As an example, I love the Martian, and I think a lot of older books from authors like Asimov are heavily into engineering / competence porn. Other favs in this category include the standalone novel Rendezvous with Rama to leave you wishing for more, most of the Culture series for happy utopian vibes, Schlock Mercenary for humor, Dahak series for fun mindless popcorn.

Edit: I’m so happy to have found a replacement for r/books and the rest of them.

  • @SzethFriendOfNimi
    2•2 days ago

    They can be. Anathem was a bit more of a slog that sped up.

    I found cryptonomicon to be slow at first (but not like Anathem) but it sped up quickly.

    It goes back and forth between “modern” early 00’s? And WW2.

    Stephenson is the kind of author you start a book and after a bit you’re like… ok… I don’t think this is for me… wait… what? And then you’re hooked.

    Anathem is one of the worst that was like that. Snow Crash would be the polar opposite and one of the rare ones that just jumps straight into the world building.

    Unrelated: I just finished Wind and Truth. So weird to think somebody got me hooked on Sanderson about 2 years ago and I’ve burned through all his books (except for Reckoners and the Alcatraz books). The first because I haven’t tried one but seems a bit more youth oriented and the latter because it is more youth oriented than my usual tastes.

    • AwesomeLowlanderOP
      2•2 days ago

      Stephenson is the kind of author you start a book and after a bit you’re like… ok… I don’t think this is for me… wait… what? And then you’re hooked.

      Yeah, I liked the books but they really do need a bit of determination to get started.

      Alcatraz is definitely for a much younger crowd, but Reckoners might be worth a shot. The worldbuilding is great, classic Sanderson. The YA part comes through as a teenage MC and easier language, but it’s still plenty interesting. A lot of parallels to Mistborn.