Plowing the dark

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…endation and an airport recommendation. Both books are excellent, but the coffee shop book requires slower reader and more mental effort to get the benefit. Coffee shop: Plowing the Dark by Richard Powers. The book follows to parallel stories: one of a company that invents virtual reality and another of a teacher that gets taken hostage by terrorists. It's an incredible book and the reason why I decided to study computer science. http://www.amazon.com/Plowing-Dark-Novel-Richard-Powers/dp/B... Airport: Moving Mars by Greg Bear. Mars is a colony of Earth and the book follows a struggle for Martian independence. Also an incredible book. http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Mars-Novel-Greg-Bear/dp/0812524...

I've found the success of a work Science Fiction as a work of literature is closely correlated to how far removed it is from present day society. Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World are both fairly close to society today, as far as Science Fiction goes. Richard Powers has had great success writing about things like virtual reality (Plowing the Dark) and artificial intelligence (Galatea 2.2), but his works are even closer to present day than Bradbury or Huxley. The Foundation Series, while not quite on Powers's level, are still incredible books that might just belong in the class of real literature. I don't think it will ever get there though because its world isn't coupled closely enough with the one we know.

Snow Crash , Cryptonmicon . Both are by Neal Stephenson. Another pair of good fiction novels are Plowing the Dark and Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers. Sometimes you need good fiction to inspire you.