The long earth I haven't read it yet because its on back order at my library but Terry Pratchett is my goat so it's gonna be at least decent and have some near concepts.
You gotta go back to the inspo for many of these, Philip K Dick! A hugely entertaining writer with more brilliant sci-fi ideas in his asides than most people fit in a whole book. Beyond the famous ones, I highly recommend Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said or UBIK or Time Out Of Joint, all classics.
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch doesn’t come up as much but is great with a genuinely unsettling end. And, “his right arm was artificial… in a hunting accident on Callisto he had lost the original; this one was of course superior in that it provided a specialized variety of interchangeable hands.”
I would suggest a fully unhinged one like Martian Time-Slip or Galactic Pot Healer (or Palmer Eldritch, which rules), but I tried to pick a few that do that specific PKD “everything is normal OH NO IT IS NOT” that has influenced everything from Truman Show to Severance!
Back in the twittering days, one of the devs on Control posted this pic of some the works that added inspiration to the writing...unfortunately I only saved this pic and not the full tweet that went with it to provide proper credit, sorry!
I haven’t read his others yet, but I really enjoyed The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (asking what happens to persistent online ai npc’s as funding for servers goes down)
Will echo the Southern Reach Trilogy and House of Leaves (and Piranisi if you liked that), and add Primer. Say what you will about it (and there's a lot to say, especially about Shane Carruth), but it's maybe THE seminal time travel movie
'Made for Love' (2021) was a great 2 season comedy with a stellar cast (Cristin Milioti, Ray Romano, Patti Harrison, Billy Magnusson). It takes a good look at tech billionaire weirdos who'd rather reverse engineer human interaction than be a person.
one of my favorites is a TTRPG called Triangle Agency! worth a read even if you don’t have a group to play. FANTASTIC ideas and funny writing all the way through!
some movies that I think fit the vibes:
- Synecdoche, New York (2008)... and I guess most Charlie Kaufman movies
- Coherence (2013)... I remember it being good
- It's What's Inside (2024, Netflix)... recently watched, fun, only 103 minutes
Karen Russell is an author with some great short fiction collections (Vampires in the Lemon Grove, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves) that might scratch that itch. Not so much sci-fi, but weird for sure.
Warehouse 13 was a SyFy show about a group of agents collecting historical artifacts that had magic powers, like Marilyn Monroe's brush that turned the user's hair blonde. Not very weird or speculative though.
The show Fringe is definitely closer to Control's tone.
The Lost Room is a mini-series that doesn’t get nearly as much love as it should. It’s about strange objects from a hotel room lost in time & space that have bizarre powers.
@greatdismal.bsky.social's The Peripheral is a great book. Gibson has an unsettling capacity to see into the future. It was also a solid show that Prime cancelled after one season. I haven't watched the show yet but The Three Body Problem book/show would also scratch that itch.
If you haven’t already:
-Alan Wake 2
-Inside (Playdead)
-Stanley Parable
-Go down the SCP rabbit hole
-Southern Reach series
-The Lost Room
-Final Cut of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (chased with the How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back episode of Futurama)
-I need to read House of Leaves too!
Ahaha I figured I’d hedge my bets with “in case you haven’t…” also not to self-promote but Pacific Drive that I was in also has Weord Pacific Northwest energy with interesting world building
I wish I had my copy still. It's the only work of fiction I started taking notes in, so my copy had my notes in the margins, and certain lines highlighted as well
If you're interested in adjacent media, a mod for Doom 2 called MyHouse came out in earlyish 2023 that is HEAVILY inspired by House of Leaves (also plenty of deep dive content on YouTube for said mod)
Comments
Is great and was a huge influence on Control
It's an amazing collaborative fiction project that answers the question:
What does a database of the supernatural look like?
Some entries are about stuff like a hat that makes you sad, others are about sentient angry meat. Fun!
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/20/escape-from-spiderhead?currentPage=all
and his other books, especially The Familiar, are such a good time and slowly expand the scope of weirdness
https://www.nature.com/articles/436150a
It was Zazlav-ed but definitely worth finding.
by @hauntedtable.bsky.social
https://www.hauntedtable.games/
- Synecdoche, New York (2008)... and I guess most Charlie Kaufman movies
- Coherence (2013)... I remember it being good
- It's What's Inside (2024, Netflix)... recently watched, fun, only 103 minutes
The show Fringe is definitely closer to Control's tone.
https://youtu.be/NB1ESMuL5rg?si=Rnbqv4bhn0Rw4yj8
✅ Weird corporation
✅ Mysterious tech
✅ Parks and Rec Cast member
Serial Experiment Lain (Anime)
Visioneers (Zack Galifinackis film)
Anything by Grant Morrison but specifically The Filth and The Invisibles.
They are excellent.
-Alan Wake 2
-Inside (Playdead)
-Stanley Parable
-Go down the SCP rabbit hole
-Southern Reach series
-The Lost Room
-Final Cut of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (chased with the How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back episode of Futurama)
-I need to read House of Leaves too!