Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

A doomed lord, an emergent hero, and a dazzling array of bizarre creatures inhabit the magical world of the Gormenghast novels which, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings , reign as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. At the center of it all is the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom, unless... (more)

Los Perros Perseguidos/Plague Dogs

by 1920- Adams, Richard,EMPTY, Richard Adams

"Thousands and thousands of people will love this book!" THE BOSTON GLOBE A lyrical, engrossing tale, by the author of WATERSHIP DOWN, Richard Adams creates a lyrical and engrossing tale, a remarkable journey into the hearts and minds of two canine heroes, Snitter and Rowf, fugitives from the horrors of an animal research center who escape into the isolation--and terror--of the wilderness. From the Paperback... (more)

Rhinoceros

by Euge?ne Ionesco

These three great plays by one of the founding fathers of the theatre of the absurd, are alive and kicking with tragedy and humour, bleakness and farce. In "Rhinoceros" we are shown the innate brutality of people as everyone, except for Berenger, turn into clumsy, unthinking rhinoceroses. "The Chairs" depicts the futile struggle of two old people to convey the meaning of life to the rest of humanity, while "The... (more)

Ticket That Exploded

by William S. Burroughs

In The Ticket That Exploded, William S. Burroughs’s grand cut-up trilogy, which began with The Soft Machine and continues through Nova Express, reaches its climax as Inspector Lee and the Nova Police engage the Nova Mob in a decisive battle for the planet.

Erewhon

by Samuel Butler

In this novel, Butler satirically describes a utopian society, using the civilization of 'Erewhon' ('nowhere,' scrambled) to satirize beliefs popular in the England of his day. Butler wrote a sequel to the novel, Erewhon Revisited.

253: The Print Remix

by Geoff Ryman

Since a fully occupied London subway car would have 253 seated passengers (including the driver), Ryman's diverting experimental fiction contains 253 character sketches of 253 words each. Taking place on a Bakerloo-line train heading south toward the Elephant and Castle station, this interconnected series of vignettes fills a seven and a half minute journey with amazing richness. Ryman, whose novel Was... (more)

The Sappho Companion

by Margaret Reynolds

Born around 630 BC on the Greek Island of Lesbos, Sappho is the greatest lyrical poet of Greece, and one of the greatist artists of any age. Her poems exist only as fragments, and her life is not much more than speculation, but Sappho's pull-as writer, voice, and image-affects every era. Ovid, Baudelaire,and Jeanette Winterson are just a few of the writers who, each generation, claim Sappho as their own. Who is... (more)

Unnatural History (Doctor Who Series)

by Kate Orman, Jonathan Blum

A story featuring the eighth Doctor Who, Sam and Fitz. The Doctor regenerated in San Francisco at the turn of the millennium. When he returns there a few years later, it seems the catastrophic events that nearly sent the whole of Earth into cosmic oblivion have taken their toll.

Roofworld

by Christopher Fowler

High above London on the rooftops of the city lives a secret society of misfits governed by a bizarre code of honour. It is known to only a few people on the streets below, until a murderous battle for leadership breaks out. Robert and Rose, two innocent outsiders, are drawn into a twilight world.

Out of the Hive (Bugs)

by Paul Leonard

Convinced someone in the "Hive" is after SACROS, a box that can control or cripple satellites, Beckett almost loses his life. Beckett, and Ros, who runs a high-tech gadgets company, "Gizmos", and Ed, form the BUGS team and become drawn into the world of miniaturized weapons and customized viruses.

Alchemical Marriage of Alistair CromptonRobert Sheckley

Alchemical Marriage of Alistair Crompton

by Robert Sheckley

Made in Yugoslavia

by Vladimir Jokanovic?

Luka, Greg and Bili grew up together in the small town of Osijek in the former Yugoslavia, getting drunk together, playing in a mediocre band, fighting and flirting with their girlfriends. Now it is 1991. Bili has just returned from national service and it looks like the young men can get back to their crates of beer but as the creaking sounds of tanks reach earshot and neighbours hurry down to their basements in... (more)

Nineteen Eighty-four

RegenerationPat Barker

Regeneration

by Pat Barker

The Female ManJoanna Russ

The Female Man

by Joanna Russ

Orlando

by Virginia Woolf

Orlando has always been an outsider...His longing for passion, adventure and fulfilment takes him out of his own time. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England amd imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with the exotic Russian Princess Sasha? Or is the dashing explorer Shelmerdine the ideal man? And what form will Orlando take on the journey - a nobleman,... (more)

Super-Cannes: A Novel

by J. G. Ballard

Eden-Olympia is more than just a multinational business park, it is a virtual city-state in itself, built for the most elite high-tech industries. Isolated and secure, the residents lack nothing, yet one day, a doctor at the clinic goes on a suicidal shooting spree. Dr. Jane Sinclair is hired as his replacement, and her husband Paul uncovers the dangerous psychological vents that maintain Eden-Olympia’s... (more)

Queen City Jazz

by Kathleen Ann Goonan

In Verity's world, nanotech plagues decimated the population after an initial renaissance of utopian nanotech cities. Growing up on an isolated farm, her happy life changes course when Blaze, the only young man in the community and Verity's best friend, is shot. With Blaze's body wrapped in a nanotech cocoon, Verity sets off on a quest to the Enlivened City of Cincinnati. It is a place of legend, where huge... (more)

We - A Novel of the Future - In a New Translation By Mirra GinsburgYevgeny Zamyatin Mirra Ginsburg

We - A Novel of the Future - In a New Translation By Mirra Ginsburg

by Yevgeny Zamyatin Mirra Ginsburg

The long-suppressed Russian masterpiece that goes beyond "Brave New World" and "1984." "A bitter indictment against regimentation, conformity and the depersonalization of the individual.." - Thomas Lask, New York Times

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births,... (more)

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Tags: alt fic

by Mervyn Laurence Peake