Bookshelf

Many of my favorite books were discovered from other people’s lists of favorite books. Therefore, I should act as those who helped my past self acted. Here I list books that my past self would have liked to have read without the trouble of finding them first.

Unsong

By Scott Alexander

The crew of Apollo 8 crash into the crystal sphere. This accidentally performs a code injection attack on the Sephirot on which the universe is implemented.

Big tech companies brute-force search for Names of God.

The Archangel Uriel tries to prevent people from crashing the system.

Worm

by Wildbow

Worm is long, (~1,750,000 words), dark, and very violent. However, despite its many flaws, I do not regret expending the time to reading it, so far, three times.

To The Stars

by Hieronym

A hard SF fanfiction of Puella Magi Madoka Magica

In a largely post scarcity society, governance forces humans to remain properly human. It is permitted for rock climbers to have graft gecko setae grafted to the hands, and for hair to clean and arrange itself, but fully immersive VR gaming is highly restricted.

The plot and character development is good, but it is the worldbuilding that is truly excellent.

Ra

by Sam Hughes

Some additional laws of physics are discovered. People exploit these new laws. The sysadmins panic.

Big scale trolley car problems.

Story of Your Life

Some aliens want to help humans consistently cooperate in the prisoner’s dilemma. The original of the film Arrival. Unlike Arrival, it does not feel the Hollywood compunction to add pointless guns and explosions.