The best books to violently bludgeon reality

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been an outsider and empathized with people on the fringe. Being a first-generation-born Chicano gave me a different experience of growing up in the US that permanently shifted my perspective. I felt most comfortable around other creatives and intellectuals whose views were subversive. So, naturally, I began focusing on characters at the bottom of the social ladder. My writing style, “Gutter Surrealism,” combines elements of hard street culture with the supernatural to portray a viewpoint most readers have never considered.


I wrote...

Blubber Island

By Guillermo Galvan,

Book cover of Blubber Island

What is my book about?

When neuroscientist Elis Davidson removed a dream from his mind and captured it inside a receptacle, an inter-dimensional tear opened to cosmic annihilation. A cast of metaphysical entities and urban misfits struggle for control over the amputated dream as reality disintegrates.

Blubber Island is a psychedelic adventure into Gutter Surrealism, a dark comedy with philosophical depth and a Splatterpunk attitude. Guillermo Galvan is a controversial Chicano writer who is busy reloading.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of A Clockwork Orange

Guillermo Galvan Why did I love this book?

This was the first book for me that framed violent street culture inside a dystopian context. Burgess broke the rules. An intelligent writer didn’t have to be some egghead nerd. This was enlightening for me, because throughout my life I’ve had experiences with people who were gang-affiliated. Burgess inspired me to embrace violence and antisocial elements in my storytelling.

By Anthony Burgess,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked A Clockwork Orange as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Anthony Burgess's influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends' intense reaction against their society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess's introduction, "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."


Book cover of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Guillermo Galvan Why did I love this book?

I was in a bookstore while visiting Tokyo and knew I had to buy a book by one of their guys. Always judge a book by its cover, especially the title. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was my introduction to Japanese literature. It blew my mind. Haruki combined elements of noir, cyberpunk, and surrealism. The book was so cool. I wanted to write something like him.

By Haruki Murakami,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following.

Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.


Book cover of Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror

Guillermo Galvan Why did I love this book?

After I published Blubber Island, I received messages from readers telling me BI was one of the best Splatterpunk books they’ve read. The funny part was I had no idea the genre existed. In order to sample a range, I ordered Sammon’s anthology. These guys were hardcore! They are what makes slasher movies awesome and hilarious. No apologies, no prisoners taken. With pornographic levels of hyper-violence, SP’s collects writers who found the edge and flew over it on dirt bikes.

By Paul M. Sammon (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Splatterpunks as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Snow Crash

Guillermo Galvan Why did I love this book?

This book is ultra-fast-paced. Reading it is like taking a hit of crystal meth then watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Die Hard, and the History Channel at the same time on fast forward. This book is 100% politically incorrect. It guts every culture for a comic book effect. In Stephenson's future, we exist as extreme stereotypes for survival the same way prison gangs separate races.

A liberal dose of head slicing, rocket launching, machine gun blasting, and getaway action has your brain stomping for the breaks. This is pure cyberpunk.

By Neal Stephenson,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Snow Crash as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The “brilliantly realized” (The New York Times Book Review) breakthrough novel from visionary author Neal Stephenson, a modern classic that predicted the metaverse and inspired generations of Silicon Valley innovators

Hiro lives in a Los Angeles where franchises line the freeway as far as the eye can see. The only relief from the sea of logos is within the autonomous city-states, where law-abiding citizens don’t dare leave their mansions.

Hiro delivers pizza to the mansions for a living, defending his pies from marauders when necessary with a matched set of samurai swords. His home is a shared 20 X 30…


Book cover of The Pinch Runner Memorandum

Guillermo Galvan Why did I love this book?

An ex-nuclear researcher takes his mentally handicapped son out of school because he fails to convince the teachers and parents that the children should be trained in combat for when society inevitably decides to kill all handicapped children in Japan. So, naturally, they set off on a divine mission concerning warring student political factions, an atomic bomb, terrorism, and a shadowy mastermind named Big Shot. Their adventure is absolutely absurd, a demented dark comedy. Yet Ōe uses his profound ability to write with dire seriousness, which results in a mind-bending story.

By Kenzaburō Ōe, Michiko N. Wilson (translator), Michael K. Wilson (translator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Pinch Runner Memorandum as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This novel offers a contemporary and explosive picture of the nuclear family, which pivots on the bizarre odyssey of a Japanese father and son.


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Alpha Max

By Mark A. Rayner,

Book cover of Alpha Max

Mark A. Rayner Author Of Alpha Max

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Human shaped Pirate hearted Storytelling addict Creatively inclined

Mark's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Maximilian Tundra is about to have an existential crisis of cosmic proportions.

When a physical duplicate of him appears in his living room, wearing a tight-fitting silver lamé unitard and speaking with an English accent, Max knows something bad is about to happen. Bad doesn’t cover it. Max discovers he’s the only human being who can prevent the end of the world, and not just on his planet! In the multiverse, infinite Earths will be destroyed.

Alpha Max

By Mark A. Rayner,

What is this book about?

★★★★★ "Funny, yet deep, this is definitely worth venturing into the multiverse for."

Amazing Stories says: "Snarky as Pratchet, insightful as Stephenson, as full of scathing social commentary as Swift or Voltaire, and weirdly reminiscent of LeGuin, Alpha Max is the only multiverse novel you need this month, or maybe ever."

Maximilian Tundra is about to have an existential crisis of cosmic proportions.

When a physical duplicate of him appears in his living room, wearing a tight-fitting silver lamé unitard and speaking with an English accent, Max knows something bad is about to happen. Bad doesn’t cover it. Max discovers…


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