I really love sci-fi novels and I read a lot of books. I read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson a while back and that book is particularly interesting to me. Rather than each chapter advancing the narrative of the story, there were occasional breaks where a chapter would have a list of semi-random words which just gave the vibe of what’s happening, or some history of a scene, or a recipe for how to build an asteroid.
There’s another book that I have heard of but neglected to write the name down, where the reader of the book is a character within the book, and the narrator speaks directly to you (but not a choose-your-adventure style book).
All of this got me interested in finding other books, preferably sci-fi or maybe fantasy, where the concept of being a book is played with and new ideas are tried. Any recommendations?
I think Idaho Winter by Tony Burgess does this pretty well. It’s a wild read.
It’s not sci-fi, but Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar lets you decide in what order to read the chapters.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski fits that model really well.
Fun fact, his sister is the singer Poe
I immediately thought of House of Leaves. Do not read it as an ebook, if there even is an ebook version. It must be read as a physical book.
House of Leaves is fantastic.
Another book of his, Only Revolutions, is wild, but I couldn’t get through it. You have to turn the book upside down to read half of it.
+1 to this book, it’s really surreal
Thursday Next series by Jasper FForde. Very meta, humorous.
Great recommendations!
@PostWatchBot@lemy.lol
Not sci-fi, but Mister B Gone by Clive Barker was really good. The book is a conversation with a demon who is telling you his life story. It is the story of how he came to be trapped in the book you are reading.
I thought the book was super funny and surreal. I saw reviews after finishing that it is considered some of his worst work. That might be true, but the worst 24 carat bar of gold is still a 24 carat bar of gold. Well worth the read imo.
Great suggestion. I had this book sitting by my computer when I was waiting on the computer to finish processing something. Idly picked it up and started reading, then just read the whole book in one sitting. I liked it a lot :)
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brookes is a detailed fictional instruction manual. It’s sequel is World War Z which is closer to a normal book, but still has an odd structure of creating a world through interviews … and the The Zombie Survival Guide book exists within it.
Thanks for the suggestion. Should I read WWZ first?
WWZ is one of my all time favorite books. They should really make it into a movie. Or, even better, an HBO miniseries.
I dunno, I think maybe some things should just be left alone
Sophie’s world. Also a nice introduction to philosophy
There’s another book that I have heard of but neglected to write the name down, where the reader of the book is a character within the book, and the narrator speaks directly to you
If, on a winter’s night, a traveller?
What a weird fucking book! It’s not the exact one I was looking for (I believe in my novel, one of the characters in the book begged the reader not to finish the book, because then the character would die).
Thanks so much for the recommendation though, it’s definitely the sort of weird I was looking for. I found it a bit hard to get through - I think it being a translation made some parts a bit stilted and a bit unrelatable for me - but I still read it over only a couple of days. I felt at chapter 8 where we read a Certain Character’s diary that the book was coming together and starting to make sense for me.
You mean If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino? Still do check it out
yea this definitely fits the description. brief summary: chapters alternate between the first chapters of different novels, and the main character (addressed as “you”) trying to track down the different novels whose chapters youve just read which are cut off for various reasons. it is great, relatively short (i think 250-ish pages in my copy), and if you dont mind the wild stylistic jumps between chapters its pretty delightful.
Cloud Atlas for its Russian nesting doll narrative structure.
Feersum Endjinn for how it plays with time, space, and even basic concepts of spelling and punctuation.
Generation X for its intwerweaving of advertising and informational sidebars into the text.
I think the most famous example is probably “Pale fire” by Nabokov. Not sci-fi, but very very fun! George Perec write some interesting concept books. One is about this apartment in Paris where every chapter just describes a random room in the building, but slowly tells a story of the inhabitants.
another older recommendation is jacques the fatalist, where jacques is attempting to tell the story of his lovelife but is constantly interrupted by other people telling their own stories, there is a “reader” who interrupts the narrator to ask questions, and the narrator at times gets bored of telling the story and asks the reader to fill in their own details. it also has an entire section directly from tristam shandy near the end.
not sci fi or fantasy but worth a read if you have the patience.
Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I didn’t expect there would be so many!
I’ve put them all on my reading list and I’ll get back to each of you when I’ve read your book.
(I don’t know if it’s possible to do a reply-all type thing and I don’t want to type out the same comment 30 times so…)
