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Thanks for the link to Banks’ site. Great read. Here is one suggestion that I think surpasses Banks in scope and complexity, and yes, perhaps even with a whiff

Thanks for the link to Banks’ site. Great read. Here is one suggestion that I think surpasses Banks in scope and complexity, and yes, perhaps even with a whiff of optimism about the future: Hannu Rajaniemi’s Jean Le Flambeur/Quantum Thief Trilogy (2010 to 2014) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quantum_Thief https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quantum_Thief https://www.goodreads.com/series/57134-jean-le-flambeur https://www.goodreads.com/series/57134-jean-le-flambeur He manages plots with both great intricacy and with more plot integrity than Banks often manages. And he is much more of a computer and physics geek too, so the ideas are even farther out. Probably also an HN reader :-) Also set in a comparative near future. The main “problem” with the Quantum Thief trilogy is the steep learning curve—Rajaniemi throws the reader in the deep end without a float. But I highly recommend perservering!

jauntywundrkind 2y ago
I really loved Quantum Thief, with it's Accelerando-like scope & scale of expansion, but mixed with such weird/eccentric/vibrant local mythos of the world, such history. Without my prompting it ended up in our local sci-fi/fantasy book club's rotation a couple months back, and there was some enjoyment but overall the major mood seemed to be pretty befuddled and confused, somewhat hurt at some of the trauma/bad (which isn't better in book 2!). But man, it worked so well for me. As you say, a very deep end book. But there's so much fun stuff packed in, such vibes; I loved puzzling it through the first time, being there for the ride, and found only more to dig into the next time. Still feels very different from Banks, where "space hippies with guns" has such a playful side. Quantum Thief is still a story of a solar system, and pressures within it, but there's such amorphous & vast extends covered by the Culture, so many many things happening in that universe. The books get to take us through Special Cirumstances, through such interesting edge cases, where-as the polot of Quantum Thief orbits the existing major powers of the universe.
yencabulator 2y ago
The Quantum Thief is the kind of scifi where anything is possible if you call it "quantum" something; not a huge fan.
- Vecr 2y ago
  It does get things wrong ("quantum" is not a magic wand), but in the sense that you treat the quantum stuff as mathematical ideas and not something that would be practical, it's pretty good. An in, it's the best that I know to exist. It's not "realistic", because they need to keep AI development confined for story reasons, and I don't think what they do with black holes really makes sense, but most of the individual "objects" or "processes" are pulled directly from physics or computer science papers. The book's kind of a museum or zoo like experience, because the author needs to keep these things unrealistically separate in order to show them off how he wants to, but it's not generally gibberish. It just wouldn't work in real life. Edit: or do you mean you personally don't like it because the world isn't solid enough? (generally unchanging, a good base for a story) If so, I agree.

jauntywundrkind 2y ago

I really loved Quantum Thief, with it's Accelerando-like scope & scale of expansion, but mixed with such weird/eccentric/vibrant local mythos of the world, such history. Without my prompting it ended up in our local sci-fi/fantasy book club's rotation a couple months back, and there was some enjoyment but overall the major mood seemed to be pretty befuddled and confused, somewhat hurt at some of the trauma/bad (which isn't better in book 2!). But man, it worked so well for me. As you say, a very deep end book. But there's so much fun stuff packed in, such vibes; I loved puzzling it through the first time, being there for the ride, and found only more to dig into the next time. Still feels very different from Banks, where "space hippies with guns" has such a playful side. Quantum Thief is still a story of a solar system, and pressures within it, but there's such amorphous & vast extends covered by the Culture, so many many things happening in that universe. The books get to take us through Special Cirumstances, through such interesting edge cases, where-as the polot of Quantum Thief orbits the existing major powers of the universe.

yencabulator 2y ago

The Quantum Thief is the kind of scifi where anything is possible if you call it "quantum" something; not a huge fan.

Vecr 2y ago
It does get things wrong ("quantum" is not a magic wand), but in the sense that you treat the quantum stuff as mathematical ideas and not something that would be practical, it's pretty good. An in, it's the best that I know to exist. It's not "realistic", because they need to keep AI development confined for story reasons, and I don't think what they do with black holes really makes sense, but most of the individual "objects" or "processes" are pulled directly from physics or computer science papers. The book's kind of a museum or zoo like experience, because the author needs to keep these things unrealistically separate in order to show them off how he wants to, but it's not generally gibberish. It just wouldn't work in real life. Edit: or do you mean you personally don't like it because the world isn't solid enough? (generally unchanging, a good base for a story) If so, I agree.