Recommend me weird fiction books, please!

a month ago by Atomo to c/books

Enjoy weird fiction overall, sci-fi and "horror" (in a very general sense). I like some Lovecraft, VanderMeers, Ballard, China Miéville, Samanta Schweblin, late William Gibson, Mariana Enríquez... what recent books or writers caught your eye that may loosely fit the term or are similar to works of the above authors? Can be in English, Portuguese or Spanish.

NaibofTabr 16 points a month ago
  • Self-Reference Engine by Toh Enjoe - this one stretches the limits of what a novel even is, it's not like anything else I've ever read

  • The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts - the inhabitants of a generation ship rebel against the controlling computer to take charge of their lives

  • Transfinite Man by Colin Kapp - starts like a cloak-and-dagger detective novel, almost tropey, then goes off the rails into speculative science fiction

  • Ubik by Philip K. Dick - a classic of surrealism, often referenced directly and indirectly by other works

  • Permutation City by Greg Egan - ultimately an exploration of self-determination and personal trauma in a digital world - who do we become, if we have the freedom to be and do anything?

  • The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson - in my opinion the most compelling of Sanderson's work

  • Einstein's Bridge - a fictional exploration of the Einstein-Rosen bridge set in a timeline where the Superconducting Super Collider was not cancelled

  • Unflattening by Nick Sousanis - philosophy in a graphic novel, an exploration of identity and self-knowledge

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SamuraiBeandog 5 points a month ago

The science in Permutation City is truly mind-warping, if you really try to wrap your head around it. One of my favourite books.

Egan's short story collection Axiomatic is full of heavy concept scifi in a similar vein to it.

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NaibofTabr 2 points a month ago

Yeah, knowing a fair bit about the way computers actually work at the hardware level, some of the details of how the virtual world functions are hand-wavy and kind of magic-disguised-as-technology. But Egan makes more of an effort to try to explain how the simulation works than most other fiction that describes similar virtual worlds - and ultimately the crux of the story is how people behave in a world of their own making.

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Sybilvane 4 points a month ago

You're the only other person I've ever encountered who believes the emperor's soul to be Sanderson's best work. I really do think he thrives with the short story / novella length fiction in general, and it's a shame he's always going for the opposite. Emperor's soul crams so much depth into such a compelling little story, I can't believe how often it's overlooked.

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NaibofTabr 3 points a month ago

I enjoy Sanderson's writing, his fantasy work is good. I think the brilliance of it is the consistent, expansive world-building that extends across his book series, which he's really good at. I'm not knocking his other work at all.

But as a single work unto itself, I think The Emperor's Soul is really a perfect story. The ideas presented at the beginning of the book are masterfully executed by the end.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

that's a lot! thanks for all these references!

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CADmonkey 1 point a month ago

I'm commenting so I may come back to this later.

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queerlilhayseed 13 points a month ago

I think this is a rather cliche answer but since no one's mentioned him yet I'll put in a plug for Phillip K. Dick. I don't think I've ever encountered weirdness done as well as he does it. My favorites are Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but he has a lot of books and as far as I can tell, they're all weird af.

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wintermute 8 points a month ago

+1 for Philip K. Dick. My favorites are probably Counter-clock World and A Scanner Darkly

Another one that wasn’t mentioned yet is Stanisław Lem. The Futurological Congress totally blew my mind.

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queerlilhayseed 3 points a month ago

Oh, I actually forgot about A Scanner Darkly! I think that was the first PKD novel I ever read. Gonna have to give it another read. I don't remember it all that well but I distinctly remember how I felt at the end of it, which was weirded the hell out.

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wintermute 3 points a month ago

And the movie is very good too!!

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atomo 1 point a month ago

read most of Phillip K. Dick in my teens. Need to go back to some of these, though

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lemmyng 8 points a month ago

or Spanish

Borges, if you haven't read any of his works yet.

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atomo 4 points a month ago

Love Borges since late teens, actually... with Poe the author that open my curiosity to such mode/mood of literature.

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karlhungus 6 points a month ago

Kelly Link's short stories are weird

The first story is often not that weird, but she is fantastic at magical realism. They aren't scary though. I recall for instance one story being about a cannon.

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atomo 2 points a month ago

someone mentioned Kelly Link to me the other day as "essential" ... i'll surely be looking it.

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karlhungus 3 points a month ago

The first story in magic for beginners (the one about the library, i think it's the title story) is one of my favourite stories ever.

Since i mentioned short stories, If you like short stories get your hands on all the Ted Chiang you can (not anything like kelly link, but I think of him as the Chopin of short sci-fi.

Since i'm on a roll you may like "there is no antimemetics division" which is a little horror-sih may also be up your alley.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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atomo 1 point a month ago
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isleepinahammock 6 points a month ago

Ever read Blindsight by Peter Watts?

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atomo 1 point a month ago

keep getting references to Watts's book, but no

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isleepinahammock 1 point a month ago

It's a good read. It taught me about the actual real concept of blindsight., seeing without perceiving.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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moonlight 5 points a month ago

I haven't read those authors so I'm not sure if it's the same type of weird, but I recently read Hyperion which is both weird and good.

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atomo 2 points a month ago

👍

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atomo 5 points a month ago

checked Hiron Ennes, @AbouBenAdhem seems really interesting!

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Hasherm0n 5 points a month ago

Gideon the ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Escapeology by Ren Warom

Weaveworld by Clive Barker

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atomo 2 points a month ago

👍

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dogslayeggs 4 points a month ago

It's well-known and well-studied, but also infamous as a book few people ever actually finish because it is so weird: Gravity's Rainbow.

I finished it. I'm not sure what I gained by reading it, outside of having a better understanding of what an acid trip might feel like. Very weird.

Other mainstream but weird recommendations: Mexican Gothic (highly recommend this) and A Night in the Lonesome October

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oat 3 points a month ago

Hated hated hated this book. Not to discourage others from reading it, just seconding the sentiment that it's a book few people finish.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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user_name 4 points a month ago

Asking around gave me this shortlist of suggestions:

  • Agustina Bazterrica (in Spanish)
  • Suzan Palumbo’s short fiction collection Skin Thief
  • Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin’s Wax & Wane
  • Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad
  • Kev Lambert’s You Will Love What You Have Killed
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atomo 1 point a month ago

💚

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slazer2au 3 points a month ago

Beyond the Aquila Rift.

Bunch of short stories 2 of which were made into the love death and robots series.

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atomo 2 points a month ago

thanks!

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Memnochian 3 points a month ago

House of leaves is my all time favourite mindfuck horror literature. I just recommend going hard copy over ebook as the formatting is super important. I can't really describe it except to say I can see how Backrooms could be inspired by it.

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jtrek 1 point a month ago

I just reread house of leaves. It's very good.

The first time I read it, it was right after taking like Theory & Criticism 400 in college, so the academic prose seemed just normal. I lent it to a friend who hasn't read anything more advanced than Harry Potter in decades, and it really gave her brain a workout.

It's worth it. The story is fascinating and it's a good mental workout.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

sounds great!

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ChonkyOwlbear 3 points a month ago

Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson.

The story follows Hiro Protagonist—a pizza delivery driver in a fractured, hyper-capitalized future reality and an elite hacker/swordfighter in the virtual "Metaverse".

If you like that, his other books are fantastic, especially Cryptonomicon, Anathem, and Diamond Age.

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SamuraiBeandog 6 points a month ago

It's a great novel but I wouldn't call it "weird"?

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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Bebop 3 points a month ago

Leguin - City of Illusions …and all her other books. Check out old school The Machine Stops E.M. Forster. And Ministry for the Future- Kim Stanley Robinson and all of his other books.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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Okokimup 3 points a month ago

Imajica by Clive Barker

Teleportasm by Joshua Millican

Air by Geoff Ryman

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan (go in blind and stick with it)

14 by Peter Clines

The Hike by Drew Magary

Break the Bodies, Haunting the Bones By Micah Dean Hicks

Where They Wait by Scott Carson

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atomo 1 point a month ago
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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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AccoSpoot1 3 points a month ago

I read a lot of anthologies, one I read recently was Dark Fantasies, which was a collection of folk, domestic and urban horror, that was pretty strange and scary, worth picking up if you find it.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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MagnificentSteiner 3 points a month ago

Ack-Ack Macaque is pretty weird.

If you like it, there are 2 more books (I haven't read the 3rd yet).

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atomo 3 points a month ago

😱

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cnoguera 2 points a month ago

I can only recommend the books of Nick Harkaway, very China Miéville-like. I started with the Gone Away world. In Spanish I recently read 'te di ojos y miraste las tinieblas' by Solà. 'El último día de la vida anterior' by Andrés Barba also gave me some Mariana Enríquez vibes. Finally, 'the seven moons of Maali Almeida' (this was nominated for the Booker prize iirc) was also a blast, made me think of Pedro Páramo at times.

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atomo 2 points a month ago

💚 Andrés Barba, Nick Harkaway... so many new names! Thanks

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shadshack 2 points a month ago

John Dies at the End was a wonderfully weird, semi-horror book I read in high school. Wikipedia describes it as comic Lovecraftian horror. Perfectly tasteless while also having really interesting plot hooks. I still think about that book even now, 15 years later. There's also a movie adaptation but they cut so much it's almost a completely different story.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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kip 2 points a month ago path: 0 24884761, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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Sybilvane 2 points a month ago

I haven't seen it mentioned yet so I'll throw in my rec: the spear cuts through water. You know how they say you need to know the rules to break the rules? This book is a masterclass in that. It does so many things that novels simply aren't supposed to... And the execution is flawless. The story is compelling, but I was most engaged with the way it was written. It felt like nothing else I've ever encountered - not because the ideas were new (nesting narratives, shifts in perspective, genre twists, etc) but because I've never seen so much of it executed so well together.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

seems amazing!

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salvaria 2 points a month ago

My all-time favorite novel is Blindness by Jose Saramago. I have only read it in English, but it was originally published in Portuguese as "Ensaio sobre a cegueira".

From Wikipedia: "It centers on an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in a nonspecific city, and follows multiple unnamed characters as they navigate the social breakdown that swiftly follows."

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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dkppunk 2 points a month ago

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Super weird and fucked up SciFi and really good

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deadbeef79000 2 points a month ago

Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory and then all his other works.

Iain M. Banks if you're looking for this SciFi works.

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atomo 2 points a month ago

been curious about all is works, but never tried to read them... i'll have a go soon

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blueduck 2 points a month ago

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil was a lot of fun.

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osanna 2 points a month ago

I have not read those authors, but i really enjoyed Staircase in the Woods, by Chuck Wendig. It was an enthralling read.

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Hazel 2 points a month ago

If you just want plain weird, George Saunders was pretty weird, but haven't read much of his.

I really like Izumi Suzuki's work, which gets pretty weird also, Gibson-esque I think.

I also love Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series, weird in many ways but not sure in the way you mean.

Exordia comes to mind also, though I didn't enjoy it that much.

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Wren 2 points a month ago

The Pandora Sequence by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom. Some of the weirdest shit I've ever read, especially in The Jesus Incident where - ::: spoiler spoiler: Jesus throws his enemies in a mutant sex dungeon to teach them a lesson in humility. :::

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atomo 2 points a month ago

Frank Herbert

👍

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BigTuffAl 2 points a month ago path: 0 24882955, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
atomo 2 points a month ago

👍

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StickyDango 2 points a month ago

I don't know any of the mentioned authors, but Blindboy Boatclub comes to mind instantly. He writes short stories and some of them can be really weird and some more like horror. I think he's got three books out now.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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AbouBenAdhem 2 points a month ago

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes. Very reminiscent of Miéville and VanderMeer.

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misericordiae 1 point a month ago

I came in to recommend Leech, their first book, but Works of Vermin is good, too!

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RBWells 2 points a month ago

For horror - Kathe Koja

I also think you would like How to Lose the Time War, not horror but trippy weird and so great.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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Yankee_Self_Loader 1 point a month ago

I’d give “Still Lost: Tales from 2080” by Sam Miller a shot. It’s not too incredibly weird but is just off beat enough to be outside the norm and utterly delightful

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EveVentually 1 point a month ago

It's hard to go wrong with Jeremy C. Shipp. I loved Vacation but it's hard to get ahold of at the moment. Their most recent work is The Merry Dredgers which I haven't read yet but looks fantastic.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

👍

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manateemilitia 1 point a month ago

Thomas Ligotti and Shirley Jackson

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atomo 2 points a month ago

love Shirley Jackson, never read Ligotti

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Reveneight 1 point a month ago

The Laundry Files by Charles Stross are explicitly Lovecraftian and somewhat weird, though not as weird as any I've read by China Miéville. I also recommend one of Charles Stross' short stories called A Colder War.

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oat 1 point a month ago

Have you read Anathem by Neal Stephenson? It’s got great world building and is pretty weird sci-fi but definitely not “horror” in any sense of the word so may not be exactly what you’re looking for. Fun read though.

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atomo 1 point a month ago

Haven't read any Stephenson yet, no. Thanks

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SamuraiBeandog 1 point a month ago

The Vorrh by Brian Catling. Very strange, dark historical fantasy set in colonial Africa. Exquisite, poetic prose and powerful imagery, one of my favourite books in recent memory.

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atomo 2 points a month ago

sounds great!

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Davel23 1 point a month ago

I recently read Carrier Wave by Robert Brockway. It's strongly inspired by World War Z and King's The Stand, and while neither of those two are particularly weird this one adds its own twist on a not-quite-zombie apocalypse.

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lulungomeena_burbclave 1 point a month ago

Ever read anything by Joe R. Lansdale?

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atomo 1 point a month ago

No

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fonix232 0 points a month ago

Not weird in its theme but more in its execution, the entirety of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

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SamuraiBeandog 8 points a month ago

DCC is the opposite of weird fiction, it is incredibly formulaic and tropey.

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atomo 2 points a month ago

👍

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plantfanatic 0 points a month ago

DCC isn’t weird, if it is, every single video game is.

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