The second list are books which, like the previous one, share the qualities found in BJB's work, but are in some respects clearly different. All are recommended.
The third list comprises of books I haven't read, but which again are in some manner related to BJB's ideas.
There is also a list of recommendations by Barry Bayley, as listed in the Interzone interview in 1990 and later in correspondence.
The final list includes links to various people influential to BJB's fiction; from Hermes Trismegistus to J.W. Dunne and beyond. Any ideas about this section in particular is welcomed.
I'll continue adding links here and later probably some notes/descriptions about individual books.
Alfred Bester: STARS MY DESTINATION (exuberance, space opera)
Samuel Delany: NOVA (space opera, arts, metaphysics, tarot)
Philip José Farmer: THE UNREASONING MASK (cosmology, metaphysics, space opera)
Charles L. Harness: THE PARADOX MEN (space opera, time paradoxes, cosmology) Charles L. Harness: RING OF RITORNEL (space opera, time, metaphysics) Charles L. Harness: THE ROSE (arts, post-human, exuberance) Cordwainer Smith: "Instrumentality of Mankind" Norman Spinrad: AGENT OF CHAOS (space opera, anarchism) Bruce Sterling: SCHISMATRIX (the works..)
Iain Banks: CONSIDER PHLEBAS, USE OF WEAPONS (space opera) Leigh Brackett: STARMEN OF LLYRDIS (space opera) Peter F. Hamilton: THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION, THE NEUTRONIUM ALCHEMIST (space opera) Colin Greenland: TAKE BACK PLENTY (space opera) M. John Harrison: THE CENTAURI DEVICE (space opera, new wave) Paul J. McAuley: ETERNAL LIGHT (metaphysics, cosmology, space opera) Rudy Rucker: SOFTWARE, WETWARE, FREEWARE (robots, exuberance) James H. Schmitz: WITCHES OF KARRES (space opera) John Sladek: TIK TOK, RODERICK, BUGS (robots, philosophy, satire)
Poul Anderson: HIGH CRUSADE (space opera) James Blish: THE TRIUMPH OF TIME (cosmology, space opera) Jorge Luis Borges: FICCIONES, EL ALEPH (metaphysics) Italo Calvino: LE COSMICOMICHE (cosmology, metaphysics) Edmond Hamilton: THE HAUNTED STARS, "Starwolf" -trilogy (space opera) Bob Shaw: SHIP OF STRANGERS (cosmology, space opera) E.E. 'Doc' Smith: "Lensman" -series Brian Stableford: "Dies Irae" -trilogy, "Dedalus" -series (space opera) Jack Vance: EMPHYRIO, LANGUAGES OF PAO A.E. Van Vogt: THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER, WEAPON MAKERS (space opera, cosmology)
Honoré Balzac: EUGENIE GRANDET, THE QUEST OF THE ABSOLUTE Norman Spinrad: THE VOID CAPTAIN'S TALE Brian Stableford: WALKING SHADOW John Varley: THE OPHIUCHI HOTLINE Ian Watson: GARDENS OF DELIGHT H.G. Wells: FIRST MEN IN THE MOON plus authors: William Burroughs, Phil Dick, Charles L. Harness, Olaf Stapledon, Bruce Sterling
Alchemy - the alchemy web site and virtual library. Massive database.
Georg Cantor - father of the Set Theory The Corpus Hermeticum W. G. Davies - mathematician J. W. Dunne - author of the Serial Universe and An Experiment with Time Principia Cybernetica - an excellent site. "PCP tries to tackle age-old philosophical questions with the help of the most recent cybernetic theories and technologies." Pythagoras
You can e-mail me suggestions.
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