What makes a sci-fi or fantasy book
essential to read? There are some authors whose works I feel like I could
easily throw out here with few people questioning me: Ray Bradbury, Robert
Heinlein, Octavia Butler, JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling, and on. And all of them have
written works that are essential, certainly. But what does essential mean? When
my favorite Powers that Be at Nerds had the idea of us doing our essential
lists, I immediately thought of a lot of books I’d want to include. Then,
because they are as cruel as they are kind, they told me I could only include
24 books and I shook my fist at the sky.
To limit myself, I decided to take
three different tacks when approaching my essential SFF list.
One: they had to be books that had been
written in my lifetime (so that I’d theoretically have an easier time narrowing
things down. File this plan under: Lies I Tell Myself). I still had way (way
[way]) too many titles, so then I narrowed again to books that had been written
since 2000.
Two:
They had to be standalone books, instead of a part of
series. This saved me from having to choose one single Harry Potter to rule
them all. They also had to be novels and not short story collections (because
when I included both types, this list was about 22 titles too long). I also
only allowed myself one book per author, so perennial favorites like China
Mieville, Colson Whitehead, and Neil Gaiman wouldn’t steal too many spots.
Three:
I’m a writer, so I decided that they had to be books that
were essential to me because of specifically what they showed me writing could
do. This, by its nature, means that they also had to be books that I’ve reread
at least once.That means this list is more specific and personal than maybe it
should be. It’s my essential list, so it certainly won’t be everyone’s
essential list.
A quick note, while I’m saying SFF
(sci-fi and fantasy) I did broaden that out to include horror; however, I only
chose horror that was highly speculative (ie zombies and ghosts were fine;
psychological suspense would not be).
"I wonder", said Hermes, "what
it would be like if animals had human intelligence."
" I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence."
And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks." (Goodreads)
" I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence."
And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks." (Goodreads)
Why:
Alexis is an astounding writer. When he put his mind to a more fantastical
conceit (though, admittedly, a lot of his works have speculative hints), he did
it with such playfulness and heart that the resulting book rightfully won the
Giller Prize for 2015. Warning: if you’re a dog person, as I am, there are some
moments that are very hard to read. This book will crush your heart.
Anderson, Howard L. Albert of Adelaide [Twelve, 2012]
Why: The
fact that although the main character is a platypus ISN’T my main reason for
recommending this should say a lot. A strange, lyrical, examination of what
home, freedom, and friendship mean.
Barlow, Toby. Babayaga [Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 2013]
Why: There’s a such a spirit of playful joy in Barlow’s writing. That
this joy couples with such darkness and beauty makes it an exquisite read. PLUS
FLEA DETECTIVE.
"At once an old-fashioned-buddy-novel-shoot-'em-up and a work of deliciously imagined fantasy, Howard L. Anderson's dazzling debut presents the haunting story of a world where something has gone horribly awry . . .
Having escaped from Australia's Adelaide Zoo, an orphaned platypus named Albert embarks on a journey through the outback in search of "Old Australia," a rumored land of liberty, promise, and peace. What he will find there, however, away from the safe confinement of his enclosure for the first time since his earliest memories, proves to be a good deal more than he anticipated.
Alone in the outback, with an empty soft drink bottle as his sole possession, Albert stumbles upon pyromaniacal wombat Jack, and together they spend a night drinking and gambling in Ponsby Station, a rough-and-tumble mining town. Accused of burning down the local mercantile, the duo flees into menacing dingo territory and quickly go their separate ways-Albert to pursue his destiny in the wastelands, Jack to reconcile his past. Encountering a motley assortment of characters along the way-a pair of invariably drunk bandicoots, a militia of kangaroos, hordes of the mercurial dingoes, and a former prize-fighting Tasmanian devil-our unlikely hero will discover a strength and skill for survival he never suspected he possessed." (Goodreads)
Having escaped from Australia's Adelaide Zoo, an orphaned platypus named Albert embarks on a journey through the outback in search of "Old Australia," a rumored land of liberty, promise, and peace. What he will find there, however, away from the safe confinement of his enclosure for the first time since his earliest memories, proves to be a good deal more than he anticipated.
Alone in the outback, with an empty soft drink bottle as his sole possession, Albert stumbles upon pyromaniacal wombat Jack, and together they spend a night drinking and gambling in Ponsby Station, a rough-and-tumble mining town. Accused of burning down the local mercantile, the duo flees into menacing dingo territory and quickly go their separate ways-Albert to pursue his destiny in the wastelands, Jack to reconcile his past. Encountering a motley assortment of characters along the way-a pair of invariably drunk bandicoots, a militia of kangaroos, hordes of the mercurial dingoes, and a former prize-fighting Tasmanian devil-our unlikely hero will discover a strength and skill for survival he never suspected he possessed." (Goodreads)
By the author of Sharp
Teeth, a novel of love, spies, and witches in 1950s Paris—and a cop turned
into a flea.
Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It’s 1959 and the cold war is going strong. But Will doesn’t think he’s a warrior—he’s just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can’t seem to figure out Parisian girls.
Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe’s wars.
Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea.
Oliver is a patrician, fun-loving American who has come to Paris to start a literary journal with the help of friends in D.C. who ask a few favors in return. He’s in well over his head, but it’s nothing that a cocktail can’t fix. Right?
Add a few chance encounters, a chorus of some more angry witches, a strung-out jazzman or two, a weaponized LSD program, and a cache of rifles buried in the Bois de Bologne—and that’s a novel! But while Toby Barlow’s Babayaga may start as just a joyful romp through the City of Light, it quickly grows into a daring, moving exploration of love, mortality, and responsibility. (Goodreads)
Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It’s 1959 and the cold war is going strong. But Will doesn’t think he’s a warrior—he’s just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can’t seem to figure out Parisian girls.
Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe’s wars.
Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea.
Oliver is a patrician, fun-loving American who has come to Paris to start a literary journal with the help of friends in D.C. who ask a few favors in return. He’s in well over his head, but it’s nothing that a cocktail can’t fix. Right?
Add a few chance encounters, a chorus of some more angry witches, a strung-out jazzman or two, a weaponized LSD program, and a cache of rifles buried in the Bois de Bologne—and that’s a novel! But while Toby Barlow’s Babayaga may start as just a joyful romp through the City of Light, it quickly grows into a daring, moving exploration of love, mortality, and responsibility. (Goodreads)
"Part
thriller, part ghost tale, part love story, One
for Sorrow is a novel as
timeless as The Catcher in the Rye and as hauntingly lyrical as The Lovely Bones. Christopher
Barzak’s stunning debut tells of a teenage boy’s coming-of-age that begins with
a shocking murder and ends with a reason to hope.
Adam McCormick had just turned fifteen when the body was found in the woods. It is the beginning of an autumn that will change his life forever. Jamie Marks was a boy a lot like Adam, a boy no one paid much attention to—a boy almost no one would truly miss. And for the first time, Adam feels he has a purpose. Now, more than ever, Jamie needs a friend.
But the longer Adam holds on to Jamie’s ghost, the longer he keeps his friend tethered to a world where he no longer belongs . . . and the weaker Adam’s own ties to the living become. Now, to find his way back, Adam must learn for himself what it truly means to be alive" (Goodreads)
Adam McCormick had just turned fifteen when the body was found in the woods. It is the beginning of an autumn that will change his life forever. Jamie Marks was a boy a lot like Adam, a boy no one paid much attention to—a boy almost no one would truly miss. And for the first time, Adam feels he has a purpose. Now, more than ever, Jamie needs a friend.
But the longer Adam holds on to Jamie’s ghost, the longer he keeps his friend tethered to a world where he no longer belongs . . . and the weaker Adam’s own ties to the living become. Now, to find his way back, Adam must learn for himself what it truly means to be alive" (Goodreads)
Bishop, KJ. The Etched City [Prime, 2003]
Why: Honestly, I almost can’t articulate why this is such a
good read. It is one of the strangest and yet most affecting fantasies I’ve
ever read.
Brockmeier, Kevin. The Brief History of the Dead [Pantheon, 2006]
Why: This wonderful book turns apocalypse fiction on its head
by not focusing on the apocalypse but rather on those who died during it.
Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell [Bloomsbury, 2004]
Why: Magicians. And footnotes. And one
of the most fully realized alternate histories I’ve ever read.
Gwynn
and Raule are rebels on the run, with little in common except being on the
losing side of a hard-fought war. Gwynn is a gunslinger from the north, a
loner, a survivor . . . a killer. Raule is a wandering surgeon, a healer who
still believes in just--and lost--causes. Bound by a desire to escape the
ghosts of the past, together they flee to the teeming city of Ashamoi… (Goodreads)
"From Kevin Brockmeier,
one of this generation's most inventive young writers, comes a striking
new novel about death, life, and the mysterious place in between. The
City is inhabited by those who have departed Earth but are still
remembered by the living. They will reside in this afterlife until they
are completely forgotten. But the City is shrinking, and the residents
clearing out. Some of the holdouts, like Luka Sims, who produces the
City’s only newspaper, are wondering what exactly is going on. Others,
like Coleman Kinzler, believe it is the beginning of the end. Meanwhile,
Laura Byrd is trapped in an Antarctic research station, her supplies
are running low, her radio finds only static, and the power is failing.
With little choice, Laura sets out across the ice to look for help, but
time is running out. Kevin Brockmeier alternates these two storylines to
create a lyrical and haunting story about love, loss and the power of
memory..." (Goodreads)
"At the dawn of the
nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change
England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on
land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in
England--until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a
celebrity overnight.
Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear..." (Goodreads)
Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear..." (Goodreads)
"Forced into a brutal
concentration camp during a great war, Brodeck returns to his village at
the war’s end and takes up his old job of writing reports for a
governmental bureau. One day a stranger comes to live in the village.
His odd manner and habits arouse suspicions: His speech is formal, he
takes long, solitary walks, and although he is unfailingly friendly and
polite, he reveals nothing about himself. When the stranger produces
drawings of the village and its inhabitants that are both unflattering
and insightful, the villagers murder him. The authorities who witnessed
the killing tell Brodeck to write a report that is essentially a
whitewash of the incident.
As Brodeck writes the official account, he sets down his version of the truth in a separate, parallel narrative. In measured, evocative prose, he weaves into the story of the stranger his own painful history and the dark secrets the villagers have fiercely kept hidden." (Goodreads)
As Brodeck writes the official account, he sets down his version of the truth in a separate, parallel narrative. In measured, evocative prose, he weaves into the story of the stranger his own painful history and the dark secrets the villagers have fiercely kept hidden." (Goodreads)
"Sussex, England. A
middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral.
Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at
the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most
remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He
hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a
pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old
farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past
too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone,
let alone a small boy.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark." (Goodreads)
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark." (Goodreads)
Why:
This book reminds me so much of DWJ’s Fire
and Hemlock that it could have skewed my appreciation. But I think it’s
just that good. Nostalgia, the loss of childhood wonder, and unsettling magic
all shine here.
Heller, Peter. The Dog Stars [Knopf, 2012]
Why:
There isn’t anything overly unique about the apocalypse here, but that’s one of
the things that makes this one stand out. Grounded in realism and with sharp
observations about friendship, loss, and loneliness.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go [Knopf, 2005]
Why:
This one sneaks up on you, at one point it seems almost emotionless and, yet,
by the end of the book I always find myself almost unable to breathe. This is
sci-fi at its most deceptively brutal.
Joyce, Graham. The Facts of Life [Atria, 2003]
Why: Joyce’s work is both deeply speculative and also not.
You don’t leave one of his books going “oh what a fantasy” but you do leave
them feeling like you’ve been through something fantastical. This is my
favorite of his works.
LaValle, Victor. The Devil in Silver [Spiegel &
Grau, 2012]
Why: No one quite does the uncanny like LaValle. But the uncanny also is never
the point of his books. His characters, even a rat!, come first in this take on
horror, the mental health industry, and what evil is or is not.
Mandel, Emily St. John. Station Eleven [Knopf 2014]
Why:
This is simply put one of the best post-apocalyptic novels I’ve ever read.
"Hig somehow survived the
flu pandemic that killed everyone he knows. Now his wife is gone, his
friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned
airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope
named Bangley.
But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for." (Goodreads)
But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for." (Goodreads)
"As children, Kathy,
Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school
secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial
cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding
their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a
young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first
time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand
just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the
rest of their time together." (Goodreads)
"THE FACTS OF LIFE tells
the story of an extraordinary family of seven sisters living in
Coventry during the Second World War. Presided over by an indomitable
matriach, the sisters live out a tangled and fraught life that takes
them through the Blitz, war work and on into the hopeful postwar years,
and a bizarre interlude for one of them in a commune. And through it all
wanders the young son of one of the sisters, passed from sister to
sister, the innocent witness to a life that edges over into the magical." (Goodreads)
"New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one.
Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He’s not mentally ill, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can’t quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he’s visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It’s no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic who’s been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group’s enforcer. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that’s stalking them. But can the Devil die?
The Devil in Silver brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle’s radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it’s a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons."(Goodreads)
Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He’s not mentally ill, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can’t quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he’s visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It’s no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic who’s been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group’s enforcer. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that’s stalking them. But can the Devil die?
The Devil in Silver brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle’s radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it’s a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons."(Goodreads)
"An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven
tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior,
and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the
Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it." (Goodreads)
Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it." (Goodreads)
Inspector
Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad finds deadly conspiracies beneath a
seemingly routine murder. From the decaying Beszel, he joins detective Qussim
Dhatt in rich vibrant Ul Qoma, and both are enmeshed in a sordid underworld.
Rabid nationalists are intent on destroying their neighboring city, and
unificationists dream of dissolving the two into one. (Goodreads)
Why:
It’s perfect. Detective fiction meets political thriller meets a world so
carefully constructed that you want to shake Mieville for writing something so
good.
"A harrowing tale of murder and retribution.
Young, pretty Junko Aoki has an extraordinary ability-she can start fires through sheer force of will. When she begins using her gift of pyrokinesis to take the law into her own hands and punish violent criminals, her executions attract the attention of two very different groups: the Guardians, a secretive vigilante organization that tries to recruit her, and the arson squad of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Soon the police are on Junko's trail, most notably Detective Chikako Ishizu, a rationalist who must come to terms with the existence of paranormal forces. As Junko's crusade against evil escalates and she finds it harder to control her power, we are taken on a breathtaking and brutal journey through the urban landscape of Tokyo on a journey that challenges us, along with Chikako, to think about what's right and what's wrong in the name of justice.
Atmospheric, suspenseful, provocative, and even romantic, Crossfire is a tour de force sure to secure Miyuki Miyabe's place in the pantheon of today's top mystery writers." (Goodreads)
Young, pretty Junko Aoki has an extraordinary ability-she can start fires through sheer force of will. When she begins using her gift of pyrokinesis to take the law into her own hands and punish violent criminals, her executions attract the attention of two very different groups: the Guardians, a secretive vigilante organization that tries to recruit her, and the arson squad of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Soon the police are on Junko's trail, most notably Detective Chikako Ishizu, a rationalist who must come to terms with the existence of paranormal forces. As Junko's crusade against evil escalates and she finds it harder to control her power, we are taken on a breathtaking and brutal journey through the urban landscape of Tokyo on a journey that challenges us, along with Chikako, to think about what's right and what's wrong in the name of justice.
Atmospheric, suspenseful, provocative, and even romantic, Crossfire is a tour de force sure to secure Miyuki Miyabe's place in the pantheon of today's top mystery writers." (Goodreads)
Why:
Miyabe is a master of so many genres that it was hard to choose one title.
Ultimately, I went with the first I read by her because of the way it forces
the supernatural into a detective thriller while also posing interesting
questions about violence and power.
"In a vast, mysterious
house on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the
hole punched into its heart. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and
Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, mourn her absence with unspoken
intensity. All is not well with the house, either, which creaks and
grumbles and malignly confuses visitors in its mazy rooms, forcing
winter apples in the garden when the branches should be bare.
Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new
appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to
them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly -
Slipping away from them -
And when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story.
"Miri I conjure you "
This is a spine-tingling tale that has Gothic roots but an utterly modern sensibility. Told by a quartet of crystalline voices, it is electrifying in its expression of myth and memory, loss and magic, fear and love." (Goodreads)
Why: Oyeyemi creates some of the strangest and most
intriguing works around. Her plots don’t always make sense on the page and yet
I never leave feeling unsatisfied. This is the ultimate haunted house story as
only Oyeyemi can tell it.Slipping away from them -
And when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story.
"Miri I conjure you "
This is a spine-tingling tale that has Gothic roots but an utterly modern sensibility. Told by a quartet of crystalline voices, it is electrifying in its expression of myth and memory, loss and magic, fear and love." (Goodreads)
"This horrifying thriller, partly based on a true story, is the scariest novel yet from an international bestseller.
The crunching noise had resumed, now accompanied by a disgusting, indefinable smell. It could best be described as a blend of kelp and rotten meat. The voice spoke again, now slightly louder and clearer:
Don't go. Don't go yet. I'm not finished.
In an isolated village in the Icelandic Westfjords, three friends set to work renovating a derelict house. But soon they realise they are not alone there - something wants them to leave, and it's making its presence felt.
Meanwhile, in a town across the fjord, a young doctor investigating the suicide of an elderly woman discovers that she was obsessed with his vanished son.
When the two stories collide the terrifying truth is uncovered . . ." (Goodreads)
The crunching noise had resumed, now accompanied by a disgusting, indefinable smell. It could best be described as a blend of kelp and rotten meat. The voice spoke again, now slightly louder and clearer:
Don't go. Don't go yet. I'm not finished.
In an isolated village in the Icelandic Westfjords, three friends set to work renovating a derelict house. But soon they realise they are not alone there - something wants them to leave, and it's making its presence felt.
Meanwhile, in a town across the fjord, a young doctor investigating the suicide of an elderly woman discovers that she was obsessed with his vanished son.
When the two stories collide the terrifying truth is uncovered . . ." (Goodreads)
"Far North is a 2009 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.
My father had an expression for a thing that turned out bad. He’d say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn.
Out on the frontier of a failed state, Makepeace—sheriff and perhaps last citizen—patrols a city’s ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.
Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee emerges from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.
What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling: stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace’s journey—rife with danger—also leads to an unexpected redemption.
Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity’s origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the world’s fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses." (Goodreads)
My father had an expression for a thing that turned out bad. He’d say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn.
Out on the frontier of a failed state, Makepeace—sheriff and perhaps last citizen—patrols a city’s ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.
Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee emerges from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.
What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling: stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace’s journey—rife with danger—also leads to an unexpected redemption.
Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity’s origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the world’s fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses." (Goodreads)
Why:
This is like the ice-bound alternative to Mad Max’s hot-desert post-apocalyptic
landscape with one of the most interesting narrators I’ve read.
"From the exiled Kenyan
novelist, playwright, poet, and literary critic--a magisterial comic
novel that is certain to take its place as a landmark of postcolonial
African literature.
In exile now for more than twenty years, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has become one of the most widely read African writers of our time, the power and scope of his work garnering him international attention and praise. His aim in Wizard of the Crow is, in his own words,nothing less than “to sum up Africa of the twentieth century in the context of two thousand years of world history.”
Commencing in “our times” and set in the “Free Republic of Aburĩria,” the novel dramatizes with corrosive humor and keenness of observation a battle for control of the souls of the Aburĩrian people. Among the contenders: His High Mighty Excellency; the eponymous Wizard, an avatar of folklore and wisdom; the corrupt Christian Ministry; and the nefarious Global Bank. Fashioning the stories of the powerful and the ordinary into a dazzling mosaic, Wizard of the Crow reveals humanity in all its endlessly surprising complexity.
Informed by richly enigmatic traditional African storytelling, Wizard of the Crow is a masterpiece, the crowning achievement in Ngugl wa Thiong’o’s career thus far." (Goodreads)
In exile now for more than twenty years, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has become one of the most widely read African writers of our time, the power and scope of his work garnering him international attention and praise. His aim in Wizard of the Crow is, in his own words,nothing less than “to sum up Africa of the twentieth century in the context of two thousand years of world history.”
Commencing in “our times” and set in the “Free Republic of Aburĩria,” the novel dramatizes with corrosive humor and keenness of observation a battle for control of the souls of the Aburĩrian people. Among the contenders: His High Mighty Excellency; the eponymous Wizard, an avatar of folklore and wisdom; the corrupt Christian Ministry; and the nefarious Global Bank. Fashioning the stories of the powerful and the ordinary into a dazzling mosaic, Wizard of the Crow reveals humanity in all its endlessly surprising complexity.
Informed by richly enigmatic traditional African storytelling, Wizard of the Crow is a masterpiece, the crowning achievement in Ngugl wa Thiong’o’s career thus far." (Goodreads)
"The Little Stranger
follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who
has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty
postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a
patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two
centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in
decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock
in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the
Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life?
Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their
story is about to become entwined with his." (Goodreads)
Why:
This is one of the best haunted house novels out there. Waters puts her
signature gorgeous writing to good use in the slow and creeping unfolding here.
Whitehead, Colson. Zone One. [Doubleday, 2011]
Why: Whitehead completely reimagines the zombie novel while
also staying true to it. This is funny, heartbreaking, deeply intelligent
writing.
"In this wry take on the
post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The
plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the
infected, the living and the living dead.
Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuilding civilization under orders from the provisional government based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One—but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety—the “malfunctioning” stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.
Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams working in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz’s desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world.
And then things start to go wrong.
Both spine chilling and playfully cerebral, Zone One brilliantly subverts the genre’s conventions and deconstructs the zombie myth for the twenty-first century" (Goodreads)
Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuilding civilization under orders from the provisional government based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One—but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety—the “malfunctioning” stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.
Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams working in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz’s desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world.
And then things start to go wrong.
Both spine chilling and playfully cerebral, Zone One brilliantly subverts the genre’s conventions and deconstructs the zombie myth for the twenty-first century" (Goodreads)
"In an unnamed Middle
Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his
clients—dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups—from
surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif—the first
letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to hide behind.
The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by
her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the state’s
electronic security force, putting his clients and his own neck on the
line. Then it turns out his lover’s new fiancé is the "Hand of God," as
they call the head of state security, and his henchmen come after Alif,
driving him underground.
When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen." (Goodreads)
When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen." (Goodreads)
POSTED BY: Chloe, speculative fiction fan in all forms, monster theorist, and Nerds of a Feather blogger since 2016.
