So, the Labyrinth is a piece of cake, is it? Well, let's see how you deal with this little slice...

August 30, 2011 4:52 PM

Help me get lost in literary mazes similar to Christopher Manson's Maze [wiki; previously on the blue].

I'm looking for puzzle books, website-mazes, or works of fiction that are set in surreal, enigmatic labyrinths/mazes/environments. I'm casting a wide net here; just put me in a maze!

Bonus: movies similar to Labyrinth (1986) or Pan's Labyrinth (2006).

posted by troll to Grab Bag (14 answers total)

There was this website back in the day called the Amazing Addventure which was sort of a continual, collaborative Choose Your Own Adventure. I was really addicted to it as a young'un. At its height it was astoundingly filled-out. As it was an open and collaborative effort, quality ranged from really intricate and atmospheric to U SEE A WOMAN DO U CHOOSE TO HAVE SEX WITH HER??? I am having trouble right now finding anything online about it but I'd keep an eye out.
posted by threeants at 5:18 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: House of Leaves, where a family discovers a terrifying, infinite, physically impossible black labyrinth inside the walls of their home. It's woven in with a few other narratives and copious footnotes, but the labyrinth story by itself is a fantastic piece of science fiction horror.

Borges' short story "The Library of Babel."

William Sleator's House of Stairs is, by all accounts, very good.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:26 PM on August 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

Pretty much everything Borges wrote.

Early FPS games, like Doom and Wolfenstein.

Horror film Cube.

The Shining.

Jon Barth - Lost in the Funhouse

anything by Umberto Eco
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:28 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Seconding House of Leaves
posted by Perplexity at 5:56 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Eco's The Name of the Rose is set around a library that is a maze.
posted by carsonb at 6:23 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch
posted by Trurl at 6:39 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some films that might work: Rose Red, The Shining (sorta) and the haunting (or the novel, the haunting of hill house)
posted by Jacen at 7:26 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Kit Williams' Masquerade is one of the most famous, a golden hare whose location is revealed through clues hidden in the paintings throughout the book.
posted by justkevin at 8:07 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Victor Pelevin's The Helmet of Horror.
posted by misteraitch at 8:58 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: A few random ones other than the ones already suggested [Eco, Sleator] that I also suggest

- The Magus - more of a metaphorical maze than literal but there is a labyrinth in one place
- Steven Millhauser's From the Realm of Morpheus - too weird for me, you might like it
- The Man in the Maze
posted by jessamyn at 11:50 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ursula Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan - the second Earthsea novel, takes place in a "unlit underground labyrinth". Beautifully written with superb descriptions of the labyrinth, the drawback is that it focuses on the feeling of being lost, rather than defining a puzzle and setting a challenge for the reader.
posted by niccolo at 12:09 AM on August 31, 2011 [2 favorites]

This might not be what you're looking for, but: lots of computer games, including nearly every early CRPG. Wizardry and Bard's Tale especially; the first has lots of things to wear you down as you explore, Bard's Tale pulls out all the stops to make mapping difficult. I take the view that these are games about mazes, and to play them you absolutely must make accurate maps. The maze is the game far more than the combat, which is mostly to give you a reason to explore efficiently.

There's always the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, and works inspired by it.

And there is the venerable website superbad, still kicking after many years, well over a decade old by now. Superbad has no end though; it's just a gloriously random place to click around.
posted by JHarris at 2:04 AM on August 31, 2011 [2 favorites]

Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths series.
posted by zoetrope at 7:45 AM on August 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all for your great answers. I love them all equally, so you each get a favorite.

I have a lot of reading to do.
posted by troll at 5:08 PM on September 1, 2011