What I mean is books that have characters live in settings that are, in-universe, fictional in some way or the like. I don’t mean books that have adaptations in other mediums

Preferably the story has at least one of the following: the world has its own laws of physics; shows how the world works; explores the setting’s implications; explores how it affects characters; or the world is under threat.

Thanks for your help👍

  • Sir G'kar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    24 days ago

    Closest thing I can think of is The Never Ending Story. The protagonist enters a book that is essentially a gateway to the world of all imagination.

    The next best thing I can think of is something like Dungeon Crawler Carl where the setting is essentially a deadly reality TV show that takes the form of fictional worlds. Or things like Discworld with it’s narrative causality. Or Orconomics which makes fantasy tropes and rpg conventions explicit in the setting through satire, in which financial institutions are inflating the adventuring bubble through loot backed securities.

  • MonaySimpson@lemmy.ml
    3·
    24 days ago

    Does VR count? Ready Player One (ignoring the hate it gets and movie) is like that. Although they are in the “real” world most of it is set in the VR world.

    Obviously Dungeon Crawler Carl too.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    24 days ago
    • Alix E. Harrow’s The Everlasting
    • Iain Pears’ Arcadia
    • Jo Walton’s Or What You Will
    • Iain M. Banks’ Surface Detail
    • Neal Stephanson’s Fall; or, Dodge in Hell
    • Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi
  • SteleTrovilo@beehaw.org
    2·
    24 days ago

    Stephen King’s Dark Tower series has elements of this. It’s hinted at early on and made explicit in the later books.

    It helps if you’ve read other King works - The Stand, Eyes of the Dragon, Hearts in Atlantis, and Salem’s Lot are directly relevant. Make sure you’ve read Salem’s Lot before Dark Tower book 5 for maximum effect.