• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Fiction Filters

Trope tagging and searching for books

  • Welcome!
    • About the Team
    • About the Project
    • Blog
    • Process and Explanations
    • Why no author demographics?
    • WordPress Implementation
    • Bibliography
    • Acknowledgements
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
  • How to tag
  • Browse tags
    • Genres Index
    • Tropes Index
    • Character Index
    • Locations Index
    • Time Periods Index
    • Endings Index
    • Ratings Index
    • Content Notes and Warnings Index
    • Appeal Index
  • Login
  • Sign up
Cover art for The Hands of the Emperor
Sign in to add your tags

The Hands of the Emperor

Authors:

Victoria Goddard

Series:

The Lays of the Hearth-Fire

Genres:

Fantasy, Fantasy of manners

Tropes:

Fealty, Found family, Playing the long game, Politics, Unreliable narrator

Characters:

Asexual main character(s), Characters in their 50s, Characters in their 60s, Politician, Royalty

Time Periods:

Places:

Africa inspired setting, Pacific Islands inspired setting, Secondary World

Endings:

Triumphant ending

Content Notes:

Sex Ratings:

General: no apparent sexuality or sensuality

Violence Ratings:

Infrequent violence

Language Ratings:

Some profanity

Appeal:

Atmospheric writing, Character-driven, Complex characters, Cozy, Detailed world building, Heartwarming, Irregular pacing, Likeable characters, Lyrical writing, Mythic elements, Single point of view, Slow-paced, Social justice themes, Vibrant characters

An impulsive word can start a war.
A timely word can stop one.
A simple act of friendship can change the course of history.

Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god.
He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person.
He has never once touched his lord.
He has never called him by name.
He has never initiated a conversation.

One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday.

The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy.
The acceptance upends the world.

Similar books

Cover art for The Goblin Emperor
The Goblin Emperor
Cover art for The Warrior's Apprentice
The Warrior’s Apprentice
Cover art for Cackle
Cackle
Cover art for Feed
Feed

Search books…

Include:

Genres

Tropes

Character Traits

Setting: Time Period

Setting: Location

Sex Ratings

Language Ratings

Violence Ratings

Ending Type

Content Notes or Warnings

Appeal

Publication Date

Note that we don't have dates for all the books in our database.

Exclude:

Genres

Tropes

Character Traits

Setting: Time Period

Setting: Location

Sex Ratings

Language Ratings

Violence Ratings

Ending Type

Content Notes or Warnings

Appeal

Authors

Publishers

Publication Date

Note that we don't have dates for all the books in our database.

Search Tips

  • use “quotation marks around a phrase” to search for an exact phrase
  • use – in front of a word or quoted phrase to exclude it from the search results, e.g. -“enemies to lovers”
  • right now, the checkbox options aren’t narrowed down as you search, but stay tuned! We’re working on it.

This is an academic research project on crowdsourced tagging and building a vocabulary for fiction.

How does this work?

  1. Add books to our database, if the book you want to tag isn’t already there. You can import your books from StoryGraph or Goodreads if you want to save time.
  2. Add tags to the books. Your tag set is your own, and you’ll be able to come back and edit it if you want. Other taggers can’t view your tag set or overwrite your tags.
  3. View the book, and use the tags to see what other books share your favorite tropes and characters!
  • Sign Up
  • How to Use this Site
  • Privacy Policy
  • About the Team
  • Contact Us

A Capstone project for the UW iSchool MLIS program · About the Project · About the team · Log in