Hi everyone, first post here. Not sure how to explain, but I’m looking for fiction presented in the form of a textbook, collection of documents, or other “factual” publication, as if it was simply a retelling of actual events, rather than being written in fiction prose. Thank you!
by CrabMasc
15 Comments
Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
The Science of Discworld
The one you’re going to get here a lot is *House of Leaves*. It’s good but it is a task to get through and people have fairly polarized opinions about it.
Sleeping Giants (Themis Files) is a sci-fi story told basically through interviews and it’s a great trilogy
Norrell and Strange by Susanna Clarke if I remember correctly. It’s also a stone cold banger
I recently finished When We Cease To Understand The World. 193 pages short. 4/5. My average rating is 3.4.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett is presented as journal entries
Into thin air.
It’s not that he lies, it’s that he mixes truth with the lies, elitism AND self admitted hallucinations.
Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin might be of interest?
*Lincoln in the Bardo* is kind of like this.
Not entirely sure if this fits what you’re looking for, but The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire is written from the perspective of an in-universe Star Wars historian. I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan but I really enjoyed this one.
A lot of Borges’ short stories are like this. “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” is written as a review
The Flashman Papers by George McDonald Fraser. 12 books written as “found” diaries. They are SOOOO well written that when first published in 1969 most reviewers thought they were real memoirs.
It covers the life of a Victorian soldier starting in about 1839 until the turn of the century. The MC is so well integrated into the real life events, it’s VERY difficult to remember that it is fiction.
Note… Flashman is an anti-hero. He is lovable but a true scoundrel. It is written in period appropriate language, thus its language can be very un-PC. None the less, it’s a fun romp. Every bit of history I know form that time period comes from these books.
World War Z is a great fit for this. It’s structured like interview/report material, so it reads more like a compiled document than a standard novel.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It’s written in a textbook format. I read it as one of my Halloween reads and I really enjoyed it.
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton.
A novel in the form of an auction catalogue. Very clever.