MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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The Book of Irrational Numbers (1999)
Michael Marshall Smith
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Contributed by Craig Bauer

The protagonist of this short story views everything through the filter of numerology. His journal entries detail his considerations of digital roots, perfect numbers, irrational numbers, and even Wilson's Theorem (first appearance in fiction?) among other mathematical topics. However, the reader soon learns that his greatest problem is psychological and it isn't a problem for him alone…

There are some mathematical errors in the story, but I got a kick out the author even making the attempt!

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to The Book of Irrational Numbers
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. The Midnighters (Series) by Scott Westerfield
  2. Herr Doctor's Wondrous Smile by Vladimir Tasic
  3. The Gimatria of Pi by Lavie Tidhar
  4. Prime by Steve Erickson
  5. The Object by Alex Kasman
  6. Special Meal by Josh Malerman
  7. Erasthones' Map by Damon Nomad
  8. Unknown Things by Reginald Bretnor
  9. Grigori’s Solution by Isobelle Carmody
  10. Pi by Darren Aronofsky (director)
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Categories:
GenreHorror,
Motif
TopicAlgebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory,
MediumShort Stories,

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Where are the new works of mathematical fiction?: As you can see from this chronological listing, this database includes many works of mathematical fiction for each year from 1990 to 2025. Strangely, only two are listed for 2026, so far. Either less mathematical fiction is being published than in previous years or I'm just having more trouble finding it. If you know of any works of fiction that should be added to this list, especially recently published ones, please let me know. (Keep in mind that I do not include self-published works or children's fiction that just covers elementary mathematical concepts.) Thanks!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)