First ones off the top of my head would be UBIK by Phillip K Dick or either Stranger in a Strange Land or JOB by Heinlein.
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (86)
sorted by:
Consider Phlebas or Player of Games. Both great sci-fi books by Iain Banks. Consider Phlebas would be an epic action/adventure, bordering on space opera. Player of Games is... I dunno how to describe it. Genius enters contest on far away alien planet sponsered by future version of CIA, on the premise of diplomatic outreach, but you know there's more to it.
I always like the Culture series, but have always felt like the odd man out because I view the Culture as a pretty horrific entity. Rooting for the baddies, as it were.
Definitely! I mean there's a lot of upsides, but reading the books, I'm always thinking this would suck. Humans are almost like afterthoughts or ornaments. You gotta be 1 in a billion genius for the AI to even take you seriously and not just humoring you.
So, yeah there's lots of moments where I like seeing the underdogs thwart the Culture.
The Culture always reminds me of Lt Eddington from DS9 back when writers could write.
The Culture cries out in pain as it subverts and strips your markets and worlds.