Wow! I just finished “For The Win” by Cory Doctorow – insanely good.
I don’t play MMORPGs so I have no idea where the here-and-now ends and the sci-fi starts in this book, but woah. I sure hope more of it is sci-fi than my gut-feelings suggest… yikes!
This book hit me like William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” did way back when and makes me wonder if it’ll be as big an influence on the future as “Neuromancer”, “Virtual Light” (also by Gibson), and “Snow Crash” (by Neal Stephenson) all were. It has that feel to it, frighteningly enough.
Here are some Amazon affiliate links that support Geek And Dad, if you haven’t read any of these yet*.
- “For the Win” by Cory Doctorow
- “Neuromancer” by William Gibson
- “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson
- “Virtual Light” by William Gibson
These are all sci-fi or, if you prefer, the “cyberpunk” sub-genre of sci-fi or, again if you prefer, “speculative fiction.” And there are quite a few others that belong on this list, but other than the brand new “For the Win”, these are some of the books that influenced how the internet and “cyberspace” was actualized (Gibson is attributed as the person who coined the term “cypberspace” according to Wikipedia. “Neuromancer” is the winner of the science-fiction “triple crown” — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award and, again according to Wikipedia, “is considered the archetypal cyberpunk work.”
‘nough said. Go read! 🙂
* We do encourage you to use your locally owned bookstore (ours is Powell’s) or your local Library. I read “For The Win” via our awesome Multnomah County Library, but I think I might need to buy it to add to the permanent collection where it’ll sit alongside the “Lensmen” series by EE “Doc” Smith, the others listed above, and a couple dozen other books.
Woah – just realized that the first book in the Lensman series, “Triplanetary,” is available as a FREE eBook!
Geek And Dad's Blog 