Fantasy

Phillip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, first published in 1977, is a dystopian novel that is testament to a time—late ‘60s-early ‘70s—when drug experimentation was a viable alternative to the grown-up world of nine-to-five jobs and suburban family life. Set in a future Southern California (1994), the novel is dedicated to many of Dick’s friends who didn’t survive the experiment or were left with permanent brain damage. Dick’s prolific career includes over 40 novels and... Read A Scanner Darkly Summary

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Ray Bradbury’s short story “A Sound of Thunder” was first published in Collier’s magazine on June 28, 1952 and was later reprinted in his 1953 short story collection A Golden Apple in the Sun. It was adapted into a comic book, 2005 film, and made into a video game. In this science fiction/dystopian story, the Time Safari time travel agency brings hunters back in time to hunt now-extinct animals for a fee of several thousand dollars.The... Read A Sound Of Thunder Summary

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Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse reimagines the myth of Herakles and Geryon, the red winged monster whom Herakles slays in his tenth labor. Carson bases her version on fragments of the epic poem by Ancient Greek poet Stesichoros. Stesichoros' version of Herakles' tenth labor is unique in that it is told not from Herakles' perspective, but from "Geryon's own experience" (6). Using this as inspiration, Carson retells Geryon and Herakles' story... Read Autobiography Of Red Summary

A Wild Sheep Chase (1982) is the third novel by Haruki Murakami, an internationally acclaimed author who most recently won the Jerusalem Prize and whose work has been translated into over 50 languages. He is also known for Norwegian Wood (1987), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and 1Q84 (2009).The 29-year-old narrator of the novel, who is never named, works for an advertising agency in Tokyo and leads a lonely and regimented life. He is divorced... Read A Wild Sheep Chase Summary

Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot De Villeneuve first appeared in her collection of fairy tales La jeune américaine, et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales) in 1740 and was abridged into a Christian moral tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756. As a fairy-tale classic, Beauty and the Beast has been retold around the globe and in several mediums, including books, film, theater, and opera. The most well-known adaptations... Read Beauty and the Beast Summary

Emily Dickinson holds a special place in the firmament of American writers. Although she lived in the 19th century and seldom left her home region in Massachusetts, her poetry speaks to readers of all ages and backgrounds. Dickinson possessed a singular poetic style, characterized by inventive punctuation, powerful efficiency, and deep inquiry of the human experience. Her poem “Because I could not stop for Death” has become a touchstone for readers encountering Dickinson for the... Read Because I Could Not Stop for Death Summary

Beggars in Spain is a science fiction novel published in 1993 by Nancy Kress. It is a continuation of Kress’s 1991 novella of the same name. Set in a dystopian future in which genetic modification allows parents to give birth to children with pre-selected traits, the book's plot revolves around the emergence of highly intelligent, highly accomplished "Sleepless" individuals who are bred so that they do not require sleep.Plot SummaryThe novel is divided into four... Read Beggars in Spain Summary

Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions, a novel by Daniel Wallace, presents the story of the life of Edward Bloom, as told and retold by his son, William. William recounts Edward’s life as Edward lays dying of an unnamed terminal illness. The truth of Edward's past has always eluded William, as his father's anecdotes tend toward the unbelievable, and he seems incapable of being serious. Using tall tales, dreams, and allusions to Greek mythology... Read Big Fish Summary

Binti: The Complete Trilogy is a series of science fiction novellas written by Nnedi Okorafor, author of the Akata Witch series. First published in 2015, Binti has won multiple prestigious literary awards, including the 2016 Hugo Award, the 2015 Nebula Award, and the 2016 British Fantasy Award for Best Novella. The 2019 omnibus publication includes the three novellas Binti, Binti: Home, and Binti: The Night Masquerade, as well as the bonus inclusion of the debut... Read Binti Summary

Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf (2019) is a dark fantasy novel. It’s the first title in his Dark Star Trilogy, and a fusion of conventional epic storytelling, oral tradition, and creative folklore. A finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, as well as one of Washington Post’s Top Ten Books of 2019, this novel had its film rights purchased only weeks after publication.Plot SummaryAn interrogation frames the story: Tracker, a mercenary, recounts his... Read Black Leopard, Red Wolf Summary

Bloodchild and Other Stories is a short story collection by African-American science-fiction author Octavia Butler (1947-2006). It was first published in 1995 and reissued in 2005 featuring two new stories, “Amnesty” and “The Book of Martha,” as well as two essays about the power of writing and the difficulties of being an author. Each story in the reissued edition features an afterword written by Butler, which makes clear how she uses science fiction to take... Read Bloodchild and Other Stories Summary

Boy, Snow, Bird is a novel about race in mid-20th-century America. The novel’s central protagonist is Boy Novak, though the book employs two participant narrators: Boy, in Part I; Boy’s daughter, Bird, in Part II; then Boy once more, in Part III. The novel takes place almost entirely in Flax Hill, Massachusetts, except for the first chapter; however, it jumps in time, with the first portion set in the 1950s, while the latter portion is... Read Boy, Snow, Bird Summary

Brave New World, a dystopian novel published in 1932, is perhaps Aldous Huxley’s most famous and enduring work and an English classic, consistently ranked among the top-100 English-language novels by entities such as the Modern Library, BBC, and The Observer. The novel opens with a tour of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, in which the Director explains the foundational ideas of society’s “stability,” which stems from the production-line uniformity of its citizens. People... Read Brave New World Summary

In 1932, Brave New World, a novel by the English author Aldous Huxley, was published. Contemporary events inspired this influential fantasy novel, which depicted a future society governed by totalitarianism. In 1958, a full twenty-seven years later, Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited, a short nonfiction book which reexamines the novel’s ideas and predictions in light of events that had happened since the publication of Brave New World. Huxley argues that the world is accelerating... Read Brave New World Revisited Summary

Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring was published in 1998. The science fiction novel was the winner of several awards that include the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The novel also contains elements of magical realism. Set after the Riots in Toronto that splintered the city into the impoverished center and wealthier surrounding suburbs, the novel follows... Read Brown Girl in the Ring Summary

William Gibson’s 1986 science fiction short story collection Burning Chrome contains 10 works first published between 1977 and 1985. Gibson co-wrote three of the stories with fellow authors. The stories touch on classic science fiction themes, like space exploration, as well as the relationships between technology, capitalist power, and humanity. Several stories are early expressions of the cyberpunk subgenre, which Gibson and other authors developed in the 1980s. Cyberpunk combines sci-fi, dystopian, and noir styles... Read Burning Chrome Summary