I really love sci-fi novels and I read a lot of books. I read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson a while back and that book is particularly interesting to me. Rather than each chapter advancing the narrative of the story, there were occasional breaks where a chapter would have a list of semi-random words which just gave the vibe of what’s happening, or some history of a scene, or a recipe for how to build an asteroid.
There’s another book that I have heard of but neglected to write the name down, where the reader of the book is a character within the book, and the narrator speaks directly to you (but not a choose-your-adventure style book).
All of this got me interested in finding other books, preferably sci-fi or maybe fantasy, where the concept of being a book is played with and new ideas are tried. Any recommendations?
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brookes is a detailed fictional instruction manual. It’s sequel is World War Z which is closer to a normal book, but still has an odd structure of creating a world through interviews … and the The Zombie Survival Guide book exists within it.
WWZ is a banger!
It is at that :-)
Thanks for the suggestion. Should I read WWZ first?
As with so much in life, it’s best to read the manual first. It can get a little dry in places though, like any instruction manual, but I enjoyed all of it because I’m the sort of person who likes normal manuals, lol
The WWZ audiobook is really solid.
Did they get different people to record each story?
Yup! Alan Alda and Henry Rollins are the only 2 I can remember off the top of my head. Get the expanded version - the original was abridged, but the new one has all the content.
Oh fab, I’ll keep an eye out for it. It’s one of my favorite books :-)
WWZ is one of my all time favorite books. They should really make it into a movie. Or, even better, an HBO miniseries.
I dunno, I think maybe some things should just be left alone