Novels about Megadungeon Exploration

[havard]

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Exploration of Moria, the original Megadungeon

-Havard

 

[Dioltach]

Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero, by Jim C. Hines, are set in an extensive dungeon.

 

[Richards]

James Rollins has two present-day novels that might fit the bill. The first is Subterranean, featuring an expedition into a vast tunnel/cavern system under Antarctica, where strange creatures have evolved over the vast span of years. The other - which I thought was by far the better of the two - is Ice Hunt, which takes place up at the other pole, where an abandoned Soviet underground ice station is rediscovered and a team is sent to investigate it. There's an enormous cavern system buried in the glacier with the station, and a strange species inhabiting it with an interesting biological capability that ties in with the original Soviet research that went on in the facility.

Since both are set in the modern day and deal specifically with "frozen megadungeons" I'm not sure if they're quite what you're looking for, but I'll throw them out there just in case you might be interested.

Johnathan

 

[mmadsen]

Doesn't the second Earthsea book, The Tombs of Atuan, take place in a (mega)dungeon?

 

[David Howery]

James Rollins has two present-day novels that might fit the bill. The first is Subterranean, featuring an expedition into a vast tunnel/cavern system under Antarctica, where strange creatures have evolved over the vast span of years. The other - which I thought was by far the better of the two - is Ice Hunt, which takes place up at the other pole, where an abandoned Soviet underground ice station is rediscovered and a team is sent to investigate it. There's an enormous cavern system buried in the glacier with the station, and a strange species inhabiting it with an interesting biological capability that ties in with the original Soviet research that went on in the facility.

Since both are set in the modern day and deal specifically with "frozen megadungeons" I'm not sure if they're quite what you're looking for, but I'll throw them out there just in case you might be interested.

Johnathan

I've read both of those, and liked them. The second one is a bit grim, in that it lists all the 'medical experiments' the USA has done on unwilling/unknowing people around the world (the Russian leader is rather surly about it all, since the USA regularly made claims about Soviet human rights abuses).
Another modern book on the same lines is Reliquary by Lincoln and Child (sequel to "The Relic"). This one deals with the huge and abandoned subway/sewer/maintenance tunnels under New York City (and a tribe of genetic mutant freaks who live there). It's rather creepy.

 

[Ariosto]

Pulp-era Tumithak of the Corridors (reprinted in Black Gate magazine some years ago, along with a sequel or two) fights his way up from the depths to confront the monsters who have taken over the surface world.

 

[Ariosto]

The titular realm of Abe Merritt's The Moon Pool is rather like a D&D dungeon, and the city in The Face in the Abyss has extensive tunnels wherein treasures are secreted and factions fight. "The People of the Pit" lair at the bottom of a long descent.

Several stories of Clark Ashton Smith involve exploration of ruined cities (including subterranean levels) or other places that could be "mega" dungeons (or at least significant parts of such).

 

[RedShirtNo5.1]

Pnume, the last book in the Jack Vance Planet of Adventure series, includes a significant underground adventure. I've always thought it provided some inspiration for elements in module D1, such as classification of passages as primary, secondary, etc.

 

[mmadsen]

Edward Bulwer-Lytton -- the fellow who first wrote, "It was a dark and stormy night..." -- wrote an early (1871), influential, science-fiction novel, Vril, the Power of the Coming Race, that takes place in a underground civilization.

 

[olshanski]

I think Piers Anthony's first novel Chthon may fit the bill.
It is a sci-fi story about a guy (and a group) trying to escape an underground prison planet.

It is NOT your typical Piers Anthony novel. There is no humor, no puns, and the entire thing is the most misogynst novel I've ever read.
Some of the dungeone set-pieces are really interesting... a water-trap, a giant centipede-type creature made out of human corpses, etcetera.