Moar books please
April 23, 2021 2:02 PM Subscribe
Can you recommend more speculative fiction based on the examples below?
I loved the following books:
- The Raw Shark Texts
- The Fifteen Lives of Harry August (and other books by the same author)
- The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
- The Gone Away World
What they all have in common is that they take a "what if" scenario and run it through to its conclusion in such a thorough, delightfully cerebral way. There's a sort of thought experiment aspect to it that really satisfies my curiosity. "What would REALLY happen if X were real? Let's look at every single iteration!"
But also the protagonist is likeable and emotionally believable so you root for them!
Are there more books that scratch the same itch?
I also liked Midnight Library but felt it was a little vague on the mechanics of the library and not as sophisticated as the examples above? But the way Nora tries out all the options the library gives her was, again, quite satisfying.
I hope that's helpful and would love to hear your recommendations!
I loved the following books:
- The Raw Shark Texts
- The Fifteen Lives of Harry August (and other books by the same author)
- The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
- The Gone Away World
What they all have in common is that they take a "what if" scenario and run it through to its conclusion in such a thorough, delightfully cerebral way. There's a sort of thought experiment aspect to it that really satisfies my curiosity. "What would REALLY happen if X were real? Let's look at every single iteration!"
But also the protagonist is likeable and emotionally believable so you root for them!
Are there more books that scratch the same itch?
I also liked Midnight Library but felt it was a little vague on the mechanics of the library and not as sophisticated as the examples above? But the way Nora tries out all the options the library gives her was, again, quite satisfying.
I hope that's helpful and would love to hear your recommendations!
I think you might like "Replay" by Ken Grimwood.
posted by Petersondub at 2:18 PM on April 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Petersondub at 2:18 PM on April 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I really enjoyed the last two books you listed and the first two are in my to-read list, so I have the same sort of itch. Are you aware that Steven Hall, author of The Raw Shark Texts, has a new novel, Maxwell's Demon, just out (maybe not in the US yet though)?
I'm a little hesitant to recommend Recursion by Blake Crouch, since I personally thought the writing was terrible, but everyone else (including critics) seemed to love it and it totally falls into your category.
posted by dfan at 2:28 PM on April 23, 2021
I'm a little hesitant to recommend Recursion by Blake Crouch, since I personally thought the writing was terrible, but everyone else (including critics) seemed to love it and it totally falls into your category.
posted by dfan at 2:28 PM on April 23, 2021
Best answer: Oh, hi, you've listed four of my favorite books. I'd also check out:
Gnomon, also by Nick Harkaway (The Gone-Away World)
The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
Some of Neal Stephenson's doorstops do this - I wasn't crazy about his last couple, but Anathem might work.
Sewer, Gas, and Electric by Matt Ruff is great, and spends a lot of time making fun on Ayn Rand.
If you liked Raw Shark Text I'm sort of assuming you've read House of Leaves, but maybe you haven't!
posted by Ragged Richard at 2:45 PM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Gnomon, also by Nick Harkaway (The Gone-Away World)
The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
Some of Neal Stephenson's doorstops do this - I wasn't crazy about his last couple, but Anathem might work.
Sewer, Gas, and Electric by Matt Ruff is great, and spends a lot of time making fun on Ayn Rand.
If you liked Raw Shark Text I'm sort of assuming you've read House of Leaves, but maybe you haven't!
posted by Ragged Richard at 2:45 PM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Note that the mechanic in this one is completely opaque and I might be mis-remembering the ending, but I think the protagonists are never aware of what's going on.
I haven't read it, but you might like Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists ("what if one group of siblings knew the date of their deaths?").
posted by praemunire at 2:48 PM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Note that the mechanic in this one is completely opaque and I might be mis-remembering the ending, but I think the protagonists are never aware of what's going on.
I haven't read it, but you might like Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists ("what if one group of siblings knew the date of their deaths?").
posted by praemunire at 2:48 PM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood.
posted by nkknkk at 3:00 PM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by nkknkk at 3:00 PM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
I have not read the books you have read but I HAVE read most of the books Ragged Richard suggests (and liked them except Gnomon was too cerebral for me) but here are two suggestions that I think fit the brief. I also liked Recursion, though I can see why people might not like it.
Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan - "What if the internet very suddenly went away in a society that was just a little more advanced than ours is now. How would society manage that?" Mostly likeable protagonists, a few storylines that interweave.
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas - "What if time travel were basically an industry with a lot of rules governing how it works and we had it instead of space travel? But what if the way it worked was bad and someone was trying to fix it?"
Both are light, as these things go, but interesting.
posted by jessamyn at 3:10 PM on April 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan - "What if the internet very suddenly went away in a society that was just a little more advanced than ours is now. How would society manage that?" Mostly likeable protagonists, a few storylines that interweave.
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas - "What if time travel were basically an industry with a lot of rules governing how it works and we had it instead of space travel? But what if the way it worked was bad and someone was trying to fix it?"
Both are light, as these things go, but interesting.
posted by jessamyn at 3:10 PM on April 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
The Space between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson is amazing. Multiverse travel is possible, but only if you are dead in the world you are traveling to. It's one of the best books I read last year.
posted by teleri025 at 3:25 PM on April 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by teleri025 at 3:25 PM on April 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
This is precisely why I love Neal Stephenson... but he also has a damnable habit of building an incredible world for three-quarters of the book, and then hurriedly wrapping up as if he got distracted by the next great idea for a book he wanted to write. The Diamond Age is probably my favorite, and touches on some of the niceness factor you’re looking for, but I deeply enjoyed (while being incredibly frustrated by) Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, and Snow Crash.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:23 PM on April 23, 2021
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:23 PM on April 23, 2021
Ted Chiang's short stories are exactly this. What if God and angels were scientific fact, or Biblical cosmology was literally true? What if a brilliant mathematician disproved math? What if we could remember everything? His stories appear in a number of places, but the best collections are Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation: Stories.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:06 PM on May 11, 2021
posted by Rhaomi at 6:06 PM on May 11, 2021
Response by poster: Thank you so much for the suggestions! So many new books to try!
posted by Omnomnom at 2:17 AM on May 12, 2021
posted by Omnomnom at 2:17 AM on May 12, 2021
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