24 books in this genre
Philip K. Dick has more books on this shelf than anyone: Ubik, VALIS, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The cyberspace of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson sits beside the labyrinths of Jorge Luis Borges and Mark Z. Danielewski, and two Haruki Murakami novels move their characters between parallel worlds. At Swim-Two-Birds, published in 1939, has a novelist's own characters turn against him, a reminder that doubting the solidity of the world is far older than the computer.
Haruki Murakami1Q84Every character ends up in seclusion. Take your pick: they can be (1) alone in an apartment, (2) in a coma, (3) hiding on a surveillance mission, (4) kept in a darkened room, (5) inaccessible in a religious retreat, (5) locked in a room with a dead goat...→Flann O'BrienAt Swim-Two-BirdsO'Brien found his novel branded as the book you read for more of the same after you had finished Finnegans Wake. Since few survived the Wake, and even fewer wanted more of the same, At Swim-Two-Birds became the great Irish book almost no one read.→Brian AldissBarefoot in the HeadAldiss convinces us, in these pages, that if you give people a sufficient amount of mind-altering narcotics, they might start talking like characters in Finnegans Wake.→William GibsonBurning ChromeConceptual Fiction celebrates great works of science fiction, fantasy, magical realism and alternate history. In this installment, Ted Gioia reviews Burning Chrome by William Gibson→Samuel R. DelanyDhalgrenSamuel Delany asked for an analytics of attention rather than a calculus of form. Ted Gioia reviews Dhalgren, the novel that sets out to deliver exactly that.→Philip K. DickDo Androids Dream of Electric SheepPhilip K. Dick asserted his squatter's rights at that intersection where the unreal crosses the even more unreal. He owns this type of story, and for the worst possible reason: he was forced to live it.→Jorge Luis BorgesFiccionesThe stories of Jorge Luis Borges not only anticipate many later narratives, from works of magical realism to extravagant postmodern texts, but the celebrated Argentinean author sometimes even enters into their plots.→Philip K. DickFlow My Tears, the Policeman SaidConceptual Fiction celebrates the great works of science fiction, fantasy, magical realism and alternative history. In this installment, Ted Gioia looks at Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick.→Charles StrossGlasshousePerhaps we all live in a Glasshouse of our own making, Stross constantly hints, while offering up an account of those who, contrary to the old adage, respond by throwing as many stones as possible.→Haruki MurakamiHard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the WorldUnicorns, spies, love, magic and a hero with no shadow at all. Ted Gioia reviews Haruki Murakami's strange Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.→Mark Z. DanielewskiHouse of LeavesA house with too much space, codes hidden in the footnotes, an index full of errors. Ted Gioia on Mark Z. Danielewski's typographic novel House of Leaves.→Charles YuHow to Live Safely in a Science Fictional UniverseTime travel stories avoid all the tricky issues. What happens when you go back in time and kill your ancestors? Or what happens if you go back just a single day and destroy your own time machine? The very notion of time travel involves paradox. Except if you're Charles Yu.→William GibsonNeuromancerWith the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the most prescient novel associated with the year 1984 was not one written by George Orwell. But few were paying attention to Neuromancer at the time, and a decade passed before the book was even mentioned in the New York Times.→Ernest ClineReady Player OneErnest Cline imagines a virtual world so appealing that most people come to prefer it to their own lives. Ted Gioia reviews Ready Player One, set in 2044.→Brian AldissReport on Probability ALet other writers satisfy themselves with meta-narratives. Only Brian Aldiss reaches for the story within a story within a story within a story within a story.→Neal StephensonSnow CrashIf not for Neal Stephenson, only Hindu deities might possess avatars, but our author made it possible for everyone on Facebook and Twitter to follow in the footsteps of Vishnu and Shiva.→Stanisław LemSolarisA review of Stanisław Lem’s novel of a living ocean that answers its human observers with their own memories.→Ursula K. Le GuinThe Lathe of HeavenTed Gioia on The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Le Guin's novel of George Orr, whose dreams alter the world and its past, and the doctor who wants to steer them.→William GibsonThe PeripheralScience fiction writers are poor predictors, with one exception. Ted Gioia on how William Gibson helped shape the future he forecast, and The Peripheral.→Steven HallThe Raw Shark TextsConceptual Fiction, by Ted Gioia, celebrates great works of science fiction, fantasy, magical realism and alternate history. This installment looks at The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall.→A.E. van VogtThe World of Null AA novel about conflicts over Aristotelian logic sounds like a novel of ideas. Ted Gioia explains why van Vogt's The World of Null-A is nothing of the kind.→Philip K. DickUbikTed Gioia on Ubik, the 1969 Philip K. Dick novel later chosen by Time as one of the best in English, and on the late turn in Dick's reputation that it marks.→Philip K. DickVALISA review of Philip K. Dick’s late novel of revelation, breakdown and a satellite that may be speaking to him.→Jeff NoonVurtScribble, the Beetle and the Game Cat inhabit Jeff Noon's virtual-reality Manchester. Ted Gioia reviews Vurt and its endlessly inventive world-building.→