Reddit mentions of Pattern Recognition (Blue Ant Book 1)

I thought I would go through my Audible library and pick some books to recommend.

A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe

I remember thinking at the time of reading this that it felt a bit like one of the Robot stories from Asimov. Released in 2015, it's maybe one of the most classic-sci-fi feeling books that I've read in a while.

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Fairly unique feel to this one. I'm not a die-hard Gibson fan, and this one isn't future science fiction but very worth a read in my opinion.

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

This one is admittedly hard to follow at times, though this may be a matter of the translation more than anything else.

Three novels by Peter Clines: 14, The Fold, and Paradox Bound

Peter Clines is one of those that is capable of capturing some of the feeling of classic sci-fi, especially with The Fold. He also sometimes mixes in a bit of Lovecraft for good measure.

Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson

Very short listen / read, but pretty good. I wouldn't put this on the same level as The Emperor's Soul, but it's enjoyable.

Two books by Rob Reid: Year Zero, and After On

Definitely not future sci-fi, they are still science fiction though they also serve as commentary on Silicon Valley.

Bruce Sterling's Zeitgeist is right up modern reference alley.

Other people have mentioned William Giibson's early cyberpunk work, but frankly his more recent novels like Idoru, Pattern Recognition, and Virtual Light are every bit as good.

In depth travel through fictional (though not VR) worlds is well handled in L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's Compleat Enchanter series.

Lastly, John Myers Myers' Silverlock is pretty much the literary reference motherload.