Pines
"Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels... off. As the days pass, Ethan's investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can't he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn't anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact - he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive" -- Author's website.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
3mentions
3people
2014–2022years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Fiction
I discovered and read Blake Crouch this year
- Dark Matter
- Recursion
- Upgrade
- Pines
I also discovered and read
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Gravity by Tess Gerritsen
- A Man by, At the End of the Matinee Keiichiro Hirano
It's between Recursion and Project Hail Mary for me. I am leaning more towards Recursion.
Non-fiction
I discovered and read the following this year
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- The Millionaire Fastlane by M.J. DeMarco
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel
- How to Start a Business Without any Money by Rachel Bridge
- Creative Gene by Hideo Kojima
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Show Your Work, Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
- Press Reset by Jason Schreier
I would say Deep Work and Steve Jobs had the biggest impact on me.
Programming
I am learning Elixir using Elixir In Action by Sasa Juric.
- I haven't read a ton of modern SF, but my favorites from the last 5 years are:
* All Systems Red by Martha Wells. It's about a very introspective AI security droid who is trying to disguise the fact that he's become self-aware and has free will. It's very short, but I almost missed a flight because once I picked it up, I just kept reading it until it was done.
* Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This is by the author of The Martian, but I think I liked this one even more than that. It's still got that very procedural, engineering-porn style, but the scope is grander, a bit more Arthur C. Clarke and a bit less MacGuyver.
* Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. A lot of people may call this fantasy, but I don't think the distinction is meaningful in this case. It's about someone who gets stuck in a strange world that's sort of The Library of Babel meets The School of Athens.
* Recursion by Blake Crouch. False memory syndrome (e.g. The Mandela Effect) becomes a global existential crisis. All Blake Crouch books are incredibly fast page turners with fun SF ideas: Dark Matter, Wayward Pines, also good.
* Agency by William Gibson. I actually thought this book was just okay, but I am adding it to this list because it's the sequel to The Peripheral, which was amazing (but is older than 5 years). The premise is that people in the future can send information into the past, creating a parallel world. Like most William Gibson novels, it seemed like gibberish at first, but then when it clicked I really liked it, though it was sort of terrifying to think about.
- Is this constrained to Fantasy? I have a lot of Science Fiction recommendations too, but here's a small list:
Riftwar Cycle (several series) by Raymond E. Feist. - high magic, great overarching themes, enjoyable all around. Most of the characters are exceedingly interesting and many are extremely high powered.
Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross - More of the multiworld thing, but a great twist, also what would you do if you could introduce technology into a medieval world.
Deverry Cycle by Katherine Kerr - Rebirth cycles, immortal main character watches and guides several characters through multiple lifetimes.
Dark Tower series by Stephen King - Great story, ties into almost all of SK's books at some point.
Earthsea by Ursula le Guin - A classic story, epic for sure.
Scavenger Trilogy by K.J Parker - Dark and mysterious. Main character might be good, might be bad, but doesn't remember anything.
- -
A couple good series I ran across on Kindle Unlimited are:
Wayward Pines Series by Blake Crouch. - Like a post-apocolyptic Twin peaks, at least at first. A bit dark, the story bothered me near the end, but still worth the read.
Belial Series by R.D Brady - didn't know what to make of this one at first, "alternate history" (aliens and pyramids type), but it turns out pretty good. involves "Angels" though maybe not in the conventional sense.
Magic 2.0 by Scott Meyer - two books, both very good, highly recommend.
Travelers Gate series by Will Wight (surprisingly good)
Silo Saga by Hugh Howey - currently reading, but great writing, IMO.
There are even more Science Fiction books/series I'd highly recommend, but if you aren't into it, I won't bother you with em.
