With an iron fist, the Great Library controls the knowledge of the world, ruthlessly stamping out all rebellion and, in the name of the greater good, forbidding the personal ownership of books.Jess Brightwell has survived his introduction to the sinister, seductive world of the Library, but serving in its army is nothing like he envisioned... -
The Plastic Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg returns to the enchanting world of The Paper Magician.Alvie Brechenmacher has arrived in London to begin her training in Polymaking—the magical discipline of bespelling plastic. Polymaking is the newest form of magic, and in a field where there is so much left to learn, every Polymaker dreams of making the next big discovery... -
The Mapmaker's Apprentice by C.J. Archer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen an apprentice from the Mapmakers' Guild goes missing, Matt and India are employed to find him. Going undercover as a married couple, they discover that not everyone at the guild is what they seem, and the lad's unearthly maps caused jealousy, suspicion and fear...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era steampunk time-travel action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.