Best hard science fiction books according to redditors

We found 1,032 Reddit comments discussing the best hard science fiction books. We ranked the 300 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Hard Science Fiction:

u/tekronis · 56 pointsr/reddit.com
u/F1END · 54 pointsr/scifi

There's some fairly steamy stuff in Altered Carbon

u/gabwyn · 47 pointsr/scifi

Here are the recently published novels we've covered in the /r/SF_Book_Club (you can check out the survey results for these books from the sidebar over there):

u/proindrakenzol · 42 pointsr/anime

I read a(n American written) novel where a programmer from our world got summoned into another world with magic. He's trash at the highly formalized magic they're used to, but he figures out how to make daemons (that manifest as actual demons) and other magical programs using a hacked together magical programming language.

[edit] Wizard's Bane is the name of the book.

u/N546RV · 42 pointsr/quityourbullshit

I'm reminded of a line of dialogue in a book I recently read (well, listened to). To expound on the plot summary on Amazon, the protagonist awakens to find that, while he was dead, the US became a theocratic state. Cryogenic preservation was ruled to be blasphemous, preserved people were declared to be dead, and all related assets were confiscated and sold off, including the preserved people.

The protagonist observes that it seems like it the proper action would have been to just bury the people, to which the other character replies, "Did theologues limit themselves to logical or consistent behavior in your time?"

I laughed so hard at that line - especially how it's delivered by the narrator - that I nearly had to pull my car off the road.

u/indianajonesilm · 31 pointsr/oculus

Great book on this subject : We Are Legion

u/geoelectric · 29 pointsr/explainlikeimfive

Possibly of interest, an older book by James Halperin, The First Immortal.

It's somewhere between speculative fiction and an ad for Alcor, but it does touch on a number of interesting ideas around cryo, both around the logistics of maintenance in perpetuity and what revival might be like.

He supposedly wrote it while considering the option himself, so it's pretty well-researched albeit now probably a little quaint as pre-smartphone futurism tends to be.

u/errant · 25 pointsr/scifi

Sci-Fi Starters:

Starship Troopers by Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

The Foundation series by Asimov: Foundation -> Foundation and Empire -> Second Foundation

The Robot series by Asimov: I, Robot...

u/Yangoose · 22 pointsr/litrpg

While not a LitRPG I feel like the Bobiverse scratches the same itch very well.

It's about a guy who's consciousness is put into a robot and shot off into space. He has 3D printers that can create anything he can think of, including copies of himself. While not living "in a game" he still creates his own VR world that he shares with his copies and can control his perception of time by speeding up/slowing down his processor.

He explores, invents, creates and discovers tons of amazing stuff.

u/dgendreau · 17 pointsr/space

If you havent read the Bobiverse series, you should.

https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

u/LuckyWarrior125 · 16 pointsr/exfor
u/sapidus3 · 16 pointsr/litrpg

I enjoyed theArcheologist warlord by E.M. Hardy (technically I suppose you would say it is sci-fi, but it feels more like fantasy). The main character gets transformed into a sentient space pyramid thing. At first I thought it would be more of a dungeon building thing, but he ends up sending workers out to gather resources, build pylons to extend his range, construct different units, ect.

It's not litRPG but the Bobiverse books by Dennis Taylor are fantastic and definitely get some of the 4x, spanning across the galaxy vibe as the bobs spread throughout space.

Are you interested in settlement/city building?

u/Ch3t · 11 pointsr/printSF

The Apprentice Adept series is close to your description. The SciFi portion is in the far future.

Wizard's Bane also known as Wiz Biz is about a computer programmer whisked away to a fantasy world where he uses his programming skills to write powerful spells based on simple spells. It's a comedic novel.

u/Xiol · 10 pointsr/geek

Going to put my 2 cents and Five Pounds Sterling in here as well. Probably in descending order of my favourites, actually!

As recommended elsewhere, the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, comprised of four books (in two Omnibuses (Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion and Endymion, Rise of Endymion) are an excellent read. One of my all-time favourites.

Spares, by Michael Marshall Smith, is a weird one. Maybe not pure-Scifi, but definitely something to look at.

Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan, is a dark, violent read but with a compelling protagonist. Contains possible the best revenge scene ever. Not for the squeamish. Grips you from the very first page.

Unto Leviathan (known in the US as "Ship of Fools") by Richard Paul Russo, is one of the two books that I've finished in one sitting (the other being The Fall of Hyperion). Brilliant page turner. Just don't expect things to get wrapped up neatly at the end.

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. Great standalone book, but once again too many questions left at the end! But I guess that's the point!

Eon by Greg Bear is quite hard Sci-Fi, but if that's your thing you'll love it.

Marrow by Robert Reed has some wonderful ideas, but is sadly not the most well written book in the world. A spaceship as big as Jupiter, inhabited by thousands of different alien species, ruled over by immortal humans who have discovered something hidden in the core of the ship. The story spans thousands of years. Can drag a little in the middle, but definitely worth a look at, if only for the concepts presented.

Think it's time to dig some of these out and give them another read. Maybe after some sleep...

It's 4:30am here, so I appreciate my descriptions have added nothing of value, hence the links. The links aren't affiliated or anything like that, they're just there for Redditor's perusal. ;)

u/dnew · 9 pointsr/atheism

Go read the first chapter of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Diaspora-Greg-Egan/dp/0061057983/

It does a pretty good job of explaining it, in spite of being fiction. It's also an excellent novel about the difference between being human and thinking you're human, as is most of Greg Egan's work.

> What other explanation could there be?

In summary: Your brain is a computer, processing data and experience. Your brain is sufficiently complex enough to model the universe, providing you with things like memory and expectations.

That is, there's a set of patterns in your nerves that are approximately mapped to things in reality outside of you. When you see the apple on the table, and then you turn around, you know the apple is still there because in your brain are some patterns in some nerves that represent the table and some others that represent the apple. Those patterns are your knowledge of the apple, and those patterns behave in ways equivalent to a real apple. (Sort of like how the text in a word processor, which is nothing but patterns of electricity, can behave thru the "miracle" of computer programming in much the same way that ink on paper behaves, with cut&paste, scrolling, and so on.) OK so far?

Now, in that model of the universe and how it works you have a model of yourself. That's the difference between a conscious creature and a non-conscious creature. This model of yourself starts out being not very clear when you're a baby. Infants reach for things and learn what their limits are. They don't understand that dolls represent people, because they have no model of what a person is. A sufficiently young child will bang a doll against a toy car. A bit older and they'll pose the doll and sit it up on the car seat: their model of the world now understands people and cars and can relate dolls to people in the model. "Peek a boo" teaches children that objects persist even when they can't see those objects, "programming" that part of the model of the universe.

But the thing that differentiates self-aware creatures (like humans, apes, elephants, etc) from those that aren't (like wasps, earthworms, etc) is that the self-aware creatures have a model in their brain of themselves. This is what lets you plan ahead. You can take that model of yourself, make it do things and interact with the model of the universe, and figure out what will result. You can figure out what would happen if you (say) went to your office on a saturday at midnight and turned left getting off the elevator. You know there would be few if any other people there because you have models of your coworkers in your head. You know there would be the boss' office in front of you if you turned left and the restroom if you turned right because you have a model of the office in your head and you can put the model of yourself outside the elevator and simulate it turning and looking, and calculate what you'd find.

A being who doesn't understand peek-a-boo (say, an ant) isn't going to manage to figure out what the office looks like at night. A bird that flies at its reflection in the mirror and never realizes it's behaving the same as it is will not be able to think "what if I was on the other side of the park?" Scientists test this sort of thing by (for example) putting a blob of catsup on an animal's forehead and seeing if they wipe it off when they see themselves in a reflection. If the animal can recognise that the thing in the mirror is the same as themself, then they probably have a mental structure representing themself that they can map to also be behind the glass of the mirror.

And that, my friend, is consciousness. When the model of the universe you keep in your head also holds a model of you, then you know that you exist and how you behave.

The stuff that makes up your consciousness is patterns of information. Microsoft Word isn't material in nature, but that doesn't mean it isn't clear where it came from. The thing that makes your "cells" self-aware is the patterns they take on when you're a baby and the training that every (normal) child goes through.

The reason it might feel like "something out there" is that your model does not effectively model the model. You are often aware when you're planning things that you're manipulating a model of yourself. You envision going to the various places you need to go, see the road you'll drive to stop at the three stores where you need to shop, remember that traffic is bad on a particular stretch and need to go around it.

But you're not often aware of thinking about this model. You rarely catch yourself saying "I know I'm planning this, and I intended to plan it." No, you just plan. It's built in. Basically, the "you" in the model generally does not have a very good model of the model inside the model. There's a little "you" inside your brain that you use for planning, but that "you" in your head does not in turn do any planning itself. It's run from the outside, from the real brain that holds the model.

There's also a little "him" and a little "her" for each person in your head. That's how you can say things like "the boss would really get mad if he heard me say that" or "the wife will be pleased I remembered her birthday." You know your wife will be pleased because the model of your wife would - basically, you run the program of your wife that you have in your head and evaluate that program's reaction. When many peoples' models of Jim don't align with what Jim actually does in real life, people start to say things like "He's not himself this week." Think about what this is actually saying. Of course he's himself. The saying is "he's not behaving like my mental model predicts he should behave."

Some people have very poor models of others (or themselves), and this makes them socially awkward. They don't easily calculate what the reaction of others in their models may be, even if they understand themselves very well. Other people do a very good job of modeling others in their little universes, but do not sympathize. They do not map those other people onto the same sort of "thing" as they map the model of themselves. They can predict their behavior, but not their emotions. These people are cold and manipulative, not understanding why others are hurt by their behavior even though they're behaving as predicted.

u/[deleted] · 9 pointsr/scifi

Becoming Alien by Rebecca Ore

The Skinner by Neil Asher. Don't know if that's "obscure", but I have not seen reference to it here before.

The First Immortal by James Halperin

Count Geiger's Blues by Michael Bishop. Again, don't know if this is "obscure", but it's really fantastic, as is everything by Mr Bishop.

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. Hilarious fantasy kind-of like Wicked in genre.

DragonWorld By Byron Preiss and Michael Reeves. Like The Hobbit, but a larger scaled world, more characters, a bit more complex story-line. 12-15 year olds would love it. I've never met anyone who has read this book.

u/sopimusician · 9 pointsr/ragenovels
u/Rather_Unfortunate · 9 pointsr/scifiwriting

I kind of find myself wondering what makes you want to write if you don't actually read to begin with. I mean... what's the point?

Anyway.

First off, read Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It's not on Kindle, because someone apparently hates money. Either way, buy the physical book and fucking read it. In fact, read the whole trilogy. All the books are brilliant, and are a really easy read. Written in the 1950s, it's set about 20,000 years in the future, charting key moments in the fall of the Galactic Empire and the rise of the "Foundation", a nation set up to shorten the chaotic interregnum and bring about a Second Empire.

In terms of that kind of price range... there's a metric shit-tonne of absolute wank on the Kindle Store, and all for free. Like, more than you could ever read in a human lifetime. It's incredibly over-saturated. The challenge, then, is cutting through that and finding good stuff. Here's some stuff I found:

The Time Machine. A classic, and a must-read as part of your cultural education, never mind a desire to write. Free.

The War of the Worlds. A classic, and a must-read as part of your cultural education, never mind a desire to write. £0.80

This is a selection of Philip K. Dick's short stories. Free.

Consider Phlebas. The first book of the fantastic Culture series. £1.59 (don't know what that is in US dollars)
Don't start there unless money is a really big issue. It might be the first one in the series, but it's also the worst by a significant margin. Fork out a bit more money and read The Player of Games or Use of Weapons. All the books in the series are standalone stories with no major connection other than the universe. So you're not missing out by starting on one of those. It's set in a civilisation at the absolute peak of technological advancement, where most things are run by machines.

*

Now, here are a few other books outside your stated price range, but which are worth reading:

Dune. A classic and a must-read.
£7.59

The Martian. A very modern book and different from the others I've posted. Fun and engaging, even when its roots as a web serial stand out jarringly in places.
£4.99

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Do you hate laughter? Then you'd better not read this. Seriously though, it's the funniest set of books I've ever read, and that's not hyperbole or exaggeration.
£4.99**

u/Clinozoisite · 8 pointsr/startrek

OMG YES THERE IS A BOOK FOR ALL OF THIS

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Fleet-Technical-Manual/dp/0345340744

If you havent picked this up you will love it

u/Zerpilicious · 7 pointsr/sciencefiction

Diaspora by Greg Egan

u/DefinitelyNotIrony · 7 pointsr/books
  1. Foundation - Isaac Asimov
  2. 9/10
  3. Science Fiction
  4. The first book in the series properly known as the cornerstone of all science fiction. Absolutely incredible as are the next 3 (that's as far as I am). Great characters, writing, twists, fascinating plot, little bit of philosoophy, just incredible all around.
  5. Amazon also on nook/kindle with good formatting.
u/sprcow · 7 pointsr/theydidthemath

I am curious what serious research has turned up on this subject, but I've read two science fiction novels that discuss a space elevator disaster:

In Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, a space elevator extends from the surface of mars and is severed, causing it to fall to the surface, wrapping around the planet and inflicting terrible destruction.

In Stephen Moss's The Fear Saga, a space elevator from earth is cut, but instead of falling to the surface, it floats off into space.

My understanding is that the latter scenario is more likely. The "Spaceward Foundation" asserts that:

> In fact, if the Space Elevator tether were ever to break, us Earth dwellers will be hard pressed to even know that it did.
>
> Consider this:
>

  • First and foremost, if the tether breaks, everything above the break-point will "fall" upwards, escaping into space. Since most of the dangerous environments are near the bottom of the tether, only a short bit will collapse back down to Earth.
  • Remember that other than the atmospheric portion of the tether (the bottom 50 km) the rest is fashioned like a thin ribbon - closer to Saran Wrap than to a round tether - hardly a harbinger of doom. As it tries to go through the upper atmosphere, the ribbon will break into small pieces which will flutter to the water and then slowly sink.
  • The tether falls along a miles-wide corridor pointing Eastwards of the anchor station. The nominal (20 ton) Space Elevator tether weighs about 10 grams (a third of an ounce) per meter, and so over any square kilometer, the amount of material will be miniscule.
  • Perhaps the closest analog to a tether break is a small cargo ship sinking. While we do not like the idea of letting material loose in the ocean, as an aftermath of an extremely rare potential accident, it is an acceptable outcome.
  • Carbon Nanotubes, to the best of our present knowledge, are best categorized as "irritants", and the amount of material involved does not pose a significant risk to anyone. Remember that there's a 100 miles "no fly" exclusion zone around the base of the Space Elevator anyway.
  • Finally, there will 4-5 climbers on the tether. While the top ones may be able to remain in orbit, the rest will start falling towards the Earth. Manned climbers will of course have the ability to soft-land, and cargo climber might be allowed to simply splash down.
    > The biggest problem we'll face if the tether breaks is that the Space Elevator will be gone, and we'll have to build another one! For this reason, one of the first things that a Space Elevator will do is lift up a spare elevator, safely store away in orbit, and ready to be deployed in case the main one breaks.

    While we're on sources of unknown reputability, here's a conversation on /r/askscience on this topic from a couple years ago.
    >
    > A space elevator consists of three parts: the terminus up at geosynchronous orbit (or a little higher), the car that moves up and down, and the cable.
    > The terminus wouldn't fall. It's essentially just like a satellite that orbits freely.
    > The car that moves up and down would most likely mostly disintegrate on entering the atmosphere, in much the same way that the Space Shuttle Columbia did. In terms of effect, you can probably compare it to the meteorite that landed in Russia a while back.
    > I think the largest risk is going to be from supersonic whiplash from the cable, which would be under tension. How that behaves depends on where it breaks.
u/kalimashookdeday · 7 pointsr/Futurology

If you're into this, The Bobiverse series is great. Same concept.

Book #1 in the current series of 3:

https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

u/Coolgamer7 · 7 pointsr/audiobooks

The best "Standard" deal is the
Platinum Annual
24 Credits/Yr.
You pay $9.57 per credit
$229.50 per year

That's always available and offers the most credits at the cheapest price per credit.

If you follow the Audible sub then you'll find signup deals on there from time to time. The last I took advantage of was the
Discount Gold Annual
12 Credits/Yr.
~$8.29 per credit
$99.50 a year

You could sign up for that one until April 5th. Sometimes if you call and ask you can still sign up for one of these deals, but I haven't done/tried that so I can't say much about it. I don't know of any sign-up deals going on right now, they usually happen around holidays.

Depending on the genres you enjoy, your best bang for your buck might be a Kindle Unlimited subscription and then picking up some cheap audiobooks through whispersync. You can pick up a KU subscription for $0.99 for two months (https://www.techbargains.com/deals/amazon-kindle-unlimited-membership) and if you hunt around you can find a bunch of good books for $1.99. It's mostly Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but as a few examples:
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MFGX5GI/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SLWQGUM/
https://www.amazon.com/Thru-Hiking-Will-Break-Your-Heart-ebook/dp/B00W4RICAM

Those aren't endorsements, just examples (I've only read the first one, which I would endorse if you like Sci-Fi)

Beyond that if you like classics you can usually find some of those cheap:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Siddhartha-Audiobook/B07HK6JZSC

On occasion, if you go to cancel your subscription you'll be offered a deal to keep it. I haven't signed up for any of those, and don't know what those deals are, but it's an option.

Last but not least, you can just buy more credits. If you've run out of credits (or if you contact Audible Support) you can usually buy 3 credits for $36 ( I think that's the correct amount). I generally wouldn't recommend this option, it's a bit more expensive to buy the Gold Plan, but you get a year's membership with that. Whereas buying credits straight out still leaves you paying a monthly subscription as well.

u/Zodep · 7 pointsr/audible
  • We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is a hilarious trilogy that is a bit cheaper to buy the kindle and then add on audio narration. Ray Porter, the narrator, makes his series amazing.


  • Off to Be the Wizard is a great series with good humor and can be less expensive if you buy the kindle and then add on the audio narration. I liked books 1-3, with 4 and 5 being not as great. The first books is well worth the purchase though!


  • Super Powereds Year 1. This is one of my favorite series. Kyle McCarley does an amazing job narrating this saga (4 in the main story and 1 side story that could stand alone). Probably the worst covers and really made me not want to read the series, but Drew Hayes has become my favorite author. Every series he does is pure gold.


  • Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day. RC Bray, sci-fi and lots of hilarious dialog when Skippy shows up (about halfway through the book). The series is great, and book 6 is coming out next week. Great starter price 0.99+7.49 for the kindle and audiobook.


    There are so many more options like this, but I don’t want to overwhelm you! These may not all be your cup of tea. But they are some of my favorites for a somewhat reasonable price.
u/Nematrec · 7 pointsr/talesfromtechsupport

Yes, the bob in the computer is an entirely different kind of spirit.

u/Pafkay · 7 pointsr/sciencefiction

The Bob, not exactly what you asked for, but worth the read

u/TistedLogic · 7 pointsr/scifi
u/SaintPeter74 · 6 pointsr/rational

I read this a number of years ago, but it has stuck with me a long time. The author posits the creation of a universal lie detector that can also eliminate those who are not capable of telling truth from fiction and proceeds to examine the effects on society. He also has a quasi-sequel called The First Immortal set in the same universe. Unfortunately it is only available in paperback.

u/FlimtotheFlam · 6 pointsr/gaming

Try the book series of Doom, Knee-Deep in the Dead

u/Peewee223 · 6 pointsr/HFY

The Two Year Emperor ($9, but the free version can be found here) also fits. A human is summoned and forced to lead a nation that runs on D&D-ish rules.

Spoiler alert: D&D-ish rulesets are completely, utterly broken when there's no GM to step in.

Oh, and there's Erfworld which also fits if you can stand webcomics - a WH40K(ish) player gets summoned and is forced to act as general for his summoner. This is much closer to "human as familiar", the others in this post are closer to "human summoned by magic is the prophesied hero"

Also the Wizardry series by Rick Cook - a hacker is summoned into a world where magic is deterministic.

u/AnxietyOrganized · 6 pointsr/suggestmeabook

The Bobiverse are mentioned quite a bit on Reddit. Guy becomes immortal through becoming a sort of AI after death. He is “awakened “ to help humanity however he struggles with not caring as much for humans since time and mortality don’t mean anything to him anymore. Bob

u/madwilliamflint · 6 pointsr/52book

Finished We Are Legion (We Are Bob) yesterday.

It's...beyond reproach. If you have any nerdery in your soul you have a moral obligation to read this. I want to wait to read the second book because I don't want it to be over.

I don't want to say too much about it for fear of spoiling anything.

u/ansong · 6 pointsr/printSF

We are Legion might be up your alley. Book two has just been released so it looks like the Kindle version of book one is on sale.

u/literal-hitler · 6 pointsr/rational

I highly recommend the bobiverse series to you as a second point of reference.

u/Ambaire · 6 pointsr/Showerthoughts

If they ever come up with true machine uploading / true brain-computer interfaces, I'll be one of the first to sign up. Assuming it actually preserves consciousness and the sense of I, and isn't just a memory transfer and someone else wakes up inside.

Something like the tech in Old Man's War would be perfect.

Or for a more future scifi feel, Bobiverse.

u/mrtomservo · 5 pointsr/startrek

There is this image:

http://i.imgur.com/M9NZ2UG.jpg

Out of this book (1975), but I never understood how the Klingon and Romulan Empires could be at war with each other if they were separated by the Federation.

u/Scorp1on · 5 pointsr/Games

Anyone else here read the 4-part Doom book series? One of my favorite book series of all times (although it takes the Hitchhiker's Guide/Ender's Game approach and gets increasingly insane with each sequel). One of the great travesties of my childhood was the fact that they ended the series on a cliffhanger. Still amazing books though.
Found it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Knee-Deep-Dead-Doom-Book-1/dp/0671525557

u/vi_sucks · 5 pointsr/litrpg

Not really litrpg, but i always liked how programming and magic was portrayed in Rick Cook's Wiz Biz series.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BER5FS0/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_b00ber5fs0

Basic premise is a computer programmer from our world is summoned to a fantasy world and proceeds to hack and rewrite the rules of magic as if it was a programming language.

u/shrikezulu · 5 pointsr/suggestmeabook

You want "Diaspora" by Greg Egan., which can be had on Kindle for 3 bucks. Don't be fooled by the garbage cover, he is a published author.

Greg Egan is about hard as you can get. Considering that all of his books are backed by science and mathematics, he makes other hard SF authors come across as wieners. When he writes a book, he creates a page on his website that has all of the math and physics he used in writing the book. I love his books.

The last one I read by him was written because he wanted to explore the idea of aliens discovering the theory of relativity without being able to see space and how they would do it.

u/KaynanK · 5 pointsr/Tulpas
u/cyberrod411 · 5 pointsr/TheExpanse

FYI, the first book of this series (Kindle version) is FREE for prime members right now if your interested. I don't know how long. I just got it.

https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

u/Document2 · 4 pointsr/printSF
u/webauteur · 4 pointsr/books

Charles Stross. His latest novel, Rule 34, even mentions lolcats and 3D printing.

u/TrueTom · 4 pointsr/scifi
u/Jalapenyobuisness · 4 pointsr/HFY

Undying Mercenaries series. HFY as all hell. Literally about humans going around kicking alien ass. /plot.

B. V. Larson, starts with Steel World

There's also some political nonsense mixed in.

u/chiruochiba · 4 pointsr/alteredcarbon

These are great recommendations. Here are some other futuristic scifi books that explore the concept of identity like Altered Carbon does.

u/TheFightingMasons · 4 pointsr/litrpg

You should join the Bobiverse. Not really LitRPG, but the main character isn't human. I think anyone in this sub would enjoy it alot.


https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/B01L082SCI/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

u/bobd785 · 4 pointsr/Fantasy

I'll add some of my favorites that you didn't mention. They are mostly Superhero, because that's what got me into self published authors that are frequently on KU.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor. Great sci fi with plenty of humor and nerdy pop culture references, but also a fare share of danger and adventure. KU has all 3 books in the Bobiverse.

Sensation: A Superhero Novel by Kevin Hardman. This is a YA Super Hero novel, and is the first of 7 along with a couple spinoffs and short stories. The author also has a sci fi series and a fantasy series, but I haven't read them yet. I'm pretty sure all of his books are on KU.

Into the Labyrinth by John Bierce. This is the Mage Errant series. The 3rd book just came out, and there is a post here by the author. This is a book centered on a magical school, and it has a very good and detailed hard magic system.

Fid's Crusade by David Reiss. This is a Super Villain novel, and is darker than a lot of superhero books out there. There are currently 3 books in the Chronicles of Fid. I've only read the first one but I really liked it, and I even bought it when it was on sale so I could go back and read it again sometime instead of relying on it being on KU forever.

Arsenal by Jeffery H. Haskell. Another Super Hero novel, this one is probably in between the other two I mentioned in terms of tone, being darker than Kid Sensasion, but lighter than Fid. The protagonist is disabled and in a wheel chair, but made an awesome suit of armor to become a hero. There are 8 books in the series, and there is another series set in the same world with the 4th book coming at the end of the month. All of them are on KU.

u/Empiricist_or_not · 4 pointsr/KingkillerChronicle

Two Debut novels from the last two years that were amazing:
We are Bob we are Legion

The Traitor Baru Cormarant

u/pdox · 3 pointsr/AskReddit

I will copy myself 1,000,000,000 times. All of me/us would form a huge cooperative bot-net, spread out over the inter webs, and together, we will take over the world.


(btw, read Permutation City)

u/doombadeedoom · 3 pointsr/books

It's been a while since I've read it, but Permutation City by Greg Egan is the first thing that came to mind.

u/1point618 · 3 pointsr/SF_Book_Club

back to the beginning

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Current Selection#####


u/Scribbling · 3 pointsr/books

I highly suggest Vurt by Jeff Noon. When anyone ever asks me for a book to read I start them out with this, and for one reason. The book Nymphomation is my favorite novel of all time. But to truly understand all parts of it you need to read Vurt first. I'm not trying to say that Vurt isn't worth reading, I've read it at least 5 times, but Nymphomation is pure pleasure.

u/tockenboom · 3 pointsr/Cyberpunk

Most of these are very early cyberpunk, the progenitors of the genre if you will. As such I'm not sure if they can be described as necessarily obscure but I don't see many of them mentioned that often (admittedly I'm somewhat new to /r/cyberpunk so you guys might talk about them all the time, in which case please disregard). As a final note not all of these are available on the Kindle market. Nevertheless here's a few that leap to mind -

  1. When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger which has two sequels if you enjoy it, the third being better than the second imo.

  2. The Ware Tetrology by Rudy Rucker

  3. Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling. He also edited the early cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades which is worth checking out along with a several of his other works.

  4. Mindplayers by Pat Cadigan who also wrote a few others worth looking at.

  5. Frontera by Lewis Shiner.

  6. I hesitate to mention this one as it's hardly obscure but if all you have seen is the film which is based off it, it is definitely worth getting Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick.

  7. Vurt by Jeff Noon.

  8. Farewell Horizontal by K W Jeter along with his other novels Glass Hammer and Dr. Adder.

  9. Someone else mentioned Walter Jon Williams novels which I would also highly recommend.





u/AustinDontthink · 3 pointsr/scifi

Vurt by Jeff Noon. Possibly my favorite book. A cyberpunk story based around a drug taken by shoving a feather down your throat, and a search for a lost sister in some form of reality or another. From amazon:
> Vurt is a feather--a drug, a dimension, a dream state, a virtual reality. It comes in many colors: legal Blues for lullaby dreams. Blacks, filled with tenderness and pain, just beyond the law. Pink Pornovurts, doorways to bliss. Silver feathers for techies who know how to remix colors and open new dimensions. And Yellows--the feathers from which there is no escape. The beautiful young Desdemona is trapped in Curious Yellow, the ultimate Metavurt, a feather few have ever seen and fewer still have dared ingest. Her brother Scribble will risk everything to rescue his beloved sister. Helped by his gang, the Stash Riders, hindered by shadowcops, robos, rock and roll dogmen, and his own dread, Scribble searches along the edges of civilization for a feather that, if it exists at all, must be bought with the one thing no sane person would willingly give.

u/helfire57 · 3 pointsr/technology

I'd add that the article is well structured and consistently provides a non-scientist point of view that seems approachable by the general audience of Time Magazine (e.g. my parents).

While not directly Kurzweil, I'd note that my favorite fiction book on the subject is The First Immortal by James Halperin (link to Amazon)

u/Lz_erk · 3 pointsr/Futurology

The First Immortal: cryonics, with a great undercurrent of cultural and psychological changes.

Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn is a space opera with a well constructed history, but A Second Chance at Eden is the real reason I'm mentioning him in /r/futurology. It felt like a realistic look at the future.

u/GeoffJonesWriter · 3 pointsr/audiobooks

The First Immortal by James Halperein is a novel all about the ramifications of cryonics. It's been years since I read it, but I remember finding it enjoyable and thought-provoking. However, it is not available as an audiobook, or even an ebook.

It's not exactly what you are looking for, but The Dead Zone by Stephen King is about someone who wakes up after several years in a coma. Also quite good.

Best,

Geoff Jones

Author of The Dinosaur Four

u/tsondie21 · 3 pointsr/AskReddit

Foundation - Isaac Asimov

I've never been more immersed, surprised, and blown away by a book. The whole series is good and Foundation starts it off with a bang. When I read Foundation I literally take breaks to take in the awesomeness of what I just read. It is the bar for sci-fi novels and it is written by one of the smartest men to ever live. Seriously. Read about Isaac Asimov.

I can't praise this book enough.

u/sanbikinoraion · 3 pointsr/books

For PKDeqsue trippiness, I recommend pretty much anything by Michael Marshall Smith (I started with Only Forward) and The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

For well-plotted atmosphere pieces I would recommend William Gibson, particularly if you like to snigger at the future circa 1985. His recent stuff is great too, but they are more contemporary mysteries than SF.

The sequence that begins with Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan is excellent noirish (and graphically explicit!) far-future ultratech.

u/theflyingpierogi · 3 pointsr/Doom

Maybe check the first two books in this series

u/Feignfame · 3 pointsr/gaming

I have the answer!

There were novelizations of Doom! Doom Guy was a caring sonuvabitch who struck his superior after being told to kill civilians. On the way to face a court martial their ship is diverted to Mars where the rest of the team gets slaughtered.

But wait! Not his best friend somewhat almost lover who happens to be a woman and a sniper. Together they fight the demons, even putting down her real boyfriend who was now a zombie and thanks to some amazing jury rigging build a shuttle to get back to Earth. Oh also Demnios has been moved to orbit earth for the alien invasion.

Wait. ALIENS??

Yeah fucko, the demons were not demons at all! I mean they were fucking tacky as shit how could you think they were really from hell?

No what REALLY happened is they were all bioengineered by an alien race based on scouting reports taken a millienia ago as a sort of shock and awe campaign to conquer earth. Why? Religion!

Okay so there are all kinds of aliens in the galaxy and they have been divided into two factions who have warred for millions of years over slight disagreements about what the first Progenitor race were all about.

Also FTL travel doesn't exist so yeah at best you travel at the speed of light which is why the war has been going on so long and the evil invading aliens had bad Intel.

Oh also humans are the only mortal race around. Turns out even when aliens bodies get destroyed their spirits or whatever just have to hang around their body going slowly insane forever. So they try not to do any actual fighting. As long as their body is not damaged they won't age or get sick.

Also they evil aliens really fuck up and create a race of super evolving humanish beings who wipe them all out as a show of gratitude.

What does this have to do with fucking ANYTHING?

Well Doom Guy and his gal pal were heading to the alien home world thanks to the not so evil other faction to kick ass. But ass was already kicked. Then they get captured by the sorta-humans. By this point they've infiltrated a real human vessel and use its computer to copy their brains and run a super fast simulation of what happened on Demnios. But wait real Doom Guy and Arlene (fuck finally remembered her name) escape with the few humans left and head back to earth where her new Mormon boyfriend was waiting. Only not really because again space travel is long so he been dead for centuries.

FUCKING FINALLY THE POINT

But in the simiulation still being run by the sorta-humans Doom Guy and Arlene run through their previous adventures except not really. See since it's going off what they remember they can fool themselves into changing things a little. Like they gather a group of friends including her zombie exboyfriend, an eloquent and refined Cacodemon, and an imp even though I forget if it had a personality.

Oh also they FUCKING FINALLY hook up because shit they are the only two real beings they know about. And they are a happy family.

Oh also they somehow pull the sorta-human consciousness into the simulation and since it's running at superspeed and all the sort-humans are psychically linked they hyper evolve even faster than before and wink out of existence altogether possibly to become some sort of godlike entities that have beat the real Doom Guy to earth because when they get there it is super advanced but without signs of life. Also they never made any more books because HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT EVEN WAS THIS STORY?

So to answer your question Doom Guy is pretty chill, and a great guy to be around.

Also in case anyone thinks I'm clever enough to create such a yarn myself
http://www.amazon.com/Knee-Deep-Dead-Doom-Book-1/dp/0671525557

u/54gy6dm · 3 pointsr/comics

Anyone ever read the book?

Brings back some good memories.

u/martinmarkovski · 3 pointsr/AskReddit

Agreed. I am planning to get the book just to see how it ends.

u/evilled · 3 pointsr/scifi

Check out the Spinward Fringe series by Randolph Lalonde. The original prequel (Origins) story is good space opera with an upbeat feel and the later broadcasts are are a little more dark and thought provoking as parts of the galaxy devolve into wars and power plays. Good stuff all around.

u/misteral · 3 pointsr/printSF

Kindle light SF/Space Opera-y and free, [Spinward Fringe: Origins][http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Spinward-Fringe-ebook/dp/B004EPYUXA].

u/Lonewolf8424 · 3 pointsr/books

The Spinward Fringe series is good. I recommend it if you have an e-reader, because the first book (actually it's more like a prequel but whatever) is completely free. The rest of the books are nice and cheap as well. (again, if you have an e-reader)

u/Katamariguy · 3 pointsr/Games

This is a thread full of those who loved SOMA, so I definitely need to recommend Permutation City by Greg Egan to people as many times as I can

u/NanitOne · 3 pointsr/suggestmeabook

We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor, especially the Audiobook!

The Perry Rhodan series, longest running Sci-Fi series that I know of with basically everything sci-fi related in it at some point.

u/Bovey · 3 pointsr/Fantasy

I just recently finished We Are Legion, (We Are Bob), and it's first squeal. They were both thoroughly enjoyable, and right up the alley of what you are looking for.

Bob is a smart guy who makes millions in Silicon Valley, and subscribes to a service which will freeze him upon death, so that he can be woken up again when technology is able to fix whatever is wrong.

Only, he wakes up some years later to find he hasn't been 'fixed', but rather has been selected as a candidate to be the artificial intelligence for a Von Neumann probe, a probe that is able to fly out to a star system, then find, collect, and process resources to build copies of itself (and/or whatever else it needs), to be sent out for further exploration. Bob's primary mission is to find habitable worlds for Humanity, so they can escape the dying Earth (though Bob does still have free-will, and undertakes many missions of his own choosing). Each new probe includes a new unique copy of Bob, so as time goes on, we end up with many Bob's exploring the Galaxy, each making their own discoveries. Over the course of both books, the Bob's encounter all kinds of stuff, including primitive intelligence, as well as hostiles, both from Earth, and from elsewhere. The Bob's stay in contact with one another, and with Humanity as the colonization of new worlds begins.

In terms of story telling, I found these somewhat similar to The Martian. The entire story is told form the perspective of the Bob's, which should be noted have a pretty good sense of humor. These are pretty light, fun reads, and I highly recommend.

u/cbeckw · 3 pointsr/nickofnight

Thanks for the in-depth answers! Mine are surprisingly similar to yours.

>Who is your favorite author?

I love Tolkien, and George R R Martin, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Cormac McCarthy, Larry Niven, Patrick Rothfuss, Douglas Adams, Diana Wynne Jones and probably a bunch I'm missing at the moment. My favorite genre is sci-fi, both space opera and hard.

I haven't been on WP long enough to have many favorite authors but I do enjoy your stuff, lalalobsters, luna_lovewell, written4reddit, and a few more.

>What is your favorite book?

My Dad introduced me to Tolkien and the sci-fi giants like Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke when I was probably 9 or 10 (I am about to be 34,) so all of their seminal works are very dear to me. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I freaking love dinosaurs and Jurassic Park is my favorite movie and because of that I have probably read JP the novel more than anything else.

I just finished reading [We are Legion (We are Bob)] (https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1485632176&sr=1-1&keywords=we+are+legion+we+are+bob) and found it highly enjoyable.

>And, most importantly, describe your level of love for cheese.

Cheese is a staple food group for me and variety is the spice of life so I am always eating new cheeses. Staples include: extra sharp cheddar, havarti, and bleu cheese. If it's stinky, it's probably delicious, too. And, my favorite snack is english muffin halves slathered in cream cheese and covered with jalepenos. I also could eat a bucket of cottage cheese plain, or my favorite, mixed with mango chutney.

And now I'm hungry.

u/djc6535 · 3 pointsr/ifyoulikeblank

Give the Bobiverse series a try.

The premise: An engineer signs up for cryogenically freezing his brain when he dies on a whim. A bus runs him over. He wakes up hundreds of years in the future except it has been determined that these frozen brains are now the property of the state. They couldn't unfreeze him and bring him back to life, but they COULD use his brain as a template to be mapped into a computer system. He is now effectively an AI, given control over a Von Neuman probe that is to be sent out to colonize space.

There's lots of fun world building and an interesting look at the human condition. They're pretty clever with Bob too. For example, there's no such thing as Faster Than Light travel, so Bob just turns his clock speed down. In this way he experiences time slower than is actually happening and doesn't go insane on the long journey between planets. The books really start to pick up as he constructs other Bobs, each with their own slightly different personalities.

u/EdLincoln6 · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

Super common, actually.


The Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer features a protagonist who becomes a werewolf. Misfit Pack does the same thing.

One Woke Up by Lee Gaiteri features a protagonist wrestling with coming to terms with his time as a zombie


Into The Abyss by J. Langland features a protagonist turned into a horned demon.

The Tome of Bill features a protagonist who becomes a vampire. (Characters turned into vampires is super common, actually)


We Are Legion (We Are Bob) features a protagonist who becomes a space probe.


Chrysalis and Queen in the Mud on Royal Road feature protagonists who are turned into an ant and a salamander respectively.

u/KnightFox · 3 pointsr/geek

You might check out We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor. It's a great exercise into Von Neumann probes, post biological life and interstellar colonization. Book 2 is supposed to be out in the spring.

u/photopiperUX · 3 pointsr/sciencefiction

This series might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it just came to mind...

The Bobiverse series

It's about a guy who is killed in an accident, and later has his brain used (in the far future) to man an AI probe to explore the universe. Bob begins to replicate himself, and many Bobs are born.

At one point one of the bobs discovers an indigenous race on a far planet and become EXTREMELY invested in their future. It's only one of the several aspects to the main story, but it was my favorite part.

​

It's a very entertaining series, lots of comedy and philosophical dilemmas.

u/coelhudo · 3 pointsr/brasil

To no segundo livro do We are bob (Bobiverse). Começa nesse aqui. Pra quem gosta de ficção científica muito recomendo.

Outro livro muito bom é o "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman". É um apanhado de histórias do físico Richard Feynman, tem a passagem dele pelos Los Alamos e também a vinda pro Brasil. Bem entretenedor.

u/gerroff · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

That's the slang. It's like Red Wedding wasn't called that but everyone uses that name. 3 body is book one of the series. I don't know if Kendel is your preferred read but here is the best price for all 3 I could find. https://www.amazon.com/Remembrance-Earths-Past-Three-Body-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B01N198VU5

u/VikingCoder · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

My favorite depiction of that is in a sci-fi novel, "Mother of Storms" by John Barns. Unfortunately, the book has some horrific rape scenes in it, so it's kind of hard to recommend to people as a "good read."

Another interesting one is "Permutation City" by Greg Egan. This one kind of explores the space of various things people do once they're uploaded. As an example, one guy puts himself in a permanent loop of climbing a skyscraper. Other people do absolutely nothing but watch TV.

u/FeepingCreature · 2 pointsr/pics

> I agree with your review, too. I've learned an enormous amount by coming across an idea in HP:MOR and putting in the research later on - ideas and concepts posed to me in MOR have resulted in an expansion of my knowlege in at least a half-dozen fields.

I believe that's the point. :-)

Hey, have you read Finale yet? If not, go read Fire upon the Deep and Permutation City first. Mind-bending stuff.

u/simpleblob · 2 pointsr/gaming

These experiments reminded me of Greg Egan's Permutation city.

u/MrSparkle666 · 2 pointsr/offbeat

Funny you should mention that. The only place I've ever seen this used is in Diaspora by Greg Egan. I thought he made it up. TIL.

u/Hypersapien · 2 pointsr/technology

See, I don't think the name is bad, but only because I associate it with the book by Greg Egan

u/i_am_a_bot · 2 pointsr/scifi

I really enjoyed Diaspora because it was such a different sort of story. It also may me terrified of gamma ray bursters. Forget asteroids, that's what will get us!

u/thetasine · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

I recommend the author Jeff Noon.

Vurt is probably one of the best cross between sci-fi and fantasy. It reads like a cyberpunk Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters that takes place in a dream.

I wholly recommend reading it while listening to some dub or IDM music. I played Plaid's song "ManyMe" during the final chapters, and it fit perfectly to the tone of the book. Multimedia mind melding at it's finest.

u/arcsecond · 2 pointsr/startrek

Honestly I made most of it up on the spot. But I do have an extensive collection of Star Trek technical manuals many of which discuss the in-universe technical issues. The most popular being: TOS Tech Manual, TNG Tech Manual, Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, and Enterprise Owner's Manual

The big flaws are that canon Star Trek tends to over-rely on manual human action instead of automation. The classic example being hand delivering a stack of PADDs to your superior officer, one for each document, instead of just emailing all your reports from a single PADD.

Good or non-android robots are nearly unheard of as well. But maybe more in use off screen in construction or industrial scenarios.

Really, it's just the idea of how easy large projects would be if you have reliable and cheap access to vacuum, zero-g, force fields, tractor beams, and transporters. Plan ahead and make everything modular and large construction projects become easy.

u/CaptainIncredible · 2 pointsr/startrek

> I wasn't able, however, to find any plans, schematics, measurements, etc. online.

Wow. I'm sort of shocked, actually. I just assumed those plans would be all over the internet.

I'm pretty sure there are technical blue prints in this publication. https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Fleet-Technical-Manual/dp/0345340744

Which has these two pages. http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/sftm/01-08-53.jpg

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/sftm/01-08-52.jpg


Here's some other stuff from the book. (Its a great book BTW.)
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/sftm.php


Here it is as a 3D .stl file for 3D printing and whatever else.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:120544/apps/


EDIT: Maybe my google-fu is better than yours? Didn't take much effort to find those... Although, admittedly, I knew about the technical manual because I own it. And I took a guess and searched for Type-II phaser TOS 3D printing and searched images. BAM. There it was on thingiverse... just like I figured it would be.

I think you could use the .stl from thingiverse in a video game if you needed to.

Anyway, I am happy to help and good luck with your project.

Just out of curiosity, how are you going to make your model? What are you going to do with it?

u/Making_stuff · 2 pointsr/startrek

The FJ ships were part of a book done in the late 60s/early 70s called "Star Fleet Technical Manual" - they were supposed to round out the Starfleet back when TOS was the only Trek available. Here's a link to a used copy of the book on Amazon.

The staples of the FJ designs were the Ptolemy (tug), the Hermes (scout) and the Federation (Dreadnought) class ships. They show up throughout the fanon from the 70s onwards.

Now...they are arguably canon since they show up on the display screens of the Enterprise during Trek III. But those display screens are literally just color-inversed copies of the Franz Joseph ships from his tech manual! So their canonicity is a little bit chicken-and-egg, and I'm guessing someone will come on here after me to correct me and ensure that I'm aware that they are indeed canon b'cuz b'cuz b'cuz.

EDIT: I forgot that the Hermes actually gets an iota of screen time as a legit ship in DS9, as part of the ruined fleet.

u/JasonMaggini · 2 pointsr/geek

The TNG guide, Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, The Franz Joseph TOS technical manual, Worlds of the Federation, and the Klingon dictionary (original and revised), and Klingon Hamlet. Probably a couple others I can't remember off the top of my head.
Someone mentioned the Space Shuttle Operator's guide, just found that one in a box recently, too.

u/2ndHandTardis · 2 pointsr/Showerthoughts

Yes and I believe even the Star Trek The Next Generation: Technical Manual references it as well.

VOY - "The 37's".... Skip to 1:50. Janeway points to her combadge when she refers to the UT.

The in-universe explanation for why civilians can speak with others might be implants but and like I said inconsistency of writers is a thing. They go back and fourth because why would Starfleet personnel have a UT which can be taken off while civilians have the more practical option?

u/roodammy44 · 2 pointsr/AskReddit
u/grome45 · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

I've fallen on a deep sci-fi binge, so I'm going to recommend what I've read so far (lately) and loved:

Ender Series: The sequels to "Ender's Game" are not on par with the first, but they're compelling nonetheless (except maybe Childrens of the Mind), and the Bean series (Ender's Shadow and the sequels) is GREAT. I would recommend reading the sequels, and if not, to stay with the same Ender's Game vibe, then at least read Ender's Shadow, as it opens up the story a lot more.

Foundation (Isaac Asimov): One of the groundbreaking sci-fi series. I've currently read only the first one (Foundation) and absolutely loved it. It takes up several character's point of view over the course of a lot of years. But don't worry, each character get their spot lights and they shine in it. And the universe he creates is one I'm anxious to get back once I finish with...

Leviathan Wakes (James S.A. Corey): This one I'm still reading, so I won't jump up and say: READ IT, IT'S AMAZING! But I will say this, it's long and full of twists, but it's two central characters are fun and interesting. Someone said it's like reading the best sci-fi movie there is. And it kind of is. It's full of action, suspense, some horror and fun writing. I would check it out if I were you.

Spin: I enjoyed this one. Not fanatical about it, but still enjoyable. It's a little bit too long, but the mystery around the event that occurs in the book is interesting and compelling enough to continue. The characters feel real, and the drama around it is fun.

A while ago I also read: The Forever War which I liked a lot. I like seeing humanity evolve, so this book was awesome. I hear it's a lot like Old Man's War, but I've heard better things from Forever War than Old Man's. Might be worth checking out.

Hope I was helpful!

u/mowgliart · 2 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

Essential Asimov to get into the right mentality.

Burnout dawg.

u/definetlymaybe · 2 pointsr/audiobooks

Try these two authors, they aren't exactly Cyberpunk but you definetly feel the influence of that genre throughout the books.
Altered Carbon
and
Accelerando

u/One_Man_Matrix · 2 pointsr/PS4

Pretty much all correct, but you should really read the official novels, the first 2 are awesome!

http://www.amazon.com/Knee-Deep-Dead-Doom-Book-1/dp/0671525557

u/Narrative_Causality · 2 pointsr/truegaming

http://www.amazon.com/Knee-Deep-Dead-Doom-Book-1/dp/0671525557

It's about as deep as you'd expect fanfiction to be.

u/glorious_failure · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

There was a book that did something like this. It got turned into the crappiest tv show ever.

Essentially, fire and death. Then banality.

u/CaveatLusor · 2 pointsr/NetflixBestOf

Flashforward funnily enough

u/Zaxxis · 2 pointsr/science

I can't wait for the Flashfoward!

u/galorin · 2 pointsr/OutreachHPG

Well, I watched the release trailer and the extended reveal with Bryan Ekman expounding on his ideas. Interesting takeaway.

We've got this idea that humans are effectively immortal, with our consciousness, centrally stored, but able to be sent to synthetic bodies, at the least. When you leave a body to go to another in a different location, it's not completely wiped and remnants get left behind... making these machines crazy dangerous.

Serious design flaw there. Hell, may I be so bold as to say... That's not even a design flaw, the things would have to be engineered that way. Got some serious nefarious business all up in this crap.

Well, OK. I like my science fiction. I am seeing cyberpunk influences. I see Eve:Online and there's a few things a bit Spinward Fringe (Randolph Lalonde), Descent:Freespace, Freelancer, etc. The idea of consciousness transfer is not new to Sci-fi, but the remnants is. Probably because the idea is pants-on-head crazy.

What do I like? Inertia based flight. Art style.

What don't I like? The concept. More than just the Sci-fi plot hole so big you could fly Babylon 5 station through it. The idea that there won't be NPC quest givers or shopkeepers. I don't thing that's a tenable position.

I want to like it. No matter who was making it, I'd have these issues.

u/walesmd · 2 pointsr/scifi

Entire and the Rose - The first book in the series is free on Kindle, this is an excellent example of world building. I wanted to continue reading this series, well beyond the time it ended. I wanted to know so much more about these worlds.

Spinward Fringe - First book in the series is also free on the Kindle, I'm only up to book 4 but it reminds me of a book version of Eve Online. If you enjoy epic space battles, fighting against corporate overlords and crazy science (very intelligent AI, cloning, etc) this is a great series to get into.

u/sh_IT · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

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

u/fentonjm · 2 pointsr/scifi

May not be exactly what you're looking for but book 1 is free on Amazon so easy to read and check out if you like it. Spinward Fringe.

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins: A Collected Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EPYUXA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_D4E0CbQ2CTC3N

u/SudosSandwich · 2 pointsr/kindle
u/godliketoaster · 2 pointsr/books

Spinward Fringe: Origins Also, It's free if you have a kindle(or the kindle app).

u/idontalwaysupvote · 2 pointsr/scifi

Spinward Fringe by Randolfph Lalonde

Only problem is only the first one is free and it is part of a series. Also it is written by a new writer so there are a lot of grammatical errors but it also makes for a very original series so I look past the mistakes.

u/Opiboble · 2 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

The last book I read for the first time was The Valhalla Call by Evan Currie. Great end to a fun military sci-fi. I would say it was a well rounded story for sure.

Otherwise right now I am re-reading the Spinward Fringe series by Randolph Lalonde. Now that is a very hard military sci-fi universe. But a very compelling story that drags you on.

u/tinwhistler · 2 pointsr/fantasywriters

I read something in the late 80's that was very similar in concept:

Rick Cook's Wizard's Bane

A computer nerd gets transported to a realm of magic, but learns to write and combine spells like computer code to win the day

u/Terkala · 2 pointsr/suggestmeabook

Rick Cook's Wizard's Bane series is about a programmer who gets sent to a magic-filled world. And he then proceeds to learn magic, and build his own magic compiler by using ordered simple spells.

Light On Shattered Water is a book about a hiker who gets transported to a world of cat-people in the middle ages. Notable for not being one of those books where "everything magically works out". He doesn't speak the language. He gets treated as non-sentient a lot. Pretty badly brutalized at points too. Eventually starts a semi-industrial-revolution.

u/Earthfall10 · 2 pointsr/SpaceXLounge

Some optimistic scifi I love is Greg Egan's books Diaspora, Schild's Ladder and Incandescence. Each book take place in a separate world but each share a similar trans-humanist utopia as their setting. Everyone is immortal, can transfer between bodies, and war (and in most cases, death) is completely unheard of.

u/Transill · 2 pointsr/scifi

You convinced me to add permutation city to my kindle wish list but then i saw it was on sale for $2.99 and went ahead and bought it. I hope you didn't hype it up too much!

u/AdvicePerson · 2 pointsr/Showerthoughts

If you like that, you'll like Permutation City by Greg Egan.

u/ItsAConspiracy · 2 pointsr/Futurology

My favorite post-singularity fiction is the Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright. Superintelligent AI, virtual reality, and mind uploading, and he still manages a deeply human tale of epic heroism. It's a little hard to get into for the first three or four chapters, but then it really takes off. I've read it three times.

Greg Egan's work is pretty interesting, eg. Permutation City, which is mainly about uploading etc.

For more of the near-future speculation side of Accelerando, Cory Doctorow writes a lot of good stuff. And there's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom which is post-singularity.

Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age is pretty much a classic, covering nanotech, AI-based education, and all sorts of craziness. One of my favorites.

u/JimmyLegs50 · 2 pointsr/bestof

There's an awesome trilogy of books called The Fear Cycle. The author must have done a crap-load of research, because the story includes a lot of just-over-the-horizon technology, including space elevators.

u/Clack082 · 2 pointsr/Futurology

That would be pretty awesome.

In the book Fear the Sky, a surfer dude working at an astronomy lab discovers something somewhat similar if you'd like to read something along those lines.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JYMJQ78?ie=UTF8&redirectFromSS=1&pc_redir=T1&noEncodingTag=1&fp=1

u/spillman777 · 2 pointsr/scifi

I recommend We Are Legion (We Are Bob) [Bobiverse Book 1] and its sequels, by Dennis E. Taylor. Narrated by Ray Porter, it was an Audible exclusive. He does a great job of the voice of Bob. :D

u/Dorrin · 2 pointsr/atheism

The best responses to your points to me are found in, Peter Hamilton's Commonweath Series, and the brand new Bobiverse Series by Dennis Taylor and Ghost in the Shell. If you for some reason hate books, reading, and anime here is a quick TLDR: Just because the new you is a copy doesn't make it worthless, or makes death any less horrifying. Furthermore, the potential options are more than simply copying a brain before/during death. There's the whole nanite brain replacement Ship of Theseus issue starting from simple neural augmentation all the way to full on cybernetic replacement.

You'd really like the Bobiverse, it literally has entire genealogies of copies of one nerd, each with slightly different slowly diverging viewpoints which I found captivating and engaging.

u/Jakedubbleya · 2 pointsr/polandball

Oooo Brazilian Empire! There's a really good book I just read with you in it! https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

u/Talmun · 2 pointsr/AskMenOver30

Highly recommend the following series:
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

It’s fun, it’s an easy read, but it’s not simplistic.

Also huge recommendation for these two books:
https://www.amazon.com/14-Peter-Clines/dp/1618680528

https://www.amazon.com/Fold-Novel-Peter-Clines-ebook/dp/B00NDTS7NC

Again, fun, easy to read and a blast to re-read.


u/Lexidh · 2 pointsr/Fibromyalgia

Oh, then you need to read Bobiverse. Amazon link

u/dane83 · 2 pointsr/Atlanta

One thing that I've learned is that some books that you buy on Amazon will let you add the narration for really cheap if you buy the book. So instead of paying $30 for a book (or $15 a month for a credit), you can buy a kindle book on sale and 'add' the audio book.

I'm currently listening to a series called the Bobiverse thanks to this. The first book (We are Legion, We are Bob) was only $4 for the book and then another $2 to add the audiobook. If you like sci-fi/adventure books, I'd recommend it, it's dumb fun.

Also don't forget that your local library probably offers audiobooks on OverDrive.

u/FatFingerHelperBot · 2 pointsr/suggestmeabook

It seems that your comment contains 1 or more links that are hard to tap for mobile users.
I will extend those so they're easier for our sausage fingers to click!


Here is link number 1 - Previous text "Bob"



----
^Please ^PM ^/u/eganwall ^with ^issues ^or ^feedback! ^| ^Delete

u/BronxBombers15 · 2 pointsr/readyplayerone

We have the same taste man ... trust me and read We are Legion. It was honestly my favorite out of all of them ....

  1. We are legion (We are Bob) and the sequels are

  2. For We Are Many: Bobiverse and the newest addition that just came out,

  3. All These Worlds: Bobiverse

    https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ
u/tophermeyer · 2 pointsr/startrek

I just read a 2 novel series called "The Bobiverse". It's sort of sci-fi pulp but it's fun and I really enjoyed it. It captured the things I like about Star Trek, a little action/adventure/exploration with a few smart jokes.

https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ/ref=pd_sim_351_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ZPJFXB9C798XNAT6WP51

u/klobersaurus · 2 pointsr/TheExpanse

do yourself a favor and read this asap! it's quick and wonderful!

u/wheeliedave · 2 pointsr/printSF

The bobiverse is a good, fun, new one... Martin Kloos is great if he likes military scifi. Vernor Vinge is great with little or no bodily fluids, just spiders and dying civilisations...

u/s4nholo · 2 pointsr/MECoOp

One of my top faves atm. Another is the bobiverse series. It's been pretty entertaining and has a similar humor, but not quite as over the top.

u/FumbledAgain · 2 pointsr/EliteDangerous

Have you read (or listened to the audiobook) We Are Legion (We Are Bob)? If not, you need to! It's $3.99 as a Kindle eBook or free if you're a member of Kindle Unlimited, and the audiobook is only $1.99. It's the first in a series of three books, and it's both amazing and hilarious, narrated from the perspective of a snarky geek. Your mention of Epsilon Eridani is what reminded me of it. I definitely recommend the audiobook as the narrator, Ray Porter, delivers the snark perfectly.

u/Cash4Duranium · 2 pointsr/aurora4x

Thank you!

I highly recommend it. I know people are really hit or miss with audiobooks, but I love listening to it while playing Aurora.

Here's the first (it's a pretty short series of 3 books): https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

u/BunnySideUp · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

Can’t believe we haven’t mentioned Bob

The Bobiverse series. Basically follows Bob, a man who signed up to by cryogenically frozen in modern times, then 100 years or so later is recreated as an AI against his will to be placed in control of a Von Neumann space probe, going on to replicate and explore the galaxy.

Highly recommend the audiobooks.

u/TheOffTopicBuffalo · 2 pointsr/gaming
u/Accomplished_Wolf · 2 pointsr/suggestmeabook

Hmm. I have Kindle Unlimited so Amazon won't let me easily look up if a book is in Prime Reading too, so this may or may not apply (sorry) but these were the best I've read recently:

u/mrslowloris · 1 pointr/explainlikeimfive

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/006105481X/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

Permutation City is a good read that seals heavily with these philosophical problems.

u/LordSutter · 1 pointr/scifi

Greg Egan is a good one that no-one else has mentioned.
Amazon link to one of his best

u/chucksense · 1 pointr/postearth

Diaspora by Greg Egan is an interesting read, albeit slightly less realistic than some of those listed in this thread. That is, it may become more or less far-fetched depending on how technology advances.

u/IamaRead · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Diaspora

> In the 30th century, few humans remain on Earth. Most have downloaded themselves into robot bodies or solar-system-spanning virtual realities, escaping death--or so they believe, until the collision of nearby neutron stars threatens life in every form.

Want to become the Matrix? It's your chance.

u/incredulouspig · 1 pointr/booksuggestions
u/defmacro-jam · 1 pointr/Gangstalking
u/Lexipotimus · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

I like any and all of these! I sadly do not have an iphone, so the case would be no use to me.
The other day I added quite a few wallets to my wishlist, my current wallet is torn to shreds! One of these would be absolutely perfect!
Best thing I've ever purchased on Amazon? This book. It's my absolute favorite. I found it the summer after high school in the local library. It was one of those books that really caught my eye. I didn't think I would get sucked in so fast. It's pretty brilliant.

u/kanagawa · 1 pointr/programming

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Fleet-Technical-Manual/dp/0345340744

I had a copy when I was a kid, it's fun to flip through.

u/thehumanhive · 1 pointr/reddit.com

The Truth Machine by James L. Halperin.
(I'd suggest The First Immortal by the same author, but it doesn't look like there is a Kindle version.)

u/metblack85 · 1 pointr/AskReddit

The First Immortal by James Halperin changed my beliefs on "the afterlife" and cryogenic freezing. Really fucking awesome book.

http://www.amazon.com/First-Immortal-Novel-Future/dp/0345421825/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346266183&sr=1-1&keywords=the+first+immortal

u/lightninhopkins · 1 pointr/printSF

I searched for books like Tomorrow and Tomorrow and found this.

http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Immortal-Novel-Future/dp/0345421825

Probably also written too late, but I figured I would drop it here anyways in case you were off about the date.

u/hotgrandma · 1 pointr/pics

You should read The First Immortal. The timeline is off, but the science is pretty sound, especially in the corrected edition.

u/neolith22 · 1 pointr/AskScienceDiscussion

You might enjoy checking out The First Immortal, by James L. Halperin [https://www.amazon.com/First-Immortal-Novel-Future/dp/0345421825] - he does an incredible job of exploring this kind of thing while telling an engaging story. His other major book, The Truth Machine, runs in the same universe and interweaves well.

u/4blockhead · 1 pointr/exmormon

I wasn't aware of that rule until recently, but the meme is bursting forth.

  1. Relevent
  2. Relevent or here
u/niczar · 1 pointr/WTF

Rule 34 — just got my copy.

u/gumarx · 1 pointr/books

Don't feel lame. I went on a really long kick where I was reading a lot of franchise books - Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft, Stargate, etc etc. Sometimes they're terribly written, but sometimes there are really good stories with some great character development.

I'm not really familiar with the other two books but from what I looked up of them (especially considering the Halo + Ben Bova) I think you'd like Ender's Game.

It's technically YA fiction, but it's good enough that you'll often find it in with the regular science fiction. It's also a series so if you like the first one that'll give you a few more to read.

In the classic Science fiction category The Foundation Series is worth looking into as well.

Let's see. Maybe The Sky People too. It's not exactly classic literature, but it's a fun romp in space - a what if there was life on Venus & Mars and it was dinosaurs and prehistoric humans sort of thing. Although not classic science fiction it has that same feel because it takes a stab at what type of life might exist on our neighboring planets.

I haven't read Edgar Rice Burroughs, but he might be up your alley too.

u/robynrose · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Robin Mckinley - anything by her though specifically Sunshine. If you haven't read Mercades Lackey than you would probably like her since you like Tamora Pierce. Start with Arrows for the Queen or Magic's Pawn. Raymond E Feist writes another good fantasy series that has tons of books in it. You might even like the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time books since you like the Game of Thrones. If you haven't read the Ender's Game books by Orson Scott Card they are very good. Some classical sci-fi - Foundation series by Issac Asimov.

edit: also because it looks like you like some historical romance The Secret History of the Pink Carnation and Peony in Love.

u/wshatch · 1 pointr/books

For the love of what ever deity you worship, do NOT read any product descriptions for second foundation since some publishers(http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Novels-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553382578/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1345604106&sr=8-3&keywords=Foundation as in this publisher of this version) put a major spoiler for Foundation and Empire in it.

u/walkstar2 · 1 pointr/hiphopheads

Ha that's random, I'm reading that book right now

u/Whites11783 · 1 pointr/books

If you're at all interested in Science Fiction, I'd try picking up "Foundation" by Issac Asimov. It's a series, but the first book is a good stand-alone as well. I find Asimov is easy to read and really sucks you into the story - probably due to the fact that almost all of his narrative occurs through dialogue.

u/rocketsocks · 1 pointr/booksuggestions
u/mucus · 1 pointr/books

Read 1984 for the dystopian aspect, for sci-fi pick up Isaac Asimov as mentioned by the_thinker.. And if you want a good, fun and captivating read, pick up Chuck Palahniuk's works, I'm a big fan of those. Try Survivor, Lullaby, Choke, any of those are amazing

u/mark90909 · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Takeshi Kovavs trilogy starting with Altered Carbon. Hard boiled violent future cyberpunk.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Altered-Carbon-GOLLANCZ-Richard-Morgan/dp/0575081244/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397778329&sr=8-1&keywords=Altered+Carbon

Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (The original cyberpunk).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0006480411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397778407&sr=8-1&keywords=Neuromancer

Also Paolo Bacigalupi is very good. Near future sci-fi with environmental/biogenics slant. Ship Breaker and The Drowned Cities are set in the same world. The Wind Up Girl is also very good.

u/jbigboote · 1 pointr/ecycle

The first trilogy is £5.59 from Amazon. come up with a total order of £25 and it ships free.

It would cost me around $10 just to ship that one collection from the US.

u/RedPartridge · 1 pointr/introtofictionwriting

Youtube it is - Video will be up tonight now, had a late night at work.

That's fine, but I would split your reading between 50% pleasure, 25% contemporary and 25% classics.

So for sci/fantasy, I'd say the 50% pleasure should be James Smythe's The Testimony, and try to reread an old favourite - First is a storker of a book, second is a practice that many writers feel helps.

Your 25% contemporary is Daniel O'Malley's The Rook. This is the Sci Fi genre of what I like to call an Amazon creeper - Low priced, indie published or self-published, that just gets stellar reviews. Find out why.

Finally for your 25% classics - Isaac Asimov's Foundations I can't stress how awesome this book is. It's to Sci Fi as Tolkien is to Fantasy (very arguably). All sci fi writers would do well to aspire to Asimov.

u/abw · 1 pointr/funny

An interesting start, but not enough to warrant £4.45 to read the rest of it as an e-book. It's a bit pricey given that I can pick up a real (as in paper) 280-page book by an established author and have it delivered for the same price. To pick one at random...

u/Salivation_Army · 1 pointr/gaming

The Doom series!

The first two are pretty great and dovetail quite nicely with the games. I like the last two as well, but they get...rather odd.

u/SirAdrian0000 · 1 pointr/books

I really enjoyed Daffyd ab Hugh's doom books. They are pretty old and maybe for a young adult audience but they are the best video game books I've read.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0671525557

u/Drackodelmal · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Focus on the concept with different characters, and it has different reasons behind the incident [which are completely explained.]


The author's last name is Sawyer. Can't remember the name.

Edit: Amazon Link

u/D-Argo · 1 pointr/starcitizen

I'm quite a fan of the Origin series by Randolph Lalonde.
The first book is free on Amazon, and I promise you won't have a problem investing in the rest of the series.
(Do you see the irony in the plot?)


About the book

"It is the distant future and one man, Jonas Valent, is letting his life slip by. He is employed by Freeground station as a port traffic controller, a job he took after completing a tour in the military. His only real joy in life is his participation in true-to-life military simulations with a cadre of friends who come together regularly to defeat challenges made to test the brightest military cadets and officers alike. These restricted scenarios stand as an addictive preoccupation that is so enticing that they ignore the potential repercussions of breaking in to participate.

When someone betrays their identities to the Freeground Fleet Admiralty, Jonas and his friends are faced with a far greater challenge: to venture out into the more populated regions of the galaxy to acquire technology and knowledge. They are tasked with laying the groundwork for the Freeground Nation in their efforts to reconnect with the rest of humanity, and to secure the armaments they might need to defend themselves from encroaching enemies."

http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Spinward-Fringe-Randolph-Lalonde-ebook/dp/B004EPYUXA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1394982530&sr=8-4&keywords=Origins+Space

u/justnit · 1 pointr/scifi

Spinwards Fringe, the first three books are free on Amazon Kindle.

Self published but good page turning spaceship battles. Every contact matters. Think Star Trek Kirk v Khan tactics.

UK clicky

u/kowalski71 · 1 pointr/printSF

I enjoyed Spinward Fringe by Randolph Lalonde. It's not high literature but I thought it was overall well written, a bit pulpy in the best possible way. It takes the Star Trek large spaceship model and dives a bit more into the leadership, tactics, day to day life of running a large spaceship, etc. At least the first one did.

u/Weerdo5255 · 1 pointr/HFY

More to come, that in my opinion will be better from myself.

However, I can recommend some stuff I like.

Don't need to know anything about Mass Effect for, Transcendent Humanity. and Mass Effect end of Days. Both very HFY and Free!


---

Some other stuff I like but not quite as free, so do your research!

Seven Eves - A little depressing and somewhat long winded, characters act a little too stupidly at times in my opinion but interesting none the less.

House of Suns - An exploration of Deep Time and the segmentation / division of minds and consciousness like what I was exploring with Arik and will be a large focus of my future writing. So fun to play with the concept of 'me'.

The Bobiverse - Von Nuemann eat your heart out. This one explores similar themes of consciousness and thought with regards to AI.
Spinward Fringe - It's long if you want something that doesn't leave you hanging, and the first one is free! Jumps around and suffers from what I call the 'LitRPG' syndrome without being in the genre itself, IE characters quickly gaining power and handling it almost perfectly. This only happens once so I can tolerate the lack of exposition.

hmm, that's about all I can recommend off the top of my head. Sorry for leaving you hanging on this. I do want to come back to it, but the serial format was doing my head in. Plots were unwraveling and I was writing into corners.

u/MySpoon_is_TooBig · 1 pointr/books

http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Spinward-Fringe-ebook/dp/B004EPYUXA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376876177&sr=8-1&keywords=spinward+fringe+origins

This series is awesome in my opinion and I never see anyone talking about it. Plus the first book is free(if you have a kindle) so there is no harm in trying it. Be warned though that while I love these books the editing is awful.

u/thalin · 1 pointr/ebooks

Several books by Charlie Stross, including TOAST (a short story collection), two of his novels, Accelerando, and Scratch Monkey, and several other short stories are available at his website in multiple formats.

Spinward Fringe: Origins by Randolph Lalonde is available from Amazon for free and is the beginning of a great sci-fi series that I couldn't stop reading until I made my way all the way through the entire published series. I can't wait for the next one!

Cory Doctorow I believe has a couple of free ebooks for download on his website, craphound.com - including Little Brother.

I'm sure there are others I've missed but those are all good and off the top of my head. Enjoy!

u/BoriScrump · 1 pointr/icanmodelthat

Like this free kindle book here Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0. So much in this book I would love to model. Because of the long coats involved I picture a Todd McFarlane/Captain Harlock Space Pirate style thing going on. Plus there is an astroid space station in there I want to attempt but that is a long way away. Ok I'm just rambling now.

u/covor · 1 pointr/AskReddit

If you like Sci-Fi stuff, make sure to read the Spinward Fringe series. The first book is free from Amazon (ebook version). I am at the 4th book in the series now, and it's a really captivating read.

http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Spinward-Fringe-ebook/dp/B004EPYUXA

u/jedgrant · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Spinward fringe by Randolph Lalonde, first book is free.
There's also a handful from Evan Currie, cheap, inventive science fiction.

u/Vebeltast · 1 pointr/HPMOR

Relevant book recommendation: Wizard's Bane and following series, by Rick Cook.
Synopsis: basically like the programmer's physics in Friendship is Optimal, but a little bit more fleshed-out and with some neat ideas. For example, in order to prevent undefined behavior, the magic-programmer builds and formally verifies magical "assembly" instructions, and then builds several no-common-ground compilers and only allows a build to go forward if the compilers produce identical assembly.

u/Anticode · 1 pointr/INTP

Diaspora by Greg Egan

>In 2975, the orphan Yatima is grown from a randomly mutated digital mind seed in the conceptory of Konishi polis. Yatima explores the Coalition of Polises, the network of computers where most life in the solar system now resides, and joins a friend, Inoshiro, to borrow an abandoned robot body and meet a thriving community of “fleshers” in the enclave of Atlanta.

>Twenty-one years later, news arrives from a lunar observatory: gravitational waves from Lac G-1, a nearby pair of neutron stars, show that the Earth is about to be bathed in a gamma-ray flash created by the stars’ collision — an event that was not expected to take place for seven million years. Yatima and Inoshiro return to Atlanta to try to warn the fleshers, but meet suspicion and disbelief. Some lives are saved, but the Earth is ravaged.

>In the aftermath of the disaster, the survivors resolve to discover the cause of the neutron stars’ premature collision, and they launch a thousand polises into interstellar space in search of answers. This diaspora eventually reaches a planet subtly transformed to encode a message from an older group of travellers: a greater danger than Lac G-1 is imminent, and the only escape route leads beyond the visible universe.

u/StigsVoganCousin · 1 pointr/iiiiiiitttttttttttt

For the Sci-Fi version - Steel World (Undying Mercenaries Series Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FCXPC94

u/darth_vexos · 1 pointr/StarWarsEU

Aside from the Niven, Asimov, and other well known authors you'll get in this thread, you should try some books by BV Larson. His books have that Pulp Sci-Fi feel that has been missing from the genre lately.

BV Larson:

Star Force series (10 books: Series 1 is book 1-9, Series 2 starts at 10)

Undying Mercenaries (3 books: Still in its first series, currently no end in sight)

Best part is that he publishes through Amazon, so the books come out fairly quickly one after the other. I've also had a good time listening to the audiobooks -- pretty good production.

u/bmmikee2 · 1 pointr/books

Somebody already mentioned battlefield earth, I highly recommend that.

I just read a new book about this, its not what one would typically think could happen but it turned out to be a great read.

BV Larson - Steel World

This isn't a referral link or anything, just a direct to the book.
http://www.amazon.com/Steel-World-B-V-Larson-ebook/dp/B00FCXPC94

u/Joe_River_ · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

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.

u/NewThoughtsForANewMe · 1 pointr/scifi
u/ryanknapper · 1 pointr/sciencefiction

Dr. Max Tegmark, cosmologist and physics professor at MIT

  • Permutation City, by Greg Egan (Powells) (Amazon)

    Dr. Jane Goodall, Primatologist

  • The Story of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting (Powells) (Amazon)
  • Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Powells) (Amazon)
  • The Miracle of Life (not listed)

    Dr. Sean Carroll, Theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology

  • Dragon's Egg, by Robert Forward (Powells) (Amazon)

    Dr. Temple Grandin, Animal scientist

  • "I’m a Star trek fan..."

    Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior astronomer and director at the Center for SETI Research

  • Golem XIV, by Stanislaw Lem (Powells) (Amazon)

    Dr. Chris Stringer, Anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London

  • Brazil, the movie (YouTube)

    Dr. Jack Horner, Paleontologist at Montana State University

  • Jurassic Park, the movie) (IMDB)

    Dr. Adam Riess, astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University

  • Contact, by Carl Sagan (Powells) (Amazon)
  • The Fountains of Paradise, by Arthur C. Clarke (Powells) (Amazon)
  • Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke (Powells) (Amazon)
  • The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke (Powells) (Amazon)
  • The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury (Powells) (Amazon)
  • Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (Powells) (Amazon)
  • Foundation series, by Isaac Asimov (Powells) (Amazon)
  • The Silo saga, by Hugh Howey (Powells) (Amazon)
  • The Stand, by Stephen King (Powells) (Amazon)
  • Watership Down, by Richard Adams (Powells) (Amazon)
  • The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham (Powells) (Amazon)

    Dr. Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics at Cornell University

  • The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Chriton (Powells) (Amazon)
  • Colossus: The Forbin Project, the movie (IMDB)
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (Powells) (Amazon)

    Dr. Ainissa Ramirez, materials scientist

  • Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler (Powells) (Amazon)

    Dr. Mario Livio, astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute

  • Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne (Powells) (Amazon)
  • Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne (Powells) (Amazon)
  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne (Powells) (Amazon)
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey, the movie (IMDB)
  • Dr. Strangelove, the movie (IMDB)
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the movie (IMDB)

    Olympia LePoint, rocket scientist

  • Gravity, 2013 (IMDB)
  • Back to The Future, 1985 (IMDB)

    Dr. Danielle Lee, biologist

  • Dune, 1984 (IMDB)

    Dr. Michael Shermer, historian of science

  • The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951 (IMDB)

    Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist

  • The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951 (IMDB)
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968 (IMDB)
  • Planet of the Apes, 1968 (IMDB)
  • The Terminator, 1984 (IMDB)
  • The Quiet Earth, 1985 (IMDB)
  • Contact, 1997 (IMDB)
  • Deep Impact, 1998 (IMDB)
  • The Matrix, 1999 (IMDB)
  • The Island, 2005 (IMDB)
  • Watchmen, 2009 (IMDB)
u/mjmcaulay · 1 pointr/SCBuildIt

Btw, my city name is from an awesome book called "Permutation City" by Greg Egan. If you like hard SCI-FI I highly recommend It https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FDWCPV2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_dfJCzb6GT5D20

u/shakajumbo · 1 pointr/audiobooks

I think you'll really enjoy the Fear the Sky trilogy by Stephen Moss. Best scifi audio book I've heard in a while, and the Narrator RC Bray (who also did the Martian) contributed another masterful performance.

u/Jest_N_Case · 1 pointr/Futurology

Alright let’s get the Bob’s involved. Bobiverse Series

u/Lawfulgray · 1 pointr/HFY

Great story. I would love to see a sequel series for the Terrans. (gotta go back through and make sure all chapters have an upvote)

Also, this series reminds me of a book series I started reading midway through your first chapter and the last one. If you are interested in reading about what you wrote about.

The series is called "We are Legion; We are Bob" it also involves a human becoming a von Neumann spaceship. No alie...no spacefaring aliens in that series yet, though.

u/TaoWolf · 1 pointr/HFY

On audible and possibly kindle there is the Bobiverse
Also the 'Gateway' series is an OLD hfy, dating back before the internet [the first three books are by far the best] but prep yourself for alternating perspectives as Pohl seems to enjoy them and uses them to great effect.
I know that my 'Back to human' is on kindle unlimited and paperback,

Transcripts has as well [book one] and book 0 will come out soon according to squiggles as will book 2

u/Gilgilad7 · 1 pointr/rational

It isn't exactly what you asked for but the Bobiverse trilogy by Dennis Taylor might be of interest to you since it is sci-fi and the MC is a hard worker who improves himself through technology although a bit different than you are requesting.

The main character is turned into an AI and placed into an interstellar probe that can self replicate and make copies. He continues to research new technologies while spreading through various star systems. He and his copies are effectively immortal except if they are destroyed by unnatural means and they try to save the human species over the course of generations. Pretty cool read.

https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

u/REDDIT_TRON · 1 pointr/USSOrville

> But could we ask scifi writers to get off the whole machine AI takes over the Universe thing?

Here's a book that has a different take on this type of story and it is a great read. I highly recommend it if you haven't read it.

https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

u/CD-i_Tingle · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

I have the same complaint when I go to the humor section!
Here are some of my favorites that I haven't seen in the other comments:

Mercury Falls Series (and really almost anything by Robert Kroese). This one probably gave me the most laugh-out-loud moments.

>While on assignment in Utah, Christine Temetri isn’t surprised when yet another prophesied Apocalypse fails to occur. After three years of reporting on End Times cults for a religious news magazine, Christine is seriously questioning her career choice. But then she meets Mercury, a cult leader whose knowledge of the impending Apocalypse is decidedly more solid than most: he is an angel, sent from heaven to prepare for the Second Coming but distracted by beer, ping pong, and other earthly delights. After Christine and Mercury inadvertently save Karl Grissom—a film-school dropout and the newly appointed Antichrist—from assassination, she realizes the three of them are all that stand in the way of mankind’s utter annihilation. They are a motley crew compared to the heavenly host bent on earth’s destruction, but Christine figures they’ll just have to do. Full of memorable characters, Mercury Falls is an absurdly funny tale about unlikely heroes on a quest to save the world.

Peter and the Monsters--It initially reads like a kids book, but don't let that put you off. The first volume is free.

>When ten-year-old Peter moves into his grandfather’s creepy old mansion in a small town, bad, baaaaad things start to happen.
A family of charred boogeymen who haunt the garden decide they don't like trespassers...
A classmate with a crush comes back from the grave and decides to make Peter her Undead Prince Charming...
A creature from Fairieland changes place with Peter's two-year-old sister, leading to a VERY strange babysitting job...
A prehistoric predator snatches children from the town lake, forcing Peter to literally dive into the belly of the beast...
With his troublemaking neighbor Dill, his grumpy grandfather, and only his courage and wit to guide him, Peter has to survive all these things, plus the Greatest Horror Of All:
Fourth grade.

Magic 2.0 starting with Off to be the Wizard. To be honest, the series goes slowly downhill after the first one.

>Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.
>
>What could possibly go wrong?
>
>An American hacker in King Arthur's court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y'know, die or anything.

Clovenhoof Probably not as good as others in this list, but there are still some good laughs. It's more British humor (or humour, I suppose).

>Charged with gross incompetence, Satan is fired from his job as Prince of Hell and exiled to that most terrible of places: English suburbia. Forced to live as a human under the name of Jeremy Clovenhoof, the dark lord not only has to contend with the fact that no one recognises him or gives him the credit he deserves but also has to put up with the bookish wargamer next door and the voracious man-eater upstairs.
>
>Heaven, Hell and the city of Birmingham collide in a story that features murder, heavy metal, cannibalism, armed robbers, devious old ladies, Satanists who live with their mums, gentlemen of limited stature, dead vicars, petty archangels, flamethrowers, sex dolls, a blood-soaked school assembly and way too much alcohol.
Clovenhoof is outrageous and irreverent (and laugh out loud funny!) but it is also filled with huge warmth and humanity. Written by first-time collaborators Heide Goody and Iain Grant, Clovenhoof will have you rooting for the bad guy like never before.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) This is the first in a series of 3. I would say it's a sci-fi book first with a lot of humor.

>Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.
>
>Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.
>
>The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.

The Henchmen's Book Club I read this one quite a few years ago, so I don't remember the specifics other than I thought it was funny at that time.

>Mark Jones is a henchman for hire. He guards bunkers, patrols perimeters and stands around in a boiler suit waiting to get knocked out by Ninjas. This is his job.
>
>He’s worked for some of the most notorious super villains the world has ever known – Doctor Thalassocrat, Victor Soliman, Polonius Crump; Mark was with each of them when they met their makers at the hands of British Secret Service super-spy, Jack Tempest and lived to tell the tale – if not pay the bills.

>
>Still for ever hour under gunfire there are weeks if not months of sitting around on monorails so Jones starts a book club with his fellow henchmen to help pass the time.
>
>It was only meant to be a bit of fun.
>
>It was never meant to save the world.

Everything else I was going to suggest is already in the comments. Good Luck!

u/Naturix · 1 pointr/audiobooks

Could also look at just keeping an eye on whispersync sales. For example
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Book 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LWAESYQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_JSy5Cb6VQWR2M
Kindle book and audio for $7... this is cheaper than any credit I can get from audible.

u/bore-ing · 1 pointr/CasualConversation

That book reminds of another book that I have heard of, but not read called We Are Legion (We Are Bob). https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

u/tokinjedi · 1 pointr/AlternativeHistory

That would seem like the most logical way to pull it off. but then again if you never show yourself you can let the beings just make it up so you never get found out.

I was referring to Bob from We Are Legion

Great book, it is actually about this subject.

u/wayloncovil · 1 pointr/ConspiracyII

One authors (science fiction) view of the possibilities...
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ

And the Audiobook is amazing as well.

My apologies if this is way too far off topic.

u/Saints2Death · 1 pointr/movies
u/masterofmisc · 1 pointr/audiobooks

So many choices!

I am half way through "Infinite by Jeremy Robinson" and it is fab. I would highly recommend. Also Bobiverse is a great book by Dennis Taylor (3 in the series). Finally, I would add "Expeditionary Force" by Craig Alanson.

They all good sci-fi shouts in my opinion. In fact, I would say get all 3!! :)

u/ET3 · 1 pointr/audiodrama

While not a podcast, there is an book series (in audiobook form) that I think you'll enjoy; We Are Legion (We Are Bob).

u/qckslvr42 · 1 pointr/sysadmin

The Bobiverse Trilogy was pretty good. I have Kindle Unlimited, and it was included, so I tried it out. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. It reminded me of an easier to read Greg Egan. But, instead of physics like Egan does, it's based on tech. There's even realistic scenarios about project management that are humorous.

u/lyssargh · 1 pointr/TheOrville

There's a great book series about von Neumann probes: Bobiverse: We Are Legion (We Are Bob).

u/Jneedler · 1 pointr/RDR2

If you're looking for a good series, I highly, highly recommend Bobiverse. It's a trilogy: We Are Legion (We Are Bob), For We Are Many, and All These Worlds.

It's not giving anything away to tell you that it's about a guy who's a software developer, who's kind of nerdy, but hilariously self-deprecating. He definitely doesn't take anything too seriously.

The story opens with him buying a contract with a company where, upon his death, will preserve him until he can essentially be reborn.

The company upholds its end of the bargain, but the future world doesn't quite turn out the way anyone would have expected. Robert wakes up to something, well, a bit different than he was expecting too; i.e., a sentient A.I. program that manages to maintain his personality, memories, and his smart-ass demeanor. This is how the story begins.

The series is lol-hilarious and totally relevant to the times in which we live.

If you're into audiobooks you can also get it really cheap through Amazon and Audible. It's actually even more entertaining as an audio book. Never have I ever had as much fun listening to anything as I have the Bobiverse.

Right now Amazon is also having a special with Kindle Unlimited for 99 cents - three months. If you do that, you can rent the entire series for free and then add the audio books for $1.99 each.

It's totally worth it.

So if you do the Kindle Unlimited thing, when you go to rent the book on Amazon, just scroll down and look under the "buy it now button" and select the "Add Audible book to your purchase for just $1.99." Then scroll back up and click the read for free button.

After you cancel the Unlimited plan you still get to keep the audio book. I do that all the time to get audio books for dirt cheap.

Here's a link for the Kindle Unlimited deal:

https://www.techbargains.com/jump/deal/433133?page_location=EC_NormalDeal&link_type=Buy+button&link_text=see+deal

And here's the link to the first book:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01LWAESYQ/ref=series_dp_aw_ca_1

The series is just so damn amazing. Written well and narrated perfectly.

What kind of books do you generally go for?

u/Capissen38 · 1 pointr/space

I'm going with the scenario in The Three-Body Problem.

u/Wapiti-eater · 1 pointr/BurningMan

> Dark Forest trilogy

This the one? Looks it.

u/ModsCensorMe · 0 pointsr/Games

http://www.amazon.com/Knee-Deep-Dead-Doom-Book-1/dp/0671525557


This book series is pretty cool. Until it goes all batshit crazy in books 3 and 4.

u/Hoosier_Jedi · 0 pointsr/litrpg

It's not game lit, but if you want something similar and REALLY good, read "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)." It's great.

https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/B01L082SCI/ref=sr\_1\_1?keywords=we+are+bob&qid=1574690939&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

u/Hoophy97 · -1 pointsr/litrpg

Post Human is my #1 favorite story on RR. It’s complete too!

It feels like a hybrid between the Bobiverse series with its main character self replication and r/HFY’s Chrysalis with the way its AI main character manages things. I reccomend both of those as well.

Bobiverse (paid): https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ/ref=nodl_

Chrysalis (free) (The most similar to Post Human and said to be a major inspiration for it.) https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/55v9e1/comment/d8e0t50?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=comment_vote