Authors that write books that are a bit different/unusual

[Ibrinar]

Sometimes I read books that to me seem a bit outside the norm. I don't know how to best describe it of course two different authors are different from each other and different books have different plots and all. But still there is something nebular I consider the norm, which of course is influenced by what I read normally. I guess I will just hope people will intuit my meaning. Anyway while different isn't necessarily good I still enjoy the added variety so I decided to make a thread about that.

I guess I should begin, I will just add a few I remember atm.
The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart qualifies I suppose because I have trouble finding anything quite like it. Also it is good so I can recommend it.

Then hmm. The rather obscure indie author L. Eschedor I don't even know how I found them (strongly suspect it is a he), I read Ten Days of Embarrassing Changes first and then 100 point heroes I think. The book have something well anime but it feels like they actually put thought into it, which I miss in many LN or manga. Also pretty sure some of the recurring stuff in their books are their fetishes which are part of why I won't recommend this author (though they don't bother me) but are probably part of why I consider the books a bit different.

Hmm I think P.S. Powers also qualified though I can't remember why or which book so I probably should just delete this passage.

Well I will think some more about books that qualify, I am bad at remembering such things on demand.

[GloatingSwine]

How unusual do you want?

Thomas Pynchon is pretty unusual. So is Brian Catling. Mark Z Danielewski's House of Leaves.

[The Glyphstone]

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station is the first thing that came to mind when I saw the thread title.

[Ibrinar]

How unusual do you want?

Thomas Pynchon is pretty unusual. So is Brian Catling. Mark Z Danielewski's House of Leaves.

Don't know the others but personally I am not sure whether I even consider House of leaves different. It is a deliberate non standard narration style and thus kinda expected for what it is, so is it even in the same category? I would probably just group it as artsy. But yeah of course books that set out to be different still belong in the thread.

[The Fury]

Jeff Vandermeer? The Southern Reach Trilogy had an almost Lovecraftian feel to it, while Borne is something of a post-apocalypse story about scavengers in a world with bizarre biotech and a colossal flying bear.

[Knaight]

Intuiting your meaning would be much easier if we knew what you read normally. That said, some guesswork from you being on the forum, the three listed works, the passing mention of anime/manga, etc.:

• You read a lot of genre fiction, probably more on the sci-fi/fantasy ends than the mystery/romance ends.
• You've also read a decent amount of literary fiction, for school if nothing else.
• The stuff you read is mostly written in English, and the rest translated to English.
• The majority of what you read is from American, Canadian, and British authors.

If that list is wrong my speculation is shot to pieces. That said, working within speculation - what writers write has a few major influences. Writers are influenced by their culture generally, and that tends to come across in the writing. Writers are also influenced by how other writers write, and thus by what writing they read; this tends to lead to linguistic and genre groupings. These two factors create a bubble of sorts, and while there is weird experimental stuff produced from within that bubble leaving the bubble entirely is often the best way to find odd stuff. That means either other cultures or independent countercultures, and it also means niche genres at the fringes of something bigger (New Weird and Magical Realism instead of fantasy, for instance). Older classics that didn't have a lot of influence can also work.

I'm going to try and stick to works major enough that they'll be easy to find, instead of looking for the really obscure - if your public library is any good it should have most of these, and at least one can be found in the typical university library. I'm also sticking to only one book per author, though every author on the list has other books that are also both good and weird. Still, there's stuff here likely outside of your norm.

So, recommendations:

• The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
• A Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Embassytown, China Mielville
• The Parable of the Talent, Octavia Butler
• Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor
• The Shipbreakers, Paolo Bacigalupi
• Radiance, Catherynne M. Valente