-
The Book of Strange New Things
Michel Faber
Set on a dusty planet where only one plant grows, only one animal lives, and the humanoid inhabitants have faces that looks like fetuses. Oh, and the rain is sentient (or is it?).
-
Geek Love
Katherine Dunn
Set in a circus touring across the backwaters of the U.S., Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene.
-
Sphere
Michael Crichton
Set in a deep-sea habitat at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. A team of American scientists discover a spaceship undamaged by its fall from the sky—and containing a terrifying and destructive force that must be controlled at all costs.
-
The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fforde
Set in Great Britain, circa 1985. But here, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. It’s a bibliophile’s dream.
-
Dune
Frank Herbert
Set on Arrakis, a desert planet with no natural precipitation. It’s “His Imperial Majesty’s Desert Botanical Testing Station” before the discovery of melange, and the only natural source of it in the universe.
-
The Martian
Andy Weir
Set on Mars, but it’s not the Mars you think you know. Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
-
The Unconsoled
Kazuo Ishiguro
Set in a nameless Central European city where Ryder, a renowned pianist, has come to give the most important performance of his life. Instead, he finds himself diverted on a series of cryptic and infuriating errands that nevertheless provide him with vital clues to his own past.
-
Last Night at the Lobster
Stewart O'Nan
Set in a Red Lobster perched in the far corner of a rundown New England mall. The restaurant hasn’t been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug, but manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift with a near-mutinous staff.
When we think of books set in really weird places, science fiction and fantasy come to mind. Narnia and Middle Earth, Hogwarts and Westeros. But we wanted to share books that might be entirely new to you. How about a novel set entirely on the last day of business at a Connecticut Red Lobster? Or a story that takes place on a planet with sentient rain? These settings prove to be more than just places—they’re almost characters themselves, in how they shape the story and sometimes change along the way.
Featured Image: @bg7019/Twenty20