# Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

12 Hacker News commenters recommended Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for its beautiful prose and otherworldly world, often likened to Strange and Norrell. Critics say the second half is anticlimactic.

## Why people recommend it

- Beautiful, precise prose (3 comments): "Not a word is wasted. It fills out beautiful scenes by slowly lowering abstractions into them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49910987)) "The brilliance of the book is the prose and the world" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48930237)) "so beautiful and surprising" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49905810))
- Otherworldly, richly built world (3 comments): "It has wonderful world building that was reminiscent of The Library of Babel." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45948358)) "Piranesi was otherworldly in the way of Strange and Norrell" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48930181)) "The brilliance of the book is the prose and the world" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48930237))
- Favorite book recommended widely (2 comments): "one of my favorite books of the last few years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46200937)) "one of the books that I recommend to everyone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46349371))

## What people warn about

- Second half feels anticlimactic (1 comments): "the second half is banal and anticlimactic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49907764))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lord-of-the-rings.md): 66 recommend
- [The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hobbit.md): 49 recommend
- [Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dungeon-crawler-carl.md): 48 recommend
- [Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/harry-potter-and-the-methods-of-rationality.md): 19 recommend
- [Going Postal by Terry Pratchett](https://hackerapproved.com/p/going-postal.md): 11 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1526622432?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781526622433) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Piranesi by Susanna Clarke", https://hackerapproved.com/p/piranesi/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).