94 Books Like Tales of the Klondyke

I dearly loved Isaac Asimov's vision of the robot. Although the idea of a mechanical man has entertained audiences for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, Asimov dealt with the reality of how humans will coexist with our intelligent creations. 

Prior to Asimov's three laws we had always thought of robots delivering evil as surrogates of their evil masters. And always with human intent. Evil emperors trying to rule the world is typical. But Asimov showed us the danger of machines that are their own masters. 

Machine learning and reasoning are now a reality different from anything humans can conceive. We are limited in our comprehension of machines by our biology and evolutionary context. But they are not limited in their comprehension of us or themselves. Just ask AlphaGo move 37. I am certain Asimov's three laws will never be enough to ensure our survival in a world where we… show more.

Known best for his Waverly novels as well as Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, Sir Walter wrote many of the greatest short tales ever told. “The Highland Widow” is perhaps the greatest short tale ever. A subdued Scotsman living in a foreign London (at that time) and the foremost writer of his time he railed against our English overlords whilst pragmatically trying to maintain the status quo. (The letters of Malachi Malagrowther are a good example, marvellous reading, where he impugns the bank of England with great wit and Scalding rhetoric.)

He gave birth to many volumes of short tales, many under Pseudonyms (such as Malachi Malagrowther) as the English authorities were aware of his influence over the populace of London and his gift for romanticising the “Highland gentleman”. As a writer, he was unsurpassed in his time both in terms of sales by volume and in the quality of… show more.

Mr. Lindqvist is a Swedish author that came to worldwide notice with his novel Let the Right One In and has written many great novels since then. He is not normally a short story author, nor does he particularly enjoy reading short tales, so this is a strange choice for me but Let the Old Dreams Die is so dreadfully different from other recent horror writers that I felt I had to include it here. To date, it is the only book of short tales that Mr. Lindqvist has written. There is a zombie tale (and how many of them have appeared over the years) but should zombies have citizenship? How should the health service care for them? Is it really their fault that they wish to eat people? Can we happily live together?

There is little that has not been covered before in Mr. Lindqvist’s tales but every story… show more.

Despite the author's name on the cover, this book was written by Karen Blixen, who wrote under different names depending upon the country she wished to sell to or where she was living at the time. Probably best known as the author of Out of Africa and the wonderful film it engendered she also wrote many “Gothic” tales including those gathered in this small volume. Many imagine Wilde’s “Dorian”, Stoker’s “Dracula”, Stephenson’s “Dr. Jekyll”, or even Brecht’s “Threepenny novel” as the ultimate gothic tale but I can assure you that Baroness Blixen far outshone each of the above with her wondrous tales. Only Mary Shelley I think, can vie with her for the queen of gothic dark majesty.

The Dreaming Child surpasses even M R James' take on the story which is also wonderful. “The Sailor Boys’ tale” is also horrible and wonderful at the same time. Baroness Blixen also… show more.

Kathryn Sutherland is a professor at Oxford, but that doesn’t mean her writing is dry and dusty. I find her one of the best guides for why Jane Austen is such an enduring success. She’s written a few books about Austen.

I chose this one because it explains where Austen fits in cultural history: what books she read and how she has influenced writers, dramatists, filmmakers, and everyone else ever since. It also tells the story of how her novels came into being, physically–as manuscripts and as printed books.

Similar to The Trojan War Museum, these stories are tonally more in synch (after all, with a title like that, it’s hard to overstate the role attitude plays in these), but also like Trojan War Museum, it’s a wonderful collection that shows how absolutely not-repetitive an attitude can feel when its voices are given such specific and niche jargons for each story, such interesting and far-flung locales and, such wacky and hopeless situations for its characters to overcome.

Jim Shepard is a must read for anyone interested in writing against the adage: “write what you know”. Also, the story “Zero Meter Diving Team” is one of my all time favorites.

If you want to know what Kafka’s The Trial would have been like without a sense of humor, try reading Aeschylus. Though this ancient Greek tragedian does not aim for laughs (and does not get any!) his depiction of the furies of conscience has an elemental power and purity like a Beethoven motif or a Picasso masterpiece. The Eumenides may well be the first-ever courtroom drama, with Orestes on trial for killing his mother Clytemnestra. Aeschylus goes straight at the most difficult of human emotions—guilt—and like Sophocles, he explores it specifically in a family context. Who, after all, makes us more guilty than our parents? 

My journey to specialising in gender and revenge in ancient Athens began when I read this trilogy of tragedies by Aeschylus in the original ancient Greek. These plays captivated me because of their stunningly powerful and breathtakingly beautiful use of imagery and language.

The characters are equally striking, especially the clever and determined queen Clytemnestra, a ruthless and duplicitous killer who murders her husband in the bath. In turn, her son Orestes is faced with the dreadful prospect of killing his own mother to avenge the death of his father. Performing matricide brings forth the terrifying Erinyes, goddesses of vengeance, who demand that Orestes pay the price.

The powerful female characters and the dilemmas of the revenge plot are what make this trilogy one I return to time and time again.

Beginning, middle, and an end—what writer doesn’t know about these three concepts? Well, Aristotle is the guy who wrote about these ideas in his book, and thousands of years later we’re still using them and thinking about them.

The foundations of modern literature and theater rest on this book and every writer should be familiar with its ideas and concepts. Story is story, and Aristotle started the ball rolling for everyone who is interested in storytelling.

This is an expansive treatment of the intellectual and cultural ramifications of the bilateral mind from ancient times to the present. The dominance of the analytic left hemisphere (the “emissary”), McGilchrist fears, threatens to usurp its experience-grounded “master” – to the detriment of human culture.

While The Master and His Emissary and The Origin of Consciousness cover similar topics, it is interesting and important to note that there are areas where their perspectives complement each other and those where they differ, such as their accounts of schizophrenia. I still find myself vacillating between the two. I sometimes wonder whether my indecision may itself be the result of my own hemispheric split.