John Shirley's fiction has been acclaimed
for its neon intensity, edgy boldness, and "oddly
endearing descriptions of graphic horror." Reviewers have compared him
to writers as varied as J.G. Ballard, William S. Burroughs, Anton
Chekov, Philip K. Dick, Edgar Allan Poe, John Collier, Franz Kafka,
William Kotzwinkle, Elmore Leonard, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Tom
Wolfe. Speculating on the world of the future and the darkness of the
present, Shirley often uses cultural metaphor to explore both the
spiritual and the most depraved of human desires. Seldom compromising
his unique vision, he combines his personal truth, experience, and
splendid technique to achieve a dark but transcendental redemptive
fiction. Shirley's work is powerful stuff, rarely allowing the reader
off the hook. Joe Sander wrote in
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
Shirley's short fiction has been collected in Heatseeker,
New Noir, the International Horror Guild and Bram Stoker
award-winning Black Butterflies, and Really Really Really Really Weird Stories.
John Shirley has written more than twenty novels under his own name. They are
listed here in a chronological bibliography.
You can access further information, cover images, and reviews by clicking
any title on the list.
Shirley's work
has always been distinctive for its stern insistence that people need
to open themselves to new possibilities, enlivened by stunning,
imaginative riffs...under whatever genre label he has produced a
striking, powerful body of fiction...
"I'm trying to trick people into thinking about the unthinkable,"
Shirley has said, "...to bring people in whatever way I can, [using]
narrative, humor, satire...to draw them into what seem to me to be the
higher questions...to build a bridge to a greater awareness of life, a
bridge to metaphysical, philosophical issues...I have always assumed
both chaos and meaning in life; it's never been a problem for me to
see these things side by side. And there is a place, a Tao point if
you like, where they are resolved with one another."
