Minor Go References in Novels
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| Arthur Golden mentions the playing of Go twice in "Memoirs of a Geisha" (1997). | "Intuition" by Allegra Goodman (2006) is set in a cancer research lab. On page 164 two characters are playing Go: "Jacob and Aaron sat playing go on towels in the sand". |
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"Caliban's War" by James S. A. Corey (2012) is the second book in the Expanse science fiction series about a conflict between earth, mars, asteroid belt and a mysterious alien force. Chapter 30, page 331, features a discussion about the political game being played. Avasarala, a senior UN politician says: "The level we're playing at has different rules. It’s like playing go. It’s all about exerting influence. Controlling the board without occupying it." |
"Rollback" by Robert J Sawyer (2007) has a brief mention. Don and Sarah are talking in the restaurant (chapter 7). Don wanted to have Peter De Jager over sometime, he always liked playing Go. |
There are many novels with passing references to Go. The following list has not been verified as to the content, but is taken from Sensei's Library.
| A Girl Like You | Maureen Lindley |
| Black Steel | Steve Perry |
| Death of a Red Heroine | Qiu Xiaolong |
| Demons at Rainbow Bridge | Jack Chalker |
| Dome | Michael Reeves and Steve Perry |
| Dream of the Red Chamber | Cao Xueqin |
| Endymion | Dan Simmons |
| Even Cowgirls Get the Blues | Tom Robbins |
| Farside Cannon | Roger MacBride Allen |
| Forever War | Joe Haldeman |
| Four in One | Damon Knight |
| Gai-Jin | James Clavell |
| Go | Holly Uyemoto |
| Grey Area | Will Self |
| Gust Front | John Ringo |
| House of Leaves | Mark Z. Danielewski |
| House of Suns | Alastair Reynolds |
| Inconstant Star | Poul Anderson |
| Inherent Vice | Thomas Pynchon |
| Intuition | Allegra Goodman |
| Knight Moves | Walter Jon Williams |
| Komoku | Daniel Gilbert |
| Lunar Descent | Allen Steele |
| Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Golden |
| Never Buried | Edie Claire |
| Pawn to Infinity (story "PatG") | Fred Saberhagen |
| Prima Belladonna | J.G. Ballard |
| Revolt! | Christopher Anvil |
| Rogue Star | Michael Flynn |
| Rollback | Robert J. Sawyer |
| Runaway Horses | Yukio Mishima |
| Shell Game | Sara Paretsky |
| Shockwave Rider | John Brunner |
| Spindoc | Steve Perry |
| Stand On Zanzibar | John Brunner |
| Starplex | Robert J. Sawyer |
| The Andomeda Evolution | Daniel H. Wilson |
| The Book of Loss | Julith Jedamus |
| The Cat Who Walks Through Walls | Robert Heinlein |
| The Chessboard Cherry Tree | R. Gordon Smith (translator) |
| The Children's Hour | Jerry Pournelle & S. M. Stirling |
| The Deep Deep Freeze | Willian Garner |
| The Knight of Chains, The Deuce of Stars | Yoon Ha Lee |
| The Monarch of the Glen | Neil Gaiman |
| The Musashi Flex | Steve Perry |
| The Naked and the Dead | Norman Mailer |
| The Silicon Man | Charles Platt |
| The Tale of Murasaki | Liza Dalby |
| The Tattoo Murder Case | Akimitsu Takagi |
| The Terminal Experiment | Robert Sawyer |
| The Tokaido Road | Lucia St. Clair Robson |
| The Years of Rice and Salt | Kim Stanley Robinson |
| Trouble's What I Do | Walter Mosley |
| Utopia Avenue | David Mitchell |
| 1636: The China Venture | Eric Flint and Iver P. Cooper |
Some science fiction books refer to games that sound like Go, but give it another name, for example Brian Staveley's "Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne" refers to "a game of stones" and Yoon Ha Lee's "Raven Strategem" in the Machineries of Empire" trilogy refers to "pattern stones".
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