(Yeah I know, Cosmicomics...)
Galaxies has been one of the most pleasant SF reading experiences I've had in awhile. It's a metaphysical deconstruction of the SF novel, with Malzberg kicking things off by explaining Galaxies is not actually a book, but a series of notes towards a novel that can't actually be written (it depicts a time and place so far in the future we simply can't comprehend it).
It's hard to spoil a book like this, but rest assured, there is a story here, and Malzberg threads through the usual tropes- FTL travel, vast bureaucracies, interstellar colonization, androids, wormholes, time travel- with his critiques of pulp fiction, hard SF, fans, writers, and himself (especially himself).
If you like your SF wry, and enjoy the sort of literary games guys like Calvino and Borges play, give Galaxies a try.
Geis, R. (1974, November). Review: The Destruction of the Temple by Barry N. Malzberg. The Alien Critic, 3 (4), 30–30. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?223581
I've started reading Overlay by Barry Malzberg and am really enjoying it. I was wondering what other works of his are worth reading next.
