The idea of writing a story about the Germans winning World War II actually dates back to before the
war. In 1937, Murray Constantine—a pseudonym for Katharine Burdekin—published Swastika Night,
envisioning Britain under the future dominance of Nazi overlords after Hitler’s victory in a Twenty Years
War. The defeat of Germany in the actual war did little to dampen interest in such stories, and if anything
the popularity of this storyline has increased with the passing years.
This premise has inspired novels, short stories, TV shows, movies,
comic books, websites and satirical articles. True, other periods
and events have also been dealt with in alternative history books.
Kingsley Amis imagined in The Alteration (1976) a world in which
the Protestant Reformation had never happened. In The Yiddish
Policemen’s Union (2007), Michael Chabon constructs an alternative
universe in which the Jewish homeland is Alaska instead of Israel. In
Stephen Baxter’s Voyage (1996), John F. Kennedy survives an
assassination attempt, and sets in motion a project to send a spaceship
to Mars.
But these are exceptions to the norm. The most popular alternate histories
typically involve Hitler and Nazis. “Within the general field of alternate history,
this counterfactual scenario has arguably been explore more frequently than
any other historical theme,” notes Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, who published a
book-length study of the sub-genre, The World Hitler Never Made, in 2005.
Yet he notes that he has encountered “deep-seated resistance to alternate history as a genre worthy of
study.” When he spoke about it at conferences, “prominent scholars raised epistemological,
methodological, and even moral objections.” Some went so far as to dismiss these stories as the work of
a “lunatic fringe.”
Yet historians have indulged in precisely this kind of musing over alternative outcomes since the time of
Herodotus, who wondered what might have happened if the Persians had defeated the Greeks at the
Battle of Marathon. Perhaps this is the most vital function of historical research, that speculative
moment when we are forced to contemplate the different scenarios that might have happened in the
past—and, by implication, could still take place in the future. These works, even when partaking of the
phantasmagorical, are not pure fantasies, but spurs to sober reflection.
Such is certainly the case in Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004), a novel that describes an
alternative history in which Charles Lindbergh, an ardent isolationist, defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the
1940 presidential election and steers the nation on a course that seems disturbingly aligned with Nazi
and fascist currents in Europe. In an odd turnabout, Roth’s reimagining of 1940s America is now
viewed most often as an unsettling harbinger of the country’s future, rather than as fanciful speculation
on its past. Yet that’s precisely why these alternative histories deserve better treatment than they have
received at the hands of highbrows defending the literary gates against genre barbarians. They aren’t
really about the past, despite all indications to the contrary.
Roth’s story is told from the perspective of the Roth family of Newark, New Jersey. The characters are
drawn from the author’s own childhood, and include his parents Herman and Bess and his brother
Sandy, supplemented by a wide range of actual historical figures from the period. But other elements
are pure invention—for example, Philip’s cousin Alvin, who loses a leg while fighting with the Canadian
army against Nazis and returns to New Jersey a broken man. These individuals, both famous and
otherwise, grapple with the changed circumstances of America under Lindbergh, and the attendant rise
of hostility against those accused of trying to get the country involved in the war—the British, the
Roosevelt wing of the Democrats and, above all, American Jews.
Roth realizes that a story about Nazis taking over the United States could easily turn into something
cartoonish and outlandish—more suitable for a cheap action movie rather than serious literature from a
contender for the Nobel Prize. So he puts considerable effort into constructing a plausible chain of
events, a series of circumstances that might propel the nation of Washington and Lincoln into a more
authoritarian stance. Roth wisely understands that fear, rather than ambition, is the most powerful
instigator of such shifts. We may associate Nazis with a zeal for world conquest, but in most
democracies the greatest lure in convincing people to give up their freedoms and protected rights to an
iron-fisted regime isn’t imperialistic tendencies—at least not in the current day—but the fear of chaos
and disruption. Indeed, the more affluent and comfortable a society is, the more likely it is to embrace
extreme measures to maintain ‘safety’ (a word that deserves more deconstructing than it has received
to date).
That’s the situation that propels Lindbergh to the White House in Roth’s novel. He raises alarm about
the cost of entering the war, and reminds the public about the casualties and expenses that resulted
from America’s participation in the First World War. From there, it’s only a small step to demonizing the
insidious forces that want to involve the United States in the new conflict. Only a few prominent
Americans—notably journalist Walter Winchell, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and former
President Franklin Roosevelt—are willing to speak out in protest.
The Roth family watches in alarm as events spiral out of control, and although they consider leaving the
country to resettle in Canada, they finally decide to stay and hope for the best. The government’s first
programs—aimed at integrating Jews more deeply into American life—seem innocuous, at least in
their initial stages, but gradually reveal a more ominous agenda. The program starts with breaking
down the group solidarity, family ties and political clout of this segment of the population, but eventually
evolves into race riots and gang violence.
Roth draws the reader in with the quasi-autobiographical tone of the opening chapters, and the
verisimilitude of this narrative adds to the tension of the subsequent calamities. For most of the duration
of The Plot Against America, the step-by-step breakdown in civil liberties seems like something that
could plausibly happen in the United States. Roth hardly takes a misstep until the later stages of the
book, when he suddenly shifts into a rapid-fire third person account in the present tense—in the style of
a radio news broadcast or journalist’s dispatch—of the daily progress of events. It’s only at this juncture
that the novel begins to resemble a sci-fi alternative history book, built on concepts rather than plausible
narrative flow.
But Roth wants to convince us that this is more than an exercise in imaginative excess and even adds a
lengthy appendix to the novel filled with cited sources as well as facts, dates and figures. Sad to say,
this attempt to shore up the credibility of the novel perhaps does more to undermine it. This powerful
story can stand on its own, and is weighed down by the insertion of these scholarly addendums.
Despite these minor shortcomings, The Plot Against America deserves inclusion on the short list of
classic alternative histories, warranting comparison with the definitive works in this subgenre by Philip
K. Dick, Michael Chabon and Kingsley Amis. And, as noted above, its lessons seem far more timely
than those broached in these other books. The very plausibility of Roth’s plot development and its
avoidance of exaggerated effects, at least for most of the book’s duration, may make it less suitable for
film and TV adaptation than, say, The Man in the High Castle. But this same commitment to narrative
realism is likely to give this volume more staying power than other exercises in alternative history.
Frankly, I’d like to see a day when this book wasn’t quite so relevant. Alas, I fear that won’t be the case
any time soon.
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: October 16, 2017
war. In 1937, Murray Constantine—a pseudonym for Katharine Burdekin—published Swastika Night,
envisioning Britain under the future dominance of Nazi overlords after Hitler’s victory in a Twenty Years
War. The defeat of Germany in the actual war did little to dampen interest in such stories, and if anything
the popularity of this storyline has increased with the passing years.
This premise has inspired novels, short stories, TV shows, movies,
comic books, websites and satirical articles. True, other periods
and events have also been dealt with in alternative history books.
Kingsley Amis imagined in The Alteration (1976) a world in which
the Protestant Reformation had never happened. In The Yiddish
Policemen’s Union (2007), Michael Chabon constructs an alternative
universe in which the Jewish homeland is Alaska instead of Israel. In
Stephen Baxter’s Voyage (1996), John F. Kennedy survives an
assassination attempt, and sets in motion a project to send a spaceship
to Mars.
But these are exceptions to the norm. The most popular alternate histories
typically involve Hitler and Nazis. “Within the general field of alternate history,
this counterfactual scenario has arguably been explore more frequently than
any other historical theme,” notes Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, who published a
book-length study of the sub-genre, The World Hitler Never Made, in 2005.
Yet he notes that he has encountered “deep-seated resistance to alternate history as a genre worthy of
study.” When he spoke about it at conferences, “prominent scholars raised epistemological,
methodological, and even moral objections.” Some went so far as to dismiss these stories as the work of
a “lunatic fringe.”
Yet historians have indulged in precisely this kind of musing over alternative outcomes since the time of
Herodotus, who wondered what might have happened if the Persians had defeated the Greeks at the
Battle of Marathon. Perhaps this is the most vital function of historical research, that speculative
moment when we are forced to contemplate the different scenarios that might have happened in the
past—and, by implication, could still take place in the future. These works, even when partaking of the
phantasmagorical, are not pure fantasies, but spurs to sober reflection.
Such is certainly the case in Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004), a novel that describes an
alternative history in which Charles Lindbergh, an ardent isolationist, defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the
1940 presidential election and steers the nation on a course that seems disturbingly aligned with Nazi
and fascist currents in Europe. In an odd turnabout, Roth’s reimagining of 1940s America is now
viewed most often as an unsettling harbinger of the country’s future, rather than as fanciful speculation
on its past. Yet that’s precisely why these alternative histories deserve better treatment than they have
received at the hands of highbrows defending the literary gates against genre barbarians. They aren’t
really about the past, despite all indications to the contrary.
Roth’s story is told from the perspective of the Roth family of Newark, New Jersey. The characters are
drawn from the author’s own childhood, and include his parents Herman and Bess and his brother
Sandy, supplemented by a wide range of actual historical figures from the period. But other elements
are pure invention—for example, Philip’s cousin Alvin, who loses a leg while fighting with the Canadian
army against Nazis and returns to New Jersey a broken man. These individuals, both famous and
otherwise, grapple with the changed circumstances of America under Lindbergh, and the attendant rise
of hostility against those accused of trying to get the country involved in the war—the British, the
Roosevelt wing of the Democrats and, above all, American Jews.
Roth realizes that a story about Nazis taking over the United States could easily turn into something
cartoonish and outlandish—more suitable for a cheap action movie rather than serious literature from a
contender for the Nobel Prize. So he puts considerable effort into constructing a plausible chain of
events, a series of circumstances that might propel the nation of Washington and Lincoln into a more
authoritarian stance. Roth wisely understands that fear, rather than ambition, is the most powerful
instigator of such shifts. We may associate Nazis with a zeal for world conquest, but in most
democracies the greatest lure in convincing people to give up their freedoms and protected rights to an
iron-fisted regime isn’t imperialistic tendencies—at least not in the current day—but the fear of chaos
and disruption. Indeed, the more affluent and comfortable a society is, the more likely it is to embrace
extreme measures to maintain ‘safety’ (a word that deserves more deconstructing than it has received
to date).
That’s the situation that propels Lindbergh to the White House in Roth’s novel. He raises alarm about
the cost of entering the war, and reminds the public about the casualties and expenses that resulted
from America’s participation in the First World War. From there, it’s only a small step to demonizing the
insidious forces that want to involve the United States in the new conflict. Only a few prominent
Americans—notably journalist Walter Winchell, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and former
President Franklin Roosevelt—are willing to speak out in protest.
The Roth family watches in alarm as events spiral out of control, and although they consider leaving the
country to resettle in Canada, they finally decide to stay and hope for the best. The government’s first
programs—aimed at integrating Jews more deeply into American life—seem innocuous, at least in
their initial stages, but gradually reveal a more ominous agenda. The program starts with breaking
down the group solidarity, family ties and political clout of this segment of the population, but eventually
evolves into race riots and gang violence.
Roth draws the reader in with the quasi-autobiographical tone of the opening chapters, and the
verisimilitude of this narrative adds to the tension of the subsequent calamities. For most of the duration
of The Plot Against America, the step-by-step breakdown in civil liberties seems like something that
could plausibly happen in the United States. Roth hardly takes a misstep until the later stages of the
book, when he suddenly shifts into a rapid-fire third person account in the present tense—in the style of
a radio news broadcast or journalist’s dispatch—of the daily progress of events. It’s only at this juncture
that the novel begins to resemble a sci-fi alternative history book, built on concepts rather than plausible
narrative flow.
But Roth wants to convince us that this is more than an exercise in imaginative excess and even adds a
lengthy appendix to the novel filled with cited sources as well as facts, dates and figures. Sad to say,
this attempt to shore up the credibility of the novel perhaps does more to undermine it. This powerful
story can stand on its own, and is weighed down by the insertion of these scholarly addendums.
Despite these minor shortcomings, The Plot Against America deserves inclusion on the short list of
classic alternative histories, warranting comparison with the definitive works in this subgenre by Philip
K. Dick, Michael Chabon and Kingsley Amis. And, as noted above, its lessons seem far more timely
than those broached in these other books. The very plausibility of Roth’s plot development and its
avoidance of exaggerated effects, at least for most of the book’s duration, may make it less suitable for
film and TV adaptation than, say, The Man in the High Castle. But this same commitment to narrative
realism is likely to give this volume more staying power than other exercises in alternative history.
Frankly, I’d like to see a day when this book wasn’t quite so relevant. Alas, I fear that won’t be the case
any time soon.
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: October 16, 2017
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| The Plot Against America by Philip Roth |
Essay by Ted Gioia
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released since 2000. Featured books
will include works of magical realism,
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fiction that pushes boundaries and
challenges conventional notions of
verisimilitude.
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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
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
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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
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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The King in Yellow
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Stories of Your Life and Others
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Ready Player One
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Jurassic Park
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Little, Big
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The Fifty Year Sword
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Babel-17
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
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The Man in the High Castle
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Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
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A Christmas Carol
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Camp Concentration
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The Genocides
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Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
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A Visit from the Goon Squad
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Dangerous Visions
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I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
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Like Water for Chocolate
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To Your Scattered Bodies Go
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A Maggot
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Aura
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American Gods
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Neverwhere
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Grendel
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Burning Chrome
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Neuromancer
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Light
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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
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Time Enough for Love
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Winter's Tale
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Brave New World
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Never Let Me Go
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Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
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Off Season
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Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Koja, Kathe
The Cipher
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
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The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
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Gods Without Men
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Nine Hundred Grandmothers
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The Big Time
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Conjure Wife
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Our Lady of Darkness
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Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
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The Fortress of Solitude
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Rosemary's Baby
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The Chronicles of Narnia
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Let the Right One In
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Magic for Beginners
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Tales
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The Great God Pan
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Herovit's World
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Station Eleven
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Doctor Faustus
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100 Years of Solitude
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Wittgenstein's Mistress
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Hell House
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I Am Legend
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What Dreams May Come
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The Road
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A Canticle for Leibowitz
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Dangerous Laughter
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Cloud Atlas
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Behold the Man
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The Final Programme
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Ada, or Ardor
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Ringworld
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Vurt
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Love in the Ruins
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Interview with the Vampire
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The Plot Against America
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Blindness
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Dimension of Miracles
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More Than Human
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Around the Moon
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John Dies at the End
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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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