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MrMind comments on Open thread, 14-20 July 2014 - Less Wrong
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As a little side project, I entertain myself with the idea of writing fiction that blends fantasy and mega-structures engineering.
The first step will be to ideate a consistent magic system, but of course, to make the story interesting, I'll have to come up with interesting characters and their conflicts. Do you know about any good story, long or short, that revolves around or has as background mega-structures, that I can be inspired from? Fantasy or extreme science-fiction would be the best.
"Tower of Babylon" by Ted Chiang. It's a novelette that's part of his compilation "Stories of Your Life and Others". To quote Wikipedia, "the story follows a young miner from the town of Elam who ascends the tower of Babylon to help break through the vault of heaven. Along the way he sees many wonderous sights, uncovers mysteries of heaven and earth, and in the end finds them as inscrutable as ever."
I read it and really liked it.
Rendez-vous with Rama?
Also the books of Karl Schroeder (Sun of Suns series, other standalones)
The Culture series by Iain M. Banks has a lot of different examples of mega-structures, and they tend to feature somewhat prominently in his stories. The books themselves are on the hard-SF side of things, but a few of them delve closer to fantasy when they pull a Star Trek, and have an encounter with a less-developed race.
Ah, I love the culture series. Too bad Iain Banks has left the building :( Anyway I read almost all of them, but I'm reluctant to crack open the Hydrogen Sonata, knowing too well that's going to be my last Culture novel...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(John_Varley) seems perfect
The Fountains of Paradise, by Arthur C. Clarke. (space elevator)
Entoverse, by James P. Hogan. (planet-sized computer)
The Ringworld saga, by Larry Niven. (über-massive artificial planet)
Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross. (god-like AI controlling us from the future)
Ra by Sam Hughes (http://qntm.org), kinda, though the mega-structures involved are very much in the background for much of the story: Warning: work in progress, completion date unknown; posting roughly one chapter per month.
I really like it so far (about halfway through it).
"This one speaks as the Power That Helps. [...] Look upon my Helping."
A bit late here, but Golden Age by John C. Wright.