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Fractious Fiction
Radical and unconventional
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Robert Sheckley was a powerful writer…in small doses. For ten pages at a
stretch, maybe even fifteen, he could compete with the best of them. He was
as sly as Kurt Vonnegut, as crisp as Joseph Heller, as absurd as Italo Calvino.
He would surprise you, amuse you, maybe even educate you. But beware: if
Sheckley continued beyond a certain word count, you could sense the fatigue
setting in. In a strange reversal of the usual state-of-play, the author would lose
interest before the reader. If you were lucky, Sheckley would stop at that point,
but often he went on—usually with a painfully sharp rupture in the narrative
indicating where the writer had shifted gears. In short, Mr. Sheckley was a
sprinter, not a marathon runner, but sometimes he still kept in the race even
when he was out of wind.
So do yourself a favor, and start your exploration of
this sci-fi master with his short stories—especially
those from the mid-1950s, when Sheckley seemed
to have a magical touch, an inexhaustible imagination,
and an acute sense of when to bring a tale to a close.
Fortunately for us, Jonathan Lethem and Alex
Abramovich have done us the favor of sifting through
this author's many shorter works and compiling a
selection of the most exemplary in their 2012 anthology
Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley.
This is as close to a definitive collection as you
will find, and will help you understand why, back
in his late twenties and early thirties, Sheckley
earned such high-flung praise. No one "is so deft
as Sheckley in using interplanetary fiction as a vehicle for Gilbertian satire,
topsy-turvy, shrewd, and wholly captivating," Anthony Boucher asserted in
1956. And in 1960, Kingsley Amis cited Sheckley as one of the
leading postwar authors, lauding him as "science fiction’s premier gadfly."
Brian Aldiss later compared him to Swift and Voltaire.
Sheckley's best work was mostly behind him by the time of Amis's advocacy .
This is all the more dispiriting because his wry, satirical bent would seem to
have been custom-made for the irreverent spirit of the late 1960s. He ought to
have evolved into a counterculture hero, but his sense of dialogue and character
development were still entrenched in the formulas and stereotypes of the
Truman-Eisenhower era. The kind of leap that Heinlein made with Stranger
in a Strange Land, or Vonnegut with Slaughterhouse-Five was beyond him.
Instead of reinventing himself, he settled for repeating himself.
But turn to those great mid-1950s stories, most of them published in Galaxy
magazine, and enjoy Sheckley at his finest. "Seventh Victim" (1953) the most
famous of these, served as the basis for an influential film featuring Marcello
Mastroianni and Ursula Andress, and though Sheckley tried to recapture its
spirit and success in later works, the sequels never surpassed this taught
15-page account of a murder competition in which each contestant much take
turns as predator and prey. I saw the film before reading the story, and was
surprised when I came to Sheckley's narrative by the light touch he applied to
such a gruesome story.
Even when murder is not on the agenda, the protagonists of Sheckley stories
are invariably unwitting victims, who only gradually grasp the sticky situations
into which they have stumbled. Many of the stories in Store of the Worlds deal
with unintended consequences, and Sheckley is at his best in showing how
what promised to be oh-so-good proves to be oh-so-bad. In "Watchbird,"
another Galaxy story from 1953, a new technology to identify and prevent
violent crimes ends up by forcing a halt to almost every productive activity.
The story is entertaining and briskly told, but also with enough intellectual
content to spur a long, hard discussion on the nature of violence and how
we compartmentalize it. In "Pilgrimage to Earth" (1956) and "The Language
of Love" (1957) he accomplishes the same kind of mordant turnabout on the
topic of romance. Here again, Sheckley pushes beyond the dictates of pure
escapism, and shows how thought-provoking he could be—but without
sacrificing anything in pacing and humor. Both stories clock in just under
fifteen pages, that sweet spot where this author could pull off his finest effects.
Other tales here stay closer to science fiction formulas. Sheckley unleashes
new variations on stories about galactic warfare ("Shape"), time travel
("Double Indemnity"), first contact ("All the Things You Are"), the colonization
of space ("The Native Problem") and clairvoyance ("Protection"). But his
most reliable subject—one that would come to the fore in most of his
best-known novels, such as Mindswap and Immortality, Inc.—is human
consciousness itself, and the ways it can lead a life separated from its
original biological organism. You might even say that Sheckley is obsessed
with the nature of the soul—and at times his writings take on a zany theological
bent. But for the most part, Sheckley uses this platform to address the absurd
rather than the transcendental. Three of the best stories in this collection rely
on this starting-point to reach very different ends: "Warm" deals with a man
who starts taking the voice in his head far too seriously, and ends up by
becoming it; "Morning After" presents a new type of adventure vacation in
which the participant is never quite sure whether it is really happening; "The
Store of the Worlds" describes a post-apocalyptic world in which individuals
with lots of cash can experience a utopian alternative reality, but only inside
their mind.
The later and longer stories in this volume, however, painfully reveal the
limitations of Sheckley’s talents—maddening limitations, since he still
manages to show, in short bursts, his unassailable skills at satire and
social commentary. "The People Trap," from 1968, attempts to recapture
the vitality of Sheckley's "Seventh Victim" story of 15 years before; again
a dangerous competition sets the stage for violence and romance. But
even at just 21 pages, this story feels bloated, the unfolding plot meanders
and the characters' motivations for key actions almost incomprehensible.
In other later stories, such as "Cordle to Onion to Carrot" and "Is That What
People Do?" Sheckley betrays the same indecisiveness that undermined
so many of his longer works during this period—he simply strings incidents
together, hoping that the reader will forgive the gaps and loose ends.
But the editors of Store of the Worlds compensate for this. At first glance, it
must seem odd that a survey of Sheckley's entire body of short works should
focus so much on a five-year span from 1953 through 1957—indeed, more
than half of the book is devoted to that fertile period. After all, Sheckley's entire
career as a writer spanned more than a half-century; so why focus on just five
years? But during that brief stretch between the invention of the H-bomb and the
launch of Sputnik, Sheckley had few peers as a writer of short sci-fi works,
and somehow managed to turn abstruse scientific concepts into his own
personal playground. Give him credit for setting a standard hard to match—sad
to say, most of all by the author himself.
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
stretch, maybe even fifteen, he could compete with the best of them. He was
as sly as Kurt Vonnegut, as crisp as Joseph Heller, as absurd as Italo Calvino.
He would surprise you, amuse you, maybe even educate you. But beware: if
Sheckley continued beyond a certain word count, you could sense the fatigue
setting in. In a strange reversal of the usual state-of-play, the author would lose
interest before the reader. If you were lucky, Sheckley would stop at that point,
but often he went on—usually with a painfully sharp rupture in the narrative
indicating where the writer had shifted gears. In short, Mr. Sheckley was a
sprinter, not a marathon runner, but sometimes he still kept in the race even
when he was out of wind.
So do yourself a favor, and start your exploration of
this sci-fi master with his short stories—especially
those from the mid-1950s, when Sheckley seemed
to have a magical touch, an inexhaustible imagination,
and an acute sense of when to bring a tale to a close.
Fortunately for us, Jonathan Lethem and Alex
Abramovich have done us the favor of sifting through
this author's many shorter works and compiling a
selection of the most exemplary in their 2012 anthology
Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley.
This is as close to a definitive collection as you
will find, and will help you understand why, back
in his late twenties and early thirties, Sheckley
earned such high-flung praise. No one "is so deft
as Sheckley in using interplanetary fiction as a vehicle for Gilbertian satire,
topsy-turvy, shrewd, and wholly captivating," Anthony Boucher asserted in
1956. And in 1960, Kingsley Amis cited Sheckley as one of the
leading postwar authors, lauding him as "science fiction’s premier gadfly."
Brian Aldiss later compared him to Swift and Voltaire.
Sheckley's best work was mostly behind him by the time of Amis's advocacy .
This is all the more dispiriting because his wry, satirical bent would seem to
have been custom-made for the irreverent spirit of the late 1960s. He ought to
have evolved into a counterculture hero, but his sense of dialogue and character
development were still entrenched in the formulas and stereotypes of the
Truman-Eisenhower era. The kind of leap that Heinlein made with Stranger
in a Strange Land, or Vonnegut with Slaughterhouse-Five was beyond him.
Instead of reinventing himself, he settled for repeating himself.
But turn to those great mid-1950s stories, most of them published in Galaxy
magazine, and enjoy Sheckley at his finest. "Seventh Victim" (1953) the most
famous of these, served as the basis for an influential film featuring Marcello
Mastroianni and Ursula Andress, and though Sheckley tried to recapture its
spirit and success in later works, the sequels never surpassed this taught
15-page account of a murder competition in which each contestant much take
turns as predator and prey. I saw the film before reading the story, and was
surprised when I came to Sheckley's narrative by the light touch he applied to
such a gruesome story.
Even when murder is not on the agenda, the protagonists of Sheckley stories
are invariably unwitting victims, who only gradually grasp the sticky situations
into which they have stumbled. Many of the stories in Store of the Worlds deal
with unintended consequences, and Sheckley is at his best in showing how
what promised to be oh-so-good proves to be oh-so-bad. In "Watchbird,"
another Galaxy story from 1953, a new technology to identify and prevent
violent crimes ends up by forcing a halt to almost every productive activity.
The story is entertaining and briskly told, but also with enough intellectual
content to spur a long, hard discussion on the nature of violence and how
we compartmentalize it. In "Pilgrimage to Earth" (1956) and "The Language
of Love" (1957) he accomplishes the same kind of mordant turnabout on the
topic of romance. Here again, Sheckley pushes beyond the dictates of pure
escapism, and shows how thought-provoking he could be—but without
sacrificing anything in pacing and humor. Both stories clock in just under
fifteen pages, that sweet spot where this author could pull off his finest effects.
Other tales here stay closer to science fiction formulas. Sheckley unleashes
new variations on stories about galactic warfare ("Shape"), time travel
("Double Indemnity"), first contact ("All the Things You Are"), the colonization
of space ("The Native Problem") and clairvoyance ("Protection"). But his
most reliable subject—one that would come to the fore in most of his
best-known novels, such as Mindswap and Immortality, Inc.—is human
consciousness itself, and the ways it can lead a life separated from its
original biological organism. You might even say that Sheckley is obsessed
with the nature of the soul—and at times his writings take on a zany theological
bent. But for the most part, Sheckley uses this platform to address the absurd
rather than the transcendental. Three of the best stories in this collection rely
on this starting-point to reach very different ends: "Warm" deals with a man
who starts taking the voice in his head far too seriously, and ends up by
becoming it; "Morning After" presents a new type of adventure vacation in
which the participant is never quite sure whether it is really happening; "The
Store of the Worlds" describes a post-apocalyptic world in which individuals
with lots of cash can experience a utopian alternative reality, but only inside
their mind.
The later and longer stories in this volume, however, painfully reveal the
limitations of Sheckley’s talents—maddening limitations, since he still
manages to show, in short bursts, his unassailable skills at satire and
social commentary. "The People Trap," from 1968, attempts to recapture
the vitality of Sheckley's "Seventh Victim" story of 15 years before; again
a dangerous competition sets the stage for violence and romance. But
even at just 21 pages, this story feels bloated, the unfolding plot meanders
and the characters' motivations for key actions almost incomprehensible.
In other later stories, such as "Cordle to Onion to Carrot" and "Is That What
People Do?" Sheckley betrays the same indecisiveness that undermined
so many of his longer works during this period—he simply strings incidents
together, hoping that the reader will forgive the gaps and loose ends.
But the editors of Store of the Worlds compensate for this. At first glance, it
must seem odd that a survey of Sheckley's entire body of short works should
focus so much on a five-year span from 1953 through 1957—indeed, more
than half of the book is devoted to that fertile period. After all, Sheckley's entire
career as a writer spanned more than a half-century; so why focus on just five
years? But during that brief stretch between the invention of the H-bomb and the
launch of Sputnik, Sheckley had few peers as a writer of short sci-fi works,
and somehow managed to turn abstruse scientific concepts into his own
personal playground. Give him credit for setting a standard hard to match—sad
to say, most of all by the author himself.
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
Store of the Worlds
by Robert Sheckley (edited by Alex Abramovich & Jonathan Lethem)
Essay by Ted Gioia
by Robert Sheckley (edited by Alex Abramovich & Jonathan Lethem)
Essay by Ted Gioia
| Click on image to purchase |
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
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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
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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 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
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