Reddit mentions of This Alien Shore

Just started CS Friedman's This Alien Shore. Female protagonist on the run, from what she doesn't know yet. Set within a far future universe and also entails an exotic computer virus let loose within the systems of the net... as usual very dense in plot and I am getting drawn in so far. Only other novel of her's I have read was In Conquest Born and that was a very good psi-fi/space opera.

Gregory Benford might be to your liking, Eater hits a lot of those old hard SF buttons in particular. The Hyperion Cantos may also do the trick. C.S. Friedman's In Conquest Born and This Alien Shore are favorites that have that classic sci-fi feeling.

I would also give Stephenson another shot.. it's really good stuff, but yeah Snow Crash is a little over-the-top (very much so for the first chapter or two, but it does settle down a good bit). I mean, the main character is named Hiro Protagonist... there's obviously going to be a certain level of tongue-in-cheek, self-aware ridiculousness going on, but it's quite amazing how well he foresaw much of the modern computing world. Cryptonomicon is awesome and is one of those rare books that somehow feels like science fiction even though there's nothing out of the ordinary in it. Anathem and Zodiac are also quite good and more traditional in tone and style.

Other works of fiction that contain the concept of a metaverse;

Books

• The Otherland series, by Tad Williams, beginning with City of Golden Shadow (sidenote, this series also has an MMORPG based on it, currently in closed beta, and recently (October of last year) brought back from the dead)
  
  
• The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons, beginning with Hyperion.
  
  
• The Golden Oecumene, by John C. Wright, beginning with The Golden Age.
  
  
• Accel World, by Reki Kawahara, beginning with Kuroyukihime's Return. (If you are familiar with the manganime Sword Art Online, this is by the same author, and shares the same universe)
  
  
• This Alien Shore, by Celia S. Friedman. (amazon link)
  
  
• The Sprawl Trilogy, by William Gibson, beginning with Neuromancer.
  
  
• Accelerando, by Charles Stross. (free e-book link)
  
  Anime and Manga
  
  
• The .hack series, specifically .hack//SIGN
  
  
• For a lighter feel, there's Summer Wars (available on CrunchyRoll) and the INCREDIBLY similar second Digimon movie, Our War Game!. Also I guess by extension, but not really explored as much, the entire Digimon series, as it takes place in an analogy for the internet.
  
  
• Serial Experiments Lain
  
  
• Okay fine, here's Sword Art Online (CrunchyRoll link)
  
  Film
  
  
• The Singularity is Near, a speculative documentary based on the Ray Kurzweil book of the same name.
  
  
• The Thirteenth Floor, a crime thriller about the owner of a VR simulation company getting murdered.
  
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  I know I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the genre, because if there's one thing humans are good at, it's writing fucktons on what we like.
  
  So feel free to comment additions to this list, or opinions on what I've currently included. I have by no means read/watched all of these, so having someone with actual experience with each of these weigh in would be nice.

Really good sci-fi book that plays around with this question.

If you like sci-fi I strongly recommend This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman. VR and Augmented Reality is just part of life and in the background, it makes it even better than having it be the sole focus. It's so key to society at that point that it is implanted at birth. Poor people get the government version which can be crappy, but it's law that everyone has access. Some people aren't happy with crappy outdated hardware and turn to back-ally brain surgeons...

Multiple personality, corporate espionage, humans as our own aliens, on board technology, hacking, controlled madness, xenophobia... it's an amazing book that had a background which could rival the best world building authors out there but it's a stand alone book not a series.

I would suggest C. S. Friedman. She has a lot of the flawed character thing going on in many of her books. She does a bit more sci-fi than fantasy, but honestly either way she's great.

This Alien Shore is good, and a stand-alone:
http://www.amazon.com/This-Alien-Shore-C-S-Friedman/dp/0886777992/ref=la_B000AQ1TUO_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410005630&sr=1-9

Feast of Souls is the start of a good trilogy:
http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Souls-Magister-Trilogy-Book/dp/0756404630/ref=la_B000AQ1TUO_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410005630&sr=1-5

And Black Sun Rising is also the start of a good trilogy:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rising-Coldfire-Trilogy-Book/dp/0886775272/ref=la_B000AQ1TUO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410005630&sr=1-1

This Alien Shore is one of those single books that actually make me want to read more in that universe.

Stranger in a Strange Land is controversial, thought provoking, and while a couple of characters will show up in later Heinlein books, it isn't part of a series.

+1 Anathem (2008) by Neal Stephenson

+1 The Speed of Dark (2002) by Elizabeth Moon

David Brin's Uplift Series is exceptional (at least the first three are: Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War)...Startide won the most awards, but imho it's the least fun of the three.

There is a really interesting stand alone that a lot of people haven't heard of called This Alien Shore, by C. S. Friedman...It's a hell of a book, and not as well known as it deserves to be.

This Alien Shore by C. S. Friedman. I'm not sure how many people have read it, but I don't see it mentioned very often, which is a shame because it's a great book.

Have you read This Alien Shore by CS Friedman? It might cover some of what you are thinking of.

This is an interesting series of novels. Not really necessary to read them in any particular order, but set in the same universe with some really neat ideas. Expendable, James Alan Gardner. I'm a stickler, so I like to read in order and this is the first.

http://www.amazon.com/Expendable-League-Peoples-Bk-1/dp/038079439X/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267371733&sr=8-8

I'd also add C.S. Friedman, This Alien Shore

http://www.amazon.com/This-Alien-Shore-C-S-Friedman/dp/0886777992/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267371906&sr=1-8

And if you haven't read them, the Halo book series is surprisingly good.

http://www.amazon.com/Books-Flood-First-Strike-Reach/dp/0345473043/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267373681&sr=1-4