Nova, Samuel R. Delany’s Hugo-nominated novel from 1968,
showcases most of this author’s familiar eccentricities. Hot
and heavy action is interrupted by discourses on cultural theory.
Sci-fi plot lines get turbocharged with archetypes drawn from
myths and legends. Astronauts and space travel are fetishized
beyond recognition. Characters are thrust into great adventures
but announce that they would really rather write a book.
We even get a Delany-sized dose of Joycen
extravagance. Characters break the rules
of syntax, and thrust verbs and nouns in
unfamiliar places. The novel finally ends,
much like Finnegans Wake, in the middle
of a….Wait, I don’t want to spoil it for you.
You’ll need to get to the inside of the nova,
and find out for yourself.
Delany’s own career could be described as
something of a nova. He burst on the scene
at the end of his teen years, and by his mid-
twenties (when Nova was published) had
already shaken up the the sci-fi world with
nine novels. Before the close of the following
year, he had already written the works that
would earn him his 4 Nebula awards and 2
Hugos. After that heady period as the enfant
terrible of science fiction, Delany's output slackened, and he
never picked up another one of these prizes. Certainly his
ambitions never flagged—Delany's Dhalgren from 1975 still stands
out as the most difficult and daunting novel in the science fiction
canon (a million copies were sold, but how many actually read?).
Yet even nowadays, when fans talk about this iconoclastic author,
currently in his early 70s, they still tend to remember him as the
prepossessing youngster who brought a penetrating avant-garde
sensibility to the pulp fiction formulas of the Ace Double, brashly
overturning the rules of both lowbrow and highbrow literature.
See also:
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Many of the ingredients from Nova come right out of the space
opera playbook—indeed, much of this novel anticipates Star
Wars franchise that would soon dominate pop culture. In both
works, a battle for supremacy between competing federations of
planets is reduced to the grudges and rivalries of individual
combatants. Lorq Von Ray is Delany’s Hans Solo with a dose of
Luke Skywalker, the pilot of a fast-flying spaceship and seeker
after adventures. His adversary Prince Red is, like Darth Vader,
part human and part enhanced cyborg. He is the most memorable
villain in Delany’s oeuvre, perhaps even too compelling; he steals
every scene, and makes all the other monomaniacs in this novel
seem like slackers by comparison.
Yes, Delany knows all the sci-fi formulas, but he never sticks with
them for long. Thank goodness! When he interrupts his novel for
a detailed dissection of the Grail myth, we know that we have left
pulp fiction behind and have entered the realm of Joseph
Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. Lorq Von Ray, we learn,
wants to plunge into the center of an exploding star to seize the
rare and valuable elements released by a nova. Delany even offers
some pseudo-scientific explanation of this dicey space maneuver,
but you can safely ignore the references to the periodic table.
We are closer to Moby Dick than Lucasfilms, and the great
white starburst sought by the captain is merely a platform to
address Delany's deeper concern—namely the explosions that
take place in the warped and obsessed psyche of a hero who is
only a step away from becoming a villain.
In reading Nova, I can’t help think that Delany during this
period, somehow tapped into a deep vein of creative inspiration,
with ideas coming at him faster than he could process and
organize them into coherent narratives. When he describes
settings and landscapes, he often throws out a few nouns and
modifiers with little or no context, and leaves his audience
struggling to shape these into a workable mental image. There’s
a long passage in Nova about fishing for extraterrestrial creatures,
and the perspicacious reader comprehends that nets, chains
and floats are involved—but who can really figure out how they
are employed? This kind of shorthand description is not atypical
for Delany. He is always rushing on to the next tangent and
revelation, and can't stop to fill in the gaps of the last one. Often
this flux and chaos is stimulating; in other instances merely
disorienting. But only rarely is it boring. If you aren't engaged by
what Delany is discussing, just hold on—it will change very,
very soon.
In Nova, for example, Delany steps aside from his space opera
story to describe unconventional technologies for music and
visual arts. He also presents a future history of work and social
relations. He offers an erudite discussion of the relationship of
literature to history. He gives tips for writing a novel. He shows
off his knowledge of Tarot cards and fortune-telling. He speculates
on the cultural differences between societies on planets and
those that inhabit the moons of those planets. Again and again,
he tosses out tiny subplots that could serve themselves as the
foundations for novels—but instead of developing them, passes
on to the next item on his expanding agenda. Finally, just when
you think Mr. Delany has exhausted all of the items in his bag
of tricks, he moves from narrative to metanarrative.
These oddities, in the aggregate, are so disruptive on the
reading experience that I simply can't classify this book—as
others have done—as a masterpiece. But it’s almost a masterwork,
and even in the ways it fails, it grabs your attention. When
things blow up into pieces, whether stories or stars, the spectacle
can be riveting. Such is Delany's output from his mid-20s. Like
the nova in this book, you are advised not to stare at it too long,
but neither can you turn away.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and pop culture. His next book,
a history of love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication Date: September 18, 2014
showcases most of this author’s familiar eccentricities. Hot
and heavy action is interrupted by discourses on cultural theory.
Sci-fi plot lines get turbocharged with archetypes drawn from
myths and legends. Astronauts and space travel are fetishized
beyond recognition. Characters are thrust into great adventures
but announce that they would really rather write a book.
We even get a Delany-sized dose of Joycen
extravagance. Characters break the rules
of syntax, and thrust verbs and nouns in
unfamiliar places. The novel finally ends,
much like Finnegans Wake, in the middle
of a….Wait, I don’t want to spoil it for you.
You’ll need to get to the inside of the nova,
and find out for yourself.
Delany’s own career could be described as
something of a nova. He burst on the scene
at the end of his teen years, and by his mid-
twenties (when Nova was published) had
already shaken up the the sci-fi world with
nine novels. Before the close of the following
year, he had already written the works that
would earn him his 4 Nebula awards and 2
Hugos. After that heady period as the enfant
terrible of science fiction, Delany's output slackened, and he
never picked up another one of these prizes. Certainly his
ambitions never flagged—Delany's Dhalgren from 1975 still stands
out as the most difficult and daunting novel in the science fiction
canon (a million copies were sold, but how many actually read?).
Yet even nowadays, when fans talk about this iconoclastic author,
currently in his early 70s, they still tend to remember him as the
prepossessing youngster who brought a penetrating avant-garde
sensibility to the pulp fiction formulas of the Ace Double, brashly
overturning the rules of both lowbrow and highbrow literature.
See also:
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Many of the ingredients from Nova come right out of the space
opera playbook—indeed, much of this novel anticipates Star
Wars franchise that would soon dominate pop culture. In both
works, a battle for supremacy between competing federations of
planets is reduced to the grudges and rivalries of individual
combatants. Lorq Von Ray is Delany’s Hans Solo with a dose of
Luke Skywalker, the pilot of a fast-flying spaceship and seeker
after adventures. His adversary Prince Red is, like Darth Vader,
part human and part enhanced cyborg. He is the most memorable
villain in Delany’s oeuvre, perhaps even too compelling; he steals
every scene, and makes all the other monomaniacs in this novel
seem like slackers by comparison.
Yes, Delany knows all the sci-fi formulas, but he never sticks with
them for long. Thank goodness! When he interrupts his novel for
a detailed dissection of the Grail myth, we know that we have left
pulp fiction behind and have entered the realm of Joseph
Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. Lorq Von Ray, we learn,
wants to plunge into the center of an exploding star to seize the
rare and valuable elements released by a nova. Delany even offers
some pseudo-scientific explanation of this dicey space maneuver,
but you can safely ignore the references to the periodic table.
We are closer to Moby Dick than Lucasfilms, and the great
white starburst sought by the captain is merely a platform to
address Delany's deeper concern—namely the explosions that
take place in the warped and obsessed psyche of a hero who is
only a step away from becoming a villain.
In reading Nova, I can’t help think that Delany during this
period, somehow tapped into a deep vein of creative inspiration,
with ideas coming at him faster than he could process and
organize them into coherent narratives. When he describes
settings and landscapes, he often throws out a few nouns and
modifiers with little or no context, and leaves his audience
struggling to shape these into a workable mental image. There’s
a long passage in Nova about fishing for extraterrestrial creatures,
and the perspicacious reader comprehends that nets, chains
and floats are involved—but who can really figure out how they
are employed? This kind of shorthand description is not atypical
for Delany. He is always rushing on to the next tangent and
revelation, and can't stop to fill in the gaps of the last one. Often
this flux and chaos is stimulating; in other instances merely
disorienting. But only rarely is it boring. If you aren't engaged by
what Delany is discussing, just hold on—it will change very,
very soon.
In Nova, for example, Delany steps aside from his space opera
story to describe unconventional technologies for music and
visual arts. He also presents a future history of work and social
relations. He offers an erudite discussion of the relationship of
literature to history. He gives tips for writing a novel. He shows
off his knowledge of Tarot cards and fortune-telling. He speculates
on the cultural differences between societies on planets and
those that inhabit the moons of those planets. Again and again,
he tosses out tiny subplots that could serve themselves as the
foundations for novels—but instead of developing them, passes
on to the next item on his expanding agenda. Finally, just when
you think Mr. Delany has exhausted all of the items in his bag
of tricks, he moves from narrative to metanarrative.
These oddities, in the aggregate, are so disruptive on the
reading experience that I simply can't classify this book—as
others have done—as a masterpiece. But it’s almost a masterwork,
and even in the ways it fails, it grabs your attention. When
things blow up into pieces, whether stories or stars, the spectacle
can be riveting. Such is Delany's output from his mid-20s. Like
the nova in this book, you are advised not to stare at it too long,
but neither can you turn away.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and pop culture. His next book,
a history of love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication Date: September 18, 2014
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
Check out our sister sites:
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Great literary works published
since 1985
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Experimental works of mystery
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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
| Nova by Samuel R. Delany Essay by Ted Gioia |
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
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
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
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
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
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
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
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
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