Alchemised by SenLinYu

Published 2025 · 1,024 pages · 322,014 words · about 27 hours at an average pace · Fantasy, Romance

How hard is Alchemised to read?

Alchemised scores 61 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 55 out of 100
The text employs a literary vocabulary with some specialized terms related to alchemy and necromancy (e.g., necrothralls, vivimancy, lumithium). While not overly obscure, the language is more complex than contemporary fiction, requiring some attention to understand the nuances of the world-building.
Sentence structure: 60 out of 100
The sentences vary in length and structure, with some longer, descriptive passages and shorter, more direct dialogue. While not as extreme as Proustian subordination, the text requires careful attention to follow the relationships between clauses and ideas, especially during descriptive passages.
Abstraction: 68 out of 100
The narrative balances concrete descriptions of the setting and characters with explorations of philosophical themes such as morality, power, and the nature of the soul. While the story is grounded in specific events, it also raises questions about the ethics of alchemy and the consequences of war, pushing it beyond pure action.
Information density: 62 out of 100
The text presents a moderate amount of information per page, including world-building details, character motivations, and plot developments. Readers must pay attention to understand the complex relationships between characters and the political landscape, but the pacing allows for comprehension without feeling overwhelmed.
Narrative indirection: 65 out of 100
The narrative relies on some degree of inference, particularly in the early chapters, as the reader pieces together the protagonist's past and the nature of her captivity. While not as extreme as Pedro Paramo, the reader must actively engage in constructing the world and understanding the characters' motivations.
Symbolic density: 70 out of 100
The text employs symbolic elements such as the Alchemy Tower, the lumithium manacles, and the necrothralls to represent themes of power, control, and corruption. The characters and settings often carry meaning beyond their literal representation, inviting deeper interpretation of the story's themes.
Ironic distance: 50 out of 100
There is some ironic distance in the narrative, particularly in the contrast between the characters' stated beliefs and their actions. The text invites readers to question the motivations and values of the characters, but the emotional engagement remains relatively direct.
Resolution withholding: 70 out of 100
The text withholds key information about the protagonist's past and the nature of the memory transmutation, creating a sense of mystery and suspense. The ending of the excerpt leaves many questions unanswered, encouraging the reader to speculate about the future of the story.
Structural complexity: 50 out of 100
The narrative employs flashbacks and shifts in perspective, but the overall structure remains relatively straightforward. While the reader must piece together the protagonist's past, the timeline is generally chronological, and the POV shifts are not overly disorienting.

How Alchemised is regarded

Alchemised holds a literary regard score of 60 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Where Alchemised sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (616 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Alchemised scores 82 out of 100. A second mythos, romance, pulls at it with a weight of 0.25. About the map of stories.

Mode: Ironic
All she knew was that as long as those manacles remained locked in place, she wasn’t an alchemist at all.
Symbol: Mythical (Archetypal)
It was curled inwards around the table, wings spread out, head curved down so that its tail was caught within its teeth, consuming itself.
Mythos: Irony vi (irony vi)
Morrough lay reclined upon a throne of bodies.
Genre: Romance + Novel
Kaine Ferron was a dragon, like his family before him.

Where the story of Alchemised takes place

  • Paladia at war, 1785-1787 (Resistance Headquarters, the Outpost, the West Island) (1785 to 1787), the main setting
  • Central, the stasis warehouse and Spirefell, Nov 1788 to Jul 1789 (1787 to 1789)
  • Sea-cliff island in Etras and return to the rebuilt Paladia, 1789-1808 (1789 to 1808)

5 things that are true of Alchemised, with the passage for each

  1. Helena learns the year from a stolen newspaper dated Novembris 1788, fourteen months after the war ended and her last clear memory (1786).

    NOVEMBRIS 1788.

  2. The eight traits carved into Kaine's array are listed as eight words beginning Calculating and ending Unyielding.

    Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding.

  3. Morrough speaks through Luc's body and declares himself Morrough.

    I am Morrough.

  4. The child born to Helena and Kaine is named Enid Rose Ferron, after Kaine's mother.

    ENID ROSE FERRON WAS, ACCORDING to Lila, the easiest baby ever born.

  5. The High Necromancer is finally killed after Lila Bayard returns with a bomb in the epilogue.

    THE HIGH NECROMANCER, MORROUGH, ONCE known as the first Northern alchemist, Cetus, died on a spring day.

Scenes in Alchemised that Frye would name

47 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Demonic imagery, untitled
Morrough lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Throne of fused, breathing corpses is the book's central demonic image.
Anagnorisis, untitled
but in that moment, she knew: This was not Luc. Helena recognises that Luc has been replaced, the pivot of the final war act.
Pathos, untitled
He said nothing else. When she looked up, his eyes were unseeing, the dawn reflecting in the empty blue. The death of Luc Holdfast, the sacrificial hero.
Pathos, untitled
The words had barely passed from his lips when a surge of cold deathly energy hit, slamming through Helena’s resonance. Death of Soren Bayard, the sacrificial death that triggers Helena's necromancy.
Demonic imagery, untitled
The darkness surrounding her never ended. The stasis tank's endless dark and electric surges open the book as a hell of suspended life.
Sparagmos, untitled
The front of her grey uniform tore open as her ribs unfurled in a gush of blood, her chest rent apart. Morrough tears open Warden Mandl, the first display of bodily rending.

Books that share these scenes with Alchemised

About the author

SenLinYu