Book picks similar to
How We Got Insipid by Jonathan Lethem
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The End We Start From
Megan Hunter - 2017
Days later, the family are forced to leave their home in search of safety. As they move from place to place, shelter to shelter, their journey traces both fear and wonder as Z's small fists grasp at the things he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving and content against all the odds.This is a story of new motherhood in a terrifying setting: a familiar world made dangerous and unstable, its people forced to become refugees. Startlingly beautiful, Megan Hunter's The End We Start From is a gripping novel that paints an imagined future as realistic as it is frightening. And yet, though the country is falling apart around them, this family’s world – of new life and new hope – sings with love.
Isolation
Dan Wells - 2012
It was for the Isolation War that the American government contracted the ParaGen Corporation to manufacture the Partials—our last hope in reclaiming energy independence from China. And it was on these fields of battle that the seeds of humanity's eventual destruction were sown.Isolation takes us back to the front lines of this war, a time when mankind's ambition far outstripped its foresight. Heron, a newly trained Partial soldier who specializes in infiltration, is sent on a mission deep behind enemy lines. What she discovers there has far-reaching implications—not only for the Isolation War, but for Partials and humans alike long after this war is over.A powerful take of our world on the brink, Isolation gives readers a glimpse into the history from which Partials was born—as well as clues to where the Partials Sequence is heading next.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume II B
Ben BovaIsaac Asimov - 1973
There is no better anthology that captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field.Published in 1973 to honor stories that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country.Eleven more classic novellas by the most honored authors of science fiction. Companion to Volume IIA.Introduction · Ben BovaThe Martian Way · Isaac Asimov · na Galaxy Nov ’52 Earthman, Come Home [Okie] · James Blish · nv Astounding Nov ’53 Rogue Moon · Algis Budrys · na F&SF Dec ’60 The Specter General · Theodore R. Cogswell · na Astounding Jun ’52 The Machine Stops · E. M. Forster · nv Oxford and Cambridge Review Nov ’09 The Midas Plague · Frederik Pohl · na Galaxy Apr ’54 The Witches of Karres · James H. Schmitz · nv Astounding Dec ’49 E for Effort · T. L. Sherred · nv Astounding May ’47 In Hiding · Wilmar H. Shiras · nv Astounding Nov ’48 The Big Front Yard · Clifford D. Simak · na Astounding Oct ’58 The Moon Moth · Jack Vance · na Galaxy Aug ’61
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 160 (January 2020)
Neil Clarke - 2020
This was published as a Clarkesworld audiobook podcast in 2020.
Moderan
David R. Bunch - 1971
They retain strips of flesh to contain their humanity. They live in Strongholds. They prowl the war rooms of their Strongholds and plan wars.Quite a world, Moderan. Come visit. The war is about to begin...Contents:- IntroductionPart I: The Beginnings- Thinking Back (Our God Is a Helpful God!)- No Cracks or Saggings- The Butterflies Were Eagle-Big That Day- New Kings Are Not for Laughing- One Time, a Red Carpet...- Battle Won- Head Thumping the Troops- New-Metal Mistress Time- And So White Witch Valley- The Bird Man of Moderan- Bubble-Dome Homes- One False Step- Survival Packages- New-Metal- Of Hammers & Men- The Stronghold- 2064, or Thereabouts- Penance Day in Moderan- Strange Shape in the Stronghold- Getting Regular- The Walking, Talking I-Don't-Care ManPart II: Everyday Life in Moderan- To Face Eternity- In the Innermost Room of Authority- The Problem- Playmate- A Husband's Share- A Complete Father- Was She Horrid?- A Glance at the Past- Educational- It Was Black Cat Weather- Sometimes I Get So Happy- Remembering- A Little Girl's Xmas in Moderan- The Flesh-Man from Far WidePart III: Intimations of the End- The One from Camelot Moderan- Reunion- The Warning- Has Anyone Seen This Horseman?- Interruption in Carnage- The Miracle of the Flowers- Incident in Moderan- The Final Decision- Will-Hung & Waiting- How They Took Care of Soul in a Last Day for a Non-Beginning- How It Ended
A Roald Dahl Selection
Roald Dahl - 1980
Includes:Man from the South, Lamb to the Slaughter, The Landlady, The champion of the World, Galloping Foxley, Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat, The Ratcatcher and The Hitchhiker.
Unconquered Countries
Geoff Ryman - 1987
Through this restless innovation, he has constantly explored the gulf between appearance and truth, the way people enact mythologies to fulfil profound inner needs, then become trapped by their own creations. In the previously unpublished "A Fall of Angels", humanity has reached the stars, created "angels" from former humans, and is engaged in a fantastical quest to refuel the dying stars and so defeat entropy. Rich in ideas and beautifully characterised, "A Fall of Angels" is a fusion of hard science fiction and sense-of-wonder poetry. "Fan" questions the reality behind the virtual images of pop music, taking the concept of silicon-enhanced celebrity to its logical conclusion. The challenging "O Happy Day!" considers what happens when ideology replaces reason: in a death camp for heterosexual men the solution is infinitely worse than the problem. The collection ends with the novella "The Unconquered Country", Ryman's allegorical, phantasmagorical response to the horrors of recent Cambodian history. It is a staggering, breathtaking achievement, which rightly won many awards on original publication. Once read, it will never be forgotten. Each story in this book is the product of Geoff Ryman's remarkable imagination, taken together they make a compelling account of one of the finest writers around. --Gary S. DalkinContents:A Fall of Angels, or On the Possibility of Life under Extreme Conditions (1994)Fan (1994)O Happy Day! (1985)The Unconquered Country (1984)
City of Bohane
Kevin Barry - 2011
The once-great city of Bohane on the west coast of Ireland is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines. There are the posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the Northside Rises and the eerie bogs of Big Nothin' that the city really lives.For years, the city has been in the cool grip of Logan Hartnett, the dapper godfather of the Hartnett Fancy gang. But there's trouble in the air. They say his old nemesis is back in town; his trusted henchmen are getting ambitious; and his missus wants him to give it all up and go straight... And then there's his mother.City of Bohane is a visionary novel that blends influences from film and the graphic novel, from Trojan beats and calypso rhythms, from Celtic myth and legend, from fado and the sagas, and from all the great inheritance of Irish literature. A work of mesmerising imagination and vaulting linguistic invention, it is a taste of the glorious and new.
Cornelius Chronicles V02
Michael Moorcock - 1986
Jerry Cornelius, a time traveler who is able to assume many identities, must prey on others to maintain his image stability.
Hexarchate Stories
Yoon Ha Lee - 2019
Clarke-nominated author Yoon Ha Lee comes a collection of stories set in the world of the best-selling Ninefox Gambit. Showcasing Lee’s extraordinary imagination, this collection takes you to the very beginnings of the hexarchate’s history and reveals new never-before-seen stories.
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel - 2014
Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.
Radicalized
Cory Doctorow - 2019
Radicalized is the story of a desperate husband, a darknet forum and the birth of a violent uprising against the US health care system.The final story, The Masque of the Red Death, tracks an uber-wealthy survivalist and his followers as they hole up and attempt to ride out the collapse of society.
Two Worlds and in Between: The Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan, Volume One
Caitlín R. Kiernan - 2011
Kiernan’s short fiction was first published in 1995. Over the intervening decade and a half, she has proven not only one of dark fantasy and science fiction’s most prolific and versatile authors, but, to quote Ramsey Campbell, “One of the most accomplished writers in the field, and very possibly the most lyrical.” S. T. Joshi has written, “Kiernan’s witchery of words creates a mesmerizing effect that we haven’t seen since the days of Lovecraft and Bradbury.”Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan (Volume One) presents a stunning retrospective of the first ten years of her work, a compilation of more than two hundred thousand words of short fiction, including many of her most acclaimed stories, as well as some of the author’s personal favorites, several previously uncollected, hard-to-find pieces, and her sf novella, The Dry Salvages, and a rare collaboration with Poppy Z. Brite. Destined to become the definitive look at the early development of Kiernan’s work, Two Worlds and In Between is a must for fans and collectors alike, as well as an unprecedented introduction to an author who, over the course of her career, has earned the praise of such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, Charles De Lint, and Clive Barker.
The Stone Gods
Jeanette Winterson - 2007
And off the air, Billie and Spike are falling in love. What will happen when their story combines with the world's story.
Brave New Worlds
John Joseph AdamsNeil Gaiman - 2010
Brave New Worlds brings together the best dystopian fiction of the last 30 years, demonstrating the diversity that flourishes in this compelling subgenre. This landmark tome contains stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Cory Doctorow, M. Rickert, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and many others.Table of ContentsIntroduction / John Joseph Adams --Lottery / Shirley Jackson --Red card / S.L. Gilbow --Ten with a flag / Joseph Paul Haines --Ones who walk away from Omelas / Ursula K. Le. Guin --Evidence of love in a case of abandonment / M. Rickert --The Funeral / Kate Wilhelm --O happy day! / Geoff Ryman --Pervert / Charles Coleman Finlay --From homogeneous to honey / Neil Gaiman & Bryan Talbot --Billennium / J.G. Ballard --Amaryllis / Carrie Vaughn --Pop squad / Paolo Bacigalupi --Auspicious eggs / James Morrow --Peter Skilling / Alex Irvine --The Pedestrian / Ray Bradbury --Things that make me weak and strange get engineered away / Cory Doctorow --Pearl diver / Caitlin R. Kiernan --Dead space for the unexpected / Geoff Ryman --"Repent harlequin!", said the Ticktockman / Harlan Ellison --Is this your day to join the revolution? / Genevieve Valentine --Independence day / Sarah Langan --Lunatics / Kim Stanley Robinson --Sacrament / Matt Williamson --Minority report / Philip K. Dick --Just do it / Heather Lindsley --Harrison Bergeron / Kurt Vonnegut Jr. --Caught in the organ draft / Robert Silverberg --Geriatric ward / Orson Scott Card --Arties aren't stupid / Jeremiah Tolbert --Jordan's waterhammer / Joe Mastroianni --Of a sweet slow dance in the wake of temporary dogs / Adam-Troy Castro --Resistance / Tobias S. Buckell --Civilization / Vylar Kaftan.