Literary comeback

[elarbee]

When we drove a lot the weekend before last, we started listening to an audiobook, William Gibson's Zero History. We got more than halfway, but Andy decided that he doesn't care enough about it and I finished it on my own, in 20 minute bursts. I was getting a bit tired of NPR and my seldom-updated music collection, so I've decided to switch to audiobooks altogether. Even my retrograde technology has gotten far enough to make it easy to do in or out of the car - I've been using an older Androidphone. I really could have put it on my current phone, but marusja, you're right, its battery does suck.

Back to the pertinent subject: I am finally starting to read non-internets again! I liked Zero History, I just started Neal Stephenson's Anathem and I liked his The Diamond Age and Snow Crash.

What else should I read?
I like cyberpunk, space, aliens, near-future, apocalyptic and hard sci-fi.
I don't like supernatural, steampunk, horror, fantasy or romance.

Comments

[psicheya.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest Pattern Recognition by Gibson, it's the beginning of the trilogy that ends with Zero History, and I actually liked it better. Spook Country (the second book in the series) I didn't care much for.

Recently read the Windup Girl http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6597651-the-windup-girl, thought it was pretty good, it's kind of near-furure near-apocalyptic, so you might like it.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

I really liked Pattern Recognition and a lot of his other stuff, and I figured that since I've heard what happens in Spook Country, it may not be worth reading.

The WIndup Girl sounds awesome, thank you!

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Stephenson's Reamde is a near-future action thriller, which I liked quite a bit.

John Scalzi might be your cuppa. (Caveat: I've only read the Old Man's War trilogy, so that's what I'm basing my judgement on. Also, Fuzzy Nation, but if you want to read that, read the 1960s Little Fuzzy books by H. Beam Piper first, as it's an exercise in retelling the same story in a less 60s sort of a way.)

Charles Stross: In particular, Accelerando and Halting State. I also love his Laundry novels, but you likely would not: they are a modern setting, British bureaucracy meets Lovecraftian unspeakable horrors.

Not my cuppa but I think you might like: Vernor Vinge; Iain M. Banks.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

I've read the Amazon reviews for Reamde and I'm not sure I'll put it at the top of my list, I don't want anything that's too close to my former life of intelligence analysis. I just had a nightmare about that last night.

I will look up the rest of these, thank you! I actually just encountered Vinge and Banks at my source, so they'll be in my queue.