Stations of the Tide
The story of a nameless bureaucrat who is sent by the Office of Technology Transfer, charged with restricting the flow of dangerous technologies, to the planet Miranda to search for a fugitive in possession of forbidden technological knowledge. His search is complicated by his quarry's deep local knowledge and the imminence of the continent-inundating Jubilee tides, which have thrown the world he's searching into chaos. Little is what it seems and references abound.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
3mentions
3people
2014–2021years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I don't get the reference to your username, who is it?
Because I have read the other of your recommendations (you and the gp), and I agree with them, I want to add my two cents (in not special order):
"Recursion" by Tony Ballantine, "Counting Heads" by David Marusek, "In the mouth of the whale" by Paul McAuley, "House of Suns" by Alistair Reynolds, "Diaspora" by Greg Egan,"The Collapsium" by Will McCarthy, "Signal to noise" by Eric S. Nylund, "Stations of the tide" by Michael Swanwick, "Schismatrix" by Bruce Sterling
- Here are some mostly SF suggestions:
Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks. One of many books he's written in the galaxy-spanning setting of "The Culture", an anarchist techno-utopia. Everyone who likes the Culture has an opinion about the best one to start reading with; this is mine. He's also written many SF books outside that setting, and many non-SF books as 'Iain Banks'. Sadly he died recently so there will never be any more.
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi. An ultra-dense draught of future shock; a thief pulls off a complicated caper in a Solar System transformed into something alien and strange by Moore's Law.
The Laundry Files, Charlie Stross. A series about a computer programmer who works for a secret arm of England's intelligence agency dedicated to fighting off magical menaces. Each book stands alone but the end of the world is looming on the horizon. Stross has written a LOT more stuff, pretty much all worth reading IMHO.
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch. A very witty romp about a thief in a fantasy land. There's three books about Locke now; while there's continuity between them, they mostly stand alone - right now I'm reading the latest, where he has to rig an election for a council of wizards, while an old flame does the same for the other side.
Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart. The first of three gorgeous fantasy detective novels set in magical medieval China. Find them, read them, possibly love them.
The Iron Dragon's Daughter, Michael Swanwick. A changeling's journey through a mad steampunk version of UK fairy myth. Utterly gorgeous and beautiful, also profoundly alien and nihilistic. Not my absolute favorite of his works - that honor goes to Stations of the Tide - but this one's a very close runner-up.
Also seconding the recommendation elsewhere in this thread for Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series. Huge and dense and slow and beautiful and absolutely in love with language. I couldn't get into the two subsequent Books of the Long/Short Suns, but the New Sun is amazing.
Oh and of course George R. R. Martin has been writing for years; have you tried any of his other work?
- I was on a sf kick this year apparently.
Full list (why can't amazon show me the read dates of my kindle books?!):
- Ancillary Sword
- The Magician's Land
- The Three Body Problem (incomplete)
- Libriomancer, Codex Born, Unbound
- Thank You, Jeeves
- Omon Ra (incomplete)
- Stations of the Tide
- 1Q84 (staggeringly incomplete)
- The Desert Spear (incomplete)
- The Lost Fleet: {Dauntless,Fearless,Courageous} (third one incomplete)
- Superintelligence
- Nexus, Crux (incomplete)
- Another Fine Myth
- The Annihilation Score
- The Man with the Golden Torc, Daemons are Forever
- The Fractal Prince (incomplete)
- Crooked
- Ancillary Mercy
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
- The Traitor Baru Cormarant
- Excession
- Hive Mind
- Seveneves
