100 books like The Boys from Brazil

The historical accounts of the rise and reign of chemist Sidney Gottlieb seem like deep YouTube conspiracy theory. How could a trusted government official, a scientist, be drugging unwitting subjects, civilians, even his own coworkers? This is one of the most bizarre and important tales from American cold war history.

I have been a fan of Gothic and melodrama since I first watched the 1931 film Frankenstein with Boris Karloff–and I was delighted to discover that the book is even better and so much more than what we’ve ever seen on screen.

Frankenstein’s monster is articulate and soulful in Mary Shelley’s atmospheric, dread-filled original novel, and his plight is all the more moving because of it. She wrote it when she was just 18 years old, still grieving over the death of her first child two years earlier. I feel her aching sorrow on every page. 

This book is light on hope, but if you’re on the hunt for cli-fi dystopias, Oryx and Crake is a must-read.

The novel’s protagonist, Snowman (previously known as Jimmy), finds himself alone (sort of) after a global societal collapse. His story unfolds on either side of this collapse as he searches for answers about what has happened to the world and why.

This book brings together runaway climate change, an apocalyptic pandemic, uncontrolled genetic engineering, mass extinction, and more, dealing with nostalgia for what’s been lost and reckoning with each person’s individual culpability for that loss. And yet it somehow manages to also be a thrilling puzzle box of a story that ends on a note of cautious hope.

This story of a scientist becoming obsessed with the psychedelic world was part of the inspiration for writing Ann Marie’s Asylum. The sensory deprivation tank, the electrodes to the head, and the hallucinogenic potion made from exotic jungle plants were bits that just had to make it into one of my books. 

John Lilly, a Caltech and University of Pennsylvania trained doctor who also probed the murkiest waters of the psychedelic experience, was the inspiration for Dade Harkenrider in my book, Ann Marie’s Asylum. Lilly was a genius, who crossed over the edge more than once.

ODESSA was a port-war organization established to re-establish the power of SS mass murderers throughout the world and carry out Hitler’s Final Solution 20 years after his death.

In researching for ODESSA Files, Forsyth talked to several former SS members and used their memories to enhance the atmosphere and feeling of reality throughout the book.

It’s a look at what Hitler and the SS had in mind for the world. Almost every chapter bristles with suspense and excitement when a journalist starts to expose them. It’s cleverly plotted and has you on edge from start to finish.

I consider this one of the original “medical thrillers” and a must-read for any fans of the genre.

Dr. Jeremy Stone is the classic scientist turned hero who must save the world and does so in dramatic fashion. This book taught audiences that science and facts could be entertaining and part of great adventures and helped give birth to a whole new genre. I reread this book every couple of years, and I am never disappointed. 

This classic 1966 movie and the novelization by SF icon Isaac Asimov really hooked me on science fiction. So much so that I later felt compelled to write an hommage to it. Travelling through the human bloodstream? Being attacked by antibodies and white blood cells? Irresistible! One of the things SF does best is to show us familiar things from an entirely new perspective, and Fantastic Voyage did that in spades with a premise that was outlandish but completely serious and groundbreaking. Although Asimov wrote the novel version from the screenplay, it was released before the movie and it’s difficult to separate the two. I really recommend enjoying both.

Asimov later wrote a novel of his own (not a sequel) called Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain published in 1987, but it isn’t all that memorable.

The 1972 novel Cyborg probably isn’t well-known now, but everyone knows the mid-70s TV show it inspired, The Six Million Dollar Man. The show often dealt with serious subjects, but (much as I loved it) its sometimes cartoonish sound effects and slow-mo undercut its dramatic punch. Caidin’s novel plays it straight. Steve Austin survives a horrendous plane crash and is rebuilt with super-advanced prosthetics without his permission, and his reaction is anything but heroic. He’s recruited as a special operative against his will, and the story is an earnest examination of psychological pain and divided loyalties. Cyborg wasn’t the first story to describe the military application of high-tech prosthetics, but it does create a pretty cool James Bond vibe in its second half that’s much more adult than the TV version.

“Is it safe?” There is, perhaps, no other trio of words in the English language capable of sending shockwaves of unimaginable pain deep into one’s molars.

Dr. Christian Szell’s ruthless determination to obtain his diamonds, no matter the cost, makes him one of the most detestable villains in all of fiction. So detestable, in fact, that I couldn’t help borrowing his surname for a tertiary antagonist in Sunset Empire, who is part heartless physician and part mad scientist.