Fallen Dragon
Lawrence Newton always dreamed of adventure amongst the stars. Now the ultimate prize is within his grasp, but what will he risk to get it? Lawrence is the sergeant of a washed-out platoon, taking part in the bungled invasion of yet another human colony world. The giant corporations call such campaigns 'asset realisation', but in practice it's simple piracy.
Stats for nerds
5recommend
11mentions
9people
2010–2025years
55% recommend45% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- A little different, but Fallen Dragon by Peter F Hamilton scratches the same itch for me.
- Peter F Hamilton's "Fallen Dragon" had a sub-plot along these lines. Some soldiers wore exo-suits-of-muscle that had access to valves embedded in the femoral and carotid arteries. The human inside was breathing for both themselves and the suit while hooked up. The suits could be disconnected and hooked up to a external rack that did circulation and respiration when not in use.
- I'd also mention P. F. Hamilton's "Fallen Dragon", where FTL travel is possible, colonization of a few nearby Earth-like planets has happened... but it's not economically viable after all, which leads to some twisted consequences.
- I'm so glad to see this as the top comment. In particular, his "Fallen Dragon" really resonated with me.
If I may, I'd also like to suggest Richard K. Morgan for his Takeshi Kovacs trilogy, which is currently being turned into a TV series named after the first book, "Altered Carbon".
It is premised on backing up human consciousness to a "cortical stack" that can be recovered when a person is killed or dies, and downloading them into a new body, or "sleeve". It covers the rich overclass that effectively lives forever with a clone bank, criminal punishment being "put on ice" while someone else uses your body, and crack soldiers being deployed across planets digitally by being downloaded into new bodies. The whole series is a must read if you are contemplating the ethics and implications of immortality via digital backup.
- I wonder if you've read Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton?
Unremovable, remote controllable lethal necklaces are a central plot device in the mercenary invasion. They are put on randomly chosen civilians as "collateral" to ensure co-operation and disincentive insurgency.
- I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi because I feel it makes people think about what they want the future to be, as well as avoiding the re-hashing of historical and current events that many fiction books set in the present do. With that in mind a list of great books to read:
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Gridlinked - Neal Asher Neuromancer - William Gibson The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F. Hamilton The Dreaming Void - Peter F. Hamilton Fallen Dragon - Peter F. Hamilton Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan Market Forces - Richard Morgan Blindsight - Peter Watts The Electric Church - Jeff Somers Tunnel in the Sky - Robert A. Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein 1984 - George Orwell
