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0 pointsKirillPanov5y ago0 comments

> I loved Permutation City

Who doesn't? ;) If you want the freebase, rock-smokeable version, try _Axiomatic_ by the same author. Only fiction book I've found that detours into a (set-theoretically correct!) discussion of transfinite cardinalities.

> and most of Ted Chiang

I'm about to start _Stories of Your Life and Others_, haven't read any other Chiang yet.

For a post-scarcity world you might find more interesting, try MOPI -- if you can look past (or enjoy) the weird sex in the first chapter. Kind of amazing that he wrote it in 1994; in retrospect so much of singularity-AI/transhumanist sci-fi was just aping what he did first:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis_of_Prime_Int...

I rated MOPI at "800 milli-Egans".

And, of course, there's always the Sci-Fi masterwork from which I stole my HN username.

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7 comments · 2 top-level

RobertoG5y ago· 5 in thread

I don't get the reference to your username, who is it?

Because I have read the other of your recommendations (you and the gp), and I agree with them, I want to add my two cents (in not special order):

"Recursion" by Tony Ballantine, "Counting Heads" by David Marusek, "In the mouth of the whale" by Paul McAuley, "House of Suns" by Alistair Reynolds, "Diaspora" by Greg Egan,"The Collapsium" by Will McCarthy, "Signal to noise" by Eric S. Nylund, "Stations of the tide" by Michael Swanwick, "Schismatrix" by Bruce Sterling

mrslave5y ago

Kirill is a character in Vadim Panov's Enclaves.

To the greater conversation, my relationship with sci-fi is on-and-off but I really enjoyed A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. This one got me back into it. I recently finished the Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space trilogy which was amazing except for the third novel which was a little tiresome and ultimately unsatisfying.

RobertoG5y ago

>>"Kirill is a character in Vadim Panov's Enclaves."

Thanks, I will check that.

If you like Vinge, there is a little gem that it's, I think, not very known: "Marooned in Realtime" (1). It's the second in a series but it can be read alone without problem.

Also the short story by Vinge, "The cookie monster" is very good (recommended going blind for this one, not spoilers)

By Reynolds, my favorite, it's "House of Suns", I get a 50's Science Fiction vibe from it, and, at the same time, it's modern Science Fiction.

(1) - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/167847.Marooned_in_Realt...

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pas5y ago

It's not a trilogy though :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_universe#Book...

I particularly recommend his short fiction books if you don't want to get into Dune-lenght series.

detritus5y ago

Mm, I recently read Revelation Space after years of being slightly put off by the various covers I'd seen it clad in (I know, I know) and was elated to find a 'stand-in' for my beloved late IMB. So similar in many ways - I was quite annoyed at myself for not having taken the plunge prior.

KirillPanovOP5y ago

No, Kirill Panov is a character in _Roadside Picnic_.

gonehome5y ago

Thanks - I'll check those out :).

For Stories of Your Life and Others the first short story (while entertaining) is not really representative so don't let it discourage you if you don't like it.

My favorite in the collection was the last story, but a lot of them are interesting.

I think Permutation City was also 1994 - I was impressed how correct he got AWS.

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