22 books in this genre
Minds and bodies remade by science, war or evolution. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau open the line, and Daniel Keyes, Theodore Sturgeon and Clifford Simak carry it into the twentieth century, Simak leaving the dogs to preserve humanity's stories after the people are gone. A.E. van Vogt contributes Slan and The Mixed Men, Cordwainer Smith two books from his far-future Instrumentality of Mankind, and Ann Leckie a starship intelligence living on in a single human body.
Ann LeckieAncillary JusticeAnn Leckie's book has stood out by winning the coveted Hugo Award for best novel and the Nebula Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. No other book has ever achieved that triple distinction.→Arthur C. ClarkeChildhood's EndConceptual Fiction celebrates great works of science fiction, fantasy, magical realism and alternate history. In this installment, Ted Gioia revies Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke→Clifford SimakCityClifford Simak's City is less a novel than a series of interlocking stories. In toto, they represent chapters from the mythology and folk tales of the ancient race of men, as preserved by the dogs.→Daniel KeyesFlowers for AlgernonThere's sad irony in the fact that Keyes' own career followed the arc of his most famous protagonist.He rose from the least respectable form of commercial narrative, the comic book, and climbed the heights of literary fiction, but couldn't sustain his success.→Mary ShelleyFrankensteinA ten-year-old who had never left his home state knew one subject cold: Frankenstein. Ted Gioia returns to Mary Shelley's novel and its hold on children.→Harlan EllisonI Have No Mouth & I Must Scream"A special word about the stories in this book," Harlan Ellison explains. "They come from someplace special in me. Someplace I don't care to visit too frequently."→Isaac AsimovI, RobotTed Gioia reviews I, Robot, the collection in which Isaac Asimov first set out his Three Laws and turned the robot story into a form of logical puzzle.→Roger ZelaznyLord of LightA review of Roger Zelazny’s novel of colonists who rule a planet as the gods of the Hindu pantheon.→David R. BunchModeranDavid R. Bunch may be the best kept secret of New Wave science fiction, with barely two stories still in print. Ted Gioia reviews his strange novel Moderan.→Theodore SturgeonMore Than HumanThe knock on 1950s-era science fiction is that it is poorly written, all plot and platitudes (sounds like a Jane Austen title, huh?) with too little sense and sensibility. Characters are as thin as the pulp paper they inhabit; the prose is functional, without elegance or subtlety....→Robert SilverbergNightwingsAuthor Robert Silverberg's house had been destroyed by a fire and he needed to make money quickly to recover. Somehow he managed to produce one of his finest works, the classic sci-fi novel Nightwings.→Cordwainer SmithNorstriliaEven by science fiction standards Cordwainer Smith wrote with extravagance. Ted Gioia reviews Norstrilia, the only novel this cult author ever completed.→A.E. van VogtSlanWelcome to the world of A.E. van Vogt, the madcap storyteller who goes through plots faster than an otolaryngologist uses up tongue depressers. His books are more slapdash than sublime, yet they captivate readers through sheer manic energy.→Samuel R. DelanyThe Einstein Intersection"If the Holy Bible was printed as an Ace Double," Charles McGrath once quipped, "it would be cut down to two 20,000-word halves with the Old Testament retitled as 'Master of Chaos' and the New Testament as 'The Thing With Three Souls.'"→Michael MoorcockThe Final ProgrammeMoorcock brilliantly grasped the nihilistic qualities of James Bond and his many imitators. His own hero Jerry Cornelius captures the same heady mix of narcissism and 'licensed to kill' violence.→Kazuo IshiguroThe Horror of Good IntentionsHave you ever read a horror novel in which every character had the best of intentions? Yet that is precisely what makes Never Let Me Go so unnerving.→H.G. WellsThe Island of Dr. MoreauMoreau's human-animal hybrids would draw venture capital today. Ted Gioia on why H.G. Wells's Victorian readers found The Island of Dr. Moreau appalling.→A.E. van VogtThe Mixed MenThe pinball flipper arrived while A.E. van Vogt was writing this. Ted Gioia hears that same ricocheting logic in The Mixed Men and its restless plotting.→Cordwainer SmithThe Rediscovery of ManWas Cordwainer Smith a visionary or a patient? Ted Gioia reviews The Rediscovery of Man and the lasting puzzle of the writer born as Paul M. Linebarger.→Paolo BacigalupiThe Wind-Up GirlScience fiction is like one of those bohemian neighborhoods that get gentrified and rentrified until you can't recognize the old hood any more. The low-class genre authors who learned their trade at Star Trek conventions get displaced by literary writers represented by Andrew Wylie→Robert HeinleinTime Enough for LoveTed Gioia on Time Enough for Love, Robert Heinlein's 1973 return to Lazarus Long, the man two thousand years old who first appeared in Astounding in 1941.→Philip José FarmerTo Your Scattered Bodies GoYou may be caught be surprise when the hero of this novel dies in the opening paragraph. But you better get used to it, because he will die hundreds of times before you get to the final page.→