4 replies to this topic

[RighteousReason]

Some of my favorite fiction of the past was written by people such as Orson Scott Card, Frank Herbert, Michael Crichton, and books such as Otherworld by Tad Williams, and of course Harry Potter.

What are some really good fiction books out there?

[Live Forever]

Anything by Chuck Palahniuk. (the writer of Fight Club, which was not his best work by far, imo)

Kind of a blend of fiction/non-fiction (ok, so it is non-fiction, but I like it so much I am putting it here): "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" by Chuck Klosterman (His next one, "Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story" is ok, but not nearly as good as "Sex,...")

[JonesGuy]

I 100% recommend the Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright. It was amazing. Though I've heard some people found the beginning a little confusing, it was worth it.

[Lazarus Long]

I have been reading and enjoying "Snow Blind" lately when the opportunity permits.

I suggest this book reflects a work as dystopically prophetic as Philip K. Dick, the author is a scientist named Neal Stephenson. It was published in 1992 and deals with the transition period of integrating true cybernetic transhumanists into a larger social model that reflect the end of the previous age of social development (right now through the next few decades). It predicts for example the trend of Large Scale Multiplayer Role Playing on the web and coins the term Metaverse to describe it. It also is a remarkable treatment on the viral meme concept though the author does not appear familiar with the word *meme*.

Obviously I do not want to give too much away but suffice it to say that there is something in here for everyone from Singularitarians to TechnoGaians, from classic theocracy to all too obvious swashbuckling. It starts slow but improves rapidly for the persisitent reader.

BTW there is another of these threads out there on this subject and if anyone finds it post a link and we can consolidate them.

[Lazarus Long]

Stephenson also coins the phrase infocalypse to describe what he calls the Babel effect of social collapse from the loss of the ability to communicate and retain knowledge, resulting in Dark Age and Enlightment social phases He accurately describes the historic trends of dueling metaphors for monism and dualism for retention of social control that impact society with info overload to contribute to the Info-Apocalypse.

He calls the age we live in the Post-Rational Age and keeps a running plot moving interestingly.