Normal_Anomaly comments on Science Fiction Recommendations - Less Wrong

9 Post author: MinibearRex 05 April 2011 05:38PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (53)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 05 April 2011 07:56:48PM 3 points [-]

Anything by Neal Stephenson is good, especially Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. His work is characterized by very detailed, interesting settings.

For sheer scale and mind-bendingness, I haven't seen anything better than City at the End of Time, by Greg Bear. It's got a 100 trillion year old civilization with very alien culture, in a disturbingly weird universe.

Comment author: atucker 06 April 2011 06:06:36AM 5 points [-]

I'm gonna come out and say that Snow Crash is fun, and fairly short.

Comment author: Multiheaded 22 January 2012 07:37:48PM 1 point [-]

Cryptonomicon is indeed a masterpiece; the author's arrogant and pushy but I like how humanist he is.

Comment author: simpleton 05 April 2011 09:02:07PM 1 point [-]

Stephenson remains one of my favorites, even though I failed at several attempts to enjoy his Baroque Cycle series. Anathem is as good as his pre-Baroque-Cycle work.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 05 April 2011 10:08:52PM 1 point [-]

I have not attempted the Baroque Cycle. I enjoyed Anathem, and am hoping to read Cryptonomicon next.

Comment author: folkTheory 06 April 2011 03:05:59AM 2 points [-]

Cryptonomicon was awesome.

Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 06 April 2011 11:10:35AM 0 points [-]

I liked the Baroque Cycle, but sometimes it seems like I was the only one who did. Stephenson's thing of doing science fiction style storytelling in a historical context worked for me both here and in Cryptonomicon.

Comment author: Cyan 06 April 2011 02:49:34PM 0 points [-]

You're not the only one. It's a masterpiece.