: Re: What genre is a book in an imaginary world but no other fantasy element? I'm trying to figure out what genre the following is, if any. (I asked a similar question, but this is different now,

What happens in your story seems, from your description, to be action/thriller.

Where your story is set is an imaginary world, bearing some resemblance to the real world in the 1950-ish era.

The question remaining is how central the setting is to the book.

If the world is clearly, inherantly imaginary, blatantly contradicting real-world history or metaphysics, and the story relies on these deviations, then that's inescapably fantasy. Fantasy is a broad category, to such extent that it's seldom crucial to narrow it down further by event-genre (e.g. fantasy-romance; fantasy-thriller, etc). "Dark fantasy" sounds like a safe bet.
If you want significant deviations from real-world history, but nothing else important, that could be an "alternate history" or an "alternate earth." I'm kind of assuming it's not, because it sounds like you're not referencing real-world events, which is a staple of the genre. If you think this might be appropriate, by all means read up on the genre.
If it isn't, then your story is less fantasy, and more "this could have happened, but didn't." That doesn't define a particular genre; indeed, it raises the question why you're tossing the reader into an imaginary world in the first place. Consider: could you plausibly claim that the story took place in the real world, but be vague on precisely where and when? (Like the Simpson's "Springfield"... which is hardly in the "fantasy" genre). If there isn't a reason the world can't be the real world, it probably should be.
Lastly, if your story relies very heavily on a setting remniscant of mid-century earth, it might be "historical" or a period piece. (I find that unlikely, though, if you're describing the world as "imaginary"). "Historical," I think, does combine with other genres, so it might be a "historical thriller".

Hope this is helpful :)

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: Re: What genre is a book in an imaginary world but no other fantasy element? I'm trying to figure out what genre the following is, if any. (I asked a similar question, but this is different now,

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: Verbosity: when's enough enough? In corporate life I've come across two general styles of writing: terse and cryptic or long and complete. In my own writing I tend to go too much in the

: How to handle foreign military ranks? Suppose you have a character who has a rank in a foreign military - say, Feldwebel Hans. That's the equivalent of a Sergeant. On one hand, having people

: Sympathetic portrayal of devout, rule-abiding characters I'm having trouble portraying religious, devout characters as protagonists or viewpoint characters. When I try, I get the sense that the reader

: How do I avoid a â€œmid-story info dump?â€ I am revising the manuscript for a novel. About a third into the story, a major turning point occurs when the main character (through whom the reader

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: Re: What genre is a book in an imaginary world but no other fantasy element? I'm trying to figure out what genre the following is, if any. (I asked a similar question, but this is different now,

More posts by @Sarah872

: Verbosity: when's enough enough? In corporate life I've come across two general styles of writing: terse and cryptic or long and complete. In my own writing I tend to go too much in the

: How to handle foreign military ranks? Suppose you have a character who has a rank in a foreign military - say, Feldwebel Hans. That's the equivalent of a Sergeant. On one hand, having people

: Sympathetic portrayal of devout, rule-abiding characters I'm having trouble portraying religious, devout characters as protagonists or viewpoint characters. When I try, I get the sense that the reader

: How do I avoid a â€œmid-story info dump?â€ I am revising the manuscript for a novel. About a third into the story, a major turning point occurs when the main character (through whom the reader

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: How do I avoid a â€œmid-story info dump?â€ I am revising the manuscript for a novel. About a third into the story, a major turning point occurs when the main character (through whom the reader