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Question (JesusLasVegas):

> Hallo Charles. I'm in the UK. I just wrote a book and (it looks like) a good publishing house are going to pick it up. It is sort of sci-fi.
>
> My question: all agents I've spoken to think that while selling a book to publishers it's best to avoid using the term "sci-fi" if possible. Ideally they want to sneak sci-fi stuff in, "under the radar", so it can get the sort of backing that only a big publisher can provide.
>
> How do you feel about this? Cheers.

Answer (cstross):

> For starters, there's a long-standing (50 year old) flame war within the field over whether it's "sci-fi" or "SF".
>
> Secondly, all these labels boil down to is a bunch of marketing categories that tell bookshop staff where to file the product (which they don't know from a hole in the road) on the shelves where customers can find it. SF has traditionally been looked down on by the literary establishment because, to be honest, much early SF was execrably badly written -- but these days the significance of the pigeon hole is fading; we have serious mainstream authors writing stuff that is I-can't-believe-it's-not-SF, and SF authors breaking into the mainstream. If you view them as tags that point to shelves in bricks-and-mortar bookshops, how long are these genre categories going to survive in the age of the internet?
>
> Note: this skepticism breaks down in the face of, for example, the German publishing sector, where booksellers are a lot stuffier and more hidebound over what is or is not acceptable as literature.



Question (cavedave):

> You write very well about we interact with technology nowdays. The use of smartphones, email and social networking in Halting State and Rule 34 is very believable.
> With the possible exception of Sherlock very few pieces of fiction actually use these techniques.
> In horror films "out of coverage" has become a cliche. If All Movies Had Smartphones is a funny video on how writers can't create plots that take technology into account.
>
> How are you doing this right and nearly everyone else isnt?
>
> Are you planning a kickstarter game like Neal Stephenson? If you did what would it be about?

Answer (cstross):

> Reverse order: no, I'm not planning a kickstarter game. And I'm not really a game designer. (Writing novels takes up about 100% of my available working time.)
>
> How am I doing this "right" ... well, I have a CS degree and a history that includes working as a software developer and being a computer magazine columnist back during the 1990s. I guess I simply paid attention to the social effects of the IT revolution as I lived through it.
>
> An important factor to note is that it's rare for anyone to sell a first novel written before they turned 30-35; long-format fiction tends to require a bunch of experience of human life that takes time to acquire. So your average mid-career novelist is in their forties to fifties! In consequence, most established novelists are writing books informed by experiences gained in their youth. Middle age is not the best time to be changing smartphones every six months or adopting new technology platforms -- because we tend to get slower and less accommodating to change as we age. So we're currently living with a generation of established novelists who are embarrassingly out of date with respect to social networking, internet skills, and so on.
>
> (I was an early adopter: have been on the internet continuously since late 1989, barring a six-month loss of access in the early 90s.)
>



Question (JesusLasVegas):

> Great answer, thanks.
>
> Could you give an example or two of large British publishers that you think are doing a good job in this respect? Ignoring genre barriers, taking risks etc?

Answer (cstross):

> AhahahaHA!!
>
> Sorry, no I can't. But not for the reason you think. Thing is, my agent is based in New York. And due to a historic accident, my publishing track is primarily American -- I'm sold into the UK almost as a foreign import! So I'm quite out of touch with what's going on in UK publishing. (Even my Kindle is geared to the US store.)



Question (cheradenine_Zakalwie):

> Do you ever read something someone else has written and think "damn, now I cant do that". Who do you read?
> (if you have time)

Answer (cstross):

> Yes, I sometimes get the "Damn, too late, [X] got there first" idea. But seriously? I have time to write 1-2 novels per year, and get roughly novel-sized ideas every month. I have to perform triage on my own writing impulses. So it's usually quite easy to shrug and write something else instead.
>
> What I read: while I'm writing, I tend to go off reading fiction for relaxation -- especially the challenging stuff. It's too much like the day job. When I do get to chow down on a book, I try to read ones that are nothing like what I'm writing. So, as I'm currently working on a space opera (of sorts) I'm mostly indulging in urban fantasy.



Question (revjeremyduncan):

> For someone who is unfamiliar with your work, what book would you suggest as a good starting point (if it's available for Kindle, I will get it as soon as I see your answer)?
>
> Any plans to follow in L. Ron's footsteps and start a religion?

Answer (cstross):

> I'm an atheist (subtype: generally agree with Richard Dawkins but think he could be slightly more polite; special twist: I was raised in British reform Judaism, which is not like American reform Judaism, much less any other strain of organised religion). So: no cults here.
>
> Starting points: for a sampler, you could try my short story collection "Wireless". Which contains one novella that scooped a Locus award, and one that won a Hugo, and covers a range of different styles.
>
> Otherwise ... if you like spy thrillers/Lovecraftiana, try "The Atrocity Archives", if you like space opera try "Singularity Sky"[], if you like singularity-fic try "Accelerando", if you like near-future thrillers try "Halting State".
>
> [] Which was originally titled "Festival of Fools"; the "Singularity Sky" title was imposed on it by editorial fiat ("hey, isn't the singularity kind of hot this month? Let's change the title!").



Question (AndrewDowning):

> Can you please expand on that?
> In what way did your views change?
> Accelerando is one of my all time favourites.

Answer (cstross):

> Sure. See: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2011/06/reality-check-1.html
>
> Note that my views fluctuate wildly. I have another singularity novel coming out this September 4th, co-written with Cory Doctorow: "The Rapture of the Nerds":
>
> http://www.amazon.com/The-Rapture-Nerds-Cory-Doctorow/dp/0765329107/



Question (JesusLasVegas):

> Did you end up with an American agent because all the British agents passed on you? Or did you actually want to do things that way?

Answer (cstross):

> A bit of both. I wanted an agent who would actually sell stuff. After two British agents failed comprehensively, I was reading Locus (the SF field's trade journal) and noticed a press release about an experienced editor leaving her job to join an agent in setting up a new agency. And I went "aha!" -- because what you need is an agent who knows the industry but who doesn't have a huge list of famous clients whose needs will inevitably be put ahead of you. So I emailed her, and ... well, 11 years later I am the client listed at the top of her masthead!



Question (slimme_shady):

> hahahha I'm 15 now. Every time when i have to do an assignment for school, i don't really know how to start, could you give me some advice, please?

Answer (cstross):

> Nope. Because I'm nearly a third of a century older than you, and any advice I could give you about school assignments would be slightly out of date ...!



Question (cheradenine_Zakalwie):

> Wow, I didn't realise the ideas flew in so fast. Is it morbid to ask if you worry about getting it all written before you die? (Im thinking of Terry Pratchett here...)

Answer (cstross):

> Yes, I worry about that. I'm 47. I reckon I can count on 30 more writing years, averaging a book a year (I can't keep up the 2-2.5 a year I used to do these days). And these days I've gotten round to wondering, for each new idea, "do I want to be remembered for this?" before I get to the point of spending a year on it.



(continued below)

Additional notes...

Basic Background

• All GitS stories start out as abstract and confusing -- they essentially drop you into the middle of a mission and are set in the future, amidst a bunch of tech and terminology that you need to learn and understand on the fly. We're talking spy, cloack-and-dagger, intrigue, conspiracy, mystery. This is a good thing.
  
  
• The movies are dense and the series take some time to weave together. It helps to be patient and pay attention, both to the dialogue and to the details that you see in both the foreground and background.
  
  
• The Matrix was heavily influenced by the first movie, and there are even direct, frame-for-frame visual shout outs to the first GitS film in The Matrix.
  
  
• If you enjoy sci-fi like Children of Men, Blade Runner, The Zero Theorem or even Her, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or the Bourne series then you're in for a treat.
  
  
• Ghost in the Shell, as a whole, is the visual successor to Neuromancer, by William Gibson.
  
  Recommended Viewing Order
  
  Start with the first film. It's the foundation for everything else.
  
  
• The first film is an adaptation that differs from the manga, so if you like the movie and then go back and read the manga you won't be slogging through the exact same thing twice.
  
  
• The original came out on Blu-ray [Amazon] only two days ago (yay!), and the new version will be of much better video and audio quality than the initial 1995 version (although the subtitles are apparently not as good).
  
  
• The dubbed voice acting is, for a change, pretty great, so feel free to watch in English or Japanese. The subtitles might be worth using, as the English dub isn't as clearly worded as the original text (if I remember correctly).
  
  
• After you watch the first film, check this out.
  
  Next, I'd watch the two Stand Alone Complex series
  
  
• Both are fantastic. If you watch the first movie first you'll know all or most of the characters. The pacing is much easier to digest and you get to know the characters a lot better. The story is still abstract, twisting and turning... but it's fun to unravel the mystery with our heroes. Makes for great binge watching.
  
  You can watch the second movie or the four Arise episodes in any order.
  
  
• The second movie is probably the most dense, convoluted story in the series. It also has the best animation and is a lot of fun. Now that I think more about it, I think I'd save this for last. But you can really watch it whenever you want, so long as you've finished the first film (it won't otherwise make much sense).
  
  
• Arise is an origin story reboot. The characters have different backgrounds and how they meet is much different than in the original story. There are a number of homages or references to the original movie as well. Compared to the rest of the GitS stuff, Arise felt like lighter fare in terms of its complexity and sophistication. I enjoyed Arise, but this little mini-series is probably my least favorite content within the GitS universe.
  
  Primer Information About the Wider GitS world (Mild Spoilers)
  
  The below is written in a block so as to make provide optical camouflage against accidentally catching spoilers if you don't want to read them.
  
  The goal of this section is to help ease you into understanding the politics and organization of the GitS world.
  
  The GitS world is set in Japan, but there are also international players. Japan has gone to war against other (made up) nations (sorta like Kazakstan), and we meet some of the ex-soldiers. Cybernetic technology is now well integrated into society, but was most extensively developed, weaponized and used by the military. At the most basic level, almost everyone now has brain implants. These implants are the foundation of most of the philosophical discussion in the GitS world. They're also the foundation for most of the crime, communication and investigation. Some people only have those basic neural implants, while others are entirely or almost entirely cybernetic. Much of the philosophical discussion, then, is about the line between the physical body and the soul (ghost), about what makes us individual and unique.
  
  Americans are not the good guys (in many respects, the series extrapolates on how WWII influenced and continues to influence Japan's development and national identity). The Japanese government is divided into self-contained groups: ministries and sections. We follow Section 9. On the surface these groups all work together, but there's really a lot of backstabbing and secret warfare between the groups.
  
  I think that's enough to get you started.
  
  tl;dr: Definitely watch - one of my favorite creations of everything of all time. Enjoy!

I think the best way is to suggest a few that got me into reading. One or two are YA, but well-written enough that I find it as worthwhile a read at 28 as it did at 14.

Ender's Game - Earth Has made contact with an alien species, and... It didn't go well. A program is started to teach a new generation of soldiers how to fight this alien threat. Children are not allowed to be children for long when the future of mankind is on the line. Also, it's being adapted into what is shaping up to be a pretty badass movie.

Snow Crash - Written in the 90's, but it essentially pioneered the concept of the online avatar, and predicted the rise of the MMO. Also, pizza-delivering ninjas. Trust me on this. It's good stuff.

Neuromancer Classic cyber-punk. Most sci-fi is like you see in star trek. Clean and sterile. Cyberpunk is the dirtier side of sci-fi. Organized crime, computer hacking, and a heist on a space station. And Molly. This book is the reason I have a thing for dangerous redheads.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Considered by most to be the very best in sci-fi humor. Lighthearted, hilarious, and I find I can read it in the course of about two days. It is absolutely, completely, and utterly amazing.

American Gods - What happens to the old gods when we start worshiping the new ones? Can the likes of Odin or Anubis compete with our new objects of worship. like television or internet? Remember, Gods only exist as long as folks believe in them. The old Gods aren't going down without a fight, though...

Hope some of these strike your fancy. It's admittedly more sci-fi than anything, but it's all soft sci-fi (Where the science isn't as important as the fiction, so story comes first), and nothing too out there. Please let me know if you decide to try any of these, and especially let me know if you enjoy them. I always like to hear if I help someone find a book they love.

Peter Watts - Blindsight - kinda a harder form of sci fi, great detail about some hard sci fi style like post-scarcity methods, genetic and psychological tweaking, and wow the aliens in this one are really alien Book is available online for free because the author is just that cool.

M. J. Locke - Up Against It - Easier, a young adult sort of sci fi. Ice as a valuable commodity, hackable nanobug poop, and a great AI narrative. Also, one of the main characters has a very very Ripley feel about her, I think you'll like that.

David Simpson - The Post-human series - Just get the whole thing, the books are speedreaders for me. Kinda pulpy, but follows the whole of humanity's awakening to the multiverse and trans-human technology. Does and amazing job of ethics in the age of moddable bodies and backup brains. I'm not spoiling anything for you, but this might be the easiest read of this list. Was free for a while on amazon, now it's only $3

P.J. Haarsma - Virus on Orbis 1 - if you like that young adult feel this and the entire Softwire series should hold you over nicely. Clone babies on a interstellar seed ship, and one of them has a rare superpower, though he doesn't know it. Another AI-centric story, but more abstract with the imagery.

Also, my favorite short story - Alfred Bester- The Stars My Destination - humans have always been able to teleport, but what secrets does Gully Foyle, a proven deadbrain burnout, hold that could revolutionize the discovery again? A pretty great retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. should be public domain by now...

Greetings! Acquiring editor and freelance editor here. Thought I'd give you some info on what I know to be the TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING ROUTE.

Agents are the way to go for traditional publishing. Get a good query letter, a nice synopsis, and a polished manuscript. If you have a good hook and a clean manuscript, then you're in the green.

Check out your favorite authors (the ones that have similar work to your own) and find their agents. See about their agencies as possible places to send queries.


If you're looking for editors (which you should only do once you've done a good deal of revising yourself), a great place to try is your favorite authors again! Check out their publishers and find out if they use in-house or freelance editors. See if you can get in contact with them. Of course, this is going to cost some cash money as this level of editor runs $30-60/hour, if not more.

On the opposite end, college students can make for adequate proofreaders for much less money. However, they won't be the best help when it comes to actual revisions.

When it comes down to it, you need a professional for professional work. There are some editors here on the writing subreddits with varying degrees of skill and expertise. I've done work for fellow redditors at relatively low prices (relatively is the key phrase, as even a 50% discount is putting you at $15/hour) with some good success. If you want more info, send me a PM and I can give you the lowdown on hiring a freelance editor (preferably a local editor so you can go shake their hand).

Even self publications need good editors, though. I spoke briefly with the author of Avagadro Corp. who spoke to the difference in the sales of his first two self-published novels. His first went through low quality editors and he got a lot of flak for it. The second time through, he paid a pro and got great results! William Hertling: He's even got a book on how to maximize the chance of your self publication to hit critical mass.

Rendezvous with Rama the whole series is pretty good.

2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke Collection: The Odyssey) that series as well

Neuromancer

Homeland: The Legend of Drizzt, Book I: Bk. 1
the dark elf trilogy is pretty good

for amazingly deep and rich backdrop you can't beat the Dune (40th Anniversary Edition) (Dune Chronicles, Book 1) at least the first three.. others that were wrote by his son and other authors are ok but dont live up to the originals imho

pretty much all of Robert Heinlein's stuff stranger in a strange land, starship troopers (nothing at all like the movie), Glory Road, Have Spacesuit will travel.

>> Real men jog home from their vasectomies! (I took a bus.)

> I've read this from you about 10 times now and I still giggle.

I do tend to repeat myself. Sorry about that. I'm glad you're still enjoying that one.

> Really? I looked this up and I got spouses. Are you sure?

Mouse -> mice. Spouse -> spice.

I am sure it's a joke. And, it's not original on my part. It's from Heinlein.

> Btw, there is a (suspected) finch family nesting in my mom's clothespin bag. When I saw them I thought of you. Noisy little things. Chirping their fool heads off, hopping around the deck, flying all over the place. They are entertaining. I don't know if there are babies yet, but I've seen the adults bringing bugs into the clothespin bag. No tweeting yet, though.

Cool! I hope you get to see the chicks. With birds that small, they grow up fast. You're most likely to see them when they're about the same size as the adults but more drab and fluttering their wings, chirping, and begging for food. Watch for a bit and you'll see the parents feeding them.

If you get to see them younger and featherless in the nest, that's really lucky. I usually don't.

> If I get a pic I'll send it to you.

Cool. Then maybe I can identify them for you.

P.S. The full quote, though I'd like more context but not enough to dig out the book, is:

> Among such people the plural of spouse is spice.

> --Lazurus Long, Time Enough For Love, pg 339

Ok, you like a lot of the authors I do so Imma try and throw a couple out there.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi Set in future Thailand where global warming has run rampant, the oceans have risen, and gene companies produce food seed continuously to keep ahead of genetic plagues that destroy anything edible. It's some solid hard scifi and if you like Gibson and Dick it should do ya well.

Red Thunder by John Varley Set in the near future the Chinese are clearly going to win the spacerace to Mars and a small group decides to build a ship to beat em. This is the first in a three part series (which I just learned had a third part lookin up that link) and I enjoyed it.

As for fantasy...

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher In the world of The Dresden Files, magic is real, along with ghouls, vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves, zombies and other mythical monsters. Harry Dresden works to protect the general public, who are ignorant of magic and the dark forces conspiring against them. This makes it difficult for Harry to get by as a working wizard and private eye. The Chicago PD's Special Investigation unit, when led by Karrin Murphy, regularly employs Dresden as a consultant to help solve cases of a supernatural nature. I love this series, whenever a new book comes out (and hes up to 14 not counting a few short story collections and such) I read it almost nonstop.

Mosaic 17K written by Christopher Drake is a near future cyberpunk novel that was just published in the last couple of months. The tech in it is all pretty believable and definitely not in the super scary camp. There are many different types of AI in the book, some that are working for positive change and others that aren't. Pretty much everyone in the society has adopted newer technologies to help in their everyday lives. There are robots, cyborgs, virtual realms, and a lot more. The writing is solid and well-paced and has some really believable and awesome characters, too. Definitely recommend giving it a read.

It was brutal. I wasn't that good. But there were many people who were superb. It was such a pleasure watching them perform.

Here are some sci-fi recommendations (you may have read them already, but I thought I'd offer anyway):

Serious Scifi:

Anathem the "multiverse" (multiple realities) and how all that works
Seveneves feminism meets eugenics—watch out!
The Culture series by Iain Banks, esp Book 2, the Player of Games Banks is dead, but wrote some of the best intellectual scifi ever

Brilliant, Visionary:

Accelerando brilliant and hilarious; and it's not a long book
Snowcrash classic
Neuromancer another classic

Tawdry yet Lyrical (in a good way):

Dhalgren beautiful, poetic, urban, stream of consciousness, and more sex than you can believe

Underrated Classics:

Voyage to Arcturus ignore the reviews and the bad cover of this edition (or buy a diff edition); this is the ONE book that every true scifi and fantasy fan should read before they die

Stress Pattern, by Neal Barrett, Jr. I can't find this on Amazon, but it is a book you should track down. It is possibly the WORST science fiction book ever written, and that is why you must read it. It's a half-assed attempt at a ripoff of Dune without any of the elegance or vision that Herbert had, about a giant worm that eats people on some distant planet. A random sample: "A few days later when I went to the edge of the grove to ride the Bhano I found him dead. I asked Rhamik what could have happened and he told me that life begins, Andrew, and life ends. Well, so it does."

> Your last point is interesting, and I do like the idea of using someone's reputation as a gauge for future interaction and trustworthiness. Cory Doctorow's novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom takes place in a society in which one's reputation level is used as both a currency and an indicator of character.

You can thank the original cypherpunks with coming up with the notion. Another useful novels playing with the idea are Daemon/Freedom by Suarez

http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/B003L1ZXCU/

http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0525951571/

> albeit not tamper-proof, that you mentioned without being overtly totalitarian.

It is in principle possible to store information in a distributed cryptographic filesystem in a tamper-proof fashion. A precursor to such practical systems is e.g. Tahoe http://tahoe-lafs.org/~warner/tahoe.html

Fiction Books

Cryptonomicon - Very few books make up a cypher system based on playing cards, have a story that spans WW2 through the present day and in large part revolve around creating an alternate digital currency, a data haven and startup life.

Neuromancer - this is the book that created cyberpunk and that inspired all those bad movie ideas about hacking in 3D systems. That being said, it marked a real turning point in SciFi. Without this book "cyber" security specialists would probably be called something else.

Snow Crash - This is much more breezy than the other two but still has very recognizable hacking/security elements to it and is just fun.

Non Fiction

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - This isn't a book about technology so much as deduction and figuring things out (while being hilariously entertaining).

I included all these here in large part because they are what inspired me to get into development and sysadmin work and I bet that I'm about 20 years older than you if you're just getting into the field - so there's a decent chance that your coworkers are into them too.

Do you read cyberpunk? Looking at art is great but I find reading to be the biggest inspiration because how I imagine the world is unique and original to me. Likewise, how you imagin the world will be unique and original too and completely different from how I see it. Check out books like Neuromancer, the book that started cyberpunk.

[edit] One of my favorite quotes from the book

> His eyes were eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a frequency whose name was rain and the sound of trains, suddenly sprouting a humming forest of hair-fine glass spines.

Paints a different kind of picture than you can get from images.

I have a four book series about the emergence of artificial intelligence that Wired called "chilling and compelling." It starts with Avogadro Corp: http://www.amazon.com/Avogadro-Corp-Singularity-Closer-Appears-ebook/dp/B006ACIMQQ/

The series spans forty years, and is ideal for people interested in the singularity, the progress of technology and its impact on people and civilization, and is especially well liked by software developers and others in tech, since the protagonists of most of the novels are programmers.

I recommend the Posthuman series.

http://www.amazon.com/Post-Human-Series-Books-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00H0D5NTI

Very good AI themes. I do admit it gets pretty deep scifi pretty quickly, I think he takes it a little too far to be honest. That said, read all 4 books, they're short and the 4th one redeems that 3rd one.

Thank you for supporting small publishers, OP. :)

I missed the initial selection, but I'll throw this out there on the off-chance anyone else is interested. I plan to dig through and buy a few of the books that are listed as well, because frankly, they seem damn interesting.

A few months back I released Mosaic 17K. It's a near-future cyberpunk thriller about Sophie Locke, a hacker born in 2017 and coming-of-age in 2036. If any of us had a child this year, this book is timed to land as his/her potential future.

Mosaic 17K deals with artificial intelligence, virtual reality, advanced materials science, future medical advances, and the societal effects of rising sea levels. The first half is a mounting murder mystery, with the second half being a faster, more action-oriented pace. It's a long book (kindle estimates 13+ hours for some readers), for those who like a deep read.

Main reason it doesn't have a lot of reviews yet seems to be that people are taking their time with it. It's been a nerve-wracking few months, as I distract myself with writing my first fantasy novel.

I have several good recommendations for this one. First I will give you two fiction books you MUST read if this subject is a real interest of yours.

Islands In The Net by: Bruce Sterling
https://www.amazon.com/Islands-Net-Bruce-Sterling-ebook/dp/B00PDDKVXK/

Neuromancer by William Gibson
https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595

For non-fiction the one book that really did it for me was again by Mr. Sterling it's called The Hacker Crackdown and it is so amazing!!
https://www.amazon.com/Hacker-Crackdown-Disorder-Electronic-Frontier/dp/055356370X

Good luck. PM for more recommendations if you need them. This is a genre I am very interested in myself and have read extensively.

The world wide web series by Robert Sawyer is fantastic.
http://www.amazon.com/WWW-Wake-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/B002YNS11Q

Hominids, Flashforward, and Calculating God are also very good books by Robert. Anything by Robert is good :)

Also try Alistair Reynold's Revelation Space series, they are phenomenal. And also anything by Isaac Asimov - that guy's a legend.

Maybe not the same book, but Cyberdrome sounds similar. Great book, and a free read on Amazon Prime!

Interesting, I'm reading Cory Doctorow's latest novel, which comes from a (very) roughly similar moral perspective as well. It's pretty weird. Although in the fictional universe (medium-term future) cheap 3D printing supposedly makes possible the post-scarcity conditions necessarily for "decommodifying labor and offering every human the resources to flourish". But so far the book reads a lot like a communist Atlas Shrugged, up to and including the long-winded philosophical monologues. Maybe it will get better though; the story itself has some interesting sci-fi elements, so I haven't given up yet.

I really enjoyed these books and have read a lot of similar self published works. A series that is very similar is B.V. Larson's Star Force series.
http://www.amazon.com/Swarm-Star-Force-Series-ebook/dp/B004H8FVEQ/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

I am a glutton for any type of military scifi and will read through a lot of the self published authors, and some of these authors sell a surprising amount of books. Thomas Deprima is one of these authors as eggrock has pointed out, his series is one of the better selling ones. Although its not selling like it did about a year ago. I do disagree with him on his beliefs that he wrote all his good reviews. There are a lot of people who like his style of writing.

Going back to whether I've read any of his other works, I have not. Although I have debated buying Accelerated, Strontium 90, and Invasion Alaska on a few occasions. I've just never worked up the desire to read them. So I guess we're in the same boat. You can always go to his amazon page and read the reviews.

Love this series highly recommend it up until the third book but the fourth book... His other series on silver wings fits the bill as well though.

A few other great reads though that are fairly similar listed in the order of my preference.

• A sword into darkness by Thomas A.mays
  
• swarm by B.v Larson
  
• exodus: empires at war by doug Dandridge.
  
• The nameless War by edmond Barrett
  
  
  Also sorry about high jacking this started writing this as a response then ended up recommending a bunch of other books .

I doubt this is it, but I'll plug Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein.

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Enough-Love-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441810764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371002335&sr=8-1&keywords=time+enough+for+love

Hopefully it might help you or someone else get pointed in the right direction.

Yeah, Im fully into ebooks, but the cost really is BS. I think there is some drama between publishers and amazon that always inflates the prices. Some self published authors have really cheap Ebooks (I loved this book and its sequels and they're only $3-$5 each). So there is a chance the prices may go down at some point if something changes between amazon and publishers.

I actually got into Ebooks while pirating them, so cost wasn't an issue, after awhile i got so used to the convenience of having it on my phone I couldn't go back to print. Then i had a little more spending money and decided buying them was even more convenient.

I'm reading Time Enough For Love by Robert Heinlein right now. It takes place in the year 4272 in an interplanetary human civilization with "the Senior", who's been alive since the 1940's (and who's genes aided research into 'rejuvenation clinics' for the wealthy and connected), giving his life stories and wisdom to the leader of a planet who wants to leave and colonize a new world. It's a fascinating read, and gets into some decent scientific detail too. Heinlein also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers.

I just finished reading the first book in The Singularity series. Not the greatest book ever, but it's something you might not have heard of which is definitely worthy of attention. It has the added benefit of being fairly short and fast paced.

Sounds like you might enjoy Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. I think Snow Crash is meant to be in the same universe - it's hilarious but not as dense. You might also like his Cryptonomicon, though it's not technically Sci Fi.

Tad Willams' Otherland Series is Epic Sci Fi with a huge amount of detail. Might be right up your alley.

Dune, Neuromancer and The Enderverse if you haven't already read those.

Hey, everyone! I just published Numbercaste, a scifi novel in the vein of The Circle and Black Mirror.
It's 302 pages - a very Orwellian story told through the eyes of a man who gets offered a job in Silicon Valley.

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0748BRB87
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1521795436

Amazon's emailed me to say the two will be linked in the store within 48 hours.

Pricing - I've set the Kindle edition price to $0.99 for this first week (it's Friday, GMT+5.30 here). After which it'll go back to its original price of $2.99. Honest reviews welcome!

just finished the bitterbynde trilogy, lovely high fantasy novel based on the folklore of the british isles.

currently in the middle of cory doctorow's new novel, walkaway, which is shaping up nicely

For sheer 'play in the virtual world' stuff, you MUST read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. You'll blaze through that, so follow it up with Stephenson's The Diamond Age


Good YA dystopic future stuff:
The Windup Girl

Station Eleven


Finally, get into Neuromancer, by William Gibson. It's a fantastic--some would say genre-defining--cyberpunk novel.

Then go devour everything Stephenson and Gibson put out there. That should get you through at least the first half of the summer. Happy reading!

I like a lot of Non-Fiction and just finished Think Like A Freak, by the Freakanomics authors and really enjoyed it! If you like novels, I highly recommend The Peripheral

https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595

 

Check out r/cyberpunk

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series)

 

Neuromancer is coined as the novel that started it all in terms of what is known as cyberpunk today. Altered Carbon is a new show on netflix coming tomorrow and Blade Runner as far as I am concerned is the best sci fi movie ever made. r/cyberpunk is a good place to start your journey but feel free to message me and talk about cyberpunk stuff anytime you want.

Good fiction excites the mind and teaches new concepts. Most future minded scientists are science fiction fans for that reason.

Snow Crash is just a fun ride. Pulp fiction, not more complex or involved than that. Enders Game is the same.

Try the fanfiction I recommended, or Understand (pdf) by Ted Chiang, or The Last Question by Asimov, or Baby Eating Aliens by Yudkowsky. All of these are free, by the way, and relatively short.

Each have important lessons embedded in good stories, philosphical quandries that we are rapidly approaching, like what will it mean to be human when we are no longer entirely biological?

Also, if you want just a reeeeeaallly good scifi book, I don't think you can go past Neuromancer by Gibson. Less thought provoking but seriously well written.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

I'm assuming that you're looking for stories set in a recognisable, modern or near-future setting, in that case:

• I enjoyed Gibsons other books; the remaining 2 in the Sprawl trilogy are great, there's also the Bridge trilogy and the Bigend trilogy (the last being in more or less modern times).
  
  
• You could try Halting State and Rule 34 by Charles Stross (we're reading Rule 34 in r/SF_Book_Club this month).
  
  
• Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley
  
  
• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.
  
  
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
  
  
• The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

You can be non-specific and say "award nominated" or "award winning" but if this is your book you have a much, much more hard hitting reviews and kudos than what this award offers.

ebook. Happy happy birthdaaaaay!!

it's the weekend

That was so much fun!

And by the way. You are looking STUNNING today. Like, I can't look away! So... so... beautiful...

(also, I think I would like this from my wishlist)

Avogadro goes into great detail on A.I. designed to do exactly what OP said happened. It's sci-fi and amazing.

Exit Earth, by Martin Caidin. Good old apocalyptic everyone-fight-for-a-spot-on-the-rescue-ship pulp. One-dimensional characters, but some really compelling scenery. A guilty pleasure.

Charon's Ark, by Rick Gauger, if you can find it. Aliens kidnap an entire airliner full of high school students and take them to an intergalactic zoo that's actually a diamond shell surrounding a singularity run by an evil computer. Also, dinosaurs. No, really, it actually works.

The Gaea Trilogy by John Varley. Guy has a knack for writing good characters and absorbing action. Red Thunder was another great book of his, involving a bunch of relative misfits who build a homebrew spacecraft to beat the Chinese to Mars.

Sure!

Cryptonomicon

Snow Crash

The Electric Church

Neuromancer

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

That should get you started. :)

You might like this. It's somewhere in the middle between soft and hard sci-fi in my relative opinion, but I found it a good read.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Post-Human-Omnibus-1-4-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00H0D5NTI - books 1-4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inhuman-Book-Post-Human-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00HYLX4R4 - book 5

These are all great books too

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forever-War-3-Book/dp/B00W6RJ6SC - Joe Haldeman's Forever War

https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Sins-Remembered-GOLLANCZ-S-F-ebook/dp/B005HRTA4I Joe Haldeman's All My Sins Remembered

Granted not exactly to your spec, as it's 1980's sci-fi and thus based around now, HOWEVER very good story.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J3EU5RC - Greg Bear's Eon books

Haha, I actually read a great book that was self published! CyberStorm http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BT4QRHG

There's a really good trilogy by Robert J Sawyer called WWW (first is titled "Wake", second is "Watch", third is "Wonder") which deals with this idea.

It's quite interesting and worth a read, imo.

There's a series of books that I found on kindle that's literally called Post Human.

Book one is good.

A plot point from book two onward is kind of odd. [Spoiler](/s "Divorce seems to be not a thing? and everyone's medical status is always being broadcast to their spouse so if you see someone attractive who is not your spouse then they instantly know. And since everyone is effectively immortal this comes up a lot, which is why divorce not being an option seems kind of stupid." )

Anyway, it's a minor plot point and just really odd which is why I mentioned it.

As to the tech, it's maybe magic? I'm not sure but it's definitely on the softer side of sci-fi.

Still worth a read if you have kindle unlimited.

Books! Yeah, baby! Here are three:

Daemon and
Freedom

by Daniel Suarez. The first was self-published, became a hit, and the second is the recently-released sequel. Excellent near-future SciFi about a tech billionaire who sets up an internet daemon to take over the world, basically, after he dies of cancer. Violent, thought-provoking, and absolutely worth reading. My wife liked them also.

The Unincorporated Man by the Kollin brothers -- also new authors; also very talented. The chapter on the "virtual reality plague" alone is worth the time and price of the book, but the whole thing is very compelling.

[Edit because I can't type more than a sentence w/o a typo]

Mosaic 17K by Christopher Drake definitely fits this description. Near future, dystopian SF. It's the author's first novel and, imo a damned good read. I've read it twice so far. Right now it's free through Kindle Unlimited not sure for how long though.

I really enjoyed Avogadro Corp (first in a series). It's a compelling and plausible story about an emergent AI, and it takes place in the not-too-distant future.

(disclaimer: I know the author, but I met him after reading the book, and I enjoyed the book before I knew him)

• so this is the best utopia of their books?
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Cory-Doctorow/e/B001I9RSKC
  
  
  '17
  
  
  
  800 3.75 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40604388-walkaway
  
  
  200 3.8 https://www.amazon.com/Walkaway-Novel-Cory-Doctorow-ebook/dp/B01FQQ47OC
  
  
  > set in early days of a better world. /u/finfinfin /u/Ungreat

My friend suggested this to me! Looks exciting!

Thanks for the contest!

OMG I need to choose just one?? Blergh.

uhm - this one - and used would be totally more than okay if I happened to win.

Daemon and Freedom comprise a two-part novel by the author Daniel Suarez about a distributed, persistent computer application, known as The Daemon, that begins to change the real world after the original programmer's death. I'm in the middle of Freedom and these books have effectively Blown My Fucking Mind.

An episode set in the backdrop of a NYC Blackout would be really cool. Like a parody of the real NYC blackout of 1977. Maybe it's the dark army's real motive for working with Elliot on "Stage 2". Elliot even says something in beginning of s2e9 like "we never questioned the dark army's motives"). It is totally plausible, even likely, that the Dark Army is sponsored by the State (China), maybe they want to have the first strike in a true Cyber War with the US. First they break down society by aiding the crash of the financial system and encouraging dissent. Next cut the power, civilization starts to unfold, next bring the telecom systems down, invade, WWIII! Ok I'll put my tin foil hat back on.

edit - this is also a part of the plot of a book I read recently called Cyber Storm

If you haven't read it yet try out

http://www.amazon.com/CyberStorm-English-Edition-Matthew-Mather-ebook/dp/B00BT4QRHG/

By the same author. I haven't read Darknet yet but CyberStorm was great.

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.
  
  ----
  
  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.

General

Neuromancer By William Gibson

Neuromancer spawned the Cyberpunk genre and is responsible for much of cyber culture today, despite being written before the internet entered the public consciousness. Interesting characters, poetic descriptions, and a drug-addled noir atmosphere.


>Goodreads blurb: The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . .

>Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employers crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

>Hotwired to the leading edges of art and technology, Neuromancer ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the century's most potent visions of the future. (less)

I've enjoyed both of those authors, so I guess I'll recommend some books I've liked.

In no particular order (links to the first book in the series, on amazon):

The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell

Spinward Fringe by Randolph Lalonde

Star Force by B.V. Larson

Honor Harrington series by David Weber

Valor series by Tanya Huff

I choose Neuromancer.

I have never read it but I have been told I need to. Also, Neuromancer is the first novel to win the Sci-Fi triple crown (Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick award). It came out in 1984 and coined the term "cyberspace" for online computer networks. Other terms such as ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) were also coined or given significance through this novel. Also the term "Matrix" when referring to a computer network was used here (Suck on that Matrix trilogy).

Oh man. I've been waiting for a thread like this to pop up. I loved Neuromancer to no end, along with House of Leaves. Containment was good shit too, very interesting read, but relies on easy plot fixes. It doesn't ruin the story, in my opinion.

You also can't go wrong with anything by Kurt Vonnegut and Phillip K. Dick.

Point of note: I hadn't met/encountered Cory when I wrote "Lobsters" (the first story that went into Accelerando) in 1998.

Subsequently Cory and I co-wrote another fix-up novel, The Rapture of the Nerds, which you can take as a comic pratfall sequel to the novel-of-ideas that was Accelerando. You can buy it here if you want to support our work, or download it for free if you just want to sample it.

Never been to a reading, date or otherwise. Are they any good? I tend to like just reading my books, you know.

I have no OKC dating-related reading stories. I saw a girl on tram reading 'Infinite Jest' once and I wanted to ask her out so bad. But rude, so I didn't.

Some girl came to me at the bookshop and started talking to me once. I think she was flirting, but honestly, I was too engrossed in my book so I blew her off. Reading is serious business.

Right now I'm reading 'The Blockade Breakers: The Berlin Airlift' by Helena P. Schrader and re-reading Charles Stross's 'Halting State'.

Inhuman by David Simpson. 5 books. Pretty good match to what you are after.

The post-human series is one of my all time favorite tanshuman series. It's got some good character development, A.I., most may consider it leaning towards fantasy in some aspects. I always just remember the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00H0D5NTI/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488172906&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=post+human+omnibus&dpPl=1&dpID=51nKxcjtmcL&ref=plSrch

I've recently read two books that I absolutely fell in love with:

1.) Stories of Your Life and Others: http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1931520720/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413578672&sr=8-1&keywords=stories+of+your+life+and+others

2.) Neuromancer (A classic that I've just gotten into): http://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413578739&sr=8-1&keywords=neuromancer

Would you be interested in William Gibson's Neuromancer? I have the paperback that I'm sure I'll never read. Let me know!

Love reading on my kindle, and now prefer it to real books.


[Cyberdrome] (https://www.amazon.com/Cyberdrome-Joseph-Rhea-ebook/dp/B0012Q6G5Y)


[Old Man's War] (https://www.amazon.com/Old-Mans-War-John-Scalzi-ebook/dp/B000SEIK2S/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1524503897&sr=1-1)


[The Last Revolution] (https://www.amazon.com/Last-Revolution-R-T-Carpenter-ebook/dp/B00EFL3QK6/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1524504042&sr=1-10)

I wouldn't call it paranoia. The media is totally sensationalizing what he says. But nothing he has said has been wrong. Nukes are insanely dangerous, but a nuke doesn't think.

I think the first nuclear tests were even extremely risky, if I recall correctly, during a documentary I was watching it was said that they weren't exactly sure what would happen... they had a good idea but it was simply an idea. (idea == theory)

Elon Musk wants to dump money into making sure our first AI is developed to be benevolent rather than self serving, I say why not? There's actually a good sci-fi book that touches on this subject: Post-Human (Amazon).

[Post-Human Spoiler](/s "Essentially, China rushes an AI to win the world war but in the process of rushing the AI essentially takes over and begins to attempt to wipe out the planet. The government is finally able to send a suicide team with a tactical nuke to take it out, at which point strong AI is banned. Meanwhile a team secretly works on a strong AI but with the intent of having it be a protector of humanity from both other strong AIs but also from itself and their environment. Long story short, it ends up doing all of that.")

I enjoyed "Time Enough for Love"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Long

Also:

"Elantris" and "Warbreaker" by Brandon Sanderson

Oh! Also check out "The Mummy or Ramses the Damned" by Anne Rice!

Great! My address is 126 Albert Street, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3T1. The edition I'm sending is http://www.amazon.com/dp/0441569595, and is in like-new condition.

Avogadro corp series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006ACIMQQ

AI isn't omnipotent, but close, and a very good description on how the AI comes to be.

They're light reading and not hard scifi, but the WWW trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002361NDM/ and Avogadro Corp https://www.amazon.com/Avogadro-Corp-Singularity-Closer-Appears-ebook/dp/B006ACIMQQ are both entertaining and in that niche.

I recommend 2 series by BV Larson:

First Swarm Book 1 of "Star Force"

Second Steel World Book 1 of the "Undying Mercenaries"

Also The Synchronicity War by Dietmar Wehr

Now for a shameless plug for my favorite Sci-fi book: We Are Legion book 1 of "Bobiverse" There is some ship to ship fighting. But its more Sci-fi comedy.

> What if my children or a younger friend will be immortal? In a thousand years they will have forgotten the 40 years they spent with me.

If that's really what you believe, may I suggest reading Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough for Love. ( Amazon )

Believe it or not there are quite a few good sci-fi books exploring these ideas already. Here is an incomplete list you may want to check out:

• Snow Crash where it's called the 'Metaverse'
  
• Otherland where it's called 'Otherland'
  
• Neuromancer where it's called 'The Matrix' (pre-dates the movie by the same name by more than 10 years, fyi)
  
• Hyperion where it's called the 'data plane'.

Finally finished my ASoIaF re-read, though I think that was before December. AFfC and aDwD are so fucking underrated. I seriously have a hard time figuring out who the hell is reading that series in the first place that somehow doesn't get those two books.

Kinda want to put some more fantasy/sci-fi in the rotation but over the last couple months I've made some attempts that remind me why I gave up most genre fiction. Started into Simmons' Hyperion and holy fuck if I never hear the word "cruciform" again . . . It seems like there could be a cool story under there, but the writing is clumsy as hell (yes, even after accounting for what's up with the stretch with all the "cruciform" bullshit). Listening to the audiobook might have aggravated the repetitiveness of some portions, but uggh. I feel like I'll eventually finish at least Hyperion just because of how much positive stuff I've heard about the story but I doubt it's gonna reel me in for the two sequels.

Also tried dipping my toe into the first of Sanderson's Stormlight books and goddamn I am not going to finish that one. Turns out everything in the world is a compound word, formed of the kewlest words Sanderson knows. Storm+light. Shard+blade. Oath+pact. "Oathpact." It's a compound word made out of fucking synonyms. It's super high fantasy, which makes me leery to begin with, but every other word is a proper compound noun that I would've made up for my D&D games when I was 11. Despite all the made up words there's still no useful descriptions of the world; I know the magic armor is scaled, but have no idea who the people being killed are or why I'd care. Like three chapters of this jargony bullshit and I still don't even know what the little fairies that apparently appear everywhere, constantly, in response to everyone's emotions, even look like. People sprinting across a battlefield can still casually converse about how clever their tactics are, even while too rushed to simply grip a shield. This is why genre fiction is a ghetto, people.

Got The Peripheral for my birthday a bit ago, and I'm about to be unemployed and sober for a bit so I'm going to be just straight blasting through this bitch. Got some book on a mathematical proof of natural selection for Christmas, should take about an afternoon it looks like.

After that I'm'a stack a couple serious sounding things -- Wittgenstein's Blue and Brown or Philosophic Investigations, go back and reread The Prince, like serious-taking-notes-and-shit style. Mebbe raid my buddy's library of political philosophy textbooks. And 1:1 salt in some lighter stuff -- still got a stack of Thompson's later shit to work through, still need to read Confederacy of Dunces, etc.

BV Larson's Star Force series is pretty decent.

I first saw it in neuromancer. If you haven't read neuromancer yet... You really should. Also count zero and mona Lisa overdrive; these 3 books form the Sprawl trilogy and were hugely influential in the formation of the cyberpunk genre.

I read a book a while back called Avogadro Corp, which is about Google a fictionalized tech company creating a project that inadvertently becomes self-aware. For what it's worth, I think it's very close to what you're looking for.

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.

Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Stars in My Pockets Like Grains of Sand by Samuel Delany.

My nomination might be quite a difficult read but it is short in comparison and may leave us invigorated.

Neuromancer by William Gibson [SCIFI,NS]

> * The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . .
Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

Hope you like it.

Sprawl Trilogy, if you've been living under a rock.

Halting state (http://www.amazon.com/Halting-State-Ace-Science-Fiction/dp/0441016073)vis apparantly good.

> Also, what are you reading lately?

I got the first Saga book (already had #2 and #3) and blew threw that today. Getting ready to start The Peripheral.

Careful, if they become sentient they could start subtley creating their own sleeper agents. The Book

I'm almost always juggling reading material. At the moment I am reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, and Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Just finished reading Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet by John G Turner, which I highly recommend.

Yes. Neuromancer by William Gibson. Gibson is the father of cyberpunk.

See Daemon and more importantly Freedom tm for how the world works with game theory. Read them before they become movies.

• Dune by Frank Herbert.
  
  
• Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer - somewhat of a longshot, but something made me think of it.
  
  
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
  
  
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
  
  
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami.
  
  
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
  
  
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand .
  
  
• Neuromancer by William Gibson.
  
  
• The Running Man by Stephen King.
  
  You might even get a kick out of The Hunger Games or Divergent... And of course 1984 :)

• William Gibson's Neuromancer and related.
  
  
• Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon and sequels. Also Thirteen.
  
• China Mievlle's The Scar. I can't vouch for his other books - reading in publication order would be to start with Perdito Street Station instead, but I haven't read it myself, yet.
  
• Warren Hammond's Kop and sequels - I feel like this series has been a bit neglected by this subreddit, and I don't know why I rarely see it mentioned here. IMO this series is better than Morgan's sequels to Altered Carbon.

The Post Human Series by David Simpson might fit the bill https://www.amazon.com/Post-Human-Omnibus-1-4-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00H0D5NTI

I'm going to chip in Stephenson's Snow Crash should be on the list, as well as Gibson's Neuromancer.

Here's a transcript and web audio / web video / download audio, 43MB MP3, 1hr 33min / download video, 197MB MP4, 1hr 41min of the full interview. He also reads a chapter from his upcoming novel The Peripheral, which you can now pre-order (Amazon.com / Amazon UK).

The original is called Neuromancer btw, if anyone is looking for it.

https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595

Related sci-fi novel Avogadro Corp.

The premise is "What if Google invents the world's first AI, and it's a paperclip maximizer of language?"

I'm certain this is the Post Human series - https://www.amazon.com/Post-Human-Omnibus-1-4-Book-ebook/dp/B00H0D5NTI

No. The Lazarus Long story was great, but consider the downside.

I felt Billy Burke was billy burke, he's always the same character, be he 'revolutionary' on revolution or serial killer extraordinary on The Closer / Major Crimes. It's always the same.

The girl who was the lead was weak, her brother was worse. The woman from Lost never impressed me. Actually my favorite actor/character on the movie was the guy who went 'rogue' and was the partner of billy burke.

TV shows end on cliff hangers because they expect to be renewed. Unless they know in advance it's the last season expect a cliff hanger or at least 'unpleasant' ending.

See "we learn from our parents" that's a purely human thing - that's not how AI would learn per se - they would learn from data, their evolution would be quick but it would also be very not human.

I got the authors name wrong (my fault) - it's William Hertling - the Singularity Series first book here is a more interesting take on how AI would evolve.

You don't 'understand' human emotion - you have it or you don't - you can fake it - but you can't really have it - at best you have a three laws situation - because if you don't - you're going to get ai with sociopathic like tendencies.

You are born with emotion, you come out crying, you learn emotion through life events that AI would never experience, human beings can barely program a learning process, you then expect them to work emotions and morals into it? It's not likely, not in real life, to program human emotion you have to understand not only what it is but where it comes from and how it evolves, and humanity is nowhere close to that...the speed with which AI is evolving is PURELY learning- nothing else - the only 'emotion' these AIs will have is if they choose to.

Now that I think about it, the hertling series and the sawyer series about AIs are interesting with two similar 'endings' (in the gross outcome of what happens to humanity but for entirely different reasons) but very disparate AIs.

FYI, there is a semi-sequel that just came out a few days ago: http://www.amazon.com/The-Rapture-Nerds-singularity-posthumanity/dp/0765329107 It was a joint effort between Stross and Cory Doctorow (who bears a strange resemblance to Macx)

I'd recommend Halting State and Rule 34 by Charles Stross. In form they are near-future poilce procedurals, in a world where virtual reality increasing impinges on the real world. "Halting State" involves a robbery in an MMORG that has real-world consequences. "Rule 34" involves a series of murders in Edinburgh, Scotland, that lead to a deep conspiracy rooted in a former Russian republic. The stories use the implications of virtual reaiity and online communications jumped up well beyond what we have now, and their representation of how virtual reality will affect everyday lives and police work will have you thinking.

If you want to a book by Stross that's just pure, balls-to-the-wall ideas, try "Accelerando" available for free, here. It's not representative of his later work, but if you want something to get you mind working ... it'll do.

I suggest you read Cyberstorm. I devoured it during a snowstorm last winter and wallowed in delicious panic with every page.

Heinlein's Time Enough for Love is like this. Lazarus Long starts out in full depression and even has a [Spoiler:](#s "button he is told will kill him but really just erases his memories for the past few hours") and uses it, several times. He abducted, OD's on drugs, gets shot, gets sent to the wrong [Spoiler:](#s "time by several years and his child self is an asshole to him"). He has to deal with several deaths including the deaths of people he loves.

It is Scifi and it is heinlein so it can be weird, he also did A Stranger in Strange Land and Starship Troopers. The main character is functionally immortal and has lost the will to live, and there is a bunch of non-conventional sex. If you can get past or enjoy ;) that then you will likely enjoy Time Enough for Love.

Red Thunder had characters who took a monster truck to Mars.

• Neuromancer - William Gibson
  
• Dune - Frank Herbert
  
• Gateway - Frederik Pohl
  
• Halting State - Charles Stross
  
• Eon - Greg Bear
  
• Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
  
• Solaris - Stanislaw Lem

7 bucks.

So far as you know.

Neuromancer https://www.amazon.com/dp/0441569595/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_bQNQBbPVB7VPK

That’s the copy I have.

Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Neuromancer https://www.amazon.com/dp/0441569595/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_ixV8AbZ5SWX6N

Slant by Greg Bear

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

Here is the mobile version of your link

Time Enough For Love!

That's part of the title