| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
| Hothouse by Brian Aldiss Essay by Ted Gioia |
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Great literary works published
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Postmodern Mystery
Experimental works of mystery
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Fractious Fiction
Radical and unconventional
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In the last few years, I’ve run into a new genre label. "Cli-Fi," for the uninitiated,
refers to science fiction stories built on global warming scenarios. Many of
these works are formulaic, and as predictable as a Meryl Streep Oscar
nomination, but the best of them—say Ian McEwan's Solar or Paolo
Bacigalupi's The Wind-Up Girl—transcend genre labels and rank among the
finer literary offerings of the current day.
But the 21st century has no monopoly on cli-fi.
Some of the most influential examples date
back to the 1950s and 1960s, when British
science fiction authors developed many
variations on the climate change novel. J.G.
Ballard wrote several dystopian novels based
on cataclysmic weather, most notably The
Drowned World (1962) and The Burning
World (1964), and similar themes play a role
in Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars
(1956), Nevil Shute's On the Beach (1959),
and Brian Aldiss's Hothouse (1962). None
of these books puts the blame on rising carbon
dioxide levels, and instead remind us that there
is more than one way to cook a planet. But each succeeds in making the
atmosphere into a major protagonist in its unfolding drama, with all the
potential for paranoia and claustrophobia implied by such a state of affairs.
Of these works, Aldiss's may be the most audacious, and the least easy to
define. Some have even argued that Hothouse is not even science fiction,
rather a surreal fantasy novel. Certainly the science here is dodgy at best.
Could the position of the Moon, still visible in the sky, really form "one angle
of a vast equilateral triangle which held the Earth and Sun at its other angles"?
Could the revolution of the Earth really wind down to a "standstill, until day and
night slowed, becoming fixed forever"? Could an enormous spider really stretch
a web between the Earth and the Moon? No, no and no. But such is the science
behind this cli-fi classic.
Even if you get beyond these unconvincing attempts to offer a scientific
underpinning to Houthouse, you will soon encounter other elements beyond
the usual conventions of pulp fiction. The story unfolds more like a Homeric
epic, or perhaps an Old Testament story, with counterparts here to an exile
from a Garden of Eden and the wandering exploits of a chosen people
seeking a homeland. At other times, Aldiss seems to take a page from the
Darwinian playbook—perhaps the last thing one would expect to find in a
quasi-Biblical narrative—and in the process anticipates Julian Jaynes' The
Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)
with a bizarre evolutionary account of how reflective thinking might arise in a
pre- or post-historical human society.
The book begins in the midst of a massive jungle, dominated by a single banyan
tree that has spread over an entire continent. (Aldiss was inspired by a visit to
the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, where he saw the so-called Great Banyan, a
single tree that has set down new roots and expanded to cover some four
acres.) Here a small human community struggles for existence in a
hothouse environment alongside countless types of hostile vegetables
—plant life that has turned predatory in the struggle to survive.
The sun is in its final days, turning into a red giant. Temperatures have risen,
and all human cities have apparently disappeared. Civilization has returned
to the tribal stage, and scientific knowledge replaced by ritual, superstition
and taboo. Tiny matriarchal communities survive in the branches of the
banyan tree, avoiding the ground level where vegetative predators are too
dangerous. Here again, Aldiss is implausible—in the opening pages of
Hothouse, various angry plant attacks the tribe of Lily-Yo every few hours,
and almost every step is fraught with danger. How anyone could survive in
such a setting for a month, let alone long enough to grow up and reproduce,
is inconceivable. But what Hothouse lacks in credibility, it compensates for
in suspense and creativity. I feel safe in proclaiming that no sci-fi novel offer
more ways to die at the hands (branches? roots?) of plant life. In the crazy
world of this novel, vegetables can attack you from the air like a bird, swallow
you up like a whale from the deep, trap you in a cage like a hunter, tie you up
like a cattle-roper at the rodeo, or kill you in any number of other inventive ways.
Needless to say, Lily-Yo's tribe has a high mortality rate. The group initially
consisted of ten members, but the deaths (which start on page one) come
so fast and furious that you might think that Aldiss had drawn on Agatha
Christie's And Then There Was None as a role model. Eventually the group
decides to break-up before everyone succumbs to the marauding plants, with
Lily-Yo and the adults climbing up to the sky (literally to the moon on a big
spiderweb—I kid you not!) and the youngsters setting out on their own to
establish a separate tribe.
Gren, the rebel without a cause in the new generation, soon splits from the
rest of the next-gen Lord of the Flies cadre, and embarks upon a series of
journeys and adventures that make Gulliver’s look like a boring bus tour by
comparison. He finds a mate along the way, a herder named Yattmur, and
before long the couple are blessed with a baby boy named Laren. But by this
point in the story, an invading fungus (who looks a bit like an over-sized
mushroom) has shown up, as bossy and disagreeable as a sit-com
mother-in-law. This new arrival has attached himself to Gren's head, and
not only refuses to leave, but even takes over the young man’s brain.
Yes, this sounds ludicrous. But Mr. Aldiss has never been much for restraint
in his stories, and when he tries some new or different effect, he gives us the
full monty. With Hothouse, he not only has described a world in which high
temperatures have allowed plants to run amok, but he also found a way to
impart the rising mercury levels to his readers, who encounter a story that
resembles a feverish dream, a nightmare in which even the bizarre and
implausible take on a sort of inner logic and inescapable momentum.
Aldiss tries to raise the ante in the final pages, and reaches towards a
grand, cataclysmic conclusion—in which his main characters must choose
between acceptance of the Earth's impending destruction or embark upon
a (once again implausible) plan of rebirth and regeneration. Few readers
will find this resolution satisfying or convincing. Aldiss needs to turn to
science to find a solution to his characters' pressing problems, and in this
novel nothing is weaker than the explanations and hypotheses. For this
reason, those who look to Aldiss's cli-fi classic in search of thought-provoking
"global warming" scenarios are likely to be disappointed. Our author has,
instead, delivered a hot and humid fairy tale, one even grimmer than the
Grimms' grimmest.
Yet you shouldn't let this deter you from reading Hothouse. Aldiss is an
engaging author even when he is an unconvincing scientist. In other words,
treat this book as a travelogue, a kind of apocalyptic National Geographic
from a future hell. Forget about understanding the science; instead enjoy
the predatory scenery.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and pop culture. His next book,
a history of love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication Date: September 15, 2014
refers to science fiction stories built on global warming scenarios. Many of
these works are formulaic, and as predictable as a Meryl Streep Oscar
nomination, but the best of them—say Ian McEwan's Solar or Paolo
Bacigalupi's The Wind-Up Girl—transcend genre labels and rank among the
finer literary offerings of the current day.
But the 21st century has no monopoly on cli-fi.
Some of the most influential examples date
back to the 1950s and 1960s, when British
science fiction authors developed many
variations on the climate change novel. J.G.
Ballard wrote several dystopian novels based
on cataclysmic weather, most notably The
Drowned World (1962) and The Burning
World (1964), and similar themes play a role
in Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars
(1956), Nevil Shute's On the Beach (1959),
and Brian Aldiss's Hothouse (1962). None
of these books puts the blame on rising carbon
dioxide levels, and instead remind us that there
is more than one way to cook a planet. But each succeeds in making the
atmosphere into a major protagonist in its unfolding drama, with all the
potential for paranoia and claustrophobia implied by such a state of affairs.
Of these works, Aldiss's may be the most audacious, and the least easy to
define. Some have even argued that Hothouse is not even science fiction,
rather a surreal fantasy novel. Certainly the science here is dodgy at best.
Could the position of the Moon, still visible in the sky, really form "one angle
of a vast equilateral triangle which held the Earth and Sun at its other angles"?
Could the revolution of the Earth really wind down to a "standstill, until day and
night slowed, becoming fixed forever"? Could an enormous spider really stretch
a web between the Earth and the Moon? No, no and no. But such is the science
behind this cli-fi classic.
Even if you get beyond these unconvincing attempts to offer a scientific
underpinning to Houthouse, you will soon encounter other elements beyond
the usual conventions of pulp fiction. The story unfolds more like a Homeric
epic, or perhaps an Old Testament story, with counterparts here to an exile
from a Garden of Eden and the wandering exploits of a chosen people
seeking a homeland. At other times, Aldiss seems to take a page from the
Darwinian playbook—perhaps the last thing one would expect to find in a
quasi-Biblical narrative—and in the process anticipates Julian Jaynes' The
Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)
with a bizarre evolutionary account of how reflective thinking might arise in a
pre- or post-historical human society.
The book begins in the midst of a massive jungle, dominated by a single banyan
tree that has spread over an entire continent. (Aldiss was inspired by a visit to
the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, where he saw the so-called Great Banyan, a
single tree that has set down new roots and expanded to cover some four
acres.) Here a small human community struggles for existence in a
hothouse environment alongside countless types of hostile vegetables
—plant life that has turned predatory in the struggle to survive.
The sun is in its final days, turning into a red giant. Temperatures have risen,
and all human cities have apparently disappeared. Civilization has returned
to the tribal stage, and scientific knowledge replaced by ritual, superstition
and taboo. Tiny matriarchal communities survive in the branches of the
banyan tree, avoiding the ground level where vegetative predators are too
dangerous. Here again, Aldiss is implausible—in the opening pages of
Hothouse, various angry plant attacks the tribe of Lily-Yo every few hours,
and almost every step is fraught with danger. How anyone could survive in
such a setting for a month, let alone long enough to grow up and reproduce,
is inconceivable. But what Hothouse lacks in credibility, it compensates for
in suspense and creativity. I feel safe in proclaiming that no sci-fi novel offer
more ways to die at the hands (branches? roots?) of plant life. In the crazy
world of this novel, vegetables can attack you from the air like a bird, swallow
you up like a whale from the deep, trap you in a cage like a hunter, tie you up
like a cattle-roper at the rodeo, or kill you in any number of other inventive ways.
Needless to say, Lily-Yo's tribe has a high mortality rate. The group initially
consisted of ten members, but the deaths (which start on page one) come
so fast and furious that you might think that Aldiss had drawn on Agatha
Christie's And Then There Was None as a role model. Eventually the group
decides to break-up before everyone succumbs to the marauding plants, with
Lily-Yo and the adults climbing up to the sky (literally to the moon on a big
spiderweb—I kid you not!) and the youngsters setting out on their own to
establish a separate tribe.
Gren, the rebel without a cause in the new generation, soon splits from the
rest of the next-gen Lord of the Flies cadre, and embarks upon a series of
journeys and adventures that make Gulliver’s look like a boring bus tour by
comparison. He finds a mate along the way, a herder named Yattmur, and
before long the couple are blessed with a baby boy named Laren. But by this
point in the story, an invading fungus (who looks a bit like an over-sized
mushroom) has shown up, as bossy and disagreeable as a sit-com
mother-in-law. This new arrival has attached himself to Gren's head, and
not only refuses to leave, but even takes over the young man’s brain.
Yes, this sounds ludicrous. But Mr. Aldiss has never been much for restraint
in his stories, and when he tries some new or different effect, he gives us the
full monty. With Hothouse, he not only has described a world in which high
temperatures have allowed plants to run amok, but he also found a way to
impart the rising mercury levels to his readers, who encounter a story that
resembles a feverish dream, a nightmare in which even the bizarre and
implausible take on a sort of inner logic and inescapable momentum.
Aldiss tries to raise the ante in the final pages, and reaches towards a
grand, cataclysmic conclusion—in which his main characters must choose
between acceptance of the Earth's impending destruction or embark upon
a (once again implausible) plan of rebirth and regeneration. Few readers
will find this resolution satisfying or convincing. Aldiss needs to turn to
science to find a solution to his characters' pressing problems, and in this
novel nothing is weaker than the explanations and hypotheses. For this
reason, those who look to Aldiss's cli-fi classic in search of thought-provoking
"global warming" scenarios are likely to be disappointed. Our author has,
instead, delivered a hot and humid fairy tale, one even grimmer than the
Grimms' grimmest.
Yet you shouldn't let this deter you from reading Hothouse. Aldiss is an
engaging author even when he is an unconvincing scientist. In other words,
treat this book as a travelogue, a kind of apocalyptic National Geographic
from a future hell. Forget about understanding the science; instead enjoy
the predatory scenery.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and pop culture. His next book,
a history of love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication Date: September 15, 2014
| To purchase, click on image |
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
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copies and promotional materials from
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parties.
All rights reserved.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
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The Fortress of Solitude
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Rosemary's Baby
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The Chronicles of Narnia
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Magic for Beginners
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Tales
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Herovit's World
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Station Eleven
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Doctor Faustus
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100 Years of Solitude
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Wittgenstein's Mistress
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Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
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The Road
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Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
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Dangerous Laughter
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Cloud Atlas
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Behold the Man
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The Final Programme
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Beloved
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1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
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Ada, or Ardor
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The Time Traveler's Wife
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Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
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At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
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Tales of Mystery & Imagination
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Gateway
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The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
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Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
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Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
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Midnight's Children
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The Female Man
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Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
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Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
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Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
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Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
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Dracula
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Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
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Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
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The Dragon Masters
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Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
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Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
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Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
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Infinite Jest
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Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
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Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
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The Bear Comes Home
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Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
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The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
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The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
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