Many theories have been offered on the birth and death of the universe, but I’m convinced that
the strangest by far is the notion of eternal recurrence, central to the philosophy of Nietzsche. On
this hypothesis, when the world ends, it starts up again, and the same events will occur over and
over—your first date, the Ali-Frazier fight, Geraldo opening Al Capone’s vault. We are all just reruns
in unending syndication.
I’m hardly surprised that this notion has found its greatest
traction in the realm of the absurd. In the movie Groundhog
Day, Bill Murray finds himself caught in some inexplicable
time warp, living the same day over and over. But almost
every comedy has a dose of Groundhog Day in its
conception: the very notion of a running gag—that staple
of comedy films and TV shows since the birth of film—relies
upon the intrinsically ridiculous notion of recurrence as
pattern-creating force. Yet other idioms also share in the
absurdity. Think of that that goofy M.C. Escher drawing
that your roommate put up in dorm room of the handing
drawing another hand that is also drawing the first hand.
And then there’s Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler,
or Michael Frayn's Noises Off or any number of short stories
by Borges. The notion is both compelling and ridiculous, the
loopiness of loops, and for that very reason will recur eternally
as evidence of its own self-validating illogic.
But there’s nothing comic or absurd about the eternal recurrence
at the heart of Claire North’s extraordinary 2014 novel The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
Our protagonist is forced to lead his life over and over again, and not for laughs. Harry August
is orphaned from birth, losing both his biological mother and the soon after the woman who
adopted him. He never has a real father figure to look after him, even after fifteen lives—the
closest male in his world is actually his nemesis Vincent Rankis, another soul caught in the cycle
of recurrence. Yet this is the father figure he may need to kill, not just to establish an independent
self or work out an Oedipal complex, but for sake of the future.
It's not a good sign when your closest friend murders you twice. Or steals your wife from a previous
life. Even worse, Vincent’s super-villain program to accelerate technological progress—drawing
on learnings from previous lives—threatens to bring about the end of the world. Harry is tempted
to join in the quest to advance scientific learning, and potentially grasp truths hitherto hidden
from human understanding. But he also wants to save humanity, and get a dose of revenge.
Perhaps this sounds like a cross between a James Bond movie and the Upanishads. To her
credit, North manages to succeed both as a storyteller attuned, to the pacing and action required
for success in genre fiction, and also as a thoughtful guide to the many philosophical issues raised
in the course of her novel. I could even see assigning this book in social theory or political science
classes. I frequently felt, while reading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, that it provided a
very vivid case study in support of philosopher Sir Karl Popper’s concept of piecemeal social
engineering in his 1957 book The Poverty of Historicism. Popper contrasted this cautious, step-
by-step approach with the inferior (in his opinion) holistic social engineering—the latter, he
claimed, was doomed to failure because it underestimated the difficulty of managing change in
too many different variables at the same time. In North’s novel, the protagonist August is a
Popperian with Aristotelian leanings, while his adversary Rankis is an anti-Popperian with a
Platonist bent. In life after life, they pursue their opposed visions, and the readers are in a
position to compare and contrast the results.
Other sections of the novel look at key questions relating
to religion, ethics, free will, technology, psychology,
alternative universe theory, and penology. But these are
never addressed in a heavy-handed or doctrinaire manner.
Every theoretical issue is integrated into the story, and
illuminated by telling incidents—sometimes even with the
benefit of trial-and-error. The first life can serve as a control
group for subsequent experimentation.
Harry August is a member of the Chronos Club, a tiny group of individuals who live their lives over
and over again—in contrast to the vast majority of people, ‘linears’ in the language of the novel,
who only have one life to lead. Chronos Club members take a vow of non-interference in the
major geopolitical events of their lifetimes. They don’t try to avert wars of assassinate tyrants.
They have learned that there are too many unintended consequences of such maneuvers.
"Complexity should be your excuse for inaction," August tells the maniacal US government agent
who wants to use eternal recurrence to help 'good guys' defeat 'bad guys'. Our villain Rankis,
in contrast, refuses to join the Chronos Club, and is determined to change the course of history
by informing scientists of future breakthroughs decades in advance.
With each new life, Rankis manages to make greater and greater changes. Through his
machinations, consumers have personal computers, email and the Internet in the 1960s, but
also hackers and ransomware. Color television and jet engines now show up in the first half of
the twentieth century, along with other innovations, but environmental disasters and pollution ramp
up in tandem with these advances. Weaponry gets more sophisticated, but leads to ever more
deadly conflicts. But it’s easy to ignore these problems when you have more lives to lead, and
can always fix the mistakes of this attempt when you get your next fresh start. It’s a pity the rest
of the human race doesn't get those same fresh resets on their afflicted world.
This book is very readable, but I don’t minimize the difficulty North faced in managing the
flashbacks and anticipations required when presenting a biography that repeats itself fifteen
times. Perhaps the greatest sign of our author’s skill is how easily she covers the thousand years
during which her story transpires, without getting snagged by the inevitable repetitions or bogged
down by the sheer weight of a millennium of world history.
I still find the notion of eternal recurrence implausible. But Claire North has convinced me that it’s
no Groundhog Day joke. Instead of chuckling at absurdist running gags, readers may even
find themselves wondering about a very serious question: What would they do differently if they
could choose all over again? And then there’s the even deeper question: If you were put in that
situation, would it be a blessing or a curse. There’s a bit of both in this thought-provoking novel,
which I recommend you read in this life, because who knows if you’ll get another chance in the
next one?
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is the author of ten books. His most recent
book is How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books).
Publication date: November 13, 2017
the strangest by far is the notion of eternal recurrence, central to the philosophy of Nietzsche. On
this hypothesis, when the world ends, it starts up again, and the same events will occur over and
over—your first date, the Ali-Frazier fight, Geraldo opening Al Capone’s vault. We are all just reruns
in unending syndication.
I’m hardly surprised that this notion has found its greatest
traction in the realm of the absurd. In the movie Groundhog
Day, Bill Murray finds himself caught in some inexplicable
time warp, living the same day over and over. But almost
every comedy has a dose of Groundhog Day in its
conception: the very notion of a running gag—that staple
of comedy films and TV shows since the birth of film—relies
upon the intrinsically ridiculous notion of recurrence as
pattern-creating force. Yet other idioms also share in the
absurdity. Think of that that goofy M.C. Escher drawing
that your roommate put up in dorm room of the handing
drawing another hand that is also drawing the first hand.
And then there’s Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler,
or Michael Frayn's Noises Off or any number of short stories
by Borges. The notion is both compelling and ridiculous, the
loopiness of loops, and for that very reason will recur eternally
as evidence of its own self-validating illogic.
But there’s nothing comic or absurd about the eternal recurrence
at the heart of Claire North’s extraordinary 2014 novel The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
Our protagonist is forced to lead his life over and over again, and not for laughs. Harry August
is orphaned from birth, losing both his biological mother and the soon after the woman who
adopted him. He never has a real father figure to look after him, even after fifteen lives—the
closest male in his world is actually his nemesis Vincent Rankis, another soul caught in the cycle
of recurrence. Yet this is the father figure he may need to kill, not just to establish an independent
self or work out an Oedipal complex, but for sake of the future.
It's not a good sign when your closest friend murders you twice. Or steals your wife from a previous
life. Even worse, Vincent’s super-villain program to accelerate technological progress—drawing
on learnings from previous lives—threatens to bring about the end of the world. Harry is tempted
to join in the quest to advance scientific learning, and potentially grasp truths hitherto hidden
from human understanding. But he also wants to save humanity, and get a dose of revenge.
Perhaps this sounds like a cross between a James Bond movie and the Upanishads. To her
credit, North manages to succeed both as a storyteller attuned, to the pacing and action required
for success in genre fiction, and also as a thoughtful guide to the many philosophical issues raised
in the course of her novel. I could even see assigning this book in social theory or political science
classes. I frequently felt, while reading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, that it provided a
very vivid case study in support of philosopher Sir Karl Popper’s concept of piecemeal social
engineering in his 1957 book The Poverty of Historicism. Popper contrasted this cautious, step-
by-step approach with the inferior (in his opinion) holistic social engineering—the latter, he
claimed, was doomed to failure because it underestimated the difficulty of managing change in
too many different variables at the same time. In North’s novel, the protagonist August is a
Popperian with Aristotelian leanings, while his adversary Rankis is an anti-Popperian with a
Platonist bent. In life after life, they pursue their opposed visions, and the readers are in a
position to compare and contrast the results.
Other sections of the novel look at key questions relating
to religion, ethics, free will, technology, psychology,
alternative universe theory, and penology. But these are
never addressed in a heavy-handed or doctrinaire manner.
Every theoretical issue is integrated into the story, and
illuminated by telling incidents—sometimes even with the
benefit of trial-and-error. The first life can serve as a control
group for subsequent experimentation.
Harry August is a member of the Chronos Club, a tiny group of individuals who live their lives over
and over again—in contrast to the vast majority of people, ‘linears’ in the language of the novel,
who only have one life to lead. Chronos Club members take a vow of non-interference in the
major geopolitical events of their lifetimes. They don’t try to avert wars of assassinate tyrants.
They have learned that there are too many unintended consequences of such maneuvers.
"Complexity should be your excuse for inaction," August tells the maniacal US government agent
who wants to use eternal recurrence to help 'good guys' defeat 'bad guys'. Our villain Rankis,
in contrast, refuses to join the Chronos Club, and is determined to change the course of history
by informing scientists of future breakthroughs decades in advance.
With each new life, Rankis manages to make greater and greater changes. Through his
machinations, consumers have personal computers, email and the Internet in the 1960s, but
also hackers and ransomware. Color television and jet engines now show up in the first half of
the twentieth century, along with other innovations, but environmental disasters and pollution ramp
up in tandem with these advances. Weaponry gets more sophisticated, but leads to ever more
deadly conflicts. But it’s easy to ignore these problems when you have more lives to lead, and
can always fix the mistakes of this attempt when you get your next fresh start. It’s a pity the rest
of the human race doesn't get those same fresh resets on their afflicted world.
This book is very readable, but I don’t minimize the difficulty North faced in managing the
flashbacks and anticipations required when presenting a biography that repeats itself fifteen
times. Perhaps the greatest sign of our author’s skill is how easily she covers the thousand years
during which her story transpires, without getting snagged by the inevitable repetitions or bogged
down by the sheer weight of a millennium of world history.
I still find the notion of eternal recurrence implausible. But Claire North has convinced me that it’s
no Groundhog Day joke. Instead of chuckling at absurdist running gags, readers may even
find themselves wondering about a very serious question: What would they do differently if they
could choose all over again? And then there’s the even deeper question: If you were put in that
situation, would it be a blessing or a curse. There’s a bit of both in this thought-provoking novel,
which I recommend you read in this life, because who knows if you’ll get another chance in the
next one?
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is the author of ten books. His most recent
book is How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books).
Publication date: November 13, 2017
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| The First 15 Lives of Harry August by Claire North |
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50 favorite works of non-realist fiction
released since 2000. Featured books
will include works of magical realism,
alternative history, sci-fi, horror, and
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fiction that pushes boundaries and
challenges conventional notions of
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Click here for the other titles
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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 Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Windup Girl
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
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence Stories
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
Brooks, Max
World War Z
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Campbell, Ramsey
The Nameless
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
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
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
Cline, Ernest
Ready Player One
Crichton, Michael
Jurassic Park
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
Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol
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
Egan, Jennifer
A Visit from the Goon Squad
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
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gardner, John
Grendel
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
Hendrix, Grady
Horrorstör
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Never Let Me Go
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Koja, Kathe
The Cipher
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
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
Our Lady of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Lindqvist, John Ajvide
Let the Right One In
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Machen, Arthur
The Great God Pan
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
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
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Wizard of the Crow
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
Oyeyemi, Helen
White is for Witching
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Roth, Philip
The Plot Against America
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, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Straub, Peter
Ghost Story
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
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
Tryon, Thomas
The Other
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
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wallace, Edgar
King Kong
Walpole, Horace
The Castle of Otranto
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
Wong, David
John Dies at the End
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Yamada, Taichi
Strangers
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
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
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
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
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
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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 Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Windup Girl
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
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence Stories
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
Brooks, Max
World War Z
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Campbell, Ramsey
The Nameless
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
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
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
Cline, Ernest
Ready Player One
Crichton, Michael
Jurassic Park
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
Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol
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
Egan, Jennifer
A Visit from the Goon Squad
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
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A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
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American Gods
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Neverwhere
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Grendel
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Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
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The Forever War
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The Raw Shark Texts
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The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
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Stranger in a Strange Land
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Time Enough for Love
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Winter's Tale
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Horrorstör
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Dune
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Heart-Shaped Box
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The Woman in Black
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Practical Magic
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Submission
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Brave New World
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Never Let Me Go
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The Haunting of Hill House
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The Turn of the Screw
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Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
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Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
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Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Koja, Kathe
The Cipher
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
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
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The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Our Lady of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
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The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
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The Chronicles of Narnia
Lindqvist, John Ajvide
Let the Right One In
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Machen, Arthur
The Great God Pan
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
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Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
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100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
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Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
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
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1Q84
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
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Ada, or Ardor
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Wizard of the Crow
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The Time Traveler's Wife
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Ringworld
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Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
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At Swim-Two-Birds
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The Famished Road
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White is for Witching
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Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
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Gateway
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The Color of Magic
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Gravity's Rainbow
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Gargantua and Pantagruel
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Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
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The Plot Against America
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
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Midnight's Children
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The Female Man
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Blindness
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Dimension of Miracles
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Mindswap
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Store of the Worlds
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Frankenstein
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Dying Inside
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Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
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City
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The Trouble with Tycho
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The Dark Eidolon
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Norstrilia
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Snow Crash
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More Than Human
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Some of Your Blood
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Warm Worlds and Otherwise
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The Other
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Slan
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Emphyrio
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The Languages of Pao
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Around the Moon
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Last Stories and Other Stories
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Cat's Cradle
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The Sirens of Titan
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Slaughterhouse-Five
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Infinite Jest
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King Kong
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The Castle of Otranto
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Hieroglyphic Tales
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The First Men in the Moon
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The Island of Dr. Moreau
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The Time Machine
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The Illuminatus! Trilogy
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Cloudstreet
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John Dies at the End
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Orlando
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Strangers
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The Bear Comes Home
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Lord of Light
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This Immortal
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The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
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Perhaps this sounds
like a cross between
a James Bond movie
and the Upanishads...
like a cross between
a James Bond movie
and the Upanishads...
