Books with similar bleak and insane worlds?

[✪ STⒶR ✪ ⓭]

I have read books like "The Road" and "Metro" series but Im looking for something more ....lets say "crazy" and dark just like this game's setting

[CATTY&Co.]

Borne by Jeff Vandermeer was popular and has some scavenging in ruined postapocalyptic cities with body-horror elements. I can't remember if it was tonally bleak though or comical.

China Mieville might be another one.

Feersum Endjinn has some squabbling AIs in decaying megastructures.

Or you might like Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, depending what sort of bleak you go in for.

[slxpress]

Neal Asher can get crazy and dark, and there’s definitely a sense of humanity being minuscule in the battles going on around it. But at its heart he’s definitely space opera more than dystopian future. It’s hard to know where to start but I always recommend Gridlinked, which is pretty accessible about a James Bond type in the future who is having difficulties keeping a sense of his humanity, and then as the series goes on it just turns ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy. The bad guy in it in particular is just whacko in terms of where it goes. It also has one of my favorite depictions of an alien species in the Prador - crab like monstrosities that control their young through pheromones and a pseudo telepathy, who enjoy coring the decision making part of human brains and installing mechanisms which allow them to control the body as Thralls.

The depiction of AI personalities are often the best parts of the book, while the humans in comparison seem wooden and two dimensional. But it’s the scale and the sheer joy Asher takes in depicting the horrors of the universe and how little humanity really matters that I find the most enjoyable.

Warhammer 40k has a ton of these elements. Stick with Dan Abnett and you can’t really go wrong. There’s a lot of hacks writing in the Warhammer 40k universe, so there’s a lot of hit and miss, IMO.

In fantasy one of my favorites is Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane series. Very much in homage to the pulp fantasy Conan type genre but Wagner was a horror writer at heart, so the series incorporates some Lovecraftian Eldritch horror elements, particularly on the novels like Bloodstone and Darkness Weaves. The books aren’t in print any more but they’re available through Kindle.

[ut0328]

There's an old manga named BLAME!, by Tsutomu Nihei, but i warn you, has the same type of narrative of a Souls game....

[Baloubafish]

How about "The Hungry City Chronicles/Mortal Engines Quartet"?

As I recall, it's a "young adult novel" series, but don't let that scare you off. It's got a very unique premise and a quite dark, far-future, post-WWIII apocalyptic steampunk setting.

Earth is devastated by Nuclear war, and centuries later, society has become an ecosystem of independent city-states occupying gigantic motorized "mobile cities" which prey on one another, with the largest cities at the top of the food chain, and static settlements at the very bottom. Captured cities are broken down for raw materiel and slaves. And there's all sorts of cool stuff going on - Airships, Rogue prewar killer cyborgs, Ancient superweapons, hidden cities, wars, lost continents, all sorts of stuff...

It certainly fits your criteria for "crazy"!
I read the whole series as a teenager and it left a strong impression on me.

There was also a movie adaptation made a few years back, but from what I've seen of it, it doesn't really do the books justice. I'd stick with the books.

[Bill Nye the Bounty Guy]

The Forever Winter tracks as a late stage of the conflict found in George Orwell's 1984, but that's a bit more domestic if you want a war story.

As for things that impact that cannon not enough people have heard of 'A Canticle for Lebowitz', which is very likely the inspiration of the Mechanicus from Warhammer 40k.

[slxpress]

Originally posted by Bill Nye the Bounty Guy:

The Forever Winter tracks as a late stage of the conflict found in George Orwell's 1984, but that's a bit more domestic if you want a war story.

As for things that impact that cannon not enough people have heard of 'A Canticle for Lebowitz', which is very likely the inspiration of the Mechanicus from Warhammer 40k.

I mean, if you’re an avid reader of science fiction you should have. It’s one of the most honored works of sci fi out there. I don’t think of it as obscure at all. But I understand what you’re saying. Something can be famous in certain circles and still be unknown in others.

[franzmauser]

Originally posted by ✪ STⒶR ✪ ⓭:

I have read books like "The Road" and "Metro" series but Im looking for something more ....lets say "crazy" and dark just like this game's setting

You can also try "Damnation Alley" by Roger Zelazny. Excellent post-apo book with twisted world.

[CATTY&Co.]

I just want to bump this thread for the fellow with the art degree, since he doesn't think much of my library and might have some better ones to recommend

which in his case would of course be picture books

[ᛈᚢᛒᚲᚱᚨᛚᚱ13]

Originally posted by CATTY&Co.:

I just want to bump this thread for the fellow with the art degree, since he doesn't think much of my library and might have some better ones to recommend

which in his case would of course be picture books

This brings pettiness to an entirely new level. This will be the extent of my response here.

[CATTY&Co.]

A good picture book for the OP might be The City by James Herbert. W40k has been recommended and this was illustrated by Ian Miller. If the OP or anyone does check that one out, I'd suggest to look at the interconnect between "bleakness" or "grimdark" and alienation and James Herbert's own wrongful experiences of alienation for his sexuality.

And if that stands - that artists produce bleakness from their own social alienation, where is the alienation in TFW? Its creators I think invite this approach, or at least the concept of alienation, by quoting Brecht's Mother Courage. But I think it's less clear whose alienation of whom the game explores.

[Judaspriester]

Warhammer 40k, the Ghaunt's Ghosts series.
The interesting about that one is, that it's written about a elite unit of the Imperial Army in stead of the Space Marines. Therefore it's more interesting to read since it's never that clear, which of the characters you like (or don't like) will survive the next battle.

[Onimaho]

Hell divers by Smith

Easy read and would make for an awesome video game adaptation.

[Doctor ☢ Apocalypse]

Harlan Ellisons solider which is where james Cameron "borrowed some inspiration for terminator his other shorts and books are awesome i have no mouth and i must scream gave me bad dreams just crazy good stuff

[Doctor ☢ Apocalypse]

Originally posted by franzmauser:

Originally posted by ✪ STⒶR ✪ ⓭:

I have read books like "The Road" and "Metro" series but Im looking for something more ....lets say "crazy" and dark just like this game's setting

You can also try "Damnation Alley" by Roger Zelazny. Excellent post-apo book with twisted world.

The setting and premise of the 2011 Lonesome Road add-on for the post-apocalyptic computer game Fallout: New Vegas was inspired by Damnation Alley, according to lead designer Chris Avellone.[3] The film adaptation of Zelazny's novel was also one of several sources of inspiration for the original Fallout, according to designer R. Scott Campbell.[4]

well now i have to read this awesome suggestion thanks

[Flyingdebris]

if you want to look at the direct inspirations behind this game, it seems to have drawn some inspo from the Second Renaissance segments from the Animatrix, the animated Matrix films tie-in. Also some of the distant backgrounds in the game are reminiscent of the painting of Beksinski, Scorched Enclave's skybox being a very obvious nod. Also definitely quite a bit of Terminator's post judgement day machine war aesthetic. Some of the mechs and heavy suits i suspect are inspired by some of the works of Kow Yokoyama.

As far as bleak and insane recommendations

"Glimmer Rats" by Gordon Rennie and Mark Harrison. Relatively quick read graphic novel about a bunch of convicts and political prisoners that keep getting tossed as cannon fodder into a dimensional breach.

"No Man's World." by Pat Kelleher. A series of books about a bunch of WW1 soldiers and personnel plus some of their trenches getting teleported onto a very hostile world.

"Supergod." by warren ellis. Short comic series about the end of the world brought on by various countries trying to manufacture super humans.