I thought I knew every kind of horror story. If you made a taxonomy of terrifying tales, you
would start, of course, with the ghost story—perhaps the oldest genre of them all—and
then add in stories about various other kinds of supernatural scary beings, including (but
not limited to) goblins, witches, zombies, monsters, and anything else that goes bump in
the night. A whole separate genus covers the more realistic villains in those various
horror books that resemble crime stories. Here we find an assortment of blood-soaked
plots about slashers and serial killers, psychopaths and
the criminally insane. Then we bring in all those sci-fi horror
stories about dystopian futures and demented alternative
realities. Finally, on a higher plane and suitable for the
more erudite reader, we include those works of existential
horror, such as Kafka’s The Trial or Sartre’s Nausea,
where terror is simply part of the human condition, as
routine as brushing your teeth or taking out the garbage.
That pretty much exhausts the possibilities, no?
That’s what I though until I encountered Brian Evenson.
His stories seem to start where other horror stories end.
At the outset, something terrible has already happened.
Our protagonist has already been stabbed or shot or
imprisoned or maimed in a terrible accident. It seems
like the worst is already behind us, that the bloodletting
is over and things can only get better from here. But think
again—in Evenson’s world, a near-death experience is
merely a set-up for what is to come—which might just
be worse than death.
Certainly there’s plenty of violence still ahead in the stories,
but that’s not really the main source of the pervasive sense
of dread that marks these tales. Much of the anxiety here
comes from our heroes’ determination to interpret what is happening—to comprehend
the incomprehensible. That is actually the most striking trademark of an Evenson character:
not that they have survived a catastrophe, but that they can’t rest until they have figured out
why it took place or, in many instances, the bare facts of the case. And they have good
reasons for applying so much focus on these facts, because if you don’t understand what
happened, it may well happen again. In the context of an Evenson story, that’s almost
certainly the case.
The narrator in “The Report” is typical of these inquisitive protagonists—or perhaps
‘victims’ would be a more appropriate descriptor. He finds himself locked in a
mysterious prison with strange rules and procedures. Adding to the puzzle, he doesn't
know what crime he has committed, how long he will be incarcerated, or what punishment
awaits him. But there seems to be a pattern in the way some prisoners are tortured and
others are let off the hook, and it’s possible that some explanation can be decoded in
the cryptic messages that pass from cell to cell, transmitted in a kind of alternative Morse
code. If he can just figure out what’s really going on, perhaps he can save himself. Or
maybe help the others who share his plight.
Tough luck, buddy! In these stories, human reason invariably falls short. Maybe rationality
has reached its endpoint here, but that’s hardly a consolation when the price of a
failure to understand is so high—as it is always seems to be in Evenson’s dark universe.
In a way, these stories remind me of those examination dreams, where you are forced to
take a test you will never pass. Only in these stories, the cost of failure is much, much
worse than a bad grade.
Other Evenson tales begin in equally macabre
settings. A man awakens in a hospital and has
suffered terrible injuries, but the puzzling comments
of everyone around him leads him to fear he has
committed some terrible crime—but what did he
actually do? In other stories, a character is recovering
from a stab wound inflicted by his wife, or bleeding
heavily from a gunshot, or stranded on an interstellar
mining operation where the oxygen levels are slowing
depleting, or in some other desperate situation. These contexts are inherently horrifying,
but mostly because the murky details make it almost impossible to find a rational response
or construct even a plausible response to the obstacles at hand.
In my favorite story in the collection, “BearHeart,” expectant parents pay for a gimmicky
teddy bear that is embedded with a device that plays back their baby’s heartbeat. It’s
supposed to help the child sleep at night. But when their baby dies, the bear starts to
play an ominous role in their family life. In typical fashion, Evenson uses the tragedy that
would normally end the narrative—the death of a child—as the triggering point for horror
to come.
This type of horror story deserves its own name, a subgenre label all its own. It’s the
horror of the missing algorithm, the conceptual dead end, the unsolvable problem, the
illogical conclusion. It’s almost the exact opposite of our scary nightmares, in which things
happens, but we never seem to stop and think about them—for some reason, that’s not
allowed in the dreamland. Here action slows down, and all we are left with is an attempt
to piece together the meaning, only the pieces just don’t fit.
I guess I will call it epistemological horror. That might make it seem like a kind of
cerebral exercise, but Evenson is anything but a coldly philosophical writer. In fact, in
his hands epistemology can be even scarier than a zombie or a grindhouse slasher.
And his twists on it present a terror all the more terrifying because they are so resistant
to personification. Who needs a monster when the horror is embedded in how we think?
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is the author of eleven books, including
the forthcoming Music: A Subversive History (Basic Books).
Publication date: March 5, 2019
would start, of course, with the ghost story—perhaps the oldest genre of them all—and
then add in stories about various other kinds of supernatural scary beings, including (but
not limited to) goblins, witches, zombies, monsters, and anything else that goes bump in
the night. A whole separate genus covers the more realistic villains in those various
horror books that resemble crime stories. Here we find an assortment of blood-soaked
plots about slashers and serial killers, psychopaths and
the criminally insane. Then we bring in all those sci-fi horror
stories about dystopian futures and demented alternative
realities. Finally, on a higher plane and suitable for the
more erudite reader, we include those works of existential
horror, such as Kafka’s The Trial or Sartre’s Nausea,
where terror is simply part of the human condition, as
routine as brushing your teeth or taking out the garbage.
That pretty much exhausts the possibilities, no?
That’s what I though until I encountered Brian Evenson.
His stories seem to start where other horror stories end.
At the outset, something terrible has already happened.
Our protagonist has already been stabbed or shot or
imprisoned or maimed in a terrible accident. It seems
like the worst is already behind us, that the bloodletting
is over and things can only get better from here. But think
again—in Evenson’s world, a near-death experience is
merely a set-up for what is to come—which might just
be worse than death.
Certainly there’s plenty of violence still ahead in the stories,
but that’s not really the main source of the pervasive sense
of dread that marks these tales. Much of the anxiety here
comes from our heroes’ determination to interpret what is happening—to comprehend
the incomprehensible. That is actually the most striking trademark of an Evenson character:
not that they have survived a catastrophe, but that they can’t rest until they have figured out
why it took place or, in many instances, the bare facts of the case. And they have good
reasons for applying so much focus on these facts, because if you don’t understand what
happened, it may well happen again. In the context of an Evenson story, that’s almost
certainly the case.
The narrator in “The Report” is typical of these inquisitive protagonists—or perhaps
‘victims’ would be a more appropriate descriptor. He finds himself locked in a
mysterious prison with strange rules and procedures. Adding to the puzzle, he doesn't
know what crime he has committed, how long he will be incarcerated, or what punishment
awaits him. But there seems to be a pattern in the way some prisoners are tortured and
others are let off the hook, and it’s possible that some explanation can be decoded in
the cryptic messages that pass from cell to cell, transmitted in a kind of alternative Morse
code. If he can just figure out what’s really going on, perhaps he can save himself. Or
maybe help the others who share his plight.
Tough luck, buddy! In these stories, human reason invariably falls short. Maybe rationality
has reached its endpoint here, but that’s hardly a consolation when the price of a
failure to understand is so high—as it is always seems to be in Evenson’s dark universe.
In a way, these stories remind me of those examination dreams, where you are forced to
take a test you will never pass. Only in these stories, the cost of failure is much, much
worse than a bad grade.
Other Evenson tales begin in equally macabre
settings. A man awakens in a hospital and has
suffered terrible injuries, but the puzzling comments
of everyone around him leads him to fear he has
committed some terrible crime—but what did he
actually do? In other stories, a character is recovering
from a stab wound inflicted by his wife, or bleeding
heavily from a gunshot, or stranded on an interstellar
mining operation where the oxygen levels are slowing
depleting, or in some other desperate situation. These contexts are inherently horrifying,
but mostly because the murky details make it almost impossible to find a rational response
or construct even a plausible response to the obstacles at hand.
In my favorite story in the collection, “BearHeart,” expectant parents pay for a gimmicky
teddy bear that is embedded with a device that plays back their baby’s heartbeat. It’s
supposed to help the child sleep at night. But when their baby dies, the bear starts to
play an ominous role in their family life. In typical fashion, Evenson uses the tragedy that
would normally end the narrative—the death of a child—as the triggering point for horror
to come.
This type of horror story deserves its own name, a subgenre label all its own. It’s the
horror of the missing algorithm, the conceptual dead end, the unsolvable problem, the
illogical conclusion. It’s almost the exact opposite of our scary nightmares, in which things
happens, but we never seem to stop and think about them—for some reason, that’s not
allowed in the dreamland. Here action slows down, and all we are left with is an attempt
to piece together the meaning, only the pieces just don’t fit.
I guess I will call it epistemological horror. That might make it seem like a kind of
cerebral exercise, but Evenson is anything but a coldly philosophical writer. In fact, in
his hands epistemology can be even scarier than a zombie or a grindhouse slasher.
And his twists on it present a terror all the more terrifying because they are so resistant
to personification. Who needs a monster when the horror is embedded in how we think?
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is the author of eleven books, including
the forthcoming Music: A Subversive History (Basic Books).
Publication date: March 5, 2019
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published since 1985
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Experimental works of mystery &
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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
| A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson |
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 |
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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
Haig, Matt
The Humans
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
Embassytown
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
Morris, Jan
Hav
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
North, Claire
The First 15 Lives of Harry August
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
Weir, Andy
The Martian
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
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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
Haig, Matt
The Humans
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
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This type of horror story deserves
its own name, a subgenre label all
its own. It’s the horror of the missing
algorithm, the conceptual dead end,
the unsolvable problem, the
illogical conclusion.
its own name, a subgenre label all
its own. It’s the horror of the missing
algorithm, the conceptual dead end,
the unsolvable problem, the
illogical conclusion.
