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Glasshouse[1] by Charles Stross Permutation City[2] by Greg Egan We Are Legion (We Are Bob)[3] by Dennis E. Taylor Halting State[4] by Charles Stross Singul

Glasshouse[1] by Charles Stross Permutation City[2] by Greg Egan We Are Legion (We Are Bob)[3] by Dennis E. Taylor Halting State[4] by Charles Stross Singularity Sky[5] by Charles Stross Dungeon Crawler Carl[6] by Matt Dinniman Zero World[7] by Jason M. Hough The Shockwave Rider[8] by John Brunner [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasshouse_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasshouse_(novel) [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation_City [3]: https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/1668221578/ https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/166822... [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_State https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_State [5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_Sky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_Sky [6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Crawler_Carl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Crawler_Carl [7]: https://www.jasonhough.com/book/zero-world https://www.jasonhough.com/book/zero-world [8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider

rapnie 6mo ago
> Permutation City[2] by Greg Egan That was a good mindbender indeed. I'd add "The Light of Other Days" by Arthur C. Clarke and Steven Baxter. Beware of spoilers high up the wikipedia page [0]. Tells a good tale of unexpected externalities of disruptive technology introduction. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days
ggerules 6mo ago
Also Accelerando by Charles Stross Fantastic book!
- lloeki 6mo ago
  Very personal counterpoint: I find Stross writing extremely bland, contrived, and badly paced. I really really disliked Accelerando in particular, finding it completely vacuous, the sciencey namedrops is self-aggrandising and sound like attempts at reader flattery, the entire plot is telegraphed, characters are generic and perfectly forgettable. It was several friends recommendation and I only got reading through the whole ordeal because whenever I asked "well I'm about there and it doesn't click" they answered "no spoiler, just a dozen pages and you'll see!" Not a critic, again this is my personal experience of it. If people enjoyed it, more power to them.
chadcmulligan 6mo ago
+1 for Stross, Egan and the Bobiverse - I haven't read the others so will have a look, just wanted to add Stand on Zanzibar by Brunner, if the Bobiverse is there then MurderBot should be to.
petters 6mo ago
Dungeon Crawler Carl is not science fiction. At least I would not recommend it to someone looking for science fiction with “interesting ideas.” It’s a comedy about an RPG with magic. But if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s pretty good
- crooked-v 6mo ago
  Probably the most novel part of DCC is that it's kind of an implicit response to a whole class of 'what if the world worked like an RPG' fiction, examinining the premises those works as a genre leave glossed over. Which is neat in a meta-textual kind of way, but yeah, definitely not science fiction.
endymion-light 6mo ago
Disagree for dungeon crawler carl & any of the Bobiverse - while they're fine books, wouldn't class it in the category of interesting ideas, it's just pop fiction. I'd look at the following: Hyperion Book One (For the book style + ideas throughout the short stories - you only need to read book one) Solaris, Lem (What would an alien intelligence truly look like, especially in planet size scales, really interesting theories) House Of Leaves (Classic for exploration of horror - not sci-fi, but within the wheelhouse) Maxwell's Demon (Hated the ending, but the first half of the book explores some interesting ideas) Children of Time (Good sci-fi based book exploring morality + intelligence) Annihilation (Sci-fi, no spoilers but great book) Venemous Lumpsucker (near future sci-fi, fantastic as a set of vignettes within the story) Closest to Antimemetics divison personally would be Maxwell's Demon + House of Leaves.
- lxgr 6mo ago
  My hard disagree on the Bobiverse as well. Feels like the typical book I ought to like based on my interests and the other things I like, but the ideas somehow fall way, way short of qntm's writing. And +1 on "Annihilation" – I started reading that to another recommendation for "books similar to TINAD" here and basically couldn't put it down. The similarity is purely based on mood, though – don't expect an actually similar novel in terms of ideas and presentation.
mikehollinger 6mo ago
Oh. Nice. I'd add the Zones of Thought series by Verner Vinge. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep

rapnie 6mo ago

> Permutation City[2] by Greg Egan That was a good mindbender indeed. I'd add "The Light of Other Days" by Arthur C. Clarke and Steven Baxter. Beware of spoilers high up the wikipedia page [0]. Tells a good tale of unexpected externalities of disruptive technology introduction. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days

ggerules 6mo ago

Also Accelerando by Charles Stross Fantastic book!

lloeki 6mo ago
Very personal counterpoint: I find Stross writing extremely bland, contrived, and badly paced. I really really disliked Accelerando in particular, finding it completely vacuous, the sciencey namedrops is self-aggrandising and sound like attempts at reader flattery, the entire plot is telegraphed, characters are generic and perfectly forgettable. It was several friends recommendation and I only got reading through the whole ordeal because whenever I asked "well I'm about there and it doesn't click" they answered "no spoiler, just a dozen pages and you'll see!" Not a critic, again this is my personal experience of it. If people enjoyed it, more power to them.

chadcmulligan 6mo ago

+1 for Stross, Egan and the Bobiverse - I haven't read the others so will have a look, just wanted to add Stand on Zanzibar by Brunner, if the Bobiverse is there then MurderBot should be to.

petters 6mo ago

Dungeon Crawler Carl is not science fiction. At least I would not recommend it to someone looking for science fiction with “interesting ideas.” It’s a comedy about an RPG with magic. But if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s pretty good

crooked-v 6mo ago
Probably the most novel part of DCC is that it's kind of an implicit response to a whole class of 'what if the world worked like an RPG' fiction, examinining the premises those works as a genre leave glossed over. Which is neat in a meta-textual kind of way, but yeah, definitely not science fiction.

endymion-light 6mo ago

Disagree for dungeon crawler carl & any of the Bobiverse - while they're fine books, wouldn't class it in the category of interesting ideas, it's just pop fiction. I'd look at the following: Hyperion Book One (For the book style + ideas throughout the short stories - you only need to read book one) Solaris, Lem (What would an alien intelligence truly look like, especially in planet size scales, really interesting theories) House Of Leaves (Classic for exploration of horror - not sci-fi, but within the wheelhouse) Maxwell's Demon (Hated the ending, but the first half of the book explores some interesting ideas) Children of Time (Good sci-fi based book exploring morality + intelligence) Annihilation (Sci-fi, no spoilers but great book) Venemous Lumpsucker (near future sci-fi, fantastic as a set of vignettes within the story) Closest to Antimemetics divison personally would be Maxwell's Demon + House of Leaves.

lxgr 6mo ago
My hard disagree on the Bobiverse as well. Feels like the typical book I ought to like based on my interests and the other things I like, but the ideas somehow fall way, way short of qntm's writing. And +1 on "Annihilation" – I started reading that to another recommendation for "books similar to TINAD" here and basically couldn't put it down. The similarity is purely based on mood, though – don't expect an actually similar novel in terms of ideas and presentation.

mikehollinger 6mo ago

Oh. Nice. I'd add the Zones of Thought series by Verner Vinge. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep