Recs if you like The City & the City...

Need a gift for your extremist family member, but they already have a red baseball cap AND a Don't Tread on Me shirt? Were you told "Don't bring up politics at family dinner" and need some safe books to discuss instead? Well we have a full menu for you to choose from! Each just for fun book comes with our guarantee: No real world political messages under the 100% fictional plot! 😉 (Taking Recommendations!)

coined by phil ford and jf martel, co-hosts of “weird studies,” zonal literature is a term that refers to narratives set in reality-bent spaces. in these liminal zones, ordinary life is suspended, altered, other. the rules here are different, even if things may look the same.

Recs are from r horrorlit. I have not read them, but thought it would be a fun concept for you and me.

(let me know if any suggestions are egregious)

#backrooms #dreamy #weird #strange #surreal

Fiction has always been where truth hides. Across horror, thriller, literary fiction, fantasy & mystery every book on this list has something to say about power, who holds it, who destroys it, and how it reproduces itself.

Fictional stories. Real consequences. Profit > People is dedicated to books with capitalist critique, focusing on the lives - and bodies - sacrificed at the altar of industry and interest. Always taking recommendations!

Stories that follow the New Weird genre. Adventures that mix reality with fantasy, horror, science fiction, and literary fiction. Each a distinct and unique story to envelope your mind.

A list of all the novels which won the Best Novel category of the Hugo Awards. To be nominated for this award a story must be 40,000 words or more and written in or translated to English and it must be either a science fiction or fantasy story. This list should be in descending order (most recent winners first while earlier winners are further down.

In honour of the 2026 nominations, this list compiles all the nominees for the Hugo Award for Best Novel from 2010 - 2026.

This list includes works and authors that influenced the game as well as others with similar themes and writing.

These are books I've read that have settings that feel wild and beautiful and wholly original.

These books blend genre elements, technical elements, and beautiful sentences to make big statements.

Books which have video game adaptations or are cited as heavy inspirations for them. I love both books & games as mediums & feel there is more connection between them than oft credited. Obviously, creatives are influenced by innumerable things, but it's awesome when developers, etc. share their inspirations. Please say if there are others you know of!

Books featuring strong architectural themes, love of cities, setting as character, weird buildings, etc.

Winners of the Hugo Award for Best Novel of science fiction/fantasy

Fantasy with elements of crime, detective, or noir fiction; sometimes known as Occult Detective Fiction.

The most comprehensive list of award winning sci-fi and fantasy novels. The books on this list have won either 1 or multiple awards out of the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus Sci-Fi, Locus Fantasy, goodreads Choice Fantasy, or goodreads Science Fiction Awards.

Wait! What? If it’s not about spaceships and aliens and strange new worlds, what is sci-fi about?

It’s about what’s going on here, now, to us— just like other genres. Setting the story centuries in the future is a way for the author to view our world from a different perspective. Which is cool. But not necessary.

Here are some sci-fi and speculative fiction works set in the author’s own time. Some old, some new. Some not even sci-fi. But all will give you a new perspective on the world.

A list created using the Reddit forum r/Fantasy 2024 fantasy (and sci-fi) standalones which was voted on by the community

inspired by disco elysium / books where the city (& its history) shape the story as much as its inhabitants