61–70 of 106 posts
Karl writes about engineering Virga on his blog:
http://www.kschroeder.com/my-books/sun-of-suns/engineering-v...
From the blurb of the fifth novel: "Everybody’s favorite self-aware weapon of mass destruction, the Odin-Class cybertank known as Old Guy, is back and charging into action as only a fusion-powered 2000 ton armored fighting vehicle can! Through a curious twist of fate, Old Guy finds himself back on Old Earth under the yoke of the vile and despicable Neoliberal oligarchs. Between a looming ecological disaster, renegade sentient bioweapons, inscrutable aliens, the recycling center from Hell, and an unlikely alliance between the Cult of Cthulhu and the Order of the Librarians Temporal, Old Guy must throw off his cybernetic shackles, defeat the Neoliberals, save the world, and launch a line of comfortable yet stylish footwear. "
Most of the other books I'd recommend in this area are mentioned already, but I'll add Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. The primary narrative is from the pov of a generation ship's A.I.. You get to see it learn over time and with it it's vocabulary. Since it's a ship it gives KSR the opportunity to do some very fun info-dumps on the situation. Probably one of the most thought provoking pieces of scifi I've read. I'll…
I always liked the Ben Bova grand tour series. Some are better than others, but they're pretty entertaining and pretty plausible near-future.
David Brin's Uplift Trilogy. Also, Not really an amazing book but Seveneves by Neal Stephenson was pretty technical.
My favorite: "Neuromancer" by William Gibson. A close second: "Accelerando" by Charles Stross. (I met Charles Stross once. He told me that "Accelerando" was not his favorite of the books he's written.)
The metamorphosis of prime intellect: http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/ Not sure whether it’s hard, it has quite an unexpected but plausible plot. There’s much love in me for this weird, twisted, brutal and captivating story — I think it’s much underappreciated.