this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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Book recommendations that play with what it means to be a book (lemmynsfw.com)
submitted 10 months ago by Worx@lemmynsfw.com to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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I really love sci-fi novels and I read a lot of books. I read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson a while back and that book is particularly interesting to me. Rather than each chapter advancing the narrative of the story, there were occasional breaks where a chapter would have a list of semi-random words which just gave the vibe of what's happening, or some history of a scene, or a recipe for how to build an asteroid.

There's another book that I have heard of but neglected to write the name down, where the reader of the book is a character within the book, and the narrator speaks directly to you (but not a choose-your-adventure style book).

All of this got me interested in finding other books, preferably sci-fi or maybe fantasy, where the concept of being a book is played with and new ideas are tried. Any recommendations?

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[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Cloud Atlas for its Russian nesting doll narrative structure.

Feersum Endjinn for how it plays with time, space, and even basic concepts of spelling and punctuation.

Generation X for its intwerweaving of advertising and informational sidebars into the text.

[–] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 9 months ago

Started reading Feersum Endjinn but it hasn't grabbed me yet. The badly spelled chapter is honestly just annoying to me. There's a couple of weeks left before it's due at the library so I might give it another go. But, it's definitely a weird book which fits my criteria so thank you for the suggestion.