American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
The idea of pagan deities getting old and crotchety is not a new one.
The first Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration Thespis, or The Gods Grown
Old built on this conceit. Thornton Wilder’s debut novel The Cabala
also found inspiration in this same concept of grumpy old gods. But
Neil Gaiman adds a new twist by setting his story
in the New World. Yes, these are American Gods,
in his novel of the same name.
And the United States, as we all know, is a bad
place to pursue a career as a divine being. The
Yankees just worship fame and money. What’s a
poor Odin or Anubis to do? The core idea in
Gaiman’s tale is that the Old World gods were
rought to America with the great tides of im-
migration, only to find themselves gradually
forgotten as the new arrivals became assimilated
into the melting pot culture. These neglected
plenipotentiaries are jealous of the new gods . . .
those are the things Americans worship now,
like their platinum cards, their home entertainment centers, the
Internet and bling.
These two camps engage in skirmishes, and all-out warfare seems
inevitable. The new gods on the block seem better equipped for battle.
It helps that they control all the cool consumer products. When the
almighty God of Television wants to send you a message, he has 500
cable channels, more or less, to choose from. Poor Zeus only had
Hermes and his winged sandals—heck, you might as well send your
divine directives by snail mail.
The premise behind American Gods is perfectly suited for satire, and
Gaiman dishes out a little—although not as much as I would have
liked. This author, who developed his craft in the world of comic books,
still maintains allegiance to an aesthetic vision that comes straight out
of the pages of DC and Marvel. He knows how to bring to life the
fanciful and magical elements of his story; he understands how to
push the plot forward through a series of crisis points and resolutions;
and he is especially good at adding wry comic elements that lighten an
otherwise dark story. So there isn’t much room left for social
commentary, even if the story ostensibly plays off the fickle tastes of
modern Americans and their inability to distinguish between gods and
goods.
Gaiman’s protagonist, a shadowy character named Shadow, is caught
in the middle of the warring deities. He is a former prisoner with a taste
for coin tricks, who finds himself engaged as bodyguard for Mr.
Wednesday (aka Odin, top dog among pagan Nordic deities), who has
sadly been reduced in his golden years to perpetrating small-fry
scams and swindles. The new gods try to get Shadow on their side—
one of the most amusing scenes in the book finds the “boob tube . . .
the shrine the family gathers to adore” propositioning Shadow via a
renegade Lucille Ball in an old TV rerun. But Shadow sticks with his
eccentric pagan pals, for better or worse.
And what do the old gods have to say for themselves. Well, here is a
typical Odin rant, when Shadow asks him how he can justify stealing
ten dollars from an innocent woman: “They don’t sacrifice rams or
bulls to me. They don’t send me the souls of killers and slaves,
gallows-hung and raven-picked. They made me. They forgot me. Now I
take a little back from them. Isn’t that fair?”
Gaiman delivers a distinctly American take on magical realism. If
Gabriel García Márquez can offer padres who levitate off the ground, if
Haruki Murakami can present talking cats, why can’t Gaiman attach his
fantasy to modern American pop culture? The odd angle here is that
Gaiman isn’t American—at least not by birth. He was born in
Portchester, England in 1960. But you would never guess it from
American Gods, which is every bit as American as Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
Almost anything can happen in Gaiman’s fanciful universe, and
invariably does if you wait long enough. As a result, there is a
charming, if occasionally frustrating, looseness to the storyline. Unlike,
say, the world of Harry Potter, where the reader has at least a rough-
and-ready notion of the magical powers various characters possess,
American Gods always leaves this ambiguous. Dead people can
apparently come back to life. The pagan deities at some points seem
powerful and scary, at other points enervated and pathetic. This
unpredictability creates a number of surprises in the storyline. On the
other hand, it prevents Gaiman from creating the type of suspense
that would result from a more tightly controlled premise. After all, why
should the reader worry about a character dying, if the deceased
might reappear in the next chapter?
But Gaiman compensates for the loose ends by adding lots of local
color to his narrative. He incorporates bits of low-end Americana into
the story—for example, setting a memorable gathering of the pagan
deities at The House on the Rock, a real life tourist attraction in Spring
Green, Wisconsin. Later he shifts the action to Lebanon, Kansas,
which is (in case you didn’t know) the geographical center of the
United States. Gaiman doesn’t need magic castles or pagan temples
to work his wonders. For him, the fantastic is very much at home in a
family diner or all-night gas station. This familiar veneer of the fanciful
is one of the most endearing qualities of Gaiman’s stories, and imparts
a piquant flavor to his imaginative works that one won't find in Narnia
or Middle-earth.
Along the way, readers of American Gods get a double dose of
mythology. But don’t throw out your Joseph Campbell books quite yet.
Neil Gaiman isn’t interested in telling you the old myths and folk tales.
He wants to create some new ones of his own. And I can’t think of a
contemporary writer better suited for the job.
by Neil Gaiman
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
The idea of pagan deities getting old and crotchety is not a new one.
The first Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration Thespis, or The Gods Grown
Old built on this conceit. Thornton Wilder’s debut novel The Cabala
also found inspiration in this same concept of grumpy old gods. But
Neil Gaiman adds a new twist by setting his story
in the New World. Yes, these are American Gods,
in his novel of the same name.
And the United States, as we all know, is a bad
place to pursue a career as a divine being. The
Yankees just worship fame and money. What’s a
poor Odin or Anubis to do? The core idea in
Gaiman’s tale is that the Old World gods were
rought to America with the great tides of im-
migration, only to find themselves gradually
forgotten as the new arrivals became assimilated
into the melting pot culture. These neglected
plenipotentiaries are jealous of the new gods . . .
those are the things Americans worship now,
like their platinum cards, their home entertainment centers, the
Internet and bling.
These two camps engage in skirmishes, and all-out warfare seems
inevitable. The new gods on the block seem better equipped for battle.
It helps that they control all the cool consumer products. When the
almighty God of Television wants to send you a message, he has 500
cable channels, more or less, to choose from. Poor Zeus only had
Hermes and his winged sandals—heck, you might as well send your
divine directives by snail mail.
The premise behind American Gods is perfectly suited for satire, and
Gaiman dishes out a little—although not as much as I would have
liked. This author, who developed his craft in the world of comic books,
still maintains allegiance to an aesthetic vision that comes straight out
of the pages of DC and Marvel. He knows how to bring to life the
fanciful and magical elements of his story; he understands how to
push the plot forward through a series of crisis points and resolutions;
and he is especially good at adding wry comic elements that lighten an
otherwise dark story. So there isn’t much room left for social
commentary, even if the story ostensibly plays off the fickle tastes of
modern Americans and their inability to distinguish between gods and
goods.
Gaiman’s protagonist, a shadowy character named Shadow, is caught
in the middle of the warring deities. He is a former prisoner with a taste
for coin tricks, who finds himself engaged as bodyguard for Mr.
Wednesday (aka Odin, top dog among pagan Nordic deities), who has
sadly been reduced in his golden years to perpetrating small-fry
scams and swindles. The new gods try to get Shadow on their side—
one of the most amusing scenes in the book finds the “boob tube . . .
the shrine the family gathers to adore” propositioning Shadow via a
renegade Lucille Ball in an old TV rerun. But Shadow sticks with his
eccentric pagan pals, for better or worse.
And what do the old gods have to say for themselves. Well, here is a
typical Odin rant, when Shadow asks him how he can justify stealing
ten dollars from an innocent woman: “They don’t sacrifice rams or
bulls to me. They don’t send me the souls of killers and slaves,
gallows-hung and raven-picked. They made me. They forgot me. Now I
take a little back from them. Isn’t that fair?”
Gaiman delivers a distinctly American take on magical realism. If
Gabriel García Márquez can offer padres who levitate off the ground, if
Haruki Murakami can present talking cats, why can’t Gaiman attach his
fantasy to modern American pop culture? The odd angle here is that
Gaiman isn’t American—at least not by birth. He was born in
Portchester, England in 1960. But you would never guess it from
American Gods, which is every bit as American as Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
Almost anything can happen in Gaiman’s fanciful universe, and
invariably does if you wait long enough. As a result, there is a
charming, if occasionally frustrating, looseness to the storyline. Unlike,
say, the world of Harry Potter, where the reader has at least a rough-
and-ready notion of the magical powers various characters possess,
American Gods always leaves this ambiguous. Dead people can
apparently come back to life. The pagan deities at some points seem
powerful and scary, at other points enervated and pathetic. This
unpredictability creates a number of surprises in the storyline. On the
other hand, it prevents Gaiman from creating the type of suspense
that would result from a more tightly controlled premise. After all, why
should the reader worry about a character dying, if the deceased
might reappear in the next chapter?
But Gaiman compensates for the loose ends by adding lots of local
color to his narrative. He incorporates bits of low-end Americana into
the story—for example, setting a memorable gathering of the pagan
deities at The House on the Rock, a real life tourist attraction in Spring
Green, Wisconsin. Later he shifts the action to Lebanon, Kansas,
which is (in case you didn’t know) the geographical center of the
United States. Gaiman doesn’t need magic castles or pagan temples
to work his wonders. For him, the fantastic is very much at home in a
family diner or all-night gas station. This familiar veneer of the fanciful
is one of the most endearing qualities of Gaiman’s stories, and imparts
a piquant flavor to his imaginative works that one won't find in Narnia
or Middle-earth.
Along the way, readers of American Gods get a double dose of
mythology. But don’t throw out your Joseph Campbell books quite yet.
Neil Gaiman isn’t interested in telling you the old myths and folk tales.
He wants to create some new ones of his own. And I can’t think of a
contemporary writer better suited for the job.
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
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
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
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
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
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
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
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
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, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
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
Emphyrio
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
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
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
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 from
publishers, authors, publicists or other
parties.
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
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
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
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
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
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
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
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
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, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
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
Emphyrio
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
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
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Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
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