The 50 Most Fascinating Cities from Fiction

Complex Magazine picks the 50 "coolest" cities from fiction - not necessarily utopias or places you'd want to visit, but cities that are "...so thoroughly imagined by their creators, you forget they aren't real."

1 minute read

October 11, 2011, 2:00 PM PDT

By Tim Halbur


As writers Greg Topscher and Ross Scarano put it:

"Some of the most fantastic places only exist within the pages of books, the frames of films, the panels of comics, even the lyrics of songs."

In fact, many of the authors' choices are dystopian, from Venusville (the Martian mining facility of the film Total Recall) to the art-deco industrial city of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Video game cities, like New Vegas from Fallout: New Vegas, dominate the list, perhaps because their playability makes them more memorable.

Religious locations, including Heaven, Hell and Valhalla, all make the list as well.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 in Complex

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