Very Best Speculative & Original Fiction of 2005
Discover the very best speculative and original fiction books of 2005! Explore top-rated, imaginative, and groundbreaking titles that defined the year in unique storytelling.
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Lord Vishnu's Love Handles
by Will Clarke
Psychically-gifted but tragically-shallow Travis Anderson milks his premonitions only to acquire an upper-middle-class lifestyle without having to make an effort. But recent visions threaten his yuppie contentment.
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The Heap
by H. P. Albarelli
A priest fleeing shadowy pursuers leaves behind a journal in a London flat. The journal contains the remarkable story of a group of street children who have established an egalitarian community in a large rubbish heap and tells what happens after they make a startling discovery that could radically alter the course of histroy. FIC000000
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Carnivore Diet
by Julia Slavin
With this story of a politician's wife who is desperately trying to hold her family together, Slavin has unleashed a hilarious and disturbing tale where the reach of fantasy is as long as the arm of the federal government. "Haunting and inventive."--"Harper's Bazaar."
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Oh Pure and Radiant Heart
by Lydia Millet
Oh Pure and Radiant Heart plucks the three scientists who were key to the invention of the atom bomb—Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard and Enrico Fermi—as they watch history's first mushroom cloud rise over the desert on July 16th, 1945...and places them down in modern-day Santa Fe. One by one, the scientists are spotted by a shy librarian who becomes convinced of their authenticity. Entranced, bewildered, overwhelmed by their significance as historical markers on the one hand, and their peculiar personalities on the other, she, to the dismay of her husband, devotes herself to them. Soon the scientists acquire a sugar daddy—a young pothead millionaire from Tokyo who bankrolls them. Heroes to some, lunatics or con artists to others, the scientists finally become messianic religious figureheads to fanatics, who believe Oppenheimer to be the Second Coming. As the ever-growing convoy traverses the country in a fleet of RV's on a pilgrimage to the UN, the scientists wrestle with the legacy of their invention and their growing celebrity, while Ann and her husband struggle with the strain on their marriage, a personal journey married to a history of thermonuclear weapons.
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The Traveler
by John Twelve Hawks
Their lives shaped by their father's role as a Traveler, an elite prophet able to attain pure enlightenment, Gabriel and Michael Corrigan become a target of the Tabulas, a ruthless cadre seeking world domination.
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Tattoo Girl
by Brooke Stevens
Warned that Emma may be in danger from whoever gave her the mysterious tattoos, Lucy goes in search of Emma's real identity, a quest that leads Lucy to a confrontation with the demons haunting her past.".