most mind blowing/mind bending books?

[Toby Frost]

How about Report on Probability A by Brian Aldiss?

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Edge of the Knife by B.C. Beam Piper

 

[wam]

White Light by Rudy Rucker springs to mind, as does anything by Michael Marshall Smith, but especially Only Forward and Spares. His short fiction is also incredibly creative, try the collections What You Make It, and Everything You Need. One more example of very creative science fiction I would give is Hyperion and its sequels by Dan Simmons.

After the TV show of Intruders, I looked up the book in our local library. Despite the credit for Michael Marshall Smith on the end of the programme, the books are issued as Michael Marshall (no Smith) which was originally going to be just for the thrillers. Everything I've seen of his lately has had the Smith removed.

 

[althea]

Two books that really affected me are,The Wasp Factory,by Iain Banks and The Black Prism by Brent Weeks.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien Ive never read anything quite like this book.

 

[zaltys13]

After the TV show of Intruders, I looked up the book in our local library. Despite the credit for Michael Marshall Smith on the end of the programme, the books are issued as Michael Marshall (no Smith) which was originally going to be just for the thrillers. Everything I've seen of his lately has had the Smith removed.

Yeah I noticed that and thought it was odd. Although his novels as Michael Marshall are nominally thrillers, The Intruders, Bad Things, and We Are Here, all contain supernatural elements. His earlier science fiction material is still put out with Smith at the end of his name though, as are his short story collections. He has also written a YA novel called The Servants, again containing supernatural elements, under the name M.M. Smith.

No matter what name he writes under though all his work is worth reading and all of it is very, very weird.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Edge of the Knife by B.C. Beam Piper

The automated type predictor in Android is a pain in the ass.

psik

 

[Toby Frost]

I remember the short stories of Avram Davidson being pretty crazy too. And Ballard's short fiction can be very surreal, especially the earlier stories.

 

[Venusian Broon]

+ (a big) 1 on Olaf Stapledon's Star maker. In my opinion far better than First and last Men. In fact he summarises that whole book in a paragraph in Star maker. Despite being published in 1937 it is rammed full of the next 50 years in SF ideas. Sure some of the science is a bit squiffy and, well, the plot is erm... a bit threadbare. I had read loads of SF before getting hold of it in the 90s but even then this really did blow my mind. Every chapter just gets bigger and bigger.

C.S. Lewis apparently was appalled by it. But then I take that as a compliment from the pompous old fart. Also it's name-called in the remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which surely deserves a point.

 

[Nerds_feather]

The Peripheral by William Gibson is certainly mind-bending; not sure if it's mind-blowing, though.

 

[Nerds_feather]

The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard is the freakiest book I've ever read.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Demolished Man Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination Alfred bester
More than Human Theodore Sturgeon
The Dreaming Jewels Theodore Sturgeon

 

[BAYLOR]

Scop by Barry Malzberg

 

[BAYLOR]

The Land of Laughs Jonathan Carroll

 

[BAYLOR]

Rogue Moon Algis Budrys

 

[Michael F]

Anything by Azimov or William Gibson (except The difference Engine)

 

[reiver33]

Philip K Dick can be a wild ride - Through A Scanner, Darkly (for a sense of dislocation,distorted self-image and corrosive self-doubt)

William Gibson - Count Zero (I read this prior to Neuromancer)

And Michael Marshall Smith - Only Forward (of course)

 

[ddawson]

The first book I read by an author frequently has the most impact on me. Then I usually read everything else I can find by that author to better or worse results.

Examples:

Sea Horse in the Sky - Edmund Cooper
Radix - A. A. Attanasio
Quest for the Future - A. E. Van Vogt
The Sex Sphere - Rudy Rucker (Pretty sure it was the first of his I read)
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison (After having read Dangerous Visions)
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Grendel - John Champlain Gardner
The Killer Thing - Kate Wilhelm
Blood Sport - Robert F Jones
The Two Towers - J. R. R. Tolkien (For some reason I was confused at the start of it never having read The Fellowship or The Hobbit)
Our Friends from Frolix Eight - Philip K Dick
The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
Dune - Frank Herbert
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
2001 - A Space Odyssey - Arthur C Clark

I'd better quit here or will go on and on......

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Killer Thing - Kate Wilhelm

Nice choice, don't see that mentioned often.

psik

 

[BAYLOR]

Liege Killer by Christopher Heintz

The Killing Star by Charles Pellegreno and George Zebrowski

Darwinia Robert Charles Wilson