10 SF and Fantasy Debuts of Note and a Comment About Best Lists

I found this list of 10 debut science fiction and fantasy novels that took the world by storm from io9 very interesting.

It serves as a reminder that the debuts of today could very well be the classics of tomorrow.  On the other hand, they could also be the remainders of tomorrow, lost to history forever.

The point is, we need perspective.  This list is interesting in its own right as it is hard to believe that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a first novel.  But also, titles like Neuromancer took years for their importance to be fully understood.

Please don't forget in this season of "Best Lists" to remember that many of the books which appear on all of the "best" lists today may well be forgotten in 5 or ten years, while still others which came out this year (some even first novels) will go unheralded for now, but looking back will be considered classics in the future.

Amazon Kindle Lending Library

At the RA desk yesterday I handled more questions about Amazon's just launched Kindle Lending Library than I did about the lending library I was physically sitting in.

The gist of the questions:

• What is it? 
• How is it different from me borrowing Kindle books through your library?
• Can I do it right now?

Like a good librarian, I do not know all of the answers, but I know how to seek them out.  So for those of you who want the nitty gritty I suggest:

• This No Shelf Required article from the library perspective
• This Wired article from the computing industry perspective

For those of you who want the basics, I will summarize.  The Amazon Kindle Lending Library is a collection of mostly backlist bestsellers, available for "check out" for not extra charge to Amazon Prime Members.  When you "check out" a title, it is uploaded to your Kindle\and it is yours for as long as you want it. It does not need to be returned.

It is different than accessing Kindle ebooks from the library's Media on Demand console because to do this, you do not need to pay the fee to join Amazon Prime, you just need a library card and a way to read Kindle books.  These books are available based on your library or consortia's purchasing and availability.  They check out to you at the BPL for 14 days with 1 renewal, if there is no one else waiting.

That's the basics.  If you want more detail and commentary, I highly suggest the articles above, written by experts in the field.

Of course, I will answer any further questions at the BPL desk or here at RA for All.

In terms of impact on those of us in the public library, I think it is minimal, but time will tell.

And So It Begins....PW's Best Books of 2011

Here it is.  Just released. Click here to see PW's Best Books of 2011.

That link is for the top 10, but use this link to see the long list too.

And so, the "Best" lists begin with a trickle but will soon turn into a deluge.  For newer readers of this blog, please note,  I will not even try to keep up with all of the lists, but I will periodically point you to websites which do archive each and every list.  For example, Cindy Orr already has this extensive list going over on the RA Online Blog.

In December, here on RA for All, you can join the conversation about your favorite books.  In the meantime, here is a link to last year's conversation here and here.

Monday Discussion: Which Fictional Character Do You Have the Hots For?

This is slightly more risque than the average Monday Discussion post, but I saved this link from back in May and I thought with the impending release of the next Twilight movie this was a great question.

The article from January Magazine, Inappropriate Thoughts About Fictional Characters, is hilarious, but also thought provoking.  Think about all the women out there in love with Edward from Twilight, or those a bit older in love with Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.

So today, since I have mixed company of regular Monday Discussion contributors, I thought it would be fun for us all to share the fictional characters we have had a crush on.  I would like to keep it to books, but feel free to move into other media if you feel strongly (see below)

I will go first to break the ice.  As a kid, I loved Nancy Drew mysteries and definitely had a crush on Ned Nickerson, her boyfriend.

These days, I get crushes on the hapless male characters who just need a good woman to help them set themselves right.  It must be the mother in me.  A great example of this is Israel Armstrong in the Bookmobile Mysteries, click here to read about him.  Jackson Brodie from Kate Atkinson's suspense novels also fits this bill for me.  Use this link to read more.

Moving off of the crush category and more into the "hots for," it is hard to deny that Vampire Eric in the Sookie Stackhouse books is pretty sexy. Add in Alexander Skarsgard's portrayal of him on True Blood, and it is hard to deny his appeal.

So, now it is your turn.  Share you fictional crushes.

Remember you can follow past Monday Discussions here.

Searching

Indulge me for today.  Tomorrow I will be attending my cousin's Bat Mitzvah.  I was trying to pick a book to take with me, and considered finding a fiction title which featured a Bar or Bat Mitzvah.

A few years ago I read Jennifer Weiner's Certain Girls, which revolves around a Bat Mitzvah.  So like the good librarian that I am, I used that title as my starting point to find more Bar or Bat Mitzvah books.  I used NoveList because it allows me to search by subject; however, I was disappointed to find that Bat Mitzvah was not a subject term.  I could search by "Jewish Women," but not "Bat Mitzvah."

So, I read the reviews for Certain Girls and saw that every one mentioned the Bat Mitzvah part. Thankfully, NoveList allows for keyword searching that will pick up words in the review fields.  I chose to just search "Mitzvah" to get all Bar and Bat Mitzvah titles.  After setting the sort function to "Adult" and "Fiction" I got a very manageable list of 66 titles, including:

• The Bar Mitzvah Murder by Lee Harris
• Not Quite Kosher by Stuart Kaminsky
• Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan by Paula Marantz Cohen
• Crossing California by Adam Langer
• The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank

Why I am going into such detail here?  Because, this is a great example of some of the very specific types of questions we get at the RA desk.  You need to be able to make the resources fit your readers' questions.  In this case, I wanted to match my reading to my activity over the weekend.  This is a common request.  It was a Bat Mitzvah in this example, but it could have easily of been a sailing trip, camp out, or family reunion.  You will get these types of questions often, so it helps to be prepared.

So, what did I choose to take on the trip after making myself this list?  Like a true patron, I appreciated the work the librarian did, but in the end I went with a thriller that has no Bat Mitzvah's.

Mazel Tov!

What I'm Reading: The Last Werewolf

Still on the catch up trail of book reviews.  I read The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan back in September (thank you Shelfari for remembering that).  This book had a lot of hype when it came out.  Click here and here for examples.

I read this book very soon after it came out.  I sought it out because it was being billed as a literary-paranormal hybrid with werewolves. What I got was more of a highly sexualized paranormal romance-mystery hybrid which I thought fell short as a romance, a mystery, and as literary fiction.  And it wasn't scary at all.

I will get the plot and my opinion out of the way first, but then I will move to who this book is for.  Remember, my reviews are from the RA standpoint.  I will let you know my opinion about a book, but that is not the point.  I read every book from 2 perspectives.  1, how I felt about it personally.  2, what type of reader would most enjoy this book.

When you are working with leisure readers, it is important to remember that while you may dislike a book, there is a reader out there who will enjoy it.  Yes, I have the right not to enjoy a title, but my professional goal is to figure out who will like it.  I cannot only read books I like.  That does not help me to help my patrons.

As a rule, most of your readers will want books that differ from the ones you would chose for your own leisure reading anyway. Okay, enough lecturing.  On to the book.

Here is the  plot.  Jake is a 200 year old werewolf.  For some reason (possibly a virus) werewolves have not been able to create new ones for years.  Taking advantage of their zero population growth, a super secret agency is trying to kill all werewolves, and it appears Jake is now the last.  Jake is writing his memoirs and preparing for the next full moon when he will sacrifice himself to end it all.

But wait....a group of vampires is trying to keep Jake alive because he may hold the key to their ability to return to the light, a female werewolf appears, and lots of sex and violence ensue.

In my opinion, this book failed on a few fronts.  First, the werewolf world Duncan builds is based on sex only.  Duncan also tries to make the book scary, but it was too predictable to be frightening.  Back to the the sex; it was over the top and graphic.  Look , I am no prude, but Jake spends most of the book having sex or looking for sex and we get every detail.  I get it; Duncan's werewolves are highly sexual.

This leads to a major problem I have with this book.  I feel like this is a Sherrilynn Kenyon novel written by a man.  Kenyon is decidedly considered genre fiction (paranormal romance) and would never be called literary in the press, not would she get the lead review in EW.  It is frustrating that because this book was written by a man, it is called literary.  Kenyon has been writing more compelling and interesting novels of just this type for much longer, yet Duncan gets all of the mainstream press. Just bothers me.

I would have preferred it if more time was spent on building up the mystery surrounding the virus and the different paranormal factions.  In a paranormal book, the world the author creates needs to be well developed and almost become a character itself.  This did not happen.  Lots of surface was scratched here, but no depth.

Enough of my opinion.  Now on to a more neutral discussion of the appeal here.

Jake is a great example of the anti-hero.  He is brave and sexy, but bad.  When you become a werewolf in this story, you are destined to kill those you most love while you are in your wolf form.  As a result he killed his wife and unborn child 200 years ago and only has sex with prostitutes he hates.  The reader knows Jake can be bad, but also knows he is good at heart.  This is a huge appeal for some readers.

Paranormal romance is HUGE.  The Last Werewolf is a great paranormal romance.  If I read it in that frame of mind, I would have liked it.

Many readers will seek out any novel with a werewolf in it.  Of course, give them this book.

A big issue in this book is that about 2/3 of the way in, the female werewolf becomes the co-star.  So readers who are concerned that the book is told from a male POV should be assured that the female POV takes over by novel's end.

Three Words That Describe This Book: werewolves, paranormal romance, sexually explicit

Readalikes:  If you like Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books, you will enjoy The Last Werewolf.  Here is a link to my popular Sookie readalikes post for more options.

Ditto, if you like Sherrilynn Kenyon's Dark Hunter books.

Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt paranormal thrillers or Jim Butcher's paranormal Dresden Files are a good example of solid paranormal series written from a male perspective.

If you liked The Discovery of Witches (which I read here), you may not like The Last Werewolf.  TDoW is truly a literary paranormal mystery/romance.  I was pleasantly surprised by TDoW and think it did everything The Last Werewolf's reviews claim it did only much better.  Read my review to see more details.

Finally, in my opinion, Sharp Teeth provides a much better depiction of the modern werewolf.

The slog through the backlog will continue next week, from a more positive pov.

Weird Fiction Review!

Just launched, what may become my favorite stop on the web...The Weird Fiction Review.  From their about page:

This web­blog is the brain­child of Ann Van­der­Meer and Jeff Van­der­Meer. Ann has served as edi­tor of Weird Tales and with Jeff co-edited such antholo­gies as The New Weird, the ebook antho series ODD?, and the just-released The Weird: A Com­pendium of Strange & Dark Sto­ries (Atlantic/Corvus). Jeff is an award-winning writer of weird fic­tion whose last novel, Finch, was a final­ist for the World Fan­tasy Award and the Neb­ula Award. 

This site is meant to be an ongo­ing explo­ration into all facets of the weird, in all of its many forms — a kind of non-denominational approach that appre­ci­ates Love­craft but also Kafka, Angela Carter and Clark Ash­ton Smith, Shirley Jack­son and Fritz Leiber — along with the next gen­er­a­tion of weird writ­ers and inter­na­tional weird. The empha­sis will be on non­fic­tion on writ­ers and par­tic­u­lar books, but we will also run fea­tures on weird art, music, and film, as well as occa­sional fiction.

I feel like they read my mind.  "Weird" really gets at the heart of why I liked the books that I do.  To help get things kicked off, The Weird Fiction Review interviewed the king of "weird," Neil Gaiman.  Here is a direct link to the interview and below is an excerpt from the interview where Gaiman talks about why people are drawn to weird stories:

WFR: What do you think is the appeal of weird fic­tion generally?
Gaiman: For me it’s like a visit to a strange place — a hol­i­day in unearthly beauty and odd­ness, from which you may not always safely return.
WFR: Do you see a dif­fer­ence between “hor­ror” and “the weird” and “the gothic”, and does it mat­ter to you as either a writer or reader?
Gaiman: I think of Hor­ror as a sec­tion of a book­shop, gothic as a type of book that ended, truly, with North­hanger Abbey, and The Weird as an attempt to unify what­ever it was that Robert Aick­man did, that Edward Gorey did — using the tools of hor­ror to delight and trans­form. But I could be full of it. And no, it doesn’t matter.

Other authors who I think really go a great job of writing weird, but accessible stories are Steven Millhauser, Kevin Brockmeier, and Keith Donohue.  In fact, here is a link to a post where I talked about all three in more detail.  Also here is a link to my review of Donohue's newest novel, Centuries of June, in which I provide more "weird" fiction links.

Feel free to add your favorite "weird" authors or stories in the comments.  Also, check out the books I have marked "not quite horror" over at RA for All: Horror.  These are also good "weird" reading suggestions.

What I'm Reading: Ahab's Wife

It is embarrassing how far behind I have gotten on my reviews.  So no excuses, just putting my nose to the grindstone and going back to tackle a book I read in early August,  Ahab's Wife or, the Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund. Ahab's Wife was a book I actually owned in paperback and kept meaning to read, I just never got around to it.  After attending one of our Book Lover's Club meetings and hearing someone talk about how much they loved this book, I moved it from the bottom of the to-read pile right to the top.

I have to say I was also influenced by that fact that the book dovetailed nicely with my planned vacation.  Remember back here when I read the Lonely Planet travel guide on my trip to Nova Scotia?  And, with the whaling, light house and sea faring details in Ahab's Wife (all which were a part of that vacation) and the novel's setting during the 1800s in New England (which is a favorite of mine) and my personal obsession with Moby Dick, really what was I waiting for.  I threw this 600+ paged paperback into my suitcase and started reading it as my plane made its way toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Here is the setup.  The book is narrated by Una and it is her life story.  We know from the start that Ahab was not her first husband nor her last.  So what we have is the fictional memoir of the wife of a famous fictional character.  This is a huge part of the appeal of this novel.  In fact, many readers (myself included) love this type of "classics revisited" story which gives a new perspective on a popular fictional character or story.  Think about the cottage industry of Jane Austen inspired fiction alone.

Although at least a surface understanding of the plot of Moby Dick is helpful here, this really is a great example of historical fiction about a woman's life.  Una moves in the educated circles of 19th Century New England. Talk of the transcendentalists (Like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller), life on whaling ships, the abolitionist movement, and industrialization fill this novel.  For me, this happens to be my favorite time period to read about, so I loved it.  But any reader who likes an authentic historical setting and an interesting protagonist will enjoy this book.

Una's childhood living with her uncle, a lighthouse keeper, and his family, her adventures (dressed in drag) on a whaling ship, her romances, her friendships, and her intellectual pursuits, fill this novel.  It is written in first person, with Una talking to us, the readers.  These are her confessional memoirs.  Her life is not scandalous, but it is eventful and she crosses paths with many famous people, both real and fictional. Una is a full and vibrant narrator with a historically accurate personality. Each person she encounters, is well fleshed out also.  Naslund puts character first here.

Due to the level of detail, the high page count, and the fact that it is the complete story of most of Una's life, this is a leisurely paced book.  This is not a novel to race through.  You are experiencing Una's life as she chooses to unfold it for the reader.  The leisurely pace is also underscored by the language.  There are beautiful descriptions and passages here.  There are whole sections you will want to re-read for their sheer beauty.

Overall, the tone of this novel is nostalgic, bittersweet, slightly darker, but realistic.  I say slightly darker because while Una is mostly happy, there is quite a bit of sadness in her life.  While she feels a true love connection with Ahab, we all know before beginning of the book, that his obsession with the white whale will also be his mortal downfall.  That knowledge and sadness does color the entire book. 

I am glad I waited until I had time to immerse myself in Una's world.  I was able to enjoy all this book had to offer while physically seeing whales from the deck of a ship and visiting light houses.  But even if you are sitting at home, landlocked in your comfy chair, Naslund's lyrical writing and compelling protagonist will take you on a memorable journey, as long as you are willing to sit back and let her take you on a ride at her own pace.

Three Words That Describe This Book:  classics revisited, historical woman's life, lyrical

Readalikes:  There are so many directions you could take readers after they finished this book.  First, obviously, many will be interested in the source material, Moby Dick.  But also, Nathaniel Philbrick has spent much of his popular, nonfiction writing career researching Moby Dick.  Readers might want to try In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex or the new title, Why Read Moby Dick?

Other "classics revisited" which would appeal to fans of Ahab's Wife include Finn by Jon Clinch (my review is here) which looks at The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Huck's father's perspective, Geraldine Brooks' March which is a retelling of Little Women from the absent father's point of view, and The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall which looks at Gone With the Wind from the slaves' perspective. All are set around a similar time period, bring up similar issues, and use a beloved piece of literature as their frame.

In a similar vein, I would also suggest the novel Sally Hemings by Barbara Chase-Riboud which is a fictionalized account of the slave who fathered many of Thomas Jefferson's children.  The nonfiction counterpoint here would be the award winning nonfiction title, The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed.

As I was reading Ahab's Wife I could not stop thinking about how similar it is to Isabel Allende's Ines of My Soul which is about one of the female founders of Chile in the 1500s.  We read it for book club here.  As a rule, both Naslund and Allende write lyrical, authentic stories of brave and bold women.

Although it takes place a century before the action in Ahab's Wife, Brookland by Emily Barton, which I reviewed here, follows a young, strong woman's life and her place in history.  Interestingly, I also finally got to Brookland this year after a few years of it languishing on my "to-read" list.

Finally for another leisurely placed saga story, featuring strong characters, and a love story at its heart, try Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Now on to the rest of the long back log of books read and not yet reviewed...

Monday Discussion: Favorite Halloween Memory

Happy Halloween everyone.  And it's a Monday so we get to talk about it.  Today's Monday discussion is easy and fun.  What is your favorite Halloween memory? Share a few.  I'll go first.

I fondly remember a favorite costume when I was probably 4th grade or so.  My Aunt made me a robot costume out of a big box and lots of aluminum foil, but it was too big for me to wear in the car (we lived in a rural area and had to drive to a neighborhood to trick or treat).  I remember getting to sit in the trunk of our station wagon for the ride. What a treat!  I don't remember much about the costume, but I remember everything about the car ride.

My sister and I shared a room for many years.  Coming home after gathering all of those treats meant we went to our room and began sorting and trading candy-- a tradition my kids still uphold.  I would then stash the candy in my closet and parse it out over months, while my sister would gobble it all up in a few days. This still holds true as a sign of our differing personalities.

I also remember the year my parents went to a masked Halloween party as Miss Piggy and Richard Nixon.  It's weird, but I can still clearly remember those costumes and I was only in first grade.  Interestingly, the same age my son is now.

Speaking of the kiddies....that's who this holiday is really for.  These days, I hope to make memories for my kids.  I took today off of work so that I could be there for the Halloween parade at my kids' school.  This is the first year (of only 3 total) that they will be in the Halloween parade together, at the same school.  I have a devil and a ninja marching, and I will be proudly standing with 2 of their grandparents watching them go by, taking pictures, and hopefully making a favorite Halloween memory for them.

Your turn.  No RA advice today.  Just share your favorite Halloween memory.

And please take a moment to check out my 31 Days of Horror event over on the other blog.

But if you are too lazy (or scared) to click over there, at the very least click here to see me in today's Chicago Tribune.

And remember the Monday Discussion Archive lives here.

What I'm Reading: Zone One

This is a cross-post with RA for All Horror:

As promised, I read the most talked about zombie novel of the moment, Zone One by Colson Whitehead.   I liked Zone One much more than I anticipated I would, it is not a horror novel.

While Zone One is set in a very real feeling post-apocalyptic world, fear of the zombies is not the key motivator here.  This is a novel about trying to reclaim civilization. It is an interior novel; one that takes place mostly in our hero's, Mark Spitz, head. The moments of pure pleasure in reading this novel come from his observations about how the world has changed, and from Whitehead's amazingly realistic and chilling descriptions of the landscape in his created world.

I will be frank, over the year, I have never been as impressed with Whitehead's writing as the critics have been.  However, there are some absolutely beautiful and haunting passages here.  I did step back to re-read a few.  I also loved how detailed his setting is.  Not only do we have detailed descriptions about the Zone One operations and how they are run (a mix of army and civilian), but we have the unseen provisional government in Buffalo becoming its own character. Additions like giving the reconstruction a theme song (one which we cannot hear because of the medium, but which still somehow permeates our reading of the novel) and calling those who remain "pheenies" (short for the American Phoenix, how we will rise again) add authenticity to the setting. 

Our specific "pheenie" and guide through which we get a first person view of this wasteland is Mark Spitz (not his real name).  The story is set up like a suspense novel with a compressed time frame, in this case 3 days. Throughout the course of these three days, we see Mark and his team of "sweepers" cleaning out and buildings in lower Manhattan in Zone One, the only zombie cleared zone on the island.  Mark tells us what is going on now, but there are many flashbacks to how he got from the old world, through the end times.  He also look forward to more cleared out zones and the rebirth of this great city.

I don't want to give any more details about Mark or the setting away, because as the story it unfolded , I was enthralled.  You are going to have to trust Whitehead though.  The beginning is a bit bumpy, like most post-apocalyptic stories.  You have to just keep reading and trust that Whitehead will fill in the details.  But for me this was part of the joy of reading this novel.  I loved the details AND how Whitehead chose to reveal them.  It added satire and suspense.  Mark is also a great vehicle to tell this story because the only thing he excels at is being average.


Whitehead, a New Yorker, obviously knows his setting.  The haunting descriptions of a desolate New York drew me in.  In particular, I loved the scenes in the subway tunnels, and found them especially chilling. Anyone who has spent any time NYC will be moved by this novel.  I especially felt a kinship here because like Mark, I grew up in the suburbs of NYC and visited often, but with the eyes of an outsider still.

I also enjoyed the new type of zombie Whitehead has added to the pantheon.  He has created "straggler" zombies.  These are zombies who rather than reanimating and compulsively searching out fresh human meat, merely roam back to place of meaning from their past and stay there. For example, the psychologist who goes into the office after turning into a zombie, sits in his chair, and waits for the patient who will never arrive.  These zombies are much like the remaining humans with their different forms of PASD (post-apocalyptic stress disorder) who are straggling through what is left of life on earth.

The final thing I liked about Zone One was its ending.  As you read the book, Whitehead clearly foreshadows (really broadcasts) how this reclamation experiment is going to end, yet as you read, you continue to hold out hope.  Ash is raining down, the zombies are literally knocking on the door, Spitz keeps telling us each place he has found refuge post-apocalypse has only been a short respite until it is destroyed and he must run again, and the book is set in only a three day period with things going from so-so, to bad, to worse.  Yet we hope.

The fact that I had any hope while reading this book is a huge testament to Whitehead's writing.  Look, I read a lot of dark books, where bad things happen, and everyone ends up dead, yet I was rooting for the pheenies.  This is not to say that I was disappointed with the ending.  I loved it even more because of what a great job Whitehead did, but many readers who are flocking to this title because it is the "hot" book right now, may be disappointed.  In fact, on Amazon, the book is not getting good customer reviews.  Much of this is due to the fact that it is not scary enough for horror fans and it is too dark for mainstream literary fiction readers. But in the right reader's hand, Zone One is a gem.

I cannot stress enough, this book does not have rosy things to say about the future.  The zombies are merely Whitehead's vehicle for commenting about the path humanity is on.  And it is a path he does not see leading somewhere good, but even worse, he seems to be saying destruction is inevitable.  This is a bleak book.  But it is also a satisfying look into the human condition, what remains of society when there is very little left, and the hope to be found in the "average" citizen.

Three Words That Describe This Book: bleak, post-apocalyptic, thought provoking

Readalikes: If you liked The Passage by Justin Cronin, chances are you will enjoy Zone One.  The Passage is definitely a notch above Zone One, but that is because of the level of detail Cronin has built in to the story.  Click here to read my full review of The Passage which includes more readalike options.  You can also click here to read Cronin's review of Zone One.

Other post-apocalyptic stories I would suggest here are: The Walking Dead series, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and Swan Song by Robert McCammon (a hidden gem that should be on the shelf at your library).

Monster Island is part of David Wellington's zombie apocalypse trilogy that is set on the island of Manhattan just like Zone One.  Monster Island is much less literary and much more scary than Zone One, but it is a great option for readers who really enjoyed the NYC setting and want to see a similar story line from a different angle.

I also found Wastelands: Stories of he Apocalypse, a well reviewed, 2008 collection with with stories by Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Octavia Butler, and George RR Martin.  The collection is great because it runs the gamut in terms of tone, from the bleak and hopeless to stories of hope, and presents a broad view of this popular subgenre of science fiction and horror.

The interesting thing about Whitehead's career is that each book he has written is different from the last, so he is a hard author to match with another author who will be the same.  However, that being said, this novel specifically made me think of two other authors who write with a similar tone and mood to Zone One.

First, Doris Lessing writes character driven novels that are bleak and thought provoking, and often have a speculative element.  Try The Memoirs of a Survivor which is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape.

Chuck Palahniuk is the master of bleak novels which probe the inner turmoil of the human condition.  He uses anti-heroes (like Spitz) and everything he writes is a satire of something we take for granted.  He uses the same wry humor found in Zone One too.  Fight Club is a good starting point.