Parable of the Sower (1993) cemented Octavia Butler’s place as one of the best writers of speculative fiction in America. Shortly after publication of this novel, she was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the so-called “Genius Grant.” Parable of the Sower has proved sadly prophetic about the collapse of both the environment and society.
Matt Dinniman’s hilarious novel Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020) is the first in a series of novels starring Carl and Donut as they navigate a world catastrophe (emphasis on the “cat”) requiring them to survive multiple levels of a fiendishly designed gamer dungeon. Their peril is being streamed to an alien audience of billions. The alien version of Twitch, I guess. This is LitRPG at its funniest, especially considering how ill-equipped Carl is for combat. On the book cover, you see him in his boxers with the pink hearts, being chased down by a goblin about to flatten him. As for Donut. . .she’s a survivor.
China Miéville, one of the best writers in any genre I’ve ever read, published The Scar in 2002. It may be my favorite, but that’s a hard call. Miéville writes what has been called “New Weird” fiction. This novel is weird, all right. Also absolutely fascinating, part of a trilogy set in the same fantasy world. Some of the characters overlap from book to book, but they are not sequels.
Fantastes 
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