Andy Weir, author of The Martian, explains that the key breakthrough in writing his novel came when
he realized that "science creates plot." He certainly isn't the first sci-fi writer to prefer rigorous science
over fanciful detail—back in 1865, Jules Verne described a trip to the moon that anticipated many of the
key details of the later Apollo project. John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar was so accurate in predicting
the future,(well, now it's the present) he deserves the title of seer. The dystopian technologies of Orwell
and Huxley show up nowadays in the daily news. Even so, few genre writers have pushed technological
realism to the extreme achieved by Weir.
What does Weir really mean by creating plot with science? Here’s
an example encountered midway in the novel, when Martian castaway
Mark Watney finds himself forty meters away from his breached living
quarters, which just lost all its breathable atmosphere, and his broken
spacesuit is also rapidly leaking air. At this dramatic moment in the
book, Weir conveys his hero’s predicament in the following terms:
The suit is designed for eight hours of use. That works out to 250
milliliters of liquid oxygen. Just to be safe, the suit has a full liter
of O2 capacity. But that’s only half the story. The rest of the air is
nitrogen. It’s just there to add pressure. When the suit leaks, that’s
what it backfills with. The suit has two liters of liquid N2 storage.
Let’s call the volume of the airlock two cubic meters. The inflated
EVA suit probably takes up half of it. So it took five minutes to add
0.2 atmospheres to 1 cubic meter. That’s 285 grams of air (trust me
on the math). The air in the tanks is around 1 gram per cubic
centimeter, meaning I just lost 285 milliliters.
The three tanks combined had 3000 milliliters to start with. A lot
of that was used to maintain pressure while the airlock was leaking.
Also, my breathing turned some oxygen into carbon dioxide, which
was captured by the suit’s CO2 filters.
Checking the readouts, I see that I have 410 milliliters of oxygen, 738 milliliters of nitrogen. Together,
they make almost 1150 milliliters to work with. That, divided by 285 milliliters lost per minute…
Once I’m out of the airlock, this EVA suit will only last four minutes.
Fuck.
Did you follow all that? We will have a brief quiz at the end of today’s period. Make sure you get the
grams to milliliters conversion correct.
Other sci-fi authors would probably start with the final expletive, and perhaps mention the four minutes
of remaining breathing time. But what commercial author would dare include the preceding four
paragraphs, with their precise calculations? Are there really enough nerds out there to buy a book of
science fiction that contains more science than fiction?
I have a barroom bet for highbrow drinkers that has always paid off. Hand your boozing companion a
copy of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and bet the next round that any page, chosen at
random, will mention either food or alcohol. Trust me, this pays off with better odds than owning a
bloody casino. Well, I now have another barroom bet, suitable for tech workers and science wonks.
Hand them The Martian, and wager that any random page will include some measurement—whether
of space, time, energy, storage, or another scientific variable. Keep Weir’s book by your side, and
you will drink for free at every watering hole in Silicon Valley.
I suspect that Weir would never have gotten a book contract (and a movie deal!) if he hadn’t first
published this story himself, and found a large, enthusiastic audience. When he initially uploaded
The Martian on to his website in 2011, the publishing industry paid no attention to this West Coast
software developer, the son of an accelerator physicist dad and electrical engineer mom. In fact, no
one in the book biz really took notice for two years, not until the e-book version of The Martian started
selling more than 10,000 copies per month. Agents had turned down his previous overtures, but now
one approached him, and soon had a deal for an audiobook. A few weeks later deals fell in place for
a hardcover book and a motion picture.
By 2015, everyone was a Mark Watney fan, including movie audiences in the 81 countries where the
film version of The Martian was released, as well as the folks at NASA who launched a website to
allow fans to follow the fictional astronaut’s trek across the Martian terrain.
And what was the story of this blockbuster hit, once you
stripped away the measurements and tabulations and
formulas? It’s actually one of the oldest in the history of
the novel. Back in 1719, when the rules of narrative fiction
were in flux, and the conventions of the modern novel were
still under construction, Daniel Defoe published his classic
work Robinson Crusoe. A British mariner finds himself
stranded on a deserted island after a shipwreck, and
must find a way to survive and, if possible, return home.
Weir’s book The Martian takes this story and translates it to Mars, where our intrepid castaway
has been left for dead by his fellow astronauts. But Mark Watney is still alive, and faces
the daunting task of overcoming almost insurmountable obstacles in his quest to return to planet Earth.
These obstacles involve lack of communications with NASA, shortages of food, broken equipment
of various sorts, limited water supply and a host of unanticipated problems caused either by Mars or
Watney’s own mistakes. Adding to the degree of difficulty, his best chance for escape from the Red
Planet requires him to travel thousands of kilometers to the planned landing site for the next Mars
expedition.
If this were a typical sci-fi story from the Golden Age, Watney would enlist the support of
extraterrestrials, engage in battles and ambushes, and maybe even have a fling with a Martian
princess. Such was the survival plan practiced by swashbuckling John Carter in Edgar Rice
Burroughs' popular Martian novels from a century ago. Carter never had trouble breathing the
Martian atmosphere or dealing with food shortages—although he did take advantage of the
weaker gravitational pull of his new home, which gave him a key advantage in hand-to-tentacle
combat.
Ah, Mr. Weir doesn't play by those traditional rules of pulp fiction (or, rather, the lack of rules).
Instead his hero conquers the challenges of Mars one equation at a time. Give Weir credit that for
making this unlikely approach to storytelling work, and not just for a few pages, but for the entire
duration of a medium-sized novel.
I wouldn't recommend this book to most readers, or even to most fans of genre fiction. If you gauge
the success of an adventure story by its fight scenes or body count, take a pass on The Martian. But
if you find artistry in the rigor and symmetry of analytical thought, or if you like heroes who conquer
with intellect instead of their fists (a tradition that dates back to the Odyssey), or if you just want to
read a plausible story about how a real-life castaway might find his way back 250 million kilometers
to home base, this may become one of your favorite novels.
Yet how odd that one of the most surprising science fiction novels in recent memory succeeds simply
by taking the science seriously and mixing it with one of the most familiar plots in the history of fiction.
That may seem like a tepid formula, but in this instance it produced a runaway hit and cross-platform
brand franchise. With a opening gambit such as this, it can only be a matter of time before Mark
Watney heads off to Jupiter, Saturn and points beyond.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is the author of ten books. His most recent
book is How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books).
Publication date: November 19, 2017
he realized that "science creates plot." He certainly isn't the first sci-fi writer to prefer rigorous science
over fanciful detail—back in 1865, Jules Verne described a trip to the moon that anticipated many of the
key details of the later Apollo project. John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar was so accurate in predicting
the future,(well, now it's the present) he deserves the title of seer. The dystopian technologies of Orwell
and Huxley show up nowadays in the daily news. Even so, few genre writers have pushed technological
realism to the extreme achieved by Weir.
What does Weir really mean by creating plot with science? Here’s
an example encountered midway in the novel, when Martian castaway
Mark Watney finds himself forty meters away from his breached living
quarters, which just lost all its breathable atmosphere, and his broken
spacesuit is also rapidly leaking air. At this dramatic moment in the
book, Weir conveys his hero’s predicament in the following terms:
The suit is designed for eight hours of use. That works out to 250
milliliters of liquid oxygen. Just to be safe, the suit has a full liter
of O2 capacity. But that’s only half the story. The rest of the air is
nitrogen. It’s just there to add pressure. When the suit leaks, that’s
what it backfills with. The suit has two liters of liquid N2 storage.
Let’s call the volume of the airlock two cubic meters. The inflated
EVA suit probably takes up half of it. So it took five minutes to add
0.2 atmospheres to 1 cubic meter. That’s 285 grams of air (trust me
on the math). The air in the tanks is around 1 gram per cubic
centimeter, meaning I just lost 285 milliliters.
The three tanks combined had 3000 milliliters to start with. A lot
of that was used to maintain pressure while the airlock was leaking.
Also, my breathing turned some oxygen into carbon dioxide, which
was captured by the suit’s CO2 filters.
Checking the readouts, I see that I have 410 milliliters of oxygen, 738 milliliters of nitrogen. Together,
they make almost 1150 milliliters to work with. That, divided by 285 milliliters lost per minute…
Once I’m out of the airlock, this EVA suit will only last four minutes.
Fuck.
Did you follow all that? We will have a brief quiz at the end of today’s period. Make sure you get the
grams to milliliters conversion correct.
Other sci-fi authors would probably start with the final expletive, and perhaps mention the four minutes
of remaining breathing time. But what commercial author would dare include the preceding four
paragraphs, with their precise calculations? Are there really enough nerds out there to buy a book of
science fiction that contains more science than fiction?
I have a barroom bet for highbrow drinkers that has always paid off. Hand your boozing companion a
copy of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and bet the next round that any page, chosen at
random, will mention either food or alcohol. Trust me, this pays off with better odds than owning a
bloody casino. Well, I now have another barroom bet, suitable for tech workers and science wonks.
Hand them The Martian, and wager that any random page will include some measurement—whether
of space, time, energy, storage, or another scientific variable. Keep Weir’s book by your side, and
you will drink for free at every watering hole in Silicon Valley.
I suspect that Weir would never have gotten a book contract (and a movie deal!) if he hadn’t first
published this story himself, and found a large, enthusiastic audience. When he initially uploaded
The Martian on to his website in 2011, the publishing industry paid no attention to this West Coast
software developer, the son of an accelerator physicist dad and electrical engineer mom. In fact, no
one in the book biz really took notice for two years, not until the e-book version of The Martian started
selling more than 10,000 copies per month. Agents had turned down his previous overtures, but now
one approached him, and soon had a deal for an audiobook. A few weeks later deals fell in place for
a hardcover book and a motion picture.
By 2015, everyone was a Mark Watney fan, including movie audiences in the 81 countries where the
film version of The Martian was released, as well as the folks at NASA who launched a website to
allow fans to follow the fictional astronaut’s trek across the Martian terrain.
And what was the story of this blockbuster hit, once you
stripped away the measurements and tabulations and
formulas? It’s actually one of the oldest in the history of
the novel. Back in 1719, when the rules of narrative fiction
were in flux, and the conventions of the modern novel were
still under construction, Daniel Defoe published his classic
work Robinson Crusoe. A British mariner finds himself
stranded on a deserted island after a shipwreck, and
must find a way to survive and, if possible, return home.
Weir’s book The Martian takes this story and translates it to Mars, where our intrepid castaway
has been left for dead by his fellow astronauts. But Mark Watney is still alive, and faces
the daunting task of overcoming almost insurmountable obstacles in his quest to return to planet Earth.
These obstacles involve lack of communications with NASA, shortages of food, broken equipment
of various sorts, limited water supply and a host of unanticipated problems caused either by Mars or
Watney’s own mistakes. Adding to the degree of difficulty, his best chance for escape from the Red
Planet requires him to travel thousands of kilometers to the planned landing site for the next Mars
expedition.
If this were a typical sci-fi story from the Golden Age, Watney would enlist the support of
extraterrestrials, engage in battles and ambushes, and maybe even have a fling with a Martian
princess. Such was the survival plan practiced by swashbuckling John Carter in Edgar Rice
Burroughs' popular Martian novels from a century ago. Carter never had trouble breathing the
Martian atmosphere or dealing with food shortages—although he did take advantage of the
weaker gravitational pull of his new home, which gave him a key advantage in hand-to-tentacle
combat.
Ah, Mr. Weir doesn't play by those traditional rules of pulp fiction (or, rather, the lack of rules).
Instead his hero conquers the challenges of Mars one equation at a time. Give Weir credit that for
making this unlikely approach to storytelling work, and not just for a few pages, but for the entire
duration of a medium-sized novel.
I wouldn't recommend this book to most readers, or even to most fans of genre fiction. If you gauge
the success of an adventure story by its fight scenes or body count, take a pass on The Martian. But
if you find artistry in the rigor and symmetry of analytical thought, or if you like heroes who conquer
with intellect instead of their fists (a tradition that dates back to the Odyssey), or if you just want to
read a plausible story about how a real-life castaway might find his way back 250 million kilometers
to home base, this may become one of your favorite novels.
Yet how odd that one of the most surprising science fiction novels in recent memory succeeds simply
by taking the science seriously and mixing it with one of the most familiar plots in the history of fiction.
That may seem like a tepid formula, but in this instance it produced a runaway hit and cross-platform
brand franchise. With a opening gambit such as this, it can only be a matter of time before Mark
Watney heads off to Jupiter, Saturn and points beyond.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is the author of ten books. His most recent
book is How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books).
Publication date: November 19, 2017
Check out our sister sites:
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published since 1985
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Experimental works of mystery &
suspense
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Radical, unconventional and
experimental fiction
The New Canon
Great literary works
published since 1985
Great Books Guide
Reviews of current books
Postmodern Mystery
Experimental works of mystery &
suspense
Fractious Fiction
Radical, unconventional and
experimental fiction
| The Martian by Andy Weir |
Essay by Ted Gioia
Ted Gioia is publishing essays on his
50 favorite works of non-realist fiction
released since 2000. Featured books
will include works of magical realism,
alternative history, sci-fi, horror, and
fantasy, as well as mainstream literary
fiction that pushes boundaries and
challenges conventional notions of
verisimilitude.
Click here for the other titles
50 favorite works of non-realist fiction
released since 2000. Featured books
will include works of magical realism,
alternative history, sci-fi, horror, and
fantasy, as well as mainstream literary
fiction that pushes boundaries and
challenges conventional notions of
verisimilitude.
Click here for the other titles
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
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 Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Windup Girl
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
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence 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
Brooks, Max
World War Z
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Campbell, Ramsey
The Nameless
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
Cline, Ernest
Ready Player One
Crichton, Michael
Jurassic Park
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
Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol
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
Egan, Jennifer
A Visit from the Goon Squad
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
Gardner, John
Grendel
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
Hendrix, Grady
Horrorstör
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Never Let Me Go
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
Koja, Kathe
The Cipher
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
Lindqvist, John Ajvide
Let the Right One In
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Machen, Arthur
The Great God Pan
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
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Wizard of the Crow
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
Oyeyemi, Helen
White is for Witching
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
Roth, Philip
The Plot Against America
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
Straub, Peter
Ghost Story
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
Tryon, Thomas
The Other
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
Wallace, Edgar
King Kong
Walpole, Horace
The Castle of Otranto
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
Wong, David
John Dies at the End
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Yamada, Taichi
Strangers
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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and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials from
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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 Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Windup Girl
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
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence 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
Brooks, Max
World War Z
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
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The Nameless
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Ender's Game
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The Kingdom of This World
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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The Yiddish Policemen's Union
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The King in Yellow
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Stories of Your Life and Others
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Childhood's End
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A Fall of Moondust
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2001: A Space Odyssey
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
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Ready Player One
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Jurassic Park
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Little, Big
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The Fifty Year Sword
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House of Leaves
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Fifth Business
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Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
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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
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A Christmas Carol
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Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
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Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
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A Visit from the Goon Squad
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
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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Aura
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American Gods
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Neverwhere
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Grendel
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Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
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The End of the Affair
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The Magicians
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The Forever War
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The Raw Shark Texts
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The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
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Winter's Tale
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Horrorstör
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Dune
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Heart-Shaped Box
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The Woman in Black
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Practical Magic
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Submission
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Brave New World
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Never Let Me Go
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The Haunting of Hill House
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The Turn of the Screw
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Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
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Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
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Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Koja, Kathe
The Cipher
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
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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
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The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
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The Chronicles of Narnia
Lindqvist, John Ajvide
Let the Right One In
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Machen, Arthur
The Great God Pan
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
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Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
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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
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Dangerous Laughter
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Cloud Atlas
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Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
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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Wizard of the Crow
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The Time Traveler's Wife
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Ringworld
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Vurt
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At Swim-Two-Birds
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White is for Witching
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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
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Gravity's Rainbow
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Gargantua and Pantagruel
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Interview with the Vampire
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Red Mars
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The Plot Against America
Rowling, J.K.
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Midnight's Children
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The Female Man
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Blindness
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Dimension of Miracles
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Mindswap
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Store of the Worlds
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Frankenstein
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Dying Inside
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City
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Snow Crash
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More Than Human
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Some of Your Blood
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Warm Worlds and Otherwise
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The Other
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Slan
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Emphyrio
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Around the Moon
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From the Earth to the Moon
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Last Stories and Other Stories
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Cat's Cradle
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The Sirens of Titan
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Infinite Jest
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Hieroglyphic Tales
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The First Men in the Moon
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The Island of Dr. Moreau
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The Time Machine
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The Illuminatus! Trilogy
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Cloudstreet
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John Dies at the End
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Orlando
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Strangers
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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
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
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Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
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Andy Weir doesn't play by
the traditional pulp fiction
rules. His hero conquers the
challenges of Mars one
equation at a time.
the traditional pulp fiction
rules. His hero conquers the
challenges of Mars one
equation at a time.
