Literate Yet Non-Boring Science Fiction and Fantasy
Discover the best literate yet thrilling science fiction and fantasy books—no boring reads here! Explore captivating, well-crafted stories that blend intellect with adventure.
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Celestial Matters
by Richard Garfinkle
In an alternate world where Ptolemaic astronomy is real, scientists from the thousand year empire of Alexander the Great attempt a journey to the sun.
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The Iron Dragon's Daughter
by Michael Swanwick
Named a NEW YORK TIMES notable book of 1994, THE IRON DRAGON'S DAUGHTER tells the heartrending story of a changeling child who is kidnapped to a realm of malls and machines and enslaved in a vast, infernal factory. Ultimately she escapes and attempts to educate herself about this alien world, while being tormented by visions of the life she was denied.
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Tales of the Dying Earth
by Jack Vance
All four books in "The Dying Earth" science fiction series are now available in single volume.
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Riddley Walker, Expanded Edition
by Russell Hoban
This acclaimed story is set in an England that has suffered a nuclear holocaust. Society has regressed to an Iron Age, semi-literate state represented by the special language that the author created especially for this book.
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Consider Phlebas
by Iain Banks
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction. Consider Phlebas - a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination.
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The Tough Guide to Fantasyland
by Diana Wynne Jones
This authoritative A-Z guide constitutes an essential source of information for all who dare to venture into the imaginative hinterlands, providing acute insights into such subjects as: the varying types of virgin, why High Priests are invariably evil, how Dark Lords always have minions, and why Cooks all have filthy tempers. Whether you're a first-time visitor or a veteran Fantasyland traveler, "The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" has everything you need to get the most from your Tour, including: what to do when you're captured by a Goblin, where to find a Healer when you're stricken with the dreaded plague, and how to obtain the magic sword which will protect you from those pesky Barbarian Hordes.
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The Last Hot Time
by John M. Ford
That woman, it turns out, is important to another party on the scene: Mr. Patrice. Who, in his turn, appears to run a lot of the City. Doc knows he holds some kind of unusual power. Mr. Patrice knows it too. So does the beautiful Ginevra Benci. And so does the sorcerous Whisper-Who-Dares, who offers threats and temptations far beyond anything Doc ever imagined. By turns brutal and delicate, murderous and metaphysical, The Last Hot Time is a fantasy novel unlike any other, a brilliant dance of genres and storylines leading to a thoroughly unusual conclusion.
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Winter's Tale
by Mark Helprin
When master mechanic Peter Lake attempts to rob a mansion on the Upper West Side, he is caught by young Beverly Penn, the terminally ill daughter of the house, and their subsequent love send Peter on a desperate personal journey. Reprint.
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The Deluxe Transitive Vampire
by Karen Elizabeth Gordon
Playful and practical, this is the style book you can't wait to use, a guide that addresses classic questions of English usage with wit and the blackest of humor. Black-and-white illustrations throughout.
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The Anubis Gates
by Tim Powers
Now celebrating 40 years in print—take a dazzling journey through time with Tim Power’s classic, Philip K. Dick Award-winning tale... “There have been other novels in the genre about time travel, but none with The Anubis Gates’ unique slant on the material, nor its bottomless well of inventiveness. It’s literally in a class by itself, a model for others to follow, and it's easy to see how it put Powers on the map.”—SF Reviews Brendan Doyle, a specialist in the work of the early-nineteenth century poet William Ashbless, reluctantly accepts an invitation from a millionaire to act as a guide to time-travelling tourists. But while attending a lecture given by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810, he becomes marooned in Regency London, where dark and dangerous forces know about the gates in time. Caught up in the intrigue between rival bands of beggars, pursued by Egyptian sorcerers, and befriended by Coleridge, Doyle somehow survives and learns more about the mysterious Ashbless than he could ever have imagined possible...