MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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30 Most Recently Added/Modified Entries

(Note: This is not the entire list of works of Mathematical Fiction. To see the entire list, click here.)
The Phantom Scientist [Le Chercher Phantôme] (2013)
Robin Cousin
This graphic novel takes place at at "The Institute for the Study of Complex and Dynamic Systems", which facilitates interactions between researchers in different disciplines. Although none of the researchers... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-13 10:03:38
The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything (2023)
Kara Gnodde
Mimi Brotherton is a Foley artist in London who creates sound effects for movies. There is not much mathematics in that, but three of the men in her life are mathematicians: her father, her brother, and... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-12 19:00:44
Children of Time (2015)
Adrian Tchaikovsky
The first book of the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky (which is all that I have read) heavily features mathematics. In it, a brilliant but arrogant scientist's experiment to rapidly evolve... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-09 16:16:56
The Amazing Spider-Man (Issues 555-557) (2008)
Zeb Wells (writer) / Chris Bachalo (penciller)
The issue of Amazing Spider-Man entitled "Sometimes it Snows in April" introduces a disheveled mathematician named Benjamin Rabin who appears to be the victim of an attempted assault. He explains to police... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-09 15:32:49
Stella Maris (2022)
Cormac McCarthy
Readers of McCarthy's 2022 novel The Passenger learn quickly that its protagonist's sister was a mathematical prodigy who committed suicide. That isolated fact provides motivation for the remainder of... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-09 14:22:35
A Calculated Man (2022)
Paul Tobin (writer) / Alberto Alburquerque (artist)
An accountant for the mob, now in witness protection, must defend himself from his former employers, but with the power of math on his side he is quite capable of killing those who have been sent to eliminate... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-04-13 07:18:28
The World We Make (2022)
N. K. Jemisin
Readers of the first novel in the series, The City We Became, have already met Padmini Prakash. She loves pure math and hates New York City, but due to familial pressures is preparing to be a Wall Street... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-04-05 13:43:17
The Time Ships (1995)
Stephen Baxter
This sequel to H.G. Wells' classic "The Time Machine" updates the story with some quantum mechanics and general relativity that were not available to Wells in 1895. Our narrator returns to the distant... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-03-06 09:35:03
The Manga Guide to Regression Analysis (2005)
Shin Takahashi / Iroha Inoue
Like other books in the "Learn with Manga" series, this one uses romance and manga styling to teach an advanced mathematical subject. Moreover, as in The Manga Guide to Statistics, the main character... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-03-05 20:06:43
The Manga Guide to Linear Algebra (2008)
Shin Takahashi / Iroha Inoue
Reiji wants to learn karate and he is in love with a girl named Misa. So, it works out perfectly when it turns out that her big brother who is the captain of the karate club agrees to let Reiji into the... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-03-05 19:54:24
The Manga Guide to Statistics (2004)
Shin Takahashi
Rui wants to learn statistics not because she is interested in the subject but because she has a crush on Mr. Igarashi, whom she hopes her father will hire as her tutor. When instead her father hires... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-03-05 19:42:12
The Deluge (2023)
Stephen Markley
One character in this tome-sized political eco-thriller is Ashir al-Hasan. Ash, as he is called by friends, is a a government data analyst. Although he also appears to be "on the spectrum", he is not... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-02-14 09:16:53
Calculating the Speed of Heartbreak (2023)
Wendy Nikel
Normally, I don't like works of mathematical fiction that use mathematical terminology and notation to discuss romantic relationships. They often involve groan-inducing formulae like "Pat + Sandy = Love". However,... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-02-08 14:17:54
Astor Place Barber (2023)
Audrey Nasar
A short piece that employs a humorous McGuffin to introduce the Barber's Paradox. Both frequent site contributor Dr. Allan Goldberg and the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics think this is an example... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-02-05 12:57:19
The Babelogic of Mathematics (2023)
Vijay Fafat
This is a creation myth for mathematics itself, incorporating the writing styles of both the Book of Genesis and Nasadiya Sukta. The author, it should be noted, is a frequent contributor to this website... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-02-05 12:46:30
Dr. No: A Novel (2022)
Percival Everett
Wala Kitu is a professor of mathematics at Brown University who specializes in nothing. (It is not that he doesn't have a specialty. He is an expert in the very concept of nothingness.) His best friends... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-01-28 14:27:56
Souls in the Great Machine (1999)
Sean McMullen
A thousand years in our future, civilization on Earth has been restarted from scratch following a combination of global warming, nuclear winter, and a mysterious periodic phenomenon known as "the Call".... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-01-03 09:06:21
The Mentalist (Episode: 18-5-4) (2010)
Bruno Heller (writer) / Leonard Dick (writer) / Charles Beeson (director)
In this episode of the series about agents from the California Bureau of Investigation, an unemployed mathematician is murdered by someone wearing a clown suit. The victim, Noah Valiquette, was a... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-12-20 14:33:57
Mine the Primes (2005)
Julian Todd
In this SF short story, mathematicians work to discover new prime numbers which are used to power space ships. The concept of "mining" numbers probably seemed very "science fictiony" and perhaps even... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-12-11 21:50:05
i (2005)
Paul Evanby
A computer programmer meets a composer who is trying to incorporate complex numbers into musical theory: I nodded slowly, and pointed at the other screen. “What about that?” He pursed his lips.... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-12-11 21:32:16
Location, velocity, end point (2022)
Matt Tighe
A time-traveler tries to reach the right point in spacetime to save his young son from a horrible disease. However, the computations he needs to achieve this goal are frustrated by some analogue of Heisenberg's... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-12-09 16:32:21
The Singularities (2022)
John Banville
This ambitious novel may be the capstone to the body of work by the critically acclaimed Irish author John Banville. The closing words suggest that it is a finale to his career. And a clever plot conceit... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-11-18 22:06:46
Strike Your Heart (2017)
Amélie Nothomb
This French novel is primarily about jealousy and how it poisons relationships between women. However, one recurring minor character is a Fields medalist working in topology. Like many mathematicians... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-11-18 16:41:57
The Long Slow Orbits (1967)
H.H. Hollis
Tagline: Nice prison! It was a Klein bottle in orbit - easy to escape from, if you didn't mind turning inside out! A sensitively written, poignant vignette of mankind and society spread out... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-11-16 20:01:43
The Universe Broke Down (1941)
Robert Arthur
Jeremiah Jupiter was an extremely rich, eccentric genius who built an antenna which could take some strange meteorite material called “magna” and amplify cosmic rays to disintegrate the magna, giving... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-11-09 12:14:48
Pure Math (1992)
John Timson
A mildly funny and fairly predictable time travel story involving a stand-alone time loop created by information sent back in time. Jacob Appel is a “Nobel Laureate and the man acknowledged by nearly... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-11-08 08:23:39
Mathe-Matti (2022)
Anuradha Mahasinghe
A collection of mathematical fiction short stories published in the country of Sri Lanka by Sayura Books. Unfortunately, I do not read Sinhalese and so have not been able to enjoy it myself, but the author... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-10-25 16:54:34
A Map for the Missing (2022)
Belinda Huijuan Tang
Tang Yitian, a Chinese-American math professor who grew up in China shortly after the revolution, undertakes a journey to find his estranged father. Anti-intellectualism always made it hard for Yitian... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-10-18 14:13:25
Eversion (2022)
Alastair Reynolds
One supporting character in this science fiction novel is a young mathematician whose solution to a problem involving sphere eversion is essential to the success of the mission. But, as it is not clear... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-10-17 10:00:52
Arithmetic Town / Arithmetic (1996)
Todd McEwen
This novel puts you into the stream of consciousness of Joe Lake, a boy growing up in California in the 1950s. For him, arithmetic represents all that is wrong with his world. It is difficult, ugly,... (more)
Last Changed: 2022-10-04 09:43:17

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Exciting News: The total number of works of mathematical fiction listed in this database recently reached a milestone. The 1,500th entry is The Man of Forty Crowns by Voltaire. Thanks to Vijay Fafat for writing the summary of that work (and so many others). I am also grateful to everyone who has contributed to this website. Heck, I'm grateful to everyone who visited the site. Thank you!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)