Book picks similar to
The Gas by Charles Platt


science-fiction
horror
fiction
speculative-fiction

A Scent of New-Mown Hay


John Blackburn - 1958
    She was annoyed when her husband was summoned to attend a top secret, high level conference in Whitehall. Her irritation would have turned to fear if she had known the real reason for that summons. But soon they all knew. Tony Heath and Dr. Heath and General Kirk of British Secret Intelligence - they knew what it was the nameless thing that was destroying humanity through the female of the species. But where did it come from and how long had they got to find the antidote? The answer was simple. 'As long as it takes the wind to blow from the East.'

Alone Against Tomorrow: Stories of Alienation in Speculative Fiction


Harlan Ellison - 1971
    If someone were stupid enough to do it, novels could be written and published with such titles as " Moby Dick," " Alice in Wonderland" or "Gone With the Wind." But also, by law, ownership of a title can be guaranteed if it can be proved that the original author has established such a connection with the title that any duplication would infringe that linkage. How famous is this most famous of all Harlan Ellison's books? Well known enough that an English film company was stopped in its attempt to make a movie called " I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream." It's Ellison's title, the company was told.For more than sixteen years this work has been considered a classic of imaginative fiction.Isn't it about time you found out why? Discover why no one who has read this story has ever been able to forget it!Contents:· The Song of the Soul · in · I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream · ss If Mar ’67 · The Discarded [“The Abnormals”] · ss Fantastic Apr ’59 · Deeper Than the Darkness · nv Infinity Science Fiction Apr ’57 · Blind Lightning · ss Fantastic Universe Jun ’56 · All the Sounds of Fear · ss The Saint Detective Magazine (UK) Jul ’62 · The Silver Corridor · ss Infinity Science Fiction Oct ’56 · “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman · ss Galaxy Dec ’65 · Bright Eyes · ss Fantastic Apr ’65 · Are You Listening? · ss Amazing Dec ’58 · Try a Dull Knife · ss F&SF Oct ’68 · In Lonely Lands · ss Fantastic Universe Jan ’59 · Eyes of Dust · ss Rogue Dec ’59 · Nothing for My Noon Meal · ss Nebula #30 ’58 · O Ye of Little Faith · ss Knight Sep ’68 · The Time of the Eye · ss The Saint Detective Magazine May ’59 · Life Hutch [Kyben] · ss If Apr ’56 · The Very Last Day of a Good Woman [“The Last Day”] · ss Rogue Nov ’58 · Night Vigil [“Yellow Streak Hero”] · ss Amazing May ’57 · Lonelyache · ss Knight Jul ’64 · Pennies, Off a Dead Man’s Eyes · ss Galaxy Nov ’69

Lovedeath


Dan Simmons - 1993
    Here is a riveting collection of novellas exploring the fascinating relationship between eroticism and horror. In his most ambitious work ever, Simmons reveals the exquisite conjunction of love and death that will keep readers awake and reading all night.

The Architect of Sleep


Steven R. Boyett - 1986
    That was before he stumbled into another world. Evolution has taken a very different direction on this parallel Earth, but some things are constant. Jim Bentley has fallen straight from his ordinary life into the most constant thing of all: war. Even as he struggles to learn the ways of a strange culture, to make a place for himself in what seems likely to be his home for the rest of his life, the tides of revolution are rising around him. Jim Bentley has a part to play in this war--for his coming has been foretold by True Dreamers. His feet are already set on a path that leads to the heart of the crisis. Like it or not, he is vital to the war efforts of the Architect of Sleep.

The Sheep Look Up


John Brunner - 1972
    In this nightmare society, air pollution is so bad that gas masks are commonplace. Infant mortality is up, and everyone seems to suffer from some form of ailment.

Chasm City


Alastair Reynolds - 2001
    Now, with the entire city corrupted -from the people to the very buildings they inhabit- only the most wretched sort of existence remains. For security operative Tanner Mirabel, it is the landscape of nightmares through which he searches for a low-life postmortal killer. But the stakes are raised when his search brings him face to face with a centuries-old atrocity that history would rather forget.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities


Ann VanderMeerChina Miéville - 2011
    Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. Editors Ann and Jeff Vandermeer have gathered together a spectacular array of exhibits, oddities, images, and stories by some of the most renowned and bestselling writers and artists in speculative and graphic fiction, including Ted Chiang, Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy), China Miéville, and Michael Moorcock. A spectacularly illustrated anthology of Victorian steampunk devices and the stories behind them, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities is a boldly original, enthrallingly imaginative, and endlessly entertaining entry into a hidden world of weird science and unnatural nature that will appeal equally to fantasy lovers and graphic novel aficionados.

Population Zero


Wrath James White - 2008
    It was the humane thing to do, the best thing for the environment. Yet, every day at his job at the Welfare Department, Todd sees the dregs of humanity multiplying unchecked, overburdening the earth with a tidal wave of humanity. But if he can convince them not to reproduce, if he can convince everyone to voluntarily sterilize themselves, then he might just prevent the coming population explosion. And those who can't be convinced… Population Zero is the story of an environmental activist named Todd Hammerstein who is on a mission to save the planet. In just 50 years the population of the planet is expected to double. But not if Todd can help it.

The Compass Rose


Ursula K. Le Guin - 1982
    Twenty astonishing stories from acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin that carry us to worlds of wonder and horror, desire and destiny, enchantment and doom.

The Book of the New Sun


Gene Wolfe - 1983
    Severian, the central character, is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est. This edition contains the first four volumes of the series.

Quicker Than the Eye


Ray Bradbury - 1996
    A true master tells all, revealing the strange secret of growing young and mad; opening a Witch Door that links two intolerant centuries; joining an ancient couple in their wild assassination games; celebrating life and dreams in the unique voice that has favored him across six decades and has enchanted millions of readers the world over.Contains: Unterderseaboat Doktor -- Zaharoff/Richter Mark V -- Remember Sascha? -- Another Fine Mess -- The Electrocution -- Hopscotch -- The Finnegan -- That Woman on the Lawn -- The Very Gentle Murders -- Quicker Than the Eye -- Dorian in Excelsis -- No News, or What Killed the Dog? -- The Witch Door -- The Ghost in the Machine -- At the End of the Ninth Year -- Bug -- Once More, Legato -- Exchange -- Free Dirt -- Last Rites -- The Other Highway -- Make Haste to Live: An Afterword

Deus Irae


Philip K. Dick - 1976
    The Servants of Wrath have deified Carlton Lufteufel and re-christened him the Deus Irae. In the small community of Charlottesville, Utah, Tibor McMasters, born without arms or legs, has, through an array of prostheses, established a far-reaching reputation as an inspired painter. When the new church commissions a grand mural depicting the Deus Irae, it falls upon Tibor to make a treacherous journey to find the man, to find the god, and capture his terrible visage for posterity.

Doctor Mirabilis


James Blish - 1964
    Eliot quote). The 1st published, A Case of Conscience (winner of the '59 Hugo Award as well as 2004/1953 Retrospective Hugo for Best Novella), showed a Jesuit priest confronted with an intelligent alien species, apparently unfallen, which he eventually concludes must be a Satanic fabrication. The 2nd, Doctor Mirabilis, is a historical novel about the medieval proto-scientist Roger Bacon. The 3rd, actually two short novels, Black Easter & The Day After Judgment, was written using the assumption that the ritual magic for summoning demons as described in grimoires actually worked. In that book, a powerful industrialist & arms merchant arranges to call up demons in the midst of a modern world crisis, resulting in nuclear war & the destruction of civilization. Black Easter is devoted to that element of the plot; The Day After Judgment is devoted to exploring the consequences of the destruction of the world, with an extraordinary ending in both narrative & theological terms.

Anti-Man


Dean Koontz - 1970
    And he had the unusual power to heal others. In fact, Sam was too good to live.The world was overpopulated. Medicine had made the decision to stop trying to prolong life. Thus anyone who was not only immune to disease but who healed the dying was dangerous to the now precarious balance of nature.The order was issued by the Secret Police: "Disassemble Sam and destroy all records of his existence."But one man couldn't bear to see the work of a lifetime destroyed. He kidnapped Sam and began to run.Now they were enemies of the State -- hunted like animals, hurtling toward the terrifying secret of existence itself!

The Moon Pool


A. Merritt - 1918
    Merritt's writings. Set on the island of Ponape, full of ruins from ancient civilizations, the novel chronicles the adventures of a party of explorers who discover a previously unknown underground world full of strange peoples and super-scientific wonders. From the depths of this world, the party unwittingly unleashes the Dweller, a monstrous terror that threatens the islands of the South Pacific. Although Merritt did not invent the lost world novel, following in the footsteps of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Burroughs and others, he greatly elaborated upon that tradition. This new edition includes a biography of the author, and an introduction detailing Merritt's many sources and influences, including the occult, mythological, and scientific discourses of his day.