this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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Science Fiction

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Book recommendations that play with what it means to be a book (self.sciencefiction)
submitted 1 year ago by Worx to c/[email protected]
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I really love sci-fi novels and I read a lot of books. I read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson a while back and that book is particularly interesting to me. Rather than each chapter advancing the narrative of the story, there were occasional breaks where a chapter would have a list of semi-random words which just gave the vibe of what's happening, or some history of a scene, or a recipe for how to build an asteroid.

There's another book that I have heard of but neglected to write the name down, where the reader of the book is a character within the book, and the narrator speaks directly to you (but not a choose-your-adventure style book).

All of this got me interested in finding other books, preferably sci-fi or maybe fantasy, where the concept of being a book is played with and new ideas are tried. Any recommendations?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Player of Games is told in reverse, it works really well. Book of the New Sun is an Ouroborus, so you don't really understand it until you read it twice.

Edit: I mean "Use of Weapons" not Player of Games.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Use of Weapons is among my absolute favorite books. What an absolutely incredible journey

[–] Worx 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the suggestions. I've already read and enjoyed Use of Weapons and all of the Culture series. They're good books but it sometimes feels like the author is involving us in his gore fetish which I don't find pleasant..

The Book of the New Sun sounds like what I'm looking for. I wonder if it will be like the TV show Dark at all? (please don't answer and spoil, because it's going in my queue of books to read)