Of all the alternate domain we ’re die to travel to , the greatest is that mythical elbow room containing every book that was never written . Here are the XII unfinished novels by science fiction ’s large authors , that we care we could read .
The Masks by Ray Bradbury
masquerade , myth and metaphor ” run an important part in much of Bradbury ’s work , claim Jonathan Eller and William F. Touponce in their Bradbury cogitation , The Life Of Fiction , and they trust Bradbury nonplus to the bottom of this compulsion in his never - finished novel called The Masks . Filled with figure of speech of carnivals , this forties novel would have been the purest distillation of Bradbury ’s obsession with magicians and legerdemain .
The Owl In Daylight by Philip K. Dick
When Dick die in 1982 , he was busy with The Owl in Daylight , which is think of to be touch on with indifferent extraterrestrial abducting a B - movie composer , artistic sensation , new form of sensory stimulus , an amusement park , or a sci - fi reboot of The Divine Comedy , reckon whom you ask . Dick never outline the plot , so it ’s hard to say . His wife Tessa bring out her version of his conception in 2009 , but her interpretation is for the most part her own study , and draws intake from Mozart ’s The Magic Flute .
Irontown Blues by John Varley
WeinterviewedVarley back in March 2008 , and he told us :
https://gizmodo.com/io9-talks-to-john-varley-about-climate-disaster-and-spa-365907
One of these days I hope to write a third novel in the Steel Beach , Golden Globe trilogy , entitled Irontown Blues . The reason I have n’t written it is that I do n’t yet know what ’s lead to materialise .
People have been waiting for this novel forever , and piffling is known about Varley ’s mind so far . Back in February , he saidit ’s “ third in line , ” after two other novels he ’s ferment on . “ If I write it , it would be about a cop , ” he toldXero magazine .
The pressure sensation of Time by Thomas M. Disch
A subsequence to Camp Concentration , about the pursuits of a society of humans become immortal through genetic revision because of a plague that swept through the world . A few steady mortals also hold out , hiding out in enclaves . Disch explicate :
For various reason , personal and impersonal , I never have back to work on “ Pressure ” , and now I see I wo n’t , alas . Since Camp Concentration ( which took 8 calendar month to pen ) I pull in I ca n’t afford to drop such a lot of time on a book that earns only a criterion sf progress ” . The personal reasons admit an acute affair with the poet Lee Harwood that last about six weeks . After Harwood pull up stakes him , Disch suffered several months of unanswered love life . Disch confess that much of The Pressure of Time was “ inspired by the pang of despised loved ” . Disch travelled around , visiting Ireland and Turkey , but suffered writers block . ineffectual to go on with his own work , he wrote novelisations of The Prisoner and Alfred the Great .
The other books in Octavia Butler ’s Fledgling series .
Butler died after fledgeling came out , but the Holy Writ ’s ending left most the great unwashed believing she intended to write at least one subsequence , if not many . I ’ve heard rumor she ’d made notes on a sequel , but ca n’t retrieve any confirmation of that online . Butler also had started a third novel in her Parable series , call Parable Of The Trickster , but was unable to finish it due to a seven - year bout of writers ’ mental block . ( Octavia Butler’sadviceon cover with writers ’ block ? “ flow in love . Why not ? You ’re already miserable . ” )
Voyages D’Etudes by Jules Verne
Verne wrote 50 page , and never finished the ease . The account book was rewritten by his son Michel as L’etonnante aventure de la mission Barsac , along with several other works inspired to greater or lesser point by his father ’s manuscripts . Esperanto partizan are peculiarly saddened that in so doing , Michel expunged all references to support for the nascent voice communication , of which Jules was a exponent .
Azathoth by H.P. Lovecraft .
Ia ! Hawkeye State ! Lovecraft started this novel in June 1922 , but only write a minor fragment , which was bring out afterh is expiry in the journal Leaves . consort to Wikipedia , he report it as “ a weird Eastern tale in the eighteenth one C manner ” and as a “ uncanny Vathek - corresponding novel . ” ( Vathek being an 18th century novel about Arabia . ) you’re able to read the fragment that he actually wrotehere . It start out quite stirringly , bemoaning our gray , citified , un - magical existence .
A Sense Of Time by Henry James
Yes , that Henry James . The “ Turn Of The Screw ” bozo . He started write this romance , about a unseasoned human race who discovers he can walk through vena portae into the past tense , in 1900 , but all the time - travel mechanics got too twist and throw him a concern . He abandoned it , only to give to work on it in 1914 , write another huge subdivision . In the novel , Ralph Pendrel travel back and take the place of his own ancestor , but then the woman he lie with realizes he ’s a time - traveler and pass water a great sacrifice to help him return to the nowadays .
The Plant by Stephen King
This was King ’s illustrious experiment , where he serialized a novel online , and you were supposed to give him $ 1 every sentence you downloaded a chapter . If the per centum of downloaders who paid $ 1 throw off below 75 percent , King threaten to lay off posting the chapters . Andeventually , that ’s what bechance . The already - post chapter have been removed from King ’s site . The refreshing isabouta paperback editor program who receives weird letters ( and odd photo ) from a wizard weirdo . The editor in chief sics the fuzz on the magician , who sends him a unknown flora in revenge .
The Dark Tower by C. S. Lewis
A account of interdimensional change of location including the nominal towboat ( which turn out to be a far - succeeding replica of the the bog - ugly Cambridge University Library ) , this was guess to be the original sequel to Out of the Silent Planet . It end short andsome people have accused it of being a counterfeit .
The Splendor And Misery Of Bodies , Of Cities by Samuel R. Delany
This continuation to Stars In My pouch Like Grains Of Sand may never really see the illumination of day . Weasked Delany about ita while back and he explained :
https://gizmodo.com/samuel-delany-answers-your-science-fiction-questions-5295779
I did write about 150 pages of it at some level . But a number of things had come up to undersell it . I ’ve explained it many , many times , and do n’t take care excuse it again . I was in a major relationship at that time , that kind of fueled the first volume , Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand . And that relationship break up , and that was the beginning of the Eighties , at the same metre the AIDS position number in .
And after that , Delany ’s view of the jocund residential area changed somewhat drastically .
The Salmon Of question by Douglas Adams
Adams was working on this book , a Dirk Gently novel , when he died , but he ’d decided his thought for it did n’t work for Gently . So he tried first turning it into a standalone novel , and then reworking it into a 6th Hitchhiker ’s Guide To The Galaxy instalment . The version which appears in the book of the same name does star Gently , and involves a customer who need to take him to find the back half of her kat . consort to Do n’t Panic , the book about Adams by Neil Gaiman ( with rescript and update by Guy Adams ) , the shard which appear in the book is in reality from several different rendering of Salmon which were on Adams ’ various hard drive . What we have is piece together from three files — Chapters 2 , 8 , 10 and 11 are from one file , Chapter 1 is from an earlier rough drawing , and Chapter 9 is Adams ’ last known part of writing . It ’s essentially a mish - mash , and an assembly of working banknote and fragmental stuff .
Like the novels we ’re discussing , this list is decidedly bare — what are the Book that were never discharge , for whatever reason , which you would dearly get laid to read ?
Additional reporting by Josh Snyder , Mary Ratliff and Cyriaque Lamar .
BooksJules VerneOctavia ButlerSamuel R. DelanyStephen King
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