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  • morganth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 months ago

    If I love “unreliable shifting cities” narratives, like Dark City, Fallen London and the City of Saints and Madmen books, what similar kinds of settings might I like?

    • ALostInquirer@lemm.eeOP
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      11 months ago

      I’m not familiar with those, so this might be a bad suggestion, but the short description makes me think this may still fit, have you read The City & the City by China Miéville?

      It’s set in two overlapping cities, whose inhabitants diligently disregard the other city’s until they formally cross the borders, and it’s a crime to do otherwise. It’s a pretty compelling read imo!

          • Khrux@ttrpg.network
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            11 months ago

            I stumbled across this the other week while trying to find the name of the book invisible cities and gave it a watch because the trailer reminded me of Disco Elysium.

            Without knowing the original novel, I thought it was really compelling and entertaining, with my only major critique being the pacing of the final episode, but equally 4 episodes is such an easy commitment that I’d absolutely recommend the show if you aren’t in the mood to pick up a book.

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      If an unreliable shifting house would work, House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. The writing is very much love it or hate it for a lot of people, but the idea fits.

      Edit: Oh! And House of Windows by John Langan. No relation despite the similar titles.

      • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nz
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        11 months ago

        Hell yes. Man, the 90s even into the early 2000s we had some freakin great wierd movies. 1999 might be the best year ever for movies.

        I don’t think we will ever see an era like that again.

    • Rinn@literature.cafe
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      11 months ago

      Maybe Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente? Her Orphan’s Tales have some interesting cities too, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

      Again, not just one city, but take a look at Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino - it was a direct inspiration for Fallen London.

      China Miéville might be worth checking out - go for either the City and the City or for Perdido Street Station.

        • athos77@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          I saw the tv series first (the book came later) and really enjoyed it. I think some of the special effects are dated and … I’m not sure but, like, when I read the book, the tv characters had already been established in my brain as canonical, so I saw and heard those characters as I read the book. In cases where I’ve read the book first, sometimes I have my own version of canonical characters in my brain and it can be hard for me to accept those characters if I really loved the book and the on-screen depiction is very different. And the opportunity for a disconnect (and disappointment) between versions just increases when you’re dealing with a world that varies (yet is so dependent) on our own.

          tl;dr: you might find it disappointing because it doesn’t ‘match’ the world you read, or because of some of the effects. But I absolutely loved the series, both at the time and still now - I watched it again just over the summer.

          • DogWater@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Such a good point about accepting the character in TV and movie adaptation. It can really increase the risk of not liking the adaptation

    • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nz
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      11 months ago

      Trying to find some other suggestions, maybe the movie Vivarium?

      Was sure somewhere in the back of my mind I had something that fit exactly

    • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Maybe Labyrinth or Time Bandits. They both had some 4D changing terrain.

      Hazy memory that Clive Barkers NightBreed had similar too.