Enjoy weird fiction overall, sci-fi and “horror” (in a very general sense). I like some Lovecraft, VanderMeers, Ballard, China Miéville, Samanta Schweblin, late William Gibson, Mariana Enríquez… what recent books or writers caught your eye that may loosely fit the term or are similar to works of the above authors? Can be in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
For horror - Kathe Koja
I also think you would like How to Lose the Time War, not horror but trippy weird and so great.
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Self-Reference Engine by Toh Enjoe - this one stretches the limits of what a novel even is, it’s not like anything else I’ve ever read
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The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts - the inhabitants of a generation ship rebel against the controlling computer to take charge of their lives
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Transfinite Man by Colin Kapp - starts like a cloak-and-dagger detective novel, almost tropey, then goes off the rails into speculative science fiction
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Ubik by Philip K. Dick - a classic of surrealism, often referenced directly and indirectly by other works
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Permutation City by Greg Egan - ultimately an exploration of self-determination and personal trauma in a digital world - who do we become, if we have the freedom to be and do anything?
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The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson - in my opinion the most compelling of Sanderson’s work
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Einstein’s Bridge - a fictional exploration of the Einstein-Rosen bridge set in a timeline where the Superconducting Super Collider was not cancelled
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Unflattening by Nick Sousanis - philosophy in a graphic novel, an exploration of identity and self-knowledge
The science in Permutation City is truly mind-warping, if you really try to wrap your head around it. One of my favourite books.
Egan’s short story collection Axiomatic is full of heavy concept scifi in a similar vein to it.
Yeah, knowing a fair bit about the way computers actually work at the hardware level, some of the details of how the virtual world functions are hand-wavy and kind of magic-disguised-as-technology. But Egan makes more of an effort to try to explain how the simulation works than most other fiction that describes similar virtual worlds - and ultimately the crux of the story is how people behave in a world of their own making.
You’re the only other person I’ve ever encountered who believes the emperor’s soul to be Sanderson’s best work. I really do think he thrives with the short story / novella length fiction in general, and it’s a shame he’s always going for the opposite. Emperor’s soul crams so much depth into such a compelling little story, I can’t believe how often it’s overlooked.
I enjoy Sanderson’s writing, his fantasy work is good. I think the brilliance of it is the consistent, expansive world-building that extends across his book series, which he’s really good at. I’m not knocking his other work at all.
But as a single work unto itself, I think The Emperor’s Soul is really a perfect story. The ideas presented at the beginning of the book are masterfully executed by the end.
that’s a lot! thanks for all these references!
I’m commenting so I may come back to this later.
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I think this is a rather cliche answer but since no one’s mentioned him yet I’ll put in a plug for Phillip K. Dick. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered weirdness done as well as he does it. My favorites are Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but he has a lot of books and as far as I can tell, they’re all weird af.
+1 for Philip K. Dick. My favorites are probably Counter-clock World and A Scanner Darkly
Another one that wasn’t mentioned yet is Stanisław Lem. The Futurological Congress totally blew my mind.
Oh, I actually forgot about A Scanner Darkly! I think that was the first PKD novel I ever read. Gonna have to give it another read. I don’t remember it all that well but I distinctly remember how I felt at the end of it, which was weirded the hell out.
And the movie is very good too!!
read most of Phillip K. Dick in my teens. Need to go back to some of these, though
or Spanish
Borges, if you haven’t read any of his works yet.
Love Borges since late teens, actually… with Poe the author that open my curiosity to such mode/mood of literature.
Ever read Blindsight by Peter Watts?
keep getting references to Watts’s book, but no
It’s a good read. It taught me about the actual real concept of blindsight., seeing without perceiving.
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Kelly Link’s short stories are weird
The first story is often not that weird, but she is fantastic at magical realism. They aren’t scary though. I recall for instance one story being about a cannon.
someone mentioned Kelly Link to me the other day as “essential” … i’ll surely be looking it.
The first story in magic for beginners (the one about the library, i think it’s the title story) is one of my favourite stories ever.
Since i mentioned short stories, If you like short stories get your hands on all the Ted Chiang you can (not anything like kelly link, but I think of him as the Chopin of short sci-fi.
Since i’m on a roll you may like “there is no antimemetics division” which is a little horror-sih may also be up your alley.
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I haven’t read those authors so I’m not sure if it’s the same type of weird, but I recently read Hyperion which is both weird and good.
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Gideon the ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Escapeology by Ren Warom
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
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Asking around gave me this shortlist of suggestions:
- Agustina Bazterrica (in Spanish)
- Suzan Palumbo’s short fiction collection Skin Thief
- Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin’s Wax & Wane
- Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad
- Kev Lambert’s You Will Love What You Have Killed
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checked Hiron Ennes, @AbouBenAdhem seems really interesting!
It’s well-known and well-studied, but also infamous as a book few people ever actually finish because it is so weird: Gravity’s Rainbow.
I finished it. I’m not sure what I gained by reading it, outside of having a better understanding of what an acid trip might feel like. Very weird.
Other mainstream but weird recommendations: Mexican Gothic (highly recommend this) and A Night in the Lonesome October
Hated hated hated this book. Not to discourage others from reading it, just seconding the sentiment that it’s a book few people finish.
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Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson.
The story follows Hiro Protagonist—a pizza delivery driver in a fractured, hyper-capitalized future reality and an elite hacker/swordfighter in the virtual “Metaverse”.
If you like that, his other books are fantastic, especially Cryptonomicon, Anathem, and Diamond Age.
It’s a great novel but I wouldn’t call it “weird”?
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Ack-Ack Macaque is pretty weird.
If you like it, there are 2 more books (I haven’t read the 3rd yet).
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House of leaves is my all time favourite mindfuck horror literature. I just recommend going hard copy over ebook as the formatting is super important. I can’t really describe it except to say I can see how Backrooms could be inspired by it.
sounds great!
I just reread house of leaves. It’s very good.
The first time I read it, it was right after taking like Theory & Criticism 400 in college, so the academic prose seemed just normal. I lent it to a friend who hasn’t read anything more advanced than Harry Potter in decades, and it really gave her brain a workout.
It’s worth it. The story is fascinating and it’s a good mental workout.
Leguin - City of Illusions …and all her other books. Check out old school The Machine Stops E.M. Forster. And Ministry for the Future- Kim Stanley Robinson and all of his other books.
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