If you pass by 811 Geary Street in San Francisco, near Hyde, you might notice a plaque stating that
the building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. "Fritz Leiber, acclaimed author
of fantasy, horror and science fiction, lived her from 1969-1977 when he wrote his classic, Our Lady
of Darkness, which won the World Fantasy Award in 1978."
What the plaque doesn’t mention is that this same
building plays a central role in Leiber's quirky late
career novel—in fact, you might say that 811 Geary
is the star of the book. It's a haunted building in the
novel. But, from another perspective, Leiber himself
haunts Our Lady of Darkness. The work is intensely
autobiographical—indeed after the 100-page sketch
of his life and times included in Leiber's 1984 anthology
The Ghost Light, this late novel is the next place to go
for first-hand testimony from the influential genre-
crossing author.
Leiber’s alter ego in Our Lady of Darkness is horror
writer Franz Westen, a recovering alcoholic who is also
dealing with grief in the aftermath of his wife’s death.
The same could be said of Leiber during his San Francisco
years: despite a career of successes and awards—he had
won six coveted Hugo Awards before publishing Our Lady
of Darkness, and earned another eight nominations—Leiber
struggled financially and emotionally. Leiber, now in his late sixties and a legend within the world
of genre fiction, was forced to write his stories on a manual typewriter propped over a sink in
his cramped quarters. The building was located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, a down-and-out
area that served, during this juncture in the city’s history, as a low-cost haven for refugees from
Southeast Asian conflicts. But the area also was known for its homeless, addicts and street crimes.
I’m hardly surprised that Leiber turned this building into a maleficent force in his San Francisco
novel. But the way he achieves this earns my respect. Leiber takes the familiar concept of a
haunted house, and develops it in ways never dreamt of by Poe and Lovecraft. He even invents a
new occult science called Megapolisomancy, which explores the dark magic inherent in big
buildings and large cities. The visionary inventor of this supernatural discipline, Thibaut de
Castries, grasped the unsettling fact that urban living creates supernatural disturbances and
bring forth dark powers, known as paramentals, forces that possess enormous potential for
destruction and psychic upheaval.
Related Essays by Ted Gioia
Fritz Leiber at One Hundred
The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
Yes, long before Haruki Murakami brought magical realism to Tokyo, Fritz Leiber had created his
own unique breed of extravagant inner city fantasy. In this book, we find a forerunner to all those
later works about supernatural beings haunting major cities, from 1Q84 to Neverwhere. Readers
who enjoy the special flavor of this juxtaposition of modern urban planning and old school horror
—the kind also exemplified by China Miéville’s The City and The City or Mark Helprin's Winter's
Tale—will want to seek out this important predecessor.
Thibaut de Castries and his new science of cities are make-believe, drawn from the fertile
imagination of Fritz Leiber. But our author pulls many historic figures into his account, and
speculates that de Castries and his supernatural paramentals might
well have been behind the mysterious disappearance of Ambrose
Bierce, the poisonings of Nora May French and George Sterling, and
the possible suicide of Jack London. Students of early California
literary history will enjoy the clever use Leiber makes of its most
colorful personages. In these pages, readers will also encounter
Clark Ashton Smith, Dashiell Hammett, even Fritz Leiber himself,
as the line between history and fantasy blurs, and sometimes
disappears.
Our protagonist Franz Westen earns a living churning out horror
stories, but fears that the time has passed for this sort of work.
People tell him that "there is no such thing as supernatural horror
anymore—that science has solved, or can solve, all mysteries…that
modern people are too sophisticated and knowledgeable to be scared
of ghosts even for kicks.” But Westen soon learns, from firsthand
experience, that modern life has hardly banished supernatural forces,
but may have actually created new ones.
The enormous metaphysical impact of the Transamerica Pyramid, a
prepossessing monolith that sill looms over the San Francisco skyline
(and was erected five years before Leiber published Our Lady of Darkness), may have served as
the tipping point that unleashed these deadly paramentals. Other seemingly innocent parts of the
city—Sutro Tower, the eminence of Corona Heights Park—also contribute to the dark magic.
Westen eventually finds himself haunted by a monstrous figure, who seems to both threaten
and taunt the troubled author—but never when others are around to witness it. Westen’s enemy
is the city embodied as dark adversary, a demon who, like many urban criminals, prefers to prey
on those who wander off on their own.
Nothing is as it seems in this alternative City by the Bay. In a brilliant and very symbolic ending,
our pulp fiction writer finds that the paper pulp itself
may destroy the author who churned out so many
pages for so many years. You can almost hear Fritz
Leiber chuckling to himself as constructed this richly
ironic adversary for his fictional alter ago.
In short, Leiber has delivered a strange, and strangely
pleasing book that deserves to be far better known.
Our Lady of Darkness is out-of-print—as are too many
Leiber books. At some point, the Library of America or
another astute publisher will start reissuing these works
in a systematic and comprehensive way. Mark my words:
Fritz Leiber will be rehabilitated as a 'serious' writer just
as has happened to Lovecraft and Dick. Leiber deserves
that, not just for the imagination and wit that marks his best work, but also for his tremendous
impact on contemporary storytelling. Who could even begin to count how many movies, video
games, graphic novels and genre works have drawn inspiration from stories?
But when the Leiber renaissance takes place, Our Lady of Darkness should be one of the first
books to get the lavishly introduced and fully annotated treatment. Leiber has not just delivered
an ingenious horror story, a new theory of urban malaise, and a disguised autobiography, but
also a mini-history of early commercial fiction in San Francisco. Yes, it’s still pulp fiction, but
straining at the seams—just like the adversary in this unconventional novel—to be so much
more.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz from Basic Books.
Publication Date: August 1, 2016
the building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. "Fritz Leiber, acclaimed author
of fantasy, horror and science fiction, lived her from 1969-1977 when he wrote his classic, Our Lady
of Darkness, which won the World Fantasy Award in 1978."
What the plaque doesn’t mention is that this same
building plays a central role in Leiber's quirky late
career novel—in fact, you might say that 811 Geary
is the star of the book. It's a haunted building in the
novel. But, from another perspective, Leiber himself
haunts Our Lady of Darkness. The work is intensely
autobiographical—indeed after the 100-page sketch
of his life and times included in Leiber's 1984 anthology
The Ghost Light, this late novel is the next place to go
for first-hand testimony from the influential genre-
crossing author.
Leiber’s alter ego in Our Lady of Darkness is horror
writer Franz Westen, a recovering alcoholic who is also
dealing with grief in the aftermath of his wife’s death.
The same could be said of Leiber during his San Francisco
years: despite a career of successes and awards—he had
won six coveted Hugo Awards before publishing Our Lady
of Darkness, and earned another eight nominations—Leiber
struggled financially and emotionally. Leiber, now in his late sixties and a legend within the world
of genre fiction, was forced to write his stories on a manual typewriter propped over a sink in
his cramped quarters. The building was located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, a down-and-out
area that served, during this juncture in the city’s history, as a low-cost haven for refugees from
Southeast Asian conflicts. But the area also was known for its homeless, addicts and street crimes.
I’m hardly surprised that Leiber turned this building into a maleficent force in his San Francisco
novel. But the way he achieves this earns my respect. Leiber takes the familiar concept of a
haunted house, and develops it in ways never dreamt of by Poe and Lovecraft. He even invents a
new occult science called Megapolisomancy, which explores the dark magic inherent in big
buildings and large cities. The visionary inventor of this supernatural discipline, Thibaut de
Castries, grasped the unsettling fact that urban living creates supernatural disturbances and
bring forth dark powers, known as paramentals, forces that possess enormous potential for
destruction and psychic upheaval.
Related Essays by Ted Gioia
Fritz Leiber at One Hundred
The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
Yes, long before Haruki Murakami brought magical realism to Tokyo, Fritz Leiber had created his
own unique breed of extravagant inner city fantasy. In this book, we find a forerunner to all those
later works about supernatural beings haunting major cities, from 1Q84 to Neverwhere. Readers
who enjoy the special flavor of this juxtaposition of modern urban planning and old school horror
—the kind also exemplified by China Miéville’s The City and The City or Mark Helprin's Winter's
Tale—will want to seek out this important predecessor.
Thibaut de Castries and his new science of cities are make-believe, drawn from the fertile
imagination of Fritz Leiber. But our author pulls many historic figures into his account, and
speculates that de Castries and his supernatural paramentals might
well have been behind the mysterious disappearance of Ambrose
Bierce, the poisonings of Nora May French and George Sterling, and
the possible suicide of Jack London. Students of early California
literary history will enjoy the clever use Leiber makes of its most
colorful personages. In these pages, readers will also encounter
Clark Ashton Smith, Dashiell Hammett, even Fritz Leiber himself,
as the line between history and fantasy blurs, and sometimes
disappears.
Our protagonist Franz Westen earns a living churning out horror
stories, but fears that the time has passed for this sort of work.
People tell him that "there is no such thing as supernatural horror
anymore—that science has solved, or can solve, all mysteries…that
modern people are too sophisticated and knowledgeable to be scared
of ghosts even for kicks.” But Westen soon learns, from firsthand
experience, that modern life has hardly banished supernatural forces,
but may have actually created new ones.
The enormous metaphysical impact of the Transamerica Pyramid, a
prepossessing monolith that sill looms over the San Francisco skyline
(and was erected five years before Leiber published Our Lady of Darkness), may have served as
the tipping point that unleashed these deadly paramentals. Other seemingly innocent parts of the
city—Sutro Tower, the eminence of Corona Heights Park—also contribute to the dark magic.
Westen eventually finds himself haunted by a monstrous figure, who seems to both threaten
and taunt the troubled author—but never when others are around to witness it. Westen’s enemy
is the city embodied as dark adversary, a demon who, like many urban criminals, prefers to prey
on those who wander off on their own.
Nothing is as it seems in this alternative City by the Bay. In a brilliant and very symbolic ending,
our pulp fiction writer finds that the paper pulp itself
may destroy the author who churned out so many
pages for so many years. You can almost hear Fritz
Leiber chuckling to himself as constructed this richly
ironic adversary for his fictional alter ago.
In short, Leiber has delivered a strange, and strangely
pleasing book that deserves to be far better known.
Our Lady of Darkness is out-of-print—as are too many
Leiber books. At some point, the Library of America or
another astute publisher will start reissuing these works
in a systematic and comprehensive way. Mark my words:
Fritz Leiber will be rehabilitated as a 'serious' writer just
as has happened to Lovecraft and Dick. Leiber deserves
that, not just for the imagination and wit that marks his best work, but also for his tremendous
impact on contemporary storytelling. Who could even begin to count how many movies, video
games, graphic novels and genre works have drawn inspiration from stories?
But when the Leiber renaissance takes place, Our Lady of Darkness should be one of the first
books to get the lavishly introduced and fully annotated treatment. Leiber has not just delivered
an ingenious horror story, a new theory of urban malaise, and a disguised autobiography, but
also a mini-history of early commercial fiction in San Francisco. Yes, it’s still pulp fiction, but
straining at the seams—just like the adversary in this unconventional novel—to be so much
more.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz from Basic Books.
Publication Date: August 1, 2016
This is my year of horrible reading.
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
My Year of Horrible Reading
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 11:
Ghost Stories of Henry James
By Henry James
Week 12:
Interview with the Vampire
By Anne Rice
Week 13:
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
Week 14:
Last Stories and Other Stories
By William T. Vollmann
Week 15:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
By M.R. James
Week 16:
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
Week 17:
The King in Yellow
By Robert W. Chambers
Week 18:
Rebecca
By Daphne Du Maurier
Week 19
The Woman in the Dunes
by Kōbō Abe
Week 20
The Dark Eidolon
by Clark Ashton Smith
Week 21
Off Season
by Jack Ketchum
Week 22
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
by Clive Barker
Week 23
The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
Week 24
The Orange Eats Creeps
by Grace Krilanovich
Week 25
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Week 26
Psycho
by Robert Bloch
Week 27
Fledgling
by Octavia E. Butler
Week 28
Demons by Daylight
by Ramsey Campbell
Week 29
The Complete Short Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
Week 30
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
Week 31
Our Lady of Darkness
by Fritz Leiber
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 11:
Ghost Stories of Henry James
By Henry James
Week 12:
Interview with the Vampire
By Anne Rice
Week 13:
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
Week 14:
Last Stories and Other Stories
By William T. Vollmann
Week 15:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
By M.R. James
Week 16:
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
Week 17:
The King in Yellow
By Robert W. Chambers
Week 18:
Rebecca
By Daphne Du Maurier
Week 19
The Woman in the Dunes
by Kōbō Abe
Week 20
The Dark Eidolon
by Clark Ashton Smith
Week 21
Off Season
by Jack Ketchum
Week 22
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
by Clive Barker
Week 23
The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
Week 24
The Orange Eats Creeps
by Grace Krilanovich
Week 25
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Week 26
Psycho
by Robert Bloch
Week 27
Fledgling
by Octavia E. Butler
Week 28
Demons by Daylight
by Ramsey Campbell
Week 29
The Complete Short Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
Week 30
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
Week 31
Our Lady of Darkness
by Fritz Leiber
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
| The Great San Francisco Magical Realism Novel |
To purchase, click on image
By Ted Gioia
| Long before Murakami and Gaiman mixed malevolent magic with urban landscapes, Fritz Leiber showed the way with Our Lady of Darkness |
| Leiber's novel is cited for its historical importance...but is still out of print. |
Leiber, now in his late
sixties and a legend
within the world of genre
fiction, was forced to write
his stories on a manual
typewriter propped over a
sink in his cramped quarters.
sixties and a legend
within the world of genre
fiction, was forced to write
his stories on a manual
typewriter propped over a
sink in his cramped quarters.
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 Blind Assassin
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
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
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
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
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
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
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
Our Lady of Darkness
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
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
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
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
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or other parties.
All rights reserved.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
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Abbott, Edwin A.
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A Clockwork Orange
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Babel-17
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Nova
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
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Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
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The Obscene Bird of Night
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I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
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Like Water for Chocolate
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To Your Scattered Bodies Go
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A Maggot
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American Gods
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Neverwhere
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Burning Chrome
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Light
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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
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Time Enough for Love
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Dune
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Magic for Beginners
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I Am Legend
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What Dreams May Come
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Cloud Atlas
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Behold the Man
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1Q84
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City
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Some of Your Blood
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Cat's Cradle
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The Time Machine
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The Bear Comes Home
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Lord of Light
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This Immortal
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The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
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Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
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