Novels with extensive D&D-style ruin/dungeon exploration?

[Nellisir]

The Road West, by Gary Wright. It was an early TSR novel (1990), but not a D&D-branded novel. The second half, at least, read like a campaign journal, adventuring party and all.

It's been 20 years since I read it, but I recall liking it pretty well. I've still got a copy somewhere.

 

[nightwind1]

The REH Conan story "Red Nails" is a quintessential ruin exploration story.

 

[Mercutio01]

I just finished the first of Gygax's Gord the Rogue books, "Saga of Old City." It has an old-fashioned dungeon crawl that takes about about 30 pages. It's not a huge ruin with a lot of exploration, but it is fairly entertaining.

The book has hit-or-miss sections. It reads more like an extended character back-history or a campaign summary of a character's exploits than a focused novel, but it was worth reading even if only for that aspect of it.

 

[Halivar]

Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves (both in the book and on fan-sites, that word is always blue). A photographer finds a labyrinth in his house behind a door that appears mysteriously one day. It's a story within a story within a story (and you don't know which, if any, are real), and a fine example of ergodic literature with a wide following on the internet and numbers of theories about its meaning. The man's spelunking in his own house, and the narrator's side comments about his own life, is really quite chilling. I had trouble sleeping some nights because of it, and had a sense of claustrophobia while I read it.

I won't give away the twist as to what the labyrinth actually is, save that I had the overwhelming urge to yoink it immediately for D&D usage.

 

[olshanski]

Piers Anthony's "Chton" is a mysogynist sci-fi book. The majority of it takes place with the main character entombed in the mines in a prison planet. He tries to escape by leading a rag-tag bunch deeper into the mines and caverns.

 

[Dioltach]

The first two novels in the Goblin series (Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero) by Jim C. Hines are dungeon crawls.

Most of the Realm of the Alfar books by Elizabeth H. Boyer feature dungeon crawls at some point.

 

[Eridanis]

It's been (too many) years since I read them, but there are some dungeon-like elements in the Black Company series. (I'm especially thinking of - SPOILERS! - where Croaker and the Lady are frozen in status and buried deep underground, and the Company tries to find them.)

 

[Nellisir]

It's been (too many) years since I read them, but there are some dungeon-like elements in the Black Company series. (I'm especially thinking of ...

This occurs primarily in Water Sleeps, I think. The setup might be in She Is The Darkness.

 

[PCIHenry]

Hello,

Interesting and enjoyable discussion!

I'll mention two novels that have extensive dungeon-esque crawls and they're definitely as old-school as it gets:

The Man of Gold and Flamesong both by M.A.R Barker the creator of Tekumel, the Empire of the Petal Throne.

I will admit that the Man of Gold is a bit difficult at times to go through unless you are either (a) a true Tekumel fan, (b) have an interest in linguists or (c) fascinated by a unique and alien world setting.

The dungeon part of the first novel that sticks in my mind is the escape through the undercity of Purdimal, a very ancient city. What the Hero (a priest of the knowledge god) encounters there is wonderfully brilliant in it otherworldly distinctiveness (not to mention kind of terrifying).

Flamesong is a faster and easier read as it is written more as an adventure with some excellent world building rather than the other way around.

Here, if memory serves, a group of soldiers stumble across an ancient tube car (think subway) and are propelled half way around the world into the unknown. Along the way they have some interesting encounters exploring the ruins where they have stopped (including a exciting run in with the deadly Ssu)!

Frankly, if you've never had the pleasure of discovering the unique milieu that is Tekumel, you're missing out. Track down a used copy of either book and spend an afternoon (or four) in the most exotic, alien and unusual fantasy world ever created.

Good reading!

Best,

 

[ShadowDenizen]

I'd recommend the "Ancient Blades" trilogy by David Chandler.
Decently written, likable characters, and just plain FUN to read.

Book 2 ("A Thief in the Night") takes place almost entirely in an underground dwarven city inhabited prmarily by undead, and is quite compelling.