Science Fiction & Dystopian Fiction

The Woman in Black (1983) by Susan Hill follows the gothic literary tradition. Hill explores traditional horror tropes, such as abandoned estates and ghost hauntings, set in an unspecified time in England’s countryside. The horror novella focuses on the first-person point-of-view of Arthur Kipps as he reflects on a ghost haunting he experienced as a young man. Hill explores themes of loss and mourning, the impact of holding onto the past, and the clash between... Read The Woman in Black Summary

The Word for World is Forest is a novella by science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin. It was published as a self-contained story in 1976 but had appeared in a science fiction anthology four years earlier. Le Guin included the story in her series, the Hainish Cycle, which details an alternate version of the future in which Earth is a colonizing force on other planets. The story examines themes of imperialism, racism, friendship, and... Read The Word for World is Forest Summary

The Year of the Flood (2009) is a speculative fiction novel by Margaret Atwood, an award-winning novelist, poet, literary critic, and environmental activist from Canada. Published after Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood is the second book of the MaddAddam trilogy, followed by MaddAddam (2013). Exploring themes like human influence on the environment and the physical abuse and sexual objectification of women, The Year of the Flood brought Atwood great acclaim, particularly... Read The Year of the Flood Summary

Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (1990) is a magical realist story from Coffee House Press. Narrated by a sentient floating sphere, the story primarily takes place in Brazil. Utilizing fantastical elements, the novel addresses issues of environmentalism, economic inequality, and faith.Plot SummaryA sentient ball narrates the novel in the first person and provides third person narration for the other characters. The story opens on the shores of Japan, where the... Read Through the Arc of the Rain Forest Summary

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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a science fiction adventure novel by French author Jules Verne. It was originally published in serialized form in 1869 under the title Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, and later as a book in 1870. In 1873, the first English-language translation was released. The book was highly acclaimed at the time of its publication and was one of several successful novels by Verne. Others include Journey to the... Read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Summary

Ubik is a science-fiction novel published in 1969 by the American writer Philip K. Dick. Set in 1992, the book exists in a future in which telepathy has emerged as a common tool for corporate espionage. Moreover, technology exists that allows the recently deceased to be suspended for long periods of time in a state of hibernation known as “half-life.” Among other accolades, Time magazine selected Ubik as one of the 100 greatest novels published... Read Ubik Summary

Karen Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove and Other Stories, published in 2013, is a collection of short stories that are linked by the supernatural. The collection can be considered a work of magical realism because each story combines a realistic setting with magical elements; however, perhaps a more fitting label is that of speculative fiction, since many of the magical elements are darker in nature, and border on horror. Due to the many mature... Read Vampires in the Lemon Grove Summary

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White Is for Witching, published in 2009, is Helen Oyeyemi’s third novel, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award. A finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, White Is for Witching explores both traditional horror and the horrors of racism. Oyeyemi’s novels often center the experience of historically marginalized groups, which perhaps reflects her own background as a Nigerian-born English citizen who attended Cambridge University. White Is for Witching frames histories of racism as supernatural... Read White Is for Witching Summary

White Noise is a 1985 novel by American author Don DeLillo. A significant entry in the canon of postmodern literature, White Noise tells the story of a small-town college professor whose suburban routine is shattered when a train crash results in a massive chemical spill. As the characters struggle to accept their own mortality, the book explores a range of contemporary issues including consumerism, mass media, and conspiracy theories. In 2005 Time Magazine included White... Read White Noise Summary

Who Fears Death, published in 2010 and written by Nnedi Okorafor, is a post-apocalyptic science fantasy novel set in a future version of Sudan. In this future, the light-skinned Nuru have enslaved the dark-skinned Okeke; the novel follows Onyesonwu (Onye), the daughter of an Okeke woman raped by a Nuru man. Onye soon discovers that her biological father is a powerful sorcerer, and that she, too, has inherited great magical powers from both her father... Read Who Fears Death Summary

Wild Seed is a science fiction novel written by Octavia Butler in 1980. It is sequentially the first book in a sequence of “Patternist” books written by the same author, though it was the fourth book published in that series. These include Mind of My Mind (1978), Clay’s Ark (1984), Survivor (1977), and Patternmaster (1976). Wild Seed takes place over different centuries and continents, beginning in Africa in 1690 and ending in America just before... Read Wild Seed Summary

Wool, a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, is Hugh Howey’s first book. Originally self-published in 2011 as an e-book, Simon & Schuster later licensed it. The e-book features illustrations by Jimmy Broxton and Darwyn Cooke. Wool is the first book in Howey's Silo series, followed by Shift (2013) and Dust (2013).Wool takes place in the world of the silo, a 144-floor underground community of humans, hundreds of years after an unknown event has caused the air... Read Wool Summary

An unknown virus has spread across the world, transforming nearly everyone into “skels,” flesh-craving zombies who transfer their condition to others by bite or scratch. Of the few human survivors is Mark Spitz, a young man who decides to volunteer as a sweeper, part of a civilian taskforce responsible for killing and disposing of remaining hostile skels and stragglers (their less violent counterparts) whom the marines have failed to clear out during their first sweep... Read Zone One Summary

Zoo City is a 2010 fantasy/science fiction novel by Lauren Beukes; it won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award. In an alternate version of Johannesburg, South Africa, people who have committed serious crimes find themselves attached to animal familiars that grant them magical abilities—and mark their criminality for all to see. First-person narrator Zinzi December is accompanied by a Sloth. She uses her shavi (magical power) to locate lost things. Zinzi’s narration alternates with textual... Read Zoo City Summary