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Hopefully the book appeals to some in the transhuman reddit; transhumanism is only one aspect of the overall story, but it's a crucial one.

Influenced by Ray Kurzweil's 'The Singularity is Now,' I crafted a villain whose goal is to go ahead and expedite the Singularity, by essentially 'becoming' it (along with his partner-in-crime, the A.I. virus "Integer."

Meanwhile in the book, the protagonist, a young kid named Hector, is one of those typical unwitting superhero types who stumble into their new powers ill-prepared for how the real world will accept them. What ends up happening is the military (or a branch of it, aka the Fin) decides to run a few experiments on him, modifying his already superpowered self using nanobots to completely replace his DNA.

So now he's augmented from both his lame superpowers and the intelligent hive of nanobots which make up his body. The effect of this blend of abilities is cumulative; his once useless powers begin to allow him to do things which people hadn't thought possible.

Meanwhile the villain, of course, wants these powers for himself...

As for the Fin, their interest is in an experiment undertaken decades prior by the electrical engineer Nikola Tesla, and in exploring alternate dimensions in hopes of finding the displaced remains of Yddlin Tesa (aka the isles of Atlantis), using Hector as a key to both objectives.

I think transhumanism is interesting in part because it removes limitations, or perceived limitations, on human potential, especially augmented potential. We don't know what is around the corner...and this book is an exploration of several possibilities...
https://www.amazon.com/Haveck-First-Transhuman-Matt-Cates-ebook/dp/B0151TVBES/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466881618&sr=8-1&keywords=matt+cates#navbar

A recent (and I think the best yet) book on what a smarter-than-human AI should look like: Superintelligence

I feel rather conflicted about Zoltan Istvan. One one hand his book's reviews on amazon make him sound like an awful writer (due to problems and facts which could've been eliminated with the help of an editor) with admiration towards Randian Objectivism.

On the other hand his bio on that website and wikipedia make it seem possible that to some degree he is as unabashedly awesome as his characters. That book, or potential future novels, have the potential to attract a cult following for transhumanism and its ideals. If he ever makes a comment about wishing the future and the events of his story to be similar...he would rightly and deservedly be called a delusional madman.
As much as I support transhumanism and the progression of science, I would not support the political advance of someone that wrote such a hateful work. I want to buy his book to discover if I am actually way off-base with my accusations towards him and his work, but the thought of financially supporting that man... terrifies me.

This one was a pretty good read.
The Singularity Is Near

http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640

best hard sci-fi novel I've read in the last few years

Perhaps books like The Art of Memory, The Logic Of Failure, Prometheus Rising, Finite and Infinite Games could offer some new perspectives.

Edward De Bono's work on lateral thinking might also be of interest.

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


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

I've been working though this great collection of essays on transhumanist science, technology, and philosophy.

A link to the book itself might be good, too.

Human Enhancement An informative collection of essays on some topics possibly under the domain of transhumanism.

Better than Human Although I haven't personsonally read this, you may be interested.

Hi, You can read the first 10% or so for free to see if you like it from this Amazon link. There's both a paperback and Kindle version.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Transhumanist-Wager-ebook/dp/B00AQQSY60/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382043084&sr=8-1&keywords=the+transhumanist+wager

Deep admiration.
I started "Ending Aging" with a host of reservations
http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Aging-Rejuvenation-Breakthroughs-Lifetime/dp/0312367066
Aubrey demolished them one after the other. I still fear he is optimistic on timescales. But then I'm temperamentally a pessimist about most things.

Is this a replacement for / update of Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever ?

You'll probably need this too.

amazon.ca link for any other cannucks http://www.amazon.ca/Post-Human-Books-1-4-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00H0D5NTI/

Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation, which is mentioned, is a jaw dropping book about what could be possible when this technology develops.

The biggest hurdle is advanced mechanosynthesis. Unfortunately progress on mechanosynthesis beyond the basic 2003 proof of concept mentioned has been disappointing so far. It will be a revolution of revolutions when we get it.

On the science front, try Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines---and How It Will Change Our Lives by Miguel Nicolelis, and Sebastian Seung's Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are. I'd also suggest looking into the research on biocompatible materials, but I personally don't know of good books in that area.

>I mean, it's not even remotely feasible, I think, due to the problems of scale

The nanofactory has been physically analyzed down to statistical mechanics and quantum positional uncertainty. Molecular dynamics simulations show that gears at this scale would absolutely work.

Drexler's Nanosystems covers just about every possible criticism you can think of, and no one has been able to find find any significant errors in its analysis.