Books like 'The Death-Ray'
Readers who enjoyed The Death-Ray by Daniel Clowes also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi super-powered coming-of-age satire dark literary-fiction
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Good Old Neon by David Foster Wallace
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings...Categorized as:
literary-fiction satire fiction mental-illness audiobook contemporary sci-fi classics -
![天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益]()
天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 7 ratings...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction fiction young-adult magic family contemporary children -
![The Blur by Minh Lê]()
The Blur by Minh Lê
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMeet a child with superhero-like abilities . . . and the parents who are racing to keep up with her in this sweetly funny picturebook about the blur of childhood, from the award-winning creators of Drawn Together.From the very beginning, there was something different about this child...An ultrasonic voice. Fantastically elastic limbs. Super-magnetic powers... -
![Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212, and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.One April, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel, by the government... -
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![The Kitchens of Canton by Isham Cook]()
The Kitchens of Canton by Isham Cook
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJeff Malmquist is unaccountably catapulted to the year 2060. He finds himself in New Gary, Indiana, a labor camp of one million Chicagoans, their identities hacked and incriminated as pedophiles through the collusion of a corrupt US Government, the Russian cybermafia, and China... -
![The Untethered by S.W. Southwick]()
The Untethered by S.W. Southwick
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhat Roble wants to create is illegal...if not impossible.And everyone seems determined to stop him from trying. But when a few unrepentant ladies join his fight to live free, the Las Vegas desert is going to light up like the 4th of July. ----------------------- "If you want a cross-breed between an Ayn Rand novel and a techno-thriller, this is the best you'll read...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction action-adventure adult book classics contemporary fiction -
![The Good Part by Sophie Cousens]()
The Good Part by Sophie Cousens
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsBy the New York Times bestselling author of Just Haven't Met You Yet, a downtrodden twenty-six-year-old wakes up to the life she's always wanted, but is it really a dream come true?At twenty-six, Lucy Young is tired. Tired of fetching coffees for senior TV producers, tired of going on disastrous dates, and definitely tired of living in a damp flat share with flatmates who never buy toilet roll...Categorized as:
literary-fiction satire romance contemporary fiction time-travel magical-realism womens-fiction -
![Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel]()
Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsVincent Spinetti is an archetypal tortured artist ? a sensitive young writer who falls victim to alienation, parental neglect, poverty, depression, alcoholism, illness, nervous breakdowns, and unrequited love... -
![Taken Over by Erica Stevens]()
Taken Over by Erica Stevens
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsLibrarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ASIN B0086Q7UNK.Devastated by the loss of Cade, struggling to survive in a world she no longer knows, Bethany is determined to exact revenge upon the aliens that have shredded her life, and the lives of her family and friends. Presented with an opportunity to uncover the secret that Dr... -
![Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj]()
Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDukaj od nowa skonfigurował klasyczną twardą fantastykę naukową.Mroczna, sugestywna, boleśnie realistyczna wizja społeczeństwa posthumanistycznego.Czarne oceany – przerażająca otchłań myśli ludzkiej.Nicolas Hunt kieruje tajnym projektem rządowym, badającym komercyjne zastosowania telepatii. Rezultaty tych badań zmienią nieodwracalnie nie tylko jego życie, ale także losy całego świata... -
![Transfer Window by Maria Gerhardt]()
Transfer Window by Maria Gerhardt
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTransfer Window is a utopian vision of the wealthy suburbs north of Copenhagen as a luxurious hospice. Everyone wears white. New-age nuns grow organic cannabis on the beach. The internet and music are forbidden, but you can swim in the icy sea in the winter... -
![Exo by Steven Gould]()
Exo by Steven Gould
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsCent can teleport. So can her parents, but they are the only people in the world who can. This is not as great as you might think it would be — sure, you can go shopping in Japan and then have tea in London, but it’s hard to keep a secret like that. And there are people, dangerous people, who work for governments and have guns, who want to make you do just this one thing for them...Categorized as:
coming-of-age super-powered action-adventure audiobook book contemporary fiction space -
![Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson]()
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsKevin Wilson's characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. "Grand Stand-In" is narrated by an employee of a Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider—a company that supplies "stand-ins" for families with deceased, ill, or just plain mean grandparents...Categorized as:
literary-fiction satire 21st-century anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction humor -
![Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders]()
Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsMacArthur genius and Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with a collection of short stories that make sense of our increasingly troubled world, his first since the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Tenth of DecemberThe "best short story writer in English" (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the... -
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![Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban]()
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the far distant future, the country laid waste by nuclear holocaust, twelve-year-old Riddley Walker tells his story in a language as fractured as the world in which he lives. As Riddley steps outside the confines of his small world, he finds himself caught up in intrigue and a frantic quest for power, desperately trying to make sense of things...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic book -
![Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.]()
Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophecy: a comet will obliterate life on Earth in thirty-six years...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark literary-fiction satire 21st-century alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
![A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess]()
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 84 ratingsTold by the central character, Alex, this brilliant, hilarious, and disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark literary-fiction satire 20th-century audiobook book british-isles -
![Zombie by Chuck Palahniuk]()
Zombie by Chuck Palahniuk
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn 'Zombies', the absurdity of both life and death are on full display as the best and brightest of a high school prep school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze - electronic shocks from cardiac defibrillators.Funny, caustic, bizarre, poignant - this story represents everything listeners have come to love and expect from Chuck Palahniuk.©2015 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2016 W.F. Howes Ltd... -
![How to Buy a Planet by D.A. Holdsworth]()
How to Buy a Planet by D.A. Holdsworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Earth has been sold to aliens. What could possibly go wrong?It’s the Year 2024. Drowning in debt following the pandemic and facing ruin, the world's leaders have taken the only logical decision.They’ve sold the planet... -
![We Have Lost The Chihuahuas by Paul Mathews]()
We Have Lost The Chihuahuas by Paul Mathews
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLondon, 2046. The British Republic has a new First Lady. She’s Californian, ‘in-your-face, for sure’ and she’s got big plans for a Buckingham Palace refurb. When her three Chihuahuas go missing, one man is determined to avoid getting dragged into it all. His name is Pond. Howie Pond – presidential spokesperson, retired secret agent and cat lover... -
![The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville]()
The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this genre-busting book from award-winning novelist Patrick Somerville characters, stories, and stray thoughts revolve around the "The Machine of Understanding Other People," the story of a Chicago man who is bequeathed a supernatural helmet that allows him to experience the inner worlds of those around him... -
![Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson, W Morgan Sheppard]()
Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson, W Morgan Sheppard
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn six masterly stories, Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal. “Nirvana" portrays a programmer, whose wife has a rare disease, finding solace in a digital simulacrum of the president of the United States... -
![Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLook at the Birdie is a collection of fourteen previously unpublished short stories from one of the most original writers in all of American fiction...Categorized as:
literary-fiction satire 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics contemporary -
![Tenth of December by George Saunders]()
Tenth of December by George Saunders
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 52 ratingsOne of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet... -
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![Physicists by Friedrich Dürrenmatt]()
Physicists by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThe Physicists is a provocative and darkly comic satire about life in modern times, by one of Europe’s foremost dramatists and author of the internationally celebrated The Visit.The world’s greatest physicist, Johann Wilhelm Möbius, is in a madhouse, haunted by recurring visions of King Solomon... -
![From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami]()
From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Fatherland, with Love is set in an alternative, dystopian present in which the dollar has collapsed and Japan's economy has fallen along with it. The North Korean government, sensing an opportunity, sends a fleet of rebels in the first land invasion that Japan has ever faced. Japan can't cope with the surprise onslaught of Operation From the Fatherland, with Love... -
![Dog Logic by Tom Strelich]()
Dog Logic by Tom Strelich
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIf "Dr. Strangelove" and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" got together and had a litter of puppies you'd get "Dog Logic", a duck-and-cover fable and love story. Funny, inflammatory, and weirdly propheticHertell Daggett is the divorced and damaged caretaker of a failing pet cemetery on the outskirts of Bakersfield, and he's just discovered a lost civilization... -
![A History of the Island by Eugene Vodolazkin]()
A History of the Island by Eugene Vodolazkin
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMonks devious and devout – and an age-defying royal pair – chronicle the history of their fictional island in this witty critique of Western civilization and history itself.Eugene Vodolazkin, internationally acclaimed novelist and scholar of medieval literature, returns with a satirical parable about European and Russian history, the myth of progress, and the futility of war... -
![Cagebird by Karin Lowachee]()
Cagebird by Karin Lowachee
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAt age four, Yuri Kirov watched his home colony destroyed by the alien enemy. By six,he was a wounded soul, fending for himself in a desolate refugee camp, and still a child when the pirates found him. Now 24, Yuri is a killer, a spy, a blackmailer, and a pirate captain doing life in prison... -
![Vapor by Amanda Filipacchi]()
Vapor by Amanda Filipacchi
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSoon to be a major motion picture directed by Neil LaBute and starring Renee Zellweger, this is a surreal love story from the author of Nude Men. Now in paperback, Amanda Filipacchi's quirky comic romance gives aspiring actress Anna Graham a makeover that no reader will ever forget... -
![The Sorrow Proper by Lindsey Drager]()
The Sorrow Proper by Lindsey Drager
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Sorrow Proper is a novel-length investigation of the anxiety that accompanies change. A group of aging librarians must decide whether to fight or flee from the end of print and the rise of electronic publications, while the parents of the young girl who died in front of the library struggle with their role in her loss... -
![How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton]()
How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings[i]Lazarus Dying[/i]: the man Jesus raised from the dead is alive and living in New York City. [i]The Fecalist[/i]: an author whose best selling work is his latest poop. [i]Christmas[/i]: she loves you, you love her, she has a gun in your mouth. Welcome to the award-winning short fiction of Owen Egerton... -
![The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor, Richard Dworsky]()
The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor, Richard Dworsky
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America's most beloved mythical towns, beset by a contagion of alarming candor. A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition...Categorized as:
literary-fiction satire adult audiobook book contemporary fiction historical-fiction -
![The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin]()
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter auditioning for the part as a singing geisha at a dubious bar, Lena and eleven other “lucky” girls are sent to work at a posh underground nightclub reserved exclusively for Russia’s upper-crust elite. They are to be a sideshow attraction to the rest of the club’s entertainment, and are billed as the “famous singing caryatids.” Things only get weirder from there... -
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![American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh]()
American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSaid Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain." His new collection of stories—some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Best American Short Stories—is set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised characters familiar to readers of Denis Johnson and George Saunders... -
![The Love Interest by Helen Comerford]()
The Love Interest by Helen Comerford
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA swoony, speculative and entirely electric YA debut with a humorous and satirical take on the conventions of the superhero-verse, for fans of Michelle Quach's Not Here To Be Liked and the Marvel Universe.Seventeen-year-old Jenna Ray has just been saved by the world's newest superhero, Blaze. And, in the eyes of the public, that means one thing: Jenna Ray has been cast as the Love Interest.No... -
![Spider Kiss by Harlan Ellison]()
Spider Kiss by Harlan Ellison
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHe claims he's not a fan of rock-and-roll, but somehow Harlan Ellison's seminal novel based on the career of Jerry Lee Lewis ended up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of the first -- and still one of the best -- dissections of the wildly destructive rock-and-roll lifestyle, Spider Kiss isn't about giant cockroaches that attack Detroit or space invaders that smell like chicken soup... -
![Povídky o vlasti by Dmitry Glukhovsky]()
Povídky o vlasti by Dmitry Glukhovsky
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRuská satira má hluboké kořeny. Již sám název této knihy je ironickým odkazem na podobnou sovětskou tradici malých, povětšinou oslavných próz. Autor však píše o zcela jiné vlasti, než byla ta sovětská, a jeho povídky mají leckdy podobu politických thrillerů. Z různých úhlů rentgenuje ruskou „demokracii“ z počátku 90...Categorized as:
literary-fiction satire adult alternate-history anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction -
![2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsThis Seedbox Classics edition of 2 B R 0 2 B or 2BR02B includes illustrations.2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction story that focuses on a society where individuals have an indefinite lifespan and the population of the United States is limited to forty million. In order for a new birth to take place, someone else must die... -
![Bombardiers by Po Bronson]()
Bombardiers by Po Bronson
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Should I Do with My Life?, Bombardiers is Po Bronson’s first novel, a devastating satire of the business world told through the lens of a crazed and colorful group of salespeople forced to push increasingly absurd financial products... -
![The Compound by Aisling Rawle]()
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsYou wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, along with nine other women.All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans.Soon, ten men will arrive on foot – if they all survive the journey... -
![While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Dave Eggers]()
While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Dave Eggers
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsForeword by Dave EggersSmart, whimsical, and often scathing, the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut influenced a generation of American writers—including Dave Eggers, author of this volume’s Foreword... -
![Long Division by Kiese Laymon]()
Long Division by Kiese Laymon
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsKiese Laymon’s debut novel is a Twain-esque exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in Post-Katrina Mississippi, written in a voice that’s alternately funny, lacerating, and wise. The book contains two interwoven stories...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction satire action-adventure audiobook black-mc book contemporary -
![Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy]()
Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOriginally published in 1970, Marge Piercy’s second novel follows the lives of four teenagers in a near-future society as they rebel against a military draft and “the system.” The occupation of Franklin High School begins, and with it, the open rebellion of America’s youth against their channeled, unrewarding lives and the self-serving, plastic society that directs them...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction adult book contemporary dystopia female-author feminism -
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![The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio]()
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn arresting collection of contemporary fiction at its best, these stories explore a vast range of subjects, from love and deception to war and the insidious power of class distinctions. However clearly spoken, in voices sophisticated, cunning, or na-ve, here is fiction that consistently defies our expectations... -
![The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: *Includes The In Persuasion Nation Collection by George Saunders]()
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: *Includes The In Persuasion Nation Collection by George Saunders
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBook Description Welcome to Inner Horner, a nation so small it can only accommodate one citizen at a time. The other six citizens must wait their turns in the Short-Term Residency Zone of the surrounding country of Outer Horner. It's a long-standing arrangement between the fantastical, not-exactly-human citizens of the two countries... -
![Wish by Peter Goldsworthy]()
Wish by Peter Goldsworthy
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJ.J. has always been more at home in Sign language than in spoken English. Recently divorced, he returns to school to teach Sign. His pupils include the foster parents of a beautiful and highly intelligent ape named Eliza. The author has also written "Maestro" and "Honk If You Are Jesus"... -
![The Petrified Ants by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
The Petrified Ants by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLook at the Birdie is a collection of fourteen previously unpublished short stories from one of the most original writers in all of American fiction...Categorized as:
literary-fiction satire 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics contemporary -
![Plastic by Scott Guild]()
Plastic by Scott Guild
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"A stunningly brilliant novel. One of those books that will follow you around, into your dreams and your daily life. You have never read anything like it... -
![The Cranes That Build The Cranes by Jeremy Dyson]()
The Cranes That Build The Cranes by Jeremy Dyson
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJeremy Dyson is a master of the macabre, of stories brimming with black humour and the promise of something sinister just around the corner. In this collection he explores the dark depths of the human condition, offering tales of death, disaster and - just occasionally - redemption...
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