| 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? |
| Second Foundation |
Isaac Asimov |
Recommended. |
The best of the Foundation series so far. Fleshes out the details of the mind-reading stuff into something that kind of makes sense. Makes more sense given the whole ESP craze that was happening at the time. |
| Foundation's Edge |
Isaac Asimov |
Recommended. |
For a sequel written 30 years later, actually does a great job. The search for Earth plotline was too attractive to deny, but he managed to twist it into something pretty interesting. |
| Anathem |
Neal Stephenson |
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! |
This book is really really good. Probably my favorite Neal Stephenson book. Unique concept, executed perfectly. |
| REAMDE |
Neal Stephenson |
Not recommended. |
You know a thriller is bad when it takes you multiple days to get through the last 30 pages. |
| I, Robot |
Isaac Asimov |
Recommended. |
Starts out pretty weak, but builds into something pretty interesting. Again, kind of a surface-level take on the technology. |
| Neuromancer |
William Gibson |
DO NOT READ! |
Frustrating and self-indulgent. Cringe like an '80s movie without any of the interesting parts. |
| Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? |
Philip K. Dick |
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! |
It's like if someone took Blade Runner and replaced all the confusion with cool lore. Also, the writing is really good. Probably my favorite book. |