Dhalgren

Author: Samuel R. Delany

NOTE: THIS IS #26 on the TOP 100 LIST. The first 1-25 entries are found on THE TOP 25 BEST SCIENCE FICTION LIST. Dhalgren is one of the peculiarities of science fiction, a novel that is insistently experimental in form and content, pushing the genre in direction to which it is normally resistant, yet it was a best seller almost from the moment it was published, has remained very popular ever since, and regularly appears on lists of the best science fiction. It remains a novel that people scratch their heads over (to this day, no one is quite sure exactly what the title refers to), yet it is a novel that people return to again and again.The setting is Bellona, a Midwestern city that has somehow become cut off from consensus reality, a place where strange things happen. At one point there are two moons in the sky, at another the sun apparently fills half the horizon, and time does not follow a regular or consistent pattern. A young man who may or may not have escaped from a mental hospital and who does not even remember his own name, enters the city. There he joins the city's down and outs, joins a gang that wears projection devices to make them appear like massive animals, and becomes an acclaimed poet.But the novel opens in mid-sentence and ends in mid-sentence, suggesting everything is circular. There are hints that what we are reading is taken from somebody else's notebook that the kid cannibalises for his own poems. And echoes of the Greek myths keep breaking through amid the violence and explicit sex. It's an extraordinary novel that will keep you guessing and keep you enthralled. Why It Made the ListThis is a book you will either love or hate. Harlan Ellison threw it against the wall; Theodore Sturgeon called it a literary landmark. The one thing you cannot do is ignore it. This is, quite simply, one of the most important novels in the history of science fiction.Alternative ChoiceAn equal alternative choice for #26 on the Top 100 is Nova.Nova is a roller-coaster of a space opera that was one of the most important precursors of cyberpunk. It's got it all: the space jockeys are plugged directly in to their computers, they use drugs, and even use the tarot; all of which found their way into cyberpunk (and William Gibson included several very specific references to the novel in Neuromancer). It's the story of a spaceship captain who gathers together a crew of misfits in a race to harvest a substance that will change the balance of power in the galaxy, it's also a story that very closely follows the model of the Quest for the Holy Grail.

Similar Recommendations

Delany has written a bunch of amazing stuff (and also, frankly, a bunch of stuff you probably don't want to bother with). But here are some you really don't want to miss, including our Alternative choice.

Nova as suggested is our Alternative Choice for this position. If you've read Dhagren, read THIS.

Babel-17, which won the Nebula Award, is the story of glamorous spaceship captain Rydra Wong who is on the trail of the enemy code when she realises that it is actually a new language, one that can actually change the way you think, and she finds herself turning into a traitor.

The Einstein Intersection, which also won the Nebula Award, is a haunting story of an Earth in which humans have died out, but a race of aliens have taken on human form and play out mythic roles such as Billy the Kid, Orpheus and Ringo Starr, in an attempt to understand what humans were like.