Player of Games

I'll stand by most of the other recommendations here that I've read, here are some books I liked that I haven't seen here yet: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is a pretty good and campy series. The Dresden Files series is also good, I tried to get into it but I hated the mumbly voice actor on Audible unfortunately. Iain Banks is good, especially Player of Games, Consider Phlebas and The Algebraist. Use of Weapons put a bad taste in my mouth. Good luck! EDIT: Forgot to mention Isaac Asimov, I've yet to see anything bad by him. Still trying to get through the Foundation series.

"Player of Games" is also a good starting point, it has some of the clearest narrative structure of any of the Culture novels. And from what I can remember, it's a little less dark than Phlebas, to ease you into the depths of Banks' mind.

Don't miss sivers's great list: http://sivers.org/book As for mine, Science Fiction (I like these authors so I'd recommend most of their books -- listing which ones I think are a good 'starter novel' for them): Charles Stross: Halting State Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon The Deep Iain M. Banks: Culture novels, start with Player of Games David Louis Edelman: Jump 225 Trilogy Daniel Suarez: Daemon and Freedom(tm) John Scalzi: Old Man's War series Dan Simmons: Hyperion Self-improvement: The Talent Code Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Non-fiction: Amusing Ourselves To Death (highly recommended) The Science of Fear The Black Swan Tokyo Vice Racing The Beam (Atari history, very cool) books by Daniel Pink Guns, Germs, and Steel The Prize by Daniel Yergin Fantasy: Anything by Gaiman or China Mieville, pretty much. EDIT: links to previews (legally) available online Charles Stross's Accelerando (entire book): http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera... (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html)…