Novels and short stories like unusual RPGs

[rhythmsoundmotion]

What excellent novels or short stories (and manga or graphic novels) capture the same themes, moods, and motifs as these "stranger" RPGs:
Some strange ones I can think of are:
-Electric Bastionland
-Ultra Violet Grasslands and the Black City
-Troika!
-Blades in the Dark
-Eclipse Phase
-Don't Rest Your Head
-Over The Edge
-Maelstrom Storytelling Game
-Paranoia
-Invisible Sun
-Spire: The City Must Fall
-Magnus Archives (I love the podcast)

And, I am probably missing some nice "weird" RPGs.

I want to read something that gets me in the same headspace as these RPGs.

 

[overgeeked]

Over the Edge and Paranoia have novels. Not sure how easy it is to find them.

One of the clear inspirations for Paranoia is Stanisław Lem’s novel Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

Over the Edge and Paranoia have novels. Not sure how easy it is to find them.

One of the clear inspirations for Paranoia is Stanisław Lem’s novel Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I don’t remember much about Memoirs Found in a Bathtub. I like Stanislaw Lem a lot so rereading Memoirs will be great!

 

[jdrakeh]

Naked Lunch and Exterminator!, both by William Burroughs.

 

[zottel]

Lies of Locke Lamorra springs to mind when I read Blades in the Dark. Excellent book in any case!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

-Electric Bastionland
-Ultra Violet Grasslands and the Black City

It's pretty clear both are basically inspired by "weird fiction" in general, and Gene Wolfe in particular, so yeah, Gene Wolfe, the Book of the New Sun but also Electric Bastionland has clear similarities to his The Knight and The Wizard books.

Jeff Vandermeer and China Mieville would also be on the radar here, particularly the Annihilation trilogy (the second book least though, that's almost more in the Severance realm of "office weird") from the former (but also Borne/Dead Astonauts, which is maybe even more Ultra Violet Grasslands-ish).

-Spire: The City Must Fall

Spire is back to China Mieville of course (Perdido Street Station). There are also some fun but not great novels with some similar ideas, like Alistair Reynolds' Terminal World (doesn't really pass the "excellent" test though imo).

In general most of the books you're listing line up broadly with "weird fiction" and the New Weird and so on.

I can also suggest a couple of videogames:

1) Caves of Qud - This is very, very much the exact same genre and very similar vibes to Ultra-violet Grasslands. Post-apocalyptic weird. Closer than any novel I can easily think of. This also benefits from being an absolutely incredibly good game.

2) Control - Somehow like Paranoia, Spire, and Over The Edge all at once. Very weird, very fun, very cool.

-Eclipse Phase

This is the exception - where the rest are "weird", this is just straightforward transhuman fiction, but more extreme than you see in most novels. Unfortunately I can't offhand think of any transhuman-oriented novels I'd consider "excellent" (the best being "pretty good", and most being somewhat insipid).

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

Naked Lunch and Exterminator!, both by William Burroughs.

I checked out Naked Lunch on EBook from my library. They did not have Exterminator.

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

Lies of Locke Lamorra springs to mind when I read Blades in the Dark. Excellent book in any case!

I checked this out on EBook at my Library as well.

 

[jdrakeh]

Exterminator! is a short fiction collection. I think I ordered my physical copy through Barnes and Noble.

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

It's pretty clear both are basically inspired by "weird fiction" in general, and Gene Wolfe in particular, so yeah, Gene Wolfe, the Book of the New Sun but also Electric Bastionland has clear similarities to his The Knight and The Wizard books.

I have read a bunch of Gene Wolfe, but not The Knight and The Wizard books. I have The Knight reserved at my library now.

Jeff Vandermeer and China Mieville would also be on the radar here, particularly the Annihilation trilogy (the second book least though, that's almost more in the Severance realm of "office weird") from the former (but also Borne/Dead Astonauts, which is maybe even more Ultra Violet Grasslands-ish).

The first book, Annihilation, is very popular in my library (estimated 12-week wait). I have it on hold, though.

Spire is back to China Mieville of course (Perdido Street Station). There are also some fun but not great novels with some similar ideas, like Alistair Reynolds' Terminal World (doesn't really pass the "excellent" test though imo).

Perdido Street Station also has a long wait (11 weeks.)

In general most of the books you're listing line up broadly with "weird fiction" and the New Weird and so on.

I can also suggest a couple of videogames:

1) Caves of Qud - This is very, very much the exact same genre and very similar vibes to Ultra-violet Grasslands. Post-apocalyptic weird. Closer than any novel I can easily think of. This also benefits from being an absolutely incredibly good game.

I will keep track of CoQ, but right now I have to budget some RPG purchases

2) Control - Somehow like Paranoia, Spire, and Over The Edge all at once. Very weird, very fun, very cool.

I have Control from an Epic free game giveaway. I need to start playing it to see if I like it.

This is the exception - where the rest are "weird", this is just straightforward transhuman fiction, but more extreme than you see in most novels. Unfortunately I can't offhand think of any transhuman-oriented novels I'd consider "excellent" (the best being "pretty good", and most being somewhat insipid).

Pretty good sounds nice! I have trouble reading the okay stuff I used to devour when I was a teen.