You know, I love Fallen London, and Sunless Sea. However, there’s not enough of it for me. I YEARN for more. Would anyone have any book recommendations or game recommendations for things that play/read like this? Things that have the same…atmosphere?
Much depends on what you’ve already read and where your tastes lie. For example, in another thread here I have recommended Roger Zelazny’s Night In the Lonesome October as a charming (and topical) read. Obviously, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories are resonant with FL, as are some books by Tim Powers… there are so many to mention which evoke some of the atmosphere of FL. For the more occult side, you may find interest in the works of H.P. Lovecraft, if you are not familiar with them. And if you are not familiar with the genre, you might find some interesting leads within the Steampunk community, although FL is not really steampunky (but that is a whole 'nother subject).
As for games, Arcanum, of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is the obvious starting point, and it is only 5.99 USD at GoG. And there is a thread just below which speaks of 80 Days; although I’ve not played that one myself, I hear nothing but good things about it.
– Mal
edited by malthaussen on 10/10/2015
I haven’t actually had the time to read this one, but there is an anthology of gaslamp fantasy titled [i]Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells /i. That has a bit more of a magic/fantasy twist to it than FL does, but you may enjoy it!
Also, you could try some Victorian literature, which may (or may not) help you get a better sense of the society that FL is loosely based off of. I personally enjoy the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Rudyard Kipling and, to some extent, Christina Rosetti. Victorian poetry is lovely. Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is also good but I’ve only read excerpts. "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley is good (and probably will be familiar, since you’ve played SS.)
I… honestly can’t say I enjoy Victorian novels as much as the poetry, but I also like She by H.R. Haggard, even though that’s less Victorian realism than imperial romance. My favourite book from the period is Lady Audley’s Secret. It is scandalous and lovely and insane. Do check it out!
There are also some works that are not of the period which FL and SS reference. Have a look at T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and "Kublai Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The former poem is odd, though, to say the least, and very complex, but there are references waiting to be detected and gasped at!
edited by Sestina Valdis on 10/11/2015
edited by Sestina Valdis on 10/11/2015
There’s actually a whole thread on this very topic. You might be able to find more suggestions there:
http://community.failbettergames.com/topic518-books-reminiscent-of-fallen-london.aspx
(I know… it’s impossible to find anything if it’s scrolled off the ‘Recent Posts’ page.)
I’ve been listening to music from -The Phantom of the Opera- recently … it strikes me having a very strong Fallen London flavour (The Phantom of the Antimacassar is also good, but does not scan as well).
Just finishing up Thomas de Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, and I would say it must have had an influence on the dreams content of Fallen London despite being Romantic, not Victorian. A good read: he’s a witty guy, a bit discursive at times, and the book has the virtue of being short. And what he has to say of his opium dreams definitely evokes Coleridge and Kubla Khan.
– Mal
edited by malthaussen on 10/25/2015
Definitely G.K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday. Excellent, absurd book, and very much in the vein, I think. Wikipedia refers to it as a ‘metaphysical thriller.’
And I don’t doubt that any Dickens will do, at least in his darker moments. I’m a big fan of David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities.
I’m currently reading The Master and Margarita, by Bulgakov. If you’re looking for that sort of otherworldly horror that FL offers, this might be a good bet.
Getting further afield, there is Nikolai Gogol. Check out Diary of a Madman.
edited by Jabberwok on 10/28/2015
I second the Bulgakov, haven’t gotten to the Gogol as yet. Russian literature is not my long suit, although I do plan on calling my first in-game FL novel Notes From Underground.
– Mal
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[quote=malthaussen]I second the Bulgakov, haven’t gotten to the Gogol as yet. Russian literature is not my long suit, although I do plan on calling my first in-game FL novel Notes From Underground.
– Mal
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A lot of the most well known Russian writers are too dry and realist for me (and probably suffer from translation to English), but Gogol is definitely not like that. He reminds me of a less depressing version of Kafka.