Almost every aspect of Harlan Ellison's 1967 anthology of science
fiction tales, Dangerous Visions, disrupted the status quo. Unlike
other anthologists, Ellison insisted on brand new stories for his book
—in stark contrast to the time-honored tradition of collecting works
that had already appeared in magazines. This proviso created, in
turn, economic disruption for both Ellison
and the publisher, because they had to
pay more for new stories than for recycled
ones. Ellison was even more daring in his
choice of contributors, aiming to bring in
both leading literary heroes of avant-garde
fiction, famous genre writers and the very
best of the up-and-coming sci-fi authors.
But the most disruptive aspect of the project
came with the instructions Ellison gave his
contributors. He really wanted dangerous
visions, stories that broached themes and
subjects too hot for the science fiction
magazines of the day. He insisted that
the tales in the book confront taboos, break
down barriers and challenge prevailing attitudes and values.
See also:
Harlan Ellison: I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream (reviewed by Ted Gioia)
Ellison did not achieve all his goals. He failed to secure an adequate
advance from his publisher, and was forced to draw on his own money
to pay his authors. One of the contributors, Larry Niven did the same,
lending $750 to cover some of the publication costs. Ellison also ran
into obstacles in his choice of writers. He successfully enlisted many of
the best science fiction authors of his day for his project, but his hopes
of snagging the leading literary lions from the counterculture proved
ill-founded.
His initial list of possible contributors included Thomas Pynchon, William
Burroughs, Terry Southern, Kingsley Amis and Thomas Berger. The mind
reels at how they would have responded to Ellison's request for dangerous
visions. But none of these writers participated in the project. I lament their
absence, but still can’t find fault with a final roster that includes Philip K. Dick,
J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, Theodore Sturgeon, Brian Aldiss, Robert
Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Fritz Leiber and Robert Bloch, as well as an
introduction from Isaac Asimov (who refused to offer a story on the grounds
that he was "too sober, too respectable, and, to put it bluntly, too darned
square").
Ellison lived up to his promise of violating taboos. I suspect that this
willingness to offend, and risk the opprobrium of censors and the
censorious, created much of the buzz around the book. Certainly
sales were brisk. Dangerous Visions has stayed in print, and also
spurred a high-profile sequel (Again, Dangerous Visions), as well
as a proposed third volume slated for release in 1973, but still
in publishing limbo. (A few years ago, Jo Walton reviewed this
oft-discussed but never-seen anthology, The Last Dangerous
Visions, as an April Fool's Day joke. As recently as 2007, Ellison
was still claiming that he wanted to publish the work, but griping:
"It’s this giant Sisyphean rock that I have to keep rolling up a hill,
and people will not stop bugging me about it.")
Strange to say, the dangerous parts of Dangerous Visions have not
aged especially well. It's hard to find anything shocking nowadays, not
just in fiction but in any other form of narrative. And the few taboos that
survived into the modern age are just as predictable as moral injunctions
—no surprise there, since they are mirror image of each other—and
readers can easily guess which subjects will show up even before they
open this book. So we get a big dose of cannibalism, a smattering of
incest, lots of sexual experimentation and kinky fetishes, some serial
killers, etc. etc.. In other words, the usual suspects when people are
asked to violate the inviolable. Alas, if this were enough to create great
literature, Jerry Springer would be a Nobel judge.
That said, a few contributors stood out for the very vehemence with
which they pursued the transgressive. Ellison’s single story in the
volume, a futuristic reworking of the Jack the Ripper meme, presents
more vivisection details than a coroner’s report. And Theodore Sturgeon
not only serves up a story about incest, but offers a spirited treatise
in defense of the same. Even Robert Heinlein, who put his hero
Lazarus Long on a time machine so the character could have an affair
with his own mom, never went quite so far.
Some of the finest stories in this book ignored Ellison's mandate
to embrace 'dangerous' visions, and succeed through plain old-
fashioned storytelling. J.G. Ballard and Fritz Leiber both contributed
atmospheric horror stories. Ballard's reticence is especially surprising,
given the outrageous and repulsive subjects in his other works of this
period. Yet his tale of a traveling circus that arrives in town with cages
for the animals, but apparently no creatures inside them, is darkly poetic,
and saves a pleasing Kafkaesque twist for its conclusion. Leiber's
contribution is a macabre fairy tale about a gambler getting into a
high stakes dice game with the grim reaper. The story is unsettling,
but more in the manner of Ambrose Bierce than New Wave sci-fi—
and with a pleasing dose of Leiber's trademark flippancy and
irreverence. I’m not surprised that it won the Hugo for best novelette.
Ellison makes a big deal about Philip K. Dick’s 'dangerous vision'
—and hints that the story was written under the influence of a
hallucinogenic drug. Frankly, I’m not sure I could tell the difference
between Dick’s output on drugs and the stories he wrote cold-sober.
They all are pleasingly weird. But "Faith of Our Fathers," his
contribution to Ellison's anthology, is one of his best—it also earned
a Hugo nomination (losing out to Leiber's story). Narcotics do play
a prominent role in the plot, but with an ingenious twist: in Dick's
universe, the citizenry all experience the exact same hallucinations
when drugged, but while they are clear-headed, their perceptions of
reality vary in inexplicable ways. Dick takes this provocative concept
and incorporates it into a dystopian account of space aliens and
global conquest straight out of the Golden Age of sci-fi.
Perhaps the most famous story in this book is also the longest. Philip
José Farmer's "The Riders of the Purple Wage" was initially a 15,000-
word tale, but after he had finished revisions, it had expanded into a
rambling 30,000 word short novel. Ellison lavishly praised the work
in his introduction, claiming that it was "easily the best" piece in the
anthology. Certainly, many others agreed. Farmer also got a Hugo
for his efforts—part of the Dangerous Visions landslide victory at the
26th World Science Fiction Convention in Berkeley. This Joycean
pastiche is certainly one of the most audacious pieces in the collection,
both for its prose style and the copious amounts of sex and violence
in its plot. But the story constantly hints at more than it actually delivers.
Farmer lays out the foundations for a penetrating satire of politics, art
and culture, yet never pursues any of these promising paths with much
vigor. And instead of moving towards a resolution of the plot, he merely
builds up to a huge pun—one so over-the-top that even Joyce, that
master punster, would have groaned in dismay at it.
Now, I must turn to the biggest surprise of this book—namely that many
of the most impressive stories in Dangerous Visions came from
little-known and mostly-forgotten authors. "The Doll-House" written
by James Cross—a pseudonym for career academic and government
worker Hugh Parry (1916-1997)—presents a very appealing mixture
of ancient mythology and modern psychodrama. But just try to find more
information about this author, even with the help of all-knowing Google!
I also enjoyed stories by Larry Eisenberg and Jonathan Brand, stylish
authors who never achieved much fame but proved their mettle in this
anthology. But best of all is David R. Bunch, the only writer to contribute
two stories to Dangerous Visions. These are, in my opinion, the most
ambitious and well-written stories in the whole book, drawing on a
poised but unconventional prose style that is not a pastiche, in the style
of Farmer’s piece, but a brilliant reconfiguration of language perfectly
suited to avant-garde science fiction. Bunch’s work is like a blend of
Flann O’Brien and Italo Calvino, leavened with the technology acumen
of Isaac Asimov. I was saddened to learn that this author’s writings
went out-of-print soon after they were published, and now command
outrageous prices for tattered old paperback copies. Some enterprising
publisher needs to rectify this situation!
But the star of Dangerous Visions remains Harlan Ellison, and though
he contributed just a single story, his introductions to the book and each
of the tales are what set this work apart from the other anthologies in the
field. In a different time and place, Ellison might have written suppressed
political manifestos, screeds that would have set off rioting in the
streets and the toppling of regimes. Instead, he aimed at spurring a
revolution in fiction, with an inflammatory zeal that no one else of his
generation could match. He often took more risks in his intros to the
stories than the authors did in their narratives, and I can only imagine
how much behind-the-scenes prodding and nagging he devoted to
making this cantankerous book, and its sequel, a reality. Ellison clearly
possessed dangerous visions, and it is to his credit that he was able
to get a whole cadre of sci-fi legends, near-legends, and should-be-
legends to march to his beat. A half-century later, when the forbidden
topics in this book are no longer prohibited and more than a few have
entered the mainstream, Ellison's strident stances and extravagant
expostulations can still captivate readers. So even if the dangers
embodied in Dangerous Visions today seems less perilous, let's give
some of the credit for that sea change to the visionary behind the visions,
who helped tame them for posterity.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is currently
working on his ninth book, Love Songs: The Hidden History, which will be
published by Oxford University Press.
Publication date of this article: May 21, 2014
fiction tales, Dangerous Visions, disrupted the status quo. Unlike
other anthologists, Ellison insisted on brand new stories for his book
—in stark contrast to the time-honored tradition of collecting works
that had already appeared in magazines. This proviso created, in
turn, economic disruption for both Ellison
and the publisher, because they had to
pay more for new stories than for recycled
ones. Ellison was even more daring in his
choice of contributors, aiming to bring in
both leading literary heroes of avant-garde
fiction, famous genre writers and the very
best of the up-and-coming sci-fi authors.
But the most disruptive aspect of the project
came with the instructions Ellison gave his
contributors. He really wanted dangerous
visions, stories that broached themes and
subjects too hot for the science fiction
magazines of the day. He insisted that
the tales in the book confront taboos, break
down barriers and challenge prevailing attitudes and values.
See also:
Harlan Ellison: I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream (reviewed by Ted Gioia)
Ellison did not achieve all his goals. He failed to secure an adequate
advance from his publisher, and was forced to draw on his own money
to pay his authors. One of the contributors, Larry Niven did the same,
lending $750 to cover some of the publication costs. Ellison also ran
into obstacles in his choice of writers. He successfully enlisted many of
the best science fiction authors of his day for his project, but his hopes
of snagging the leading literary lions from the counterculture proved
ill-founded.
His initial list of possible contributors included Thomas Pynchon, William
Burroughs, Terry Southern, Kingsley Amis and Thomas Berger. The mind
reels at how they would have responded to Ellison's request for dangerous
visions. But none of these writers participated in the project. I lament their
absence, but still can’t find fault with a final roster that includes Philip K. Dick,
J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, Theodore Sturgeon, Brian Aldiss, Robert
Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Fritz Leiber and Robert Bloch, as well as an
introduction from Isaac Asimov (who refused to offer a story on the grounds
that he was "too sober, too respectable, and, to put it bluntly, too darned
square").
Ellison lived up to his promise of violating taboos. I suspect that this
willingness to offend, and risk the opprobrium of censors and the
censorious, created much of the buzz around the book. Certainly
sales were brisk. Dangerous Visions has stayed in print, and also
spurred a high-profile sequel (Again, Dangerous Visions), as well
as a proposed third volume slated for release in 1973, but still
in publishing limbo. (A few years ago, Jo Walton reviewed this
oft-discussed but never-seen anthology, The Last Dangerous
Visions, as an April Fool's Day joke. As recently as 2007, Ellison
was still claiming that he wanted to publish the work, but griping:
"It’s this giant Sisyphean rock that I have to keep rolling up a hill,
and people will not stop bugging me about it.")
Strange to say, the dangerous parts of Dangerous Visions have not
aged especially well. It's hard to find anything shocking nowadays, not
just in fiction but in any other form of narrative. And the few taboos that
survived into the modern age are just as predictable as moral injunctions
—no surprise there, since they are mirror image of each other—and
readers can easily guess which subjects will show up even before they
open this book. So we get a big dose of cannibalism, a smattering of
incest, lots of sexual experimentation and kinky fetishes, some serial
killers, etc. etc.. In other words, the usual suspects when people are
asked to violate the inviolable. Alas, if this were enough to create great
literature, Jerry Springer would be a Nobel judge.
That said, a few contributors stood out for the very vehemence with
which they pursued the transgressive. Ellison’s single story in the
volume, a futuristic reworking of the Jack the Ripper meme, presents
more vivisection details than a coroner’s report. And Theodore Sturgeon
not only serves up a story about incest, but offers a spirited treatise
in defense of the same. Even Robert Heinlein, who put his hero
Lazarus Long on a time machine so the character could have an affair
with his own mom, never went quite so far.
Some of the finest stories in this book ignored Ellison's mandate
to embrace 'dangerous' visions, and succeed through plain old-
fashioned storytelling. J.G. Ballard and Fritz Leiber both contributed
atmospheric horror stories. Ballard's reticence is especially surprising,
given the outrageous and repulsive subjects in his other works of this
period. Yet his tale of a traveling circus that arrives in town with cages
for the animals, but apparently no creatures inside them, is darkly poetic,
and saves a pleasing Kafkaesque twist for its conclusion. Leiber's
contribution is a macabre fairy tale about a gambler getting into a
high stakes dice game with the grim reaper. The story is unsettling,
but more in the manner of Ambrose Bierce than New Wave sci-fi—
and with a pleasing dose of Leiber's trademark flippancy and
irreverence. I’m not surprised that it won the Hugo for best novelette.
Ellison makes a big deal about Philip K. Dick’s 'dangerous vision'
—and hints that the story was written under the influence of a
hallucinogenic drug. Frankly, I’m not sure I could tell the difference
between Dick’s output on drugs and the stories he wrote cold-sober.
They all are pleasingly weird. But "Faith of Our Fathers," his
contribution to Ellison's anthology, is one of his best—it also earned
a Hugo nomination (losing out to Leiber's story). Narcotics do play
a prominent role in the plot, but with an ingenious twist: in Dick's
universe, the citizenry all experience the exact same hallucinations
when drugged, but while they are clear-headed, their perceptions of
reality vary in inexplicable ways. Dick takes this provocative concept
and incorporates it into a dystopian account of space aliens and
global conquest straight out of the Golden Age of sci-fi.
Perhaps the most famous story in this book is also the longest. Philip
José Farmer's "The Riders of the Purple Wage" was initially a 15,000-
word tale, but after he had finished revisions, it had expanded into a
rambling 30,000 word short novel. Ellison lavishly praised the work
in his introduction, claiming that it was "easily the best" piece in the
anthology. Certainly, many others agreed. Farmer also got a Hugo
for his efforts—part of the Dangerous Visions landslide victory at the
26th World Science Fiction Convention in Berkeley. This Joycean
pastiche is certainly one of the most audacious pieces in the collection,
both for its prose style and the copious amounts of sex and violence
in its plot. But the story constantly hints at more than it actually delivers.
Farmer lays out the foundations for a penetrating satire of politics, art
and culture, yet never pursues any of these promising paths with much
vigor. And instead of moving towards a resolution of the plot, he merely
builds up to a huge pun—one so over-the-top that even Joyce, that
master punster, would have groaned in dismay at it.
Now, I must turn to the biggest surprise of this book—namely that many
of the most impressive stories in Dangerous Visions came from
little-known and mostly-forgotten authors. "The Doll-House" written
by James Cross—a pseudonym for career academic and government
worker Hugh Parry (1916-1997)—presents a very appealing mixture
of ancient mythology and modern psychodrama. But just try to find more
information about this author, even with the help of all-knowing Google!
I also enjoyed stories by Larry Eisenberg and Jonathan Brand, stylish
authors who never achieved much fame but proved their mettle in this
anthology. But best of all is David R. Bunch, the only writer to contribute
two stories to Dangerous Visions. These are, in my opinion, the most
ambitious and well-written stories in the whole book, drawing on a
poised but unconventional prose style that is not a pastiche, in the style
of Farmer’s piece, but a brilliant reconfiguration of language perfectly
suited to avant-garde science fiction. Bunch’s work is like a blend of
Flann O’Brien and Italo Calvino, leavened with the technology acumen
of Isaac Asimov. I was saddened to learn that this author’s writings
went out-of-print soon after they were published, and now command
outrageous prices for tattered old paperback copies. Some enterprising
publisher needs to rectify this situation!
But the star of Dangerous Visions remains Harlan Ellison, and though
he contributed just a single story, his introductions to the book and each
of the tales are what set this work apart from the other anthologies in the
field. In a different time and place, Ellison might have written suppressed
political manifestos, screeds that would have set off rioting in the
streets and the toppling of regimes. Instead, he aimed at spurring a
revolution in fiction, with an inflammatory zeal that no one else of his
generation could match. He often took more risks in his intros to the
stories than the authors did in their narratives, and I can only imagine
how much behind-the-scenes prodding and nagging he devoted to
making this cantankerous book, and its sequel, a reality. Ellison clearly
possessed dangerous visions, and it is to his credit that he was able
to get a whole cadre of sci-fi legends, near-legends, and should-be-
legends to march to his beat. A half-century later, when the forbidden
topics in this book are no longer prohibited and more than a few have
entered the mainstream, Ellison's strident stances and extravagant
expostulations can still captivate readers. So even if the dangers
embodied in Dangerous Visions today seems less perilous, let's give
some of the credit for that sea change to the visionary behind the visions,
who helped tame them for posterity.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is currently
working on his ninth book, Love Songs: The Hidden History, which will be
published by Oxford University Press.
Publication date of this article: May 21, 2014
The Most Dangerous Sci-Fi Anthology
A Look Back at Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions (1967)
by Ted Gioia
A Look Back at Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions (1967)
by Ted Gioia
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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 Handmaid's Tale
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
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
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
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
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
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
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
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
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
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
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
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
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
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
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
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
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
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, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
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
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
Emphyrio
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
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
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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
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
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
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copies and promotional materials from
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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 Handmaid's Tale
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
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
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
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
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
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
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
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
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
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
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
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
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
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
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
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
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
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, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
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
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
Emphyrio
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
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
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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
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
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials from
publishers, authors, publicists or other
parties.