Feature: Conceptual Fiction

Conceptual Fiction is a regular feature, contributed by Ted Gioia, focusing on major works of fantasy, science fiction, magical realism and alternate history. Here you will find Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Audrey Niffenegger, Ray Bradbury, and dozens of other creative writers with a conceptual bent. These books are celebrated in recognition that literary experimentation with ways of conceptualizing reality has been as important as experimentation with language in creating fiction of lasting value. Dismissing these books as genre or escapist works has created a blind-spot in literary studies that this feature aims, in some small part, to rectify.

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Ted Gioia

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• Conceptual Fiction: Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber

  Fritz Leiber was a chess player, preacher, college teacher, champion fencer, Shakespearian actor...and, yes, a great storyteller.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Oct 25, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon

  Theodore Sturgeon has written a grand unclassifiable novel. Is it fantasy, horror, mystery or experimental fiction? You be the judge.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Oct 11, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

  Edwin Abbott's strange cult novel from 1884 is set in two dimensional space populated by squares, circles, triangles and lines.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Sep 09, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

  Are the main characters in Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human just social outcasts or the next stage in human evolution?

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Aug 15, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

  More than a half-century after C.S. Lewis wrote his Narnia stories, controversy still surrounds these popular tales.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jul 02, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

  In a book that is half novel and half puzzle, David Mitchell weaves together six very stylized and contrasting narratives.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jun 23, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

  Seven years before the Summer of Love, Robert Heinlein already had the vibe, as he shows in this cult novel.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jun 19, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke

  This lunar adventure combines the worst aspects of a mining disaster, a lost in space story and The Poseidon Adventure.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on May 31, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg

  Robert Silverberg's classic novel about a mind-reader losing his talent mirrors changes in the author's own life.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on May 23, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells

  H.G. Wells's science may be faulty in The First Men in the Moon, but his storytelling is first rate.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on May 21, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

  This is a mix of theology and technology: imagine Edith Hamilton's Mythology with much better weapons.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on May 08, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Round the Moon by Jules Verne

  This 1870 novel by Jules Verne about a lunar mission gone wrong is a nineteenth century version of Apollo 13.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Apr 24, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: From Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne

  In 1865, Jules Verne envisioned a lunar expedition that was surprisingly close to the later Apollo 11 mission

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Apr 24, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Solaris by Stanisław Lem

  With the possible exception of Spielberg's Jaws no story has made an ocean seem quite so disturbing as Lem's Solaris

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Apr 17, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

  Anthony Burgess feared his novel was too traditionally moralistic, but I doubt that will be your reaction to A Clockwork Orange.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Mar 30, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

  There may be stories of interplanetary conflict with better special effects, but they don't come any smarter than this Heinlein classic.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Mar 24, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Nightwings by Robert Silverberg

  A fire had destroyed Robert Silverberg's home, and to raise money quickly he churned out a masterwork of conceptual fiction.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Mar 19, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

  Of all the dystopian novels of the post-WWII years, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 may be the most relevant to our current situation.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Feb 19, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

  The most accurate prediction in Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man was its visionary anticipation of head-to-toe tattoos.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Feb 17, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

  In Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods,' the pagan deities decide that they deserve a little more respect in the New World.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Feb 11, 2009