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Rastonbury

Same person who wrote SCP Antimemetics Division which is great too

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One of my favourite reads for sure - I've been looking for similar reads since.

I enjoyed "the raw shark texts" after hearing it recommended - curious if you / anyone else has any other suggestions!

I've enjoyed most of Isaac Asimov's work, especially The Last Question.

I also liked a couple stories from Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others.

Library at Mount Char, Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation/Authority/Acceptance), Laundry Files (kinda).

Definitely looking for other reqs, raw shark texts look very interesting.

I consider Recursion by Blake Crouch to be similar, even though I liked Antimemetics much better. I haven't read Crouch's other books, but have heard that Dark Matter is better than Recursion, though it may be less similar to Antimemetics.

I really liked Upgrade as well, fun listen.

This is very "distant" suggestion if you enjoyed Antimemetics, but The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro is another one of my favourites, and it too explores this idea of unreliable and inconsistent memories, although from a completely different angle.

Perhaps Permutation City by Greg Egan though I didn't finish the book.

I've heard Accelerando by Stross is good too.

Try Dissolution by Nick Binge. Same weird vibes.

I've enjoyed Peter Watts in kind of similar way I enjoy qntm. It's nerdy, explores interesting ideas, and written by a professional in a field who draws on their education, skills and interests. Premier work is probably Blindsight but the Sunflower cycle stories are likely easier to start. Like qntm, a lot of his works are online for free:

https://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

How have people enjoyed the rewrite?

I read the original antimemetic division book a few times, and gifted the book to few friends too (love his other works too:). I pre ordered the update, but only got a third through. I'm not quite nerdy enough to do a page or sentence comparison, but it felt less "tight" - not sure if the exposition is more prosaic or there's less mystery or just more description that wasn't strictly needed (for me). Or, maybe I just reread the original too recently! Anybody else read both versions? :-).

I’ve read both the original and paid rewrite.

2025 paid version has more coherent ending (which is nice) and more linear timeline for your average non-technical Joe. Which is probably a good thing.

But I enjoyed the freeride first one as well.

I read both and I think rewrite is much better. Though this is specifically because I didn't like the ghosts in the second half of original.

Oooh... The deus ex machina has changed?? That'll be interesting to see - thx!

I read it in print and thought it was awful, such an interesting idea but explored by a rank amateur, curious to know how different the original creepypasta was.

Edit: Oh it's a full rewrite? I had no idea.

Note, both versions were available in print, do you know which one you read? :-)

And yes, according to author it's a pretty significant rewrite for v2: https://qntm.org/antifaq#sec0

Original for sure, in paperback, which I donated after finishing, looks like it sells for a lot more than I paid for it.

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