Ask HN: I loved Snow Crash and Daemon. What should I read next? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I loved Snow Crash and Daemon. What should I read next?

16 pointstectonic25 comments

I also just finished Ready Player One and enjoyed it. What are you folks reading these days?

If you enjoyed "Snow Crash" and "Diamond Age", I'd recommend "Islands in the Net" (if you can get hold of a copy) and "Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling. Or for something newer, "the Zenith Angle" by same.

I've also enjoyed all of Willam Gibsons books, including the latest trilogy "Pattern Recognition", "Spook Country" and "Zero History".

If you bothered to read through "Cryptonomicon" you'll either love "the Code Book" by Simon Singh more than I did, or hate it :-)

Assuming you've picket through the classics shelf, you might have missed out on Samuel Delany - "The Einstein Intersection" might be a good one to try on for size -- although I actually found "Neveryóna" to be maybe his most interesting book (of the ones I've been able to get hold of) [edit: After "Dhalgren", that is. But I think "Dhalgren" is a bit like Joyce's "Ulysses" -- a classic I haven't gotten around to yet. I spent the better part of ten (10!) years reading through "Dhalgren", picking it up on odd holidays - never loosing touch with the intricate unreality within, readily satisfied after reading a few pages or a chapter -- like nibbling on a choice ham that didn't spoil. It's rather more complex than any of the other books I've listed here].

Also worth mentioning in the "might be overlooked" section is Jerry Pournelle's "Falkenberg's Legion" (republished as "the Prince").

I'm afraid I've been mostly digging through second hand books lately, so the only other semi-recent book I could recommend would be "Broken Angels" by Richard Morgan (technically it's number two in a trilogy -- but I find it stands better on its own).

Thanks for the detailed reply!

A book that often escapes even cyberpunk fans is John Brunner's "The Shockwave Rider". It was written in 1975 but is eerily prescient - at least I thought so when I read it in the 90's.

Of course, I also recommend Gibson's books. And "Ender's Game"/"Ender's Shadow", even though they're not cyberpunk/cyber thrillers.

This is one of my favorites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_(novel)

Massive recommendation for 'Blindsight' by Peter Watts, if you want your mind blown. And the author has made it available for free! http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

I bought that book to support him after his shitty customs experience. Turned out to be one of the greatest novels I've ever read. Totally fascinating.

Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive. The Cukoo's Egg is good as well.

Enders Game and Enders Shadow by Orson Scott Card. Before the movie comes out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731141/

I guess op's not really paying attention any more, but there's a relevant discussion on slashdot today:

http://ask.slashdot.org/story/12/08/08/2135246/ask-slashdot-...

I can heartily recommend most of the stuff in the 4+ comments: Ursula Le Guin, Lem, Strugatsky, Kurt Vonnegut... and of course Alfred Bester, especially "The Stars my Destination", proto cyberpunk.

I quite enjoyed Simon Morden's Metrozone trilogy - which has a lot of similarities to Snow Crash and Daemon (main character is essentially a hacker, run-amok AI, cyberpunkish dystopian future...)

http://www.simonmorden.com/books/equations-of-life/ includes an excerpt from the first book.

Thanks for the reference!

The sequel to Daemon(by Daniel Suarez I'm assuming), Freedom, was good. I also enjoyed Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge.

Anything by Vernor Vinge. Fucking love that guy.

& Suarez's third book, Kill Decision.. I read that in two days flat. :o.

Diamond Age is recommended. You might also like Little Brother by Doctorow. I would recommend anything by China Mieville. Take a look http://blog.kaipakartik.com you might find something you want to read.

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan - highly. highly. Recommend. Ready Player One... meh. Much preferred MetaGame (only $2!). Otherwise - The Quantum Thief was a great mind blower. Haven't heard of Daemon, loved Snow Crash. Will look into.

I wonder how those two stack up to "Dream Park" by Larry Niven?

I'd suggest The Diamond Age as a logical continuation from Snow Crash because it's also awesome and because it's very (very) loosely a sequel. It has a different tone and pace and theme, however.

Ah, yes, I loved the Diamond Age also. Actually, I think I've read almost everything by Neal Stephenson.

Cryptonomicon? The only book I ever read to say "I beat you massive book!" and not for enjoyment. In the end it was a decent romp.

Cryptonomicon benefits a lot from being a theoretical comp-sci and/or crypto nerd.

I had the endurance to read through Cryptonomicon, it was long but still enjoyable.

Then I bought all three volumes of the Baroque Cycle, but gave up halfway through volume 1 and sold them. It was just too much.

You might also enjoy Philip K Dick. His style is very different than Snow Crash, but I feel like their visions of the future have a lot in common.

Reputedly, Stanislaw Lem thought Philip K. Dick was the only good American sci-fi author, while Philip K. Dick thought Stanislaw Lem was a KGB conspiracy.

I'd suggest the Otherland series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherland

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