John's comments
(member since Jan 06, 2009)
John's comments from the Great Novellas group.
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In the sci-fi bucket, I really enjoyed the first two novellas in Geoff Ryman's Unconquered Countries (the last two are worth reading also), and J. G. Ballard's "The Ultimate City," which unfortunately can only be found in his Low Flying Aircraft collection from 1978. Also, I know how you feel about Gene Wolfe, but I found his novella "The Ziggurat," in his Strange Travellers collection, one of the most frightening sci-fi horror stories I've ever read (and the prose is pretty clear & straight forward, unlike in his New Sun novels). The three novellas in Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus are somewhat more conceptual but I also found them to be pretty thrilling reads.
On the border between science fiction fantasy and horror is China Mieville's novella "The Tain" in his Looking for Jake collection.
As for horror, I really enjoyed Peter Straub's Pork Pie Hat, which draws heavily on another truly awesome horror novella, Machen's Great God Pan.
Finally, in the general/mainstream lit category, I'd recommend Simon Leys's The Death of Napoleon.
I hope there is something here that might interest you. Good luck!
