I've been thinking about Susanna Clarkes book Piranesi again recently.

We'll ok, I'll really have never stopped thinking about it since I read it 2 years ago. The story has latched into my brain like very few others have. As the trajectory of my creative efforts has turned towards an attempt at writing my own fiction, I want to understand why I find Piranesi so compelling. There are other works that make me feel the same way, that draw me in and excite me. Why do they occupy the same part of my brain?

Here's my answer: I love mysteries in strange places.

I love being dropped into a strange world that works fundamentally differently than my own, one I am forced to ask "what the heck is going on here?". There are rules, I just don't know them yet. The joy then is the journey to understanding that you go on, usually with the main character. Although it may be more appropriate to say the true main character in these stories is the setting. The places have weight, and they draw me in like a blackhole.

In these mysteries you not only collect clues, but the very rules of the world as well. The moments which hit the strongest then are when the rules themselves are clues. I think that is what I would label this part of my brain, "rules are clues". I'm forever chasing the feeling of epiphany when all the rules come together and the things I was confused about make sense.

Let me give some examples while trying to spoil as little as possible.

Piranesi

Piranesi opens with a nameless character in an infinite mansion filled with stone statues and oceanic tides which flow through the rooms. How's that for "what the heck is going on here"? It doesn't answer every question, but it answers enough while letting you draw some of your own conclusions. It also does something very clever with the format of the book itself, which itself follows a rule of the setting.

Outer Wilds

The game Outer Wilds places you in a diorama solar system and asks you to figure out why the sun explodes after 22 minutes of real game time, and also why you are stuck in a time loop of these 22 minutes. You do not "level up", and you never pick up new gear. Instead through exploration you learn. You learn the paths of the moons and planets, you learn the rules of how, when, and why certain events on that 22 minute timeline happen. Those discoveries in turn lead to new places to explore, and new rules to uncover.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

The game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective puts you in the shoes of a new ghost who has 1 night to solve his own murder. I'm not exaggerating when I say every level of this game ended with a world shattering revelation which re-contextualized the story so far. It perfectly builds up the rules of the world then eloquently ties them all together.

There are other stories that have moments of this feeling. There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (I have not finished this yet so the jury's still out on where it belongs), the big hole Made in Abyss (an anime I'm not exactly recommending because its very sad), or Robert Jackson Bennett's Ana and Din Mysteries. These stories have interesting worlds with big interesting questions, even though the setting may not be the "main character".

If you have any suggestions for stories that have strange settings, ones which use the rules of those settings as clues in mysteries, PLEASE send them my way.

Footnote: My desire is to attempt writing something that could sit next to these stories, at least in concept. There are even concepts of plans to post stories here, I swear! However all I have right now are fragments, notes and ideas. I really need to dig in and complete something. The other challenge of course is that I am a big coward and posting fiction scares me.