Puzzles and Labyrinths

The key to a good farce is the piling up of complications, misunderstandings, and deceptions, as the characters increasingly find themselves find themselves needing to be in two places at once to keep up the social fictions they are committed to. To Say Nothing of the Dog asks, “What if farce, but time travel?” It’s such a perfect fit I’m surprised there aren’t more books in the genre, but then again maybe you have to be Connie Willis to pull it off.

Like the fictional city in which it is set, this book is teeming with species, cultures, and ideas. Conceits that could power entire novels are tossed aside in standalone chapters. Miéville allegedly has written other books, including two more set in the same world, but I refuse to read them. It is impossible that any author could have any cards left to play after writing this.

This five-volume (not four!) epic is drunken-master science fiction. It starts off as a shambolic shaggy-dog story, as Severian the Torturer wanders from one unsettling episode to another, seemingly at random. But somewhere around the third book, the plot threads start to converge rather than diverge, and slowly it becomes clear what a ridiculously long con Wolfe has been running.

The Japanese shin honkaku (“new orthodox”) mystery subgenre emphasizes the puzzle-box aspects to the exclusion of almost everything else, including dialogue, characterization, and plausibility. They often include floorplans, timelines, and family trees simply to help the reader keep track of all the moving parts. Once you accept that they are formal exercises and fully embrace the artificiality, they are great fun. Murder in the Crooked House, like many others in the genre, features a bizarrely designed house whose oddities are essential to the plot; the big reveal is so over-the-top ridiculous that I couldn’t help but smile. Other fun exemplars include Yukito Ayatsuji’s The Decagon House Murders (exceptionally well-done twist) and The Mill House Murders (another absurd house and a good twist) and Alice Arisugawa’s The Moai Island Puzzle (if the wolf-goat-cabbage puzzle were a murder mystery).

Yes, this is a kids’ cartoon, but it’s also a master class in tightly-plotted comedic writing. Every ten-minute episode features three (or more!) separate plots: Phineas and Ferb build an absurd invention, their sister Candace tries and fails to bust them, and their pet platypus Perry saves the tri-state area from another one of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s evil inators. Plus a song. There are dozens of running gags, both within episodes and across them, and brick jokes aplenty. It’s all wrapped around a completely sweet core: the main characters genuinely like each other and act with a decency and enthusiasm that is never cloying.

The Big Lebowski is iconic for Jeff Bridges’ performance and for its endlessly quotable script. But beneath the shaggy-dog comedy there is a tightly plotted mystery. Everyone is working an agenda; the fact that The Dude is too stoned and too confused to put all of it together doesn’t mean you the viewer can’t. Other Coen Brothers mysteries have a chilly detachment, but this one is a warm-hearted gem. Infinitely rewatchable.

The Prestige is perfectly scripted and shot; there is not an image or line of dialogue out of place, even as Nolan juggles three intercut timelines. There are, by my count, four major plot twists—plus numerous smaller ones—all of which are foreshadowed without being telegraphed, and all of which require reevaluating everything that has gone before. It’s also just a cracking good movie, with a quotable script and a stacked cast turning in top-tier work. Infinitely rewatchable.

The best and weirdest of the burgeoning genre of Obra Dinn-likes, this sequel to 2022’s Case of the Golden Idol requires the player to investigate the scene of a death, identify the characters, and piece together what happened. The Kļaviņš brothers are extraordinary at keeping the horrifying truth out of sight: dreadful fates and hidden agendas become clear only after you have put together enough pieces to realize what is not being shown. The cases themselves are presented in a wildly non-linear order, and some jump between multiple locations and timeframes, so that piecing together the overall story is itself a satisfying challenge. The art, the writing, and the music all come together in a game that is wildly, delightfully off-kilter.