Hello,
I’ve been hunting for books that meet a specific requirement; namely the protagonist is within a large structure. I’ve loved books like House of Leaves, Ship of Fools and Dead Silence, and I’m hoping to find stories of the same vein. The structure can be sentient or not, haunted or not, but I would like it to contain some form of hostile presence to the protagonist. Bonus points if it’s a Minotaur! Thank you for your time and consideration.
by IrohAspirant
13 Comments
>!Episode Thirteen by Craig Dilouie!< has what you’re looking for albeit only an average quality novel. Hidden due to it being a huge spoiler.
14 by Peter Clines is decent.
If you’re ok with the large structure being a global sized network of caves and tunnels, *The Descent* by Jeff Long might work for you.
I think you’re going to love Piranesi, there’s no Minotaur, but definitely a monster.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco has a labyrinthine library
Maybe *A Deadly Education*? Large structure: check. Hostile creatures: check. The protagonist is not in there alone, though, if that’s of any importance.
[A Short Stay in Hell
by Steven L. Peck](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11003233-a-short-stay-in-hell) might do it for you. The endless building idea in the book was my favorite part. I didn’t love the book overall, but it’s a short, fast read and most likely worth your time.
The Ninth House series by Tamsyn Muir. Start with Gideon the Ninth.
Blame! by Nihei. Structures are so massive that they literally stretch from here other planetary spheres: “… Nihei suggested its diameter to be at least that of Jupiter’s orbit, or about 1.6 billion kilometers”
“The City” in and of itself isn’t sentient or hostile, but given the sheer ecologies and systems that spring up in it and the scope of the thing, it ends up being hostile from a social perspective. Couple that with the sheer size and you end up with a general indifference rather than malevolence. It’s so massive that it becomes hard to tell if the whole thing has a mind of it’s own or if it’s being driven by forces from within.
Brokedown Palace by Steven Brust.
Would love to see a spaceship recommendation!!
Lord Valentines Castle by Robert Silverberg has an interesting labyrinth part. It’s been years but I remember it sticking with me for sometime.
For spaceship Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
A space adventure set on a lone ship where the clones of a murdered crew must find their murderer — before they kill again.
It was not common to awaken in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood.
At least, Maria Arena had never experienced it. She had no memory of how she died. That was also new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died.
Maria’s vat was in the front of six vats, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so it could awaken. And Maria wasn’t the only one to die recently…
Leviathan by James Byron Huggins
Subterranean by James Rollins
Nightbringer by James Byron Huggins