10 ultra-weird science fiction novels that became required reading

You want a really weird ride? A science fiction or fantasy epic that stretches your brain

like taffy and ties it into strange irregular shapes? Forget television or movies: books are

where the really off-kilter stories are told in speculative fiction.

A while ago, we listed 10 ultra-weird science fiction books that you've never read. But

what's really mind-blowing is the list of science fiction and fantasy books that are equally

strange — but which almost everybody has read, or wants to read. Here are 10

super-weird SF books that are considered part of the canon.

Top image: Ubik cover art by Chris Moore.

Science fiction is great when it's weird. Really bizarre

science fiction takes you on a wild…

10 Ultra-Weird Science Fiction Novels that Became Required Reading http://io9.com/5892742/10-ultra-weird-science-fiction-novels-that-be...

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Dhalgren by Samuel R. DelanyWhy It's Weird: It opens with a man making love to a woman who turns into a tree. It

ends with this:

But I still hear them walking in the trees: not speaking.Waiting here, away from the terrifying weaponry, out ofthe halls of vapor and light, beyond holland into thehills, I have come to

Dhalgren takes place in a burning, dilapidated, extra-dimensional city named Bellona,

and it's famous for its non-linear narrative, which requires multiple readings to get a lot

of meaning out of.

Why It's Required: Dhalgren is full of mythological references, and layers of meaning.

It's also a fascinatingly contentious book. The novel has drawn praise from Umberto Eco:

"I consider Delany not only one of the most important SF writers of the present

generation, but a fascinating writer in general who has invented a new style." It's become

a stage play and a MOO, and it's been compared to Pynchon. The original edition sold

more than a million copies.


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The Four-Gated City by Doris LessingWhy It's Weird: Lessing's sprawling Children of Violence series starts

out as realistic quasi-memoir about growing up in Africa, only to turn

weird and experimental in the final couple of volumes. There is

voluntary sleep deprivation, weird sexual experiments where nobody

touches each other, and more. After spending the entire series

building the character of Martha Quest, Lessing kills her off on a

contaminated island off the coast of Scotland during World War

Three. Lessing's World War Three takes place during the ‘60s and

‘70s, with most of Britain wiped out via bubonic plague, nerve gases,

nuclear explosions, etc. by 1978. The ideas behind the novel, as

elucidated on Lessing's own website: "[It] takes on the medical

profession, which she believes is destroying (recently through

imprisonment, currently through the use of drugs) that part of

humanity which is in fact most sensitive to evolution, those people we

label as mentally sick or unbalanced: and, criticising the scientists

who have created and perpetuate a climate in which "rationalism" has

become a new God, she claims that everyone has "extra-sensory

perception", in varying degrees, but has been brainwashed into

suppressing it, and that schizophrenia is the name of our blindest

contemporary prejudice."

Why It's Required: Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize and wrote TheGolden Notebook, which frequently appears on college syllabi — but

the Children of Violence trilogy is the series on which she spent

arguably the most time, and in many ways the cornerstone of her

work. Earlier parts of the Children of Violence series appear on

college syllabi pretty often.


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Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A.HeinleinWhy It's Weird: The novel follows Valentine

Michael Smith, son of the first astronauts to

explore Mars, as he is reintegrated into human

society after being raised as a Martian. Valentine

believes a bunch of strange things, Valentine

believes in a bunch of strange things, including the

rightness and sacredness of consuming your

friend's flesh after he/she dies, the superfluity of

clothing, and the obvious self-evidence of an

afterlife, based on his experiences on Mars. He

founds the Church of All Worlds, in which sexual

liberation blends with psychokinesis.

Why It's Required: In addition to winning the

1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel, Stranger in aStrange Land is considered a bona fide classic,

frequently mentioned on the lists of the best

science fiction books of all time. One of its

invented Martian words, "grok" has even entered

the Oxford English Dictionary. You can also see it

on Pearson's Recommended High School Reading

List.


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Ubik by Philip K. DickWhy It's Weird: From lunar

telepaths to mysterious

product placements to a kid

named Jory who sucks the life

force out of other people, this

is a book that doesn't

particularly care about making

sense. Did we mention that

half the characters might be

dead? As Conceptual Fiction

explains, "Ubik keeps you

guessing at almost every step

along the way, and your

hypotheses about what is

actually transpiring will

probably change several times

as the story progresses. From

this regard, the work

progresses much like a

conventional mystery, with

clues to be deciphered and

puzzles to be solved. Only here

the questions are peculiar ones

– not who committed the

murder, but whether a murder

actually took place, not finding

the body but understanding

what a body might be and

become, not avenging a death

but reassessing the boundaries

between life and death."

Why It's Required: Most often

found in science fiction class

syllabi, Ubik is also used as an

example of of late-‘60s

paranoia about reality and

government or corporate


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control of

life. And

Time

Magazine

named it as

one of the

100 best

novels

written in

English

between

1923 and

2005.

Reportedly,

Michel

Gondry is

working on

a movie

version.

How

has

The

Adjustment

Bureau

affected

future

Philip

K.

Dick

movie

adaptations?

What's

going…


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10 ultra-weird science fiction novels that became required reading

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