| Snow Crash |
Neal Stephenson |
Recommended. |
I bought this book as a gift for my girlfriend, but she didn't manage to finish it because she couldn't stop cringing at all the lame crap inside. I also found myself cringing throughout the book, but I still found the whole thing pretty enjoyable. Features one of the least bad of the famously bad Neal Stephenson endings. |
| Slaughterhouse Five |
Kurt Vonnegut |
Recommended. |
I was never made to read this in high school, so I picked it up before a flight. I like the style. |
| The Three Body Problem |
Cixin Liu |
Highly recommended! |
This book takes a while to get going, but it gets really good. The TV show is terrible, though. |
| The Dark Forest |
Cixin Liu |
Worth it for the sequel |
This is the sequel to the Three Body Problem, and it's a lot less good. |
| Death's End |
Cixin Liu |
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! |
This book is AWESOME. Tons of really creative ideas in here; it makes slogging through The Dark Forest completely worth it. |
| Unsong (online version) |
Scott Alexander |
Highly recommended! |
Really fun story, though it kind of reads like fanfiction. Loved the lore of the whole thing, I left my friend's birthday party to sit on the ground in a tennis court and read this on my phone, and I do not regret it :) |
| Dark Wire |
Joseph Cox |
Not recommended. |
This book should have been a magazine article. |
| Cryptonomicon |
Neal Stephenson |
Recommended. |
The perspective switches are more jarring in this book than in Stephenson's other works. Still a compelling story. |
| Seveneves |
Neal Stephenson |
Recommended. |
I didn't love all the politics at the beginning, but the recolonization of Earth after the Hard Rain was really cool. |
| The Diamond Age |
Neal Stephenson |
Recommended. |
This is a book about what would happen if ChatGPT was good. Also, nanotechnology. |
| Fall, or Dodge in Hell |
Neal Stephenson |
Recommended. |
Not for everyone. Starts slow, finishes poorly, but the lore of the afterlife MMO is awesome. |
| Foundation |
Isaac Asimov |
Recommended. |
Great story, though it's very surface-level about how its technology works. |
| Foundation and Empire |
Isaac Asimov |
Recommended. |
Continues Foundation coherently. Maybe a little soap operatic? |