Check out our sister sites:
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 and unconventional
works of 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 and unconventional
works of fiction
Brian Aldiss, once described fellow sci-fi author Robert Sheckley as
"Voltaire-and-soda." Sheckley, in his opinion, was one of the three
great "entertainers" of 1960s science fiction—along with Kurt Vonnegut
and Philip K. Dick. "Modern life and its absurdities," Aldiss noted
"provoked his sharpest and wittiest responses."
More than anyone, Sheckley set the stage for the absurdist science
fiction that would flourish in later years, especially in the works of Douglas
Adams and Terry Pratchett. He somehow managed to combine the
metaphysical angst of Kafka with the playfulness of Lewis Carroll, all
mixed up with the pulp fiction sensibility of the so-called 'Golden Age' of
sci-fi.
Sheckley achieved that extravagant hybrid at a heavy cost.
His plots are the least coherent of any of these authors. The
tone of his tales shifts without warning, and at any moment
he might lapse from storytelling to satire, philosophy,
technological musings, or outright parody. His characters
are just as changeable—they are typically innocent victims
of the charades around them and quickly learn, like
Sheckley's readers, that it's best to simply roll with the
punches.
In his short stories, Sheckley could usually hold it together
long enough to maintain the narrative momentum and reach
a pleasing resolution. But longer forms posed a formidable
challenge to his piecemeal sensibility. Sheckely had little
patience for the slow, careful construction required in writing a coherent
large-scale novel. Instead, he promised a series of thrills, surprises, laughs
and smarty-pants observations on the foibles of the human condition. If you
were willing to settle for that bargain, Sheckley would not disappoint.
Mindswap, from 1966, shows just how far this author would sacrifice structure
in the pursuit of some amusing tangent. Sheckley isn't really sure whether
he wants to write a sci-fi adventure, or a detective story, or a Western, or
sword-and-sorcery fantasy, or poetry, or a romance. So he solves the
problem by squeezing all of these disparate approaches into a meandering
200-page novel.
The story begins with protagonist Marvin Flynn, resident of Stanhope, "a
pleasant rural community situated in the foothills of the Adirondacks," and
some 300 miles distant from New York City. Flynn suffers from wanderlust,
and longs to visit other planets. He can't afford a flight to Mars, but he can
get to the Red Planet on the cheap if he agrees to a "mindswap." This
technology allows him to inhabit the body of a Martian for a specified length
of time; the Martian, in turn, gets to use Flynn's body back on Earth. Think
of mindswap as a time-share scheme for the interplanetary age.
Flynn agrees to a mindswap with Ze Kraggash, inhabitant of the
Disappearing Desert in New South Mars. But soon after arriving in his
new body, he learns that Kraggash illegally sold mindswap rights to 12
different individuals. Flynn finds that he must leave Kraggash’s body—he
receives the equivalent of a mindswap eviction notice—but he has no
place to go. Kraggash has gone into hiding with Flynn’s original body.
Sheckley manages to stick with this story for around 50 pages, but then
he grows weary with his plot. Fortunately the concept of mindswap allows
him to bounce his unfortunate protagonist from planet to planet, and insert
him into new complications without ever resolving the old ones. On the
flimsiest pretexts, Sheckley also changes his prose style, and sometimes
writes with faux Shakespearean grandiloquence, or in a parody of
academic posturing, or in a dozen other ways.
All pretensions to continuity are lost before we reach the halfway point
of Mindswap. We now realize that Sheckley is intent on delivering….
well, no, not science fiction, but rather what we would now call a
postmodern pastiche. At one point, he sends Flynn into a pickup bar,
where every line of dialogue spoken comes from the lyrics of various
pop songs. Ten pages later, Flynn embarks on a Don Quixote-ish quest
with a a strange Sancho Panza-esque companion. In another ten pages,
Flynn finds himself on a remote planet in the galaxy, where he just happens
to run into his Mom and Dad. Ten pages later, he is thrust into a
medieval adventure story. And so on and so forth.
Sheckley’s skill in mimicking and ridiculing genre formulas is impressive,
and compensates to some degree for the gaping holes and contradictions
in the plot. But even the most tolerant reader will bristle when the main
character seems to have forgotten the very reason why he set out on
this adventure in the first place. And that his body has been stolen. And
that he will die if he doesn't track down the person who took it from him.
Why should we care about the hero's plight, if he doesn't care about it
himself?
Sheckley finally returns to the original mindswap plot in the closing pages,
and offers up a resolution to the plot…but one with more holes in it than
it would take to fill the Albert Hall. His ending is more like the punchline
to a shaggy dog joke than the conclusion of a novel. And I will chuckle here,
and elsewhere, at this unhinged book. But I can't help thinking that, with
all his excess of imagination and writing skill, Sheckley could have done
so much more than work just for laughs.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. His next book, a history of
love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication date: July 21, 2014
"Voltaire-and-soda." Sheckley, in his opinion, was one of the three
great "entertainers" of 1960s science fiction—along with Kurt Vonnegut
and Philip K. Dick. "Modern life and its absurdities," Aldiss noted
"provoked his sharpest and wittiest responses."
More than anyone, Sheckley set the stage for the absurdist science
fiction that would flourish in later years, especially in the works of Douglas
Adams and Terry Pratchett. He somehow managed to combine the
metaphysical angst of Kafka with the playfulness of Lewis Carroll, all
mixed up with the pulp fiction sensibility of the so-called 'Golden Age' of
sci-fi.
Sheckley achieved that extravagant hybrid at a heavy cost.
His plots are the least coherent of any of these authors. The
tone of his tales shifts without warning, and at any moment
he might lapse from storytelling to satire, philosophy,
technological musings, or outright parody. His characters
are just as changeable—they are typically innocent victims
of the charades around them and quickly learn, like
Sheckley's readers, that it's best to simply roll with the
punches.
In his short stories, Sheckley could usually hold it together
long enough to maintain the narrative momentum and reach
a pleasing resolution. But longer forms posed a formidable
challenge to his piecemeal sensibility. Sheckely had little
patience for the slow, careful construction required in writing a coherent
large-scale novel. Instead, he promised a series of thrills, surprises, laughs
and smarty-pants observations on the foibles of the human condition. If you
were willing to settle for that bargain, Sheckley would not disappoint.
Mindswap, from 1966, shows just how far this author would sacrifice structure
in the pursuit of some amusing tangent. Sheckley isn't really sure whether
he wants to write a sci-fi adventure, or a detective story, or a Western, or
sword-and-sorcery fantasy, or poetry, or a romance. So he solves the
problem by squeezing all of these disparate approaches into a meandering
200-page novel.
The story begins with protagonist Marvin Flynn, resident of Stanhope, "a
pleasant rural community situated in the foothills of the Adirondacks," and
some 300 miles distant from New York City. Flynn suffers from wanderlust,
and longs to visit other planets. He can't afford a flight to Mars, but he can
get to the Red Planet on the cheap if he agrees to a "mindswap." This
technology allows him to inhabit the body of a Martian for a specified length
of time; the Martian, in turn, gets to use Flynn's body back on Earth. Think
of mindswap as a time-share scheme for the interplanetary age.
Flynn agrees to a mindswap with Ze Kraggash, inhabitant of the
Disappearing Desert in New South Mars. But soon after arriving in his
new body, he learns that Kraggash illegally sold mindswap rights to 12
different individuals. Flynn finds that he must leave Kraggash’s body—he
receives the equivalent of a mindswap eviction notice—but he has no
place to go. Kraggash has gone into hiding with Flynn’s original body.
Sheckley manages to stick with this story for around 50 pages, but then
he grows weary with his plot. Fortunately the concept of mindswap allows
him to bounce his unfortunate protagonist from planet to planet, and insert
him into new complications without ever resolving the old ones. On the
flimsiest pretexts, Sheckley also changes his prose style, and sometimes
writes with faux Shakespearean grandiloquence, or in a parody of
academic posturing, or in a dozen other ways.
All pretensions to continuity are lost before we reach the halfway point
of Mindswap. We now realize that Sheckley is intent on delivering….
well, no, not science fiction, but rather what we would now call a
postmodern pastiche. At one point, he sends Flynn into a pickup bar,
where every line of dialogue spoken comes from the lyrics of various
pop songs. Ten pages later, Flynn embarks on a Don Quixote-ish quest
with a a strange Sancho Panza-esque companion. In another ten pages,
Flynn finds himself on a remote planet in the galaxy, where he just happens
to run into his Mom and Dad. Ten pages later, he is thrust into a
medieval adventure story. And so on and so forth.
Sheckley’s skill in mimicking and ridiculing genre formulas is impressive,
and compensates to some degree for the gaping holes and contradictions
in the plot. But even the most tolerant reader will bristle when the main
character seems to have forgotten the very reason why he set out on
this adventure in the first place. And that his body has been stolen. And
that he will die if he doesn't track down the person who took it from him.
Why should we care about the hero's plight, if he doesn't care about it
himself?
Sheckley finally returns to the original mindswap plot in the closing pages,
and offers up a resolution to the plot…but one with more holes in it than
it would take to fill the Albert Hall. His ending is more like the punchline
to a shaggy dog joke than the conclusion of a novel. And I will chuckle here,
and elsewhere, at this unhinged book. But I can't help thinking that, with
all his excess of imagination and writing skill, Sheckley could have done
so much more than work just for laughs.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. His next book, a history of
love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication date: July 21, 2014
Mindswap
by Robert Sheckley
Essay by Ted Gioia
by Robert Sheckley
Essay by Ted Gioia
| Click on image to purchase |
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
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
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
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
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
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
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
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
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
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
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
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
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
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
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
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
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
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
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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
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
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and
its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |