Unsong, a fantasy novel where the universe is programmable with Hebrew (2015)
unsongbook.com
unsongbook.com
Anyone with an analytical/rational mindset will probably love both, even if you're normally not into fiction.
Don't expect to be able to discuss it with anyone that hasn't read it - or something like it - though.
I started reading the Eternal Golden Braid after, which was really good but dense, and for some light fantasy The Name of the Wind was an overall impressive book.
The Martian and, recently, Project Hail Mary, are written in a completely different style but manage to hit many of the same buttons.
While not really intended as rational fiction, Threadbare was a nice read too if you enjoy litRPG.
[1] https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10360716/1/The-Metropolitan-Man [2] https://alexanderwales.com/the-dark-wizard-of-donkerk-chapte...
Their wiki also suggests lots of other books and authors. https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/wiki/
Also I'm already following way too many serials, that's inconvenient.
Sadly Hpmor didn’t click with me though. I liked the science but found the characters themselves undeveloped. Acting rationally is great and all, but with rational people have feelings too and that felt completely missing. I just couldn’t get far into the story sadly.
What's more, since this is a well written story, there are good reasons why the character is so off-putting (to some) at the start. It is definitely NOT a case of the author espousing some limited view of elite rationalists as unemotional arrogant know-it-alls.
All the main characters do reveal rich emotional lives as the story progresses.
It's well worth the read. (I've read every book discussed in this thread, and HPMoR is my definite favorite.)
It initially started with a quote like:
>as a big fan of Harry Potter
So I was under the impression they may've believed the post was talking about the regular Harry Potter series and recommending something based on Harry Potter rather than HPMOR.
Still, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Some of us like that! I'll read Dickens and Dumas cover to cover, I even read Worm at a pretty steady pace.
But I read Unsong as it was being published and it was great. I would eagerly look forward to the next chapter, and each one left me wanting more.
I suggest that the next time you take on a serial, be it a modern web serial or one of the great serials of the Western canon (David Copperfield is excellent), slow your roll. Read a chapter a day, or a chapter a week.
They have an inherently different pacing and if it's frustrating you, slow down.
I enjoyed all the interludes, the main plot seem mostly like a story on which to hang various ideas (but that might reflect my own limited ability to keep the whole story in my head).
I have to say the title and the concept of "a universe programmable in some kind of special language" reminds me very much of a webcomic I follow (and wholeheartedly recommend), called Unsounded (https://unsoundedupdates.tumblr.com/). It has the concept of "pymary" (http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php?title...), which can be used to "reprogram" reality (which to the uninitiated is indistinguishable from magic), and for that it uses a mysterious language called "Old Tainish". And before anyone raises that objection, from what I can see the comic is older than the novel by ~ 5 years. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, and both these works could be inspired by another source which I'm not aware of...
But yeah, magic as a secret language (or version where knowledge of the "true names" of things grants power) is old as anything. LeGuin's series was one the most popular studies of the idea, but it crops up in many mythologies. TvTropes has an non-exhaustive list of works that use the idea:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LanguageOfMagic
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IKnowYourTrueNam...
From Wikipedia: One vital aspect of magic is that it is impossible to lie in the old language, so that magic works by forcing the universe to conform to the words spoken by the magician.
There's also "The Gods are Bastards" (currently on hiatus due to author burnout but there's a huge amount of content to go through for first-time readers), which turns out to be something of a created infosphere, the entirety of the setting's "magic" is really sufficiently advanced technology, which is then used by the "mortals" of the world to emulate technology (through sufficiently advanced magic).
That is, if a mage says something general, all the rest of reality and other mages will just have to deal with it?
It's not like you can simply say something universe-altering just because you know the right words. You still need the magical ability and if you're not powerful enough in that ability for what you want to say, you simply can't say it.
But otherwise, if the mage is THAT powerful, then, yes, the rest of the universe has to deal with it.
[Worldbuilding Spoiler Alert]
In Unsong the world is purely magic to begin with, sustained purely by the divine light until the Archangel Uriel converts all the divine light into science and mathematic to stop the war between hell and heaven.
It brought to mind the Aronofsky film Pi -- particularly this scene;
I highly encourage to follow the links to all the references listed at the end of chapters. Some of the more silly, outrageous or wtf objects, names, events, descriptions don't even do justice to the insanity of real things.
EDIT: References to RA Wilson on first click. Very interesting indeed.
"Friendship is optimal" (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/Friendship-is-Optimal)
And
"the metamorphosis of Prime Intellect (https://web.archive.org/web/20040401174623/http://www.kuro5h..., strongly NSFW)
Both are stories about a singularity that turns the world into a simulation, in which some can program the simulation.
I found it unique in many ways and would love to hear if people know more similar books.
That is book one of a trilogy, and the third book is not out yet, so be warned! It’s a great yarn so far though.
In a different vein, "The God Proof" (a mystery novel revolving around Kurt Gödel's ontological proof of God's existence) was a fun read:
Fortunately, you can make one fairly easily and cheaply!
Grabovoy is an anti-Semite.
None of this is a coincidence, because nothing is a coincidence.
I love the idea that "consciousness" is a self replicating idea that we as humans have learned somewhere in our past and spread to each other like a virus.
The idea that positive memes can improve the human race over time gives me hope for the future as an antidote distopia. :D
https://github.com/JasonGross/unsong_scraper
https://github.com/Wagk/Unsong-In-Ebook-Format/
https://hiltonbooks.com/details/28589297-unsong.html
Can't remember which one I downloaded, but I guess they are all based on the scraper version