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The science fiction crossword

A science fiction crossword built from the library: 16 clues, every answer an author or a book with a review here. Solve it online, on paper, or reveal it.

Puzzle No. 2 · 16 clues

Authors and books from the stacks

Crossword grid, 12 rows by 12 columns

Across

  1. 1 Author of The Time Machine (5)
  2. 4 Author of The Master and Margarita (8)
  3. 5 Author of The Three-Body Problem (3)
  4. 8 Book by Virginia Woolf (7)
  5. 10 Author of The Chronicles of Narnia (5)
  6. 11 Author of Around the Moon (5)
  7. 13 Author of What Dreams May Come (8)
  8. 14 Author of Gateway (4)

Down

  1. 2 Author of The Lathe of Heaven (2,4)
  2. 3 Author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (8)
  3. 4 Author of The State of the Art (5)
  4. 6 Author of Pet Sematary (4)
  5. 7 Author of Vurt (4)
  6. 9 Author of Giles Goat-Boy (5)
  7. 10 Author of His Master's Voice (3)
  8. 12 Author of Tales of Mystery & Imagination (3)
Show the solution

Across

  1. 1 WELLS: H.G. Wells, author of The Time Machine
  2. 4 BULGAKOV: Mikhail Bulgakov, author of The Master and Margarita
  3. 5 LIU: Cixin Liu, author of The Three-Body Problem
  4. 8 ORLANDO: Orlando by Virginia Woolf
  5. 10 LEWIS: C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia
  6. 11 VERNE: Jules Verne, author of Around the Moon
  7. 13 MATHESON: Richard Matheson, author of What Dreams May Come
  8. 14 POHL: Frederik Pohl, author of Gateway

Down

  1. 2 LEGUIN: Ursula K. Le Guin, author of The Lathe of Heaven
  2. 3 DOCTOROW: Cory Doctorow, author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
  3. 4 BANKS: Iain M. Banks, author of The State of the Art
  4. 6 KING: Stephen King, author of Pet Sematary
  5. 7 NOON: Jeff Noon, author of Vurt
  6. 9 BARTH: John Barth, author of Giles Goat-Boy
  7. 10 LEM: Stanisław Lem, author of His Master's Voice
  8. 12 POE: Edgar Allan Poe, author of Tales of Mystery & Imagination

All 12 puzzles

  1. No. 011 Across Author of Cloud Atlas16 clues · 13 by 12
  2. No. 021 Across Author of The Time Machine16 clues · 12 by 12 · on this page
  3. No. 031 Across Author of Bug Jack Barron16 clues · 13 by 12
  4. No. 041 Across Book by Charles Stross16 clues · 13 by 13
  5. No. 051 Across Author of The Bear Comes Home16 clues · 13 by 12
  6. No. 061 Across Author of The Female Man16 clues · 12 by 13
  7. No. 071 Across Author of Giles Goat-Boy16 clues · 13 by 12
  8. No. 081 Across Book by Samuel R. Delany16 clues · 13 by 13
  9. No. 091 Across Book by David R. Bunch16 clues · 12 by 13
  10. No. 101 Across Author of Practical Magic16 clues · 13 by 12
  11. No. 111 Across Author of Hav16 clues · 13 by 12
  12. No. 121 Across Author of Gateway16 clues · 12 by 13

A puzzle made from the library

Every answer in this grid is a name or a title from the reviews in the library. Some clues give the title of a book and ask for its author's surname; others give an author and ask for a book whose title is a single word. Nothing in the puzzle comes from outside the collection, so every answer leads to a review, and the solution links each one to its page.

The grid is laid out automatically. A pool of 132 author answers and 33 title answers is shuffled with the puzzle number as its seed, and the words are fitted together so that each new answer crosses at least one already placed. The fitting follows the ordinary rules of a crossword: every run of white squares is a clued answer, and no word touches another along its side. Each puzzle takes 16 answers and keeps the grid within thirteen squares in each direction.

No review appears twice in the same puzzle, and no author does either. A grid that asked for Jeff Noon in one clue and gave away Vurt, his book, in the next would solve itself; keeping each person and each review to one clue avoids that.

How to solve it

Click a square and type. With JavaScript on, the cursor moves along the answer after each letter, the arrow keys move around the grid, and clicking the same square twice switches between across and down. Backspace clears a square and steps back. The check button marks every square that holds a wrong letter and says how many squares are still empty, without filling anything in.

The number after each clue gives the length of the answer. Where a name has more than one part, the number is split: Le Guin is (2,4) and van Vogt (3,4), and the grid runs the parts together without a gap. Accents are dropped, so Stanisław Lem is entered as LEM and José Saramago as SARAMAGO.

Most of the answers are surnames, and many are short, which makes the crossings the fastest way in. A surname of three or four letters is often the quickest square to fill, and it opens up every word that crosses it. If the grid stalls, the reviews themselves are a fair source of hints: each clue names a book, and the library holds a review of every one.

From the grid to the shelf

The solution is folded away below the grid, and each answer in it links to the review it came from. A finished puzzle is therefore also a short reading list of 16 books, chosen by the shuffle across the whole collection. For a list that follows a theme instead, the reading paths group the reviews by subject, and the book tarot deals a single book when a whole crossword is more than the moment needs.

About the crossword

How often does the puzzle change?

The library keeps a set of 12 numbered puzzles, and this page shows the one whose turn falls in the week the site was last published, starting again from the first after the last. Every puzzle in the set also has a page of its own, listed under the grid, so a puzzle can be finished after it has left this page, or solved ahead of its week.

Where do the clues come from?

From the library's own catalogue. Each answer is the surname of an author or the one-word title of a book reviewed here, and each clue repeats the title and byline of that review. 181 reviews carry a title and byline in that form, which gives 132 author answers and 33 title answers to draw from.

Can the crossword be solved without JavaScript?

Yes. The grid is made of ordinary text boxes, so letters can be typed straight into it, and the clues and the full solution are part of the page. JavaScript only adds the conveniences: the cursor moving on after each letter, the arrow keys, and the button that marks wrong squares.

Can I print the puzzle?

Yes. Printing the page gives the grid, the numbered squares and both clue lists, with the solution left folded away. Some names in the pool carry particles or two parts, such as Le Guin, and the numbers after each clue show how the letters divide.