Book picks similar to
Deus X by Norman Spinrad


science-fiction
sci-fi
sf
cyberpunk

Heart of the Comet


David Brin - 1986
    An odyssey of discovery, from a shattered society through the solar system with a handful of men and women who ride a cold, hurtling ball of ice to the shaky promise of a distant, unknowable future.

The Illustrated Harlan Ellison


Harlan Ellison - 1978
    Featuring the stories "Deeper Than The Darkness", "Croatoan", "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman" - (formatted in 3-D and includes the 3-D glasses!), "The Discarded", "An Ellison Tapestry", "Riding the Dark Train Out", and "I'm Looking For Kadak"

Trader to the Stars


Poul Anderson - 1964
    A starwide empire was difficult to run, but the old man was wily and the resources of the Solar Spice & Liquors Company were vast. But sometimes even a conquered world can get just a little out of hand.In his Magnificent Future History of Mankind's second great age Poul Anderson has conjured up a universe too immense for even the human race to despoil. Across this grand expanse of space roams the Polesotechnic League, a band of merchant princes from every inhabited planet, in search of adventure and riches beyond the wildest dreams of our earthbound time!Contents:Hiding Place (1961)Territory (1962)The Master Key (1964)

City of Truth


James K. Morrow - 1991
    Not even politicians lie, and weirdly frank notices abound—such as warning: this elevator maintained by people who hate their jobs: ride at your own risk. In this dystopia of mandatory candor, every preadolescent citizen is ruthlessly conditioned, through a Skinnerian ordeal called a “brainburn,” to speak truthfully under all circumstances.Jack Sperry wouldn’t dream of questioning the norms of Veritas; he’s happy with his life and his respectable job as a “deconstructionist,” destroying “mendacious” works of art—relics from a less honest era. But when his adored son, Toby, falls gravely ill, the truth becomes Jack’s greatest enemy. Somehow our hero must overcome his brainburn and attempt to heal his child with beautiful lies.

The Steampunk Trilogy


Paul Di Filippo - 1995
    The three short novels in The Steampunk Trilogy are all set in a very alternative nineteenth century, and feature a mixture of historical and imaginary figures. In "Victoria," a young and lissome Queen Victoria disappears from her throne and is replaced by a sexy human/newt clone. The race is on to find the original Victoria and to hide the terrible secret from the nation. In "Hottentots," Massachusetts is threatened by monsters from the deep; in "Walt and Emily," Emily Dickinson hooks up with a robust and lusty Walt Whitman, loses her virginity, and travels to a dimension beyond time where she meets the future Allen Ginsberg.

Berserker


Fred Saberhagen - 1967
    The sole legacy of that war was the weapon that ended it: the death machines, the BERSERKERS. Guided by self-aware computers more intelligent than any human, these world-sized battlecraft carved a swath of death through the galaxy--until they arrived at the outskirts of the fledgling Empire of Man.These are the stories of the frail creatures who must meet this monstrous and implacable enemy--and who, by fighting it to a standstill, become the saviors of all living things.

Distress


Greg Egan - 1995
    He's on his way to the artifical island of Stateless, where the world's top physicists are gathering to decide on a new TOE, or Theory of Everything, to replace Einstein's outmoded legacy. Chief among the scientists is the brilliant African Nobel laureate, Violet Mosala, the focus of Worth's story, who is the subject of mysterious death threats. Worth begins his own investigation, but it takes on even more urgency when he finds that Distress, the mental plague now affecting millions, is linked somehow to the approaching Aleph Moment when the TOE is finalized.The countdown has begun for a disaster that will reach all the way back to the Big Bang. And beyond...

Immortality, Inc.


Robert Sheckley - 1959
    Yes, that seemed normal enough---but what was this talk about "death trauma"?Thus was Thomas Blaine introduced to the year 2110, where science had discovered the technique of transferring a man's consciousness from one body to another. Where a man's mind could be snatched from the past, when his body was at the point of death, and brought forward into a "host body" in this fantastic future world. But that was only a small part of it. For the future had proved the reality of life after death, and discovered worlds beyond or simultaneous with our own---worlds where, through scientific techniques, a man could live again, in another body, when he died here. And in the process, the reality of ghosts, poltergeists, and zombies was also established. What did it all mean? How had this discovery of what they called the "hereafter" shaped the world of 2110? Thomas Blaine found himself living in a future where the discoveries and techniques imagined by people of his time, while having come about, were completely overwhelmed by discoveries no one had ever dreamed of.

The Hollow Man


Dan Simmons - 1992
    Louis, he follows a voice that is calling him to witness the stunning mystery at the heart of mortality.

Inside Job


Connie Willis - 2005
    Smart, dedicated, gorgeous, and, thanks to her last movie before she hung up on Hollywood, rich, she's a pleasure to oblige when she says Rob has to witness this channeler Ariaura's act--on her, not the Eye's, nickel--despite channelers being so last year. It's quite a show, all right, for in the midst of Ariaura's particular ancient wise guy's basso spiel, a gravelly baritone interrupts (both voices emanate from the channeler's female mouth) to berate the audience as "yaps" and the act as "claptrap." Why is Ariaura undermining herself? Or is she? After all, she angrily accuses Rob and Kildy of scheming to destroy her. Could the baritone belong to a genuine channeled spirit? Willis, one of sf's most spirited writers, rounds on the New Age; pays tribute to a great, skeptical journalist; and affectionately parodies pulp fiction at its best in this irresistible entertainment.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom


Cory Doctorow - 2003
    He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.Disney World! The greatest artistic achievement of the long-ago twentieth century. Now in the keeping of a network of "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches.Now, though, the "ad hocs" are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents, and is replacing its venerable audioanimatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself. Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules killed. This upsets him. (It's only his fourth death and revival, after all.) Now it's war....

Brightness Falls from the Air


James Tiptree Jr. - 1985
    They are 16 humans in a distant world about to be enveloped by an eruption of violence--horror and murder oddly complemented by a bizarre unforgiving love. But justice is not all that's about to be found. Judgment is coming and the 16 unsuspecting ones are on the threshold of the murdered star.

Antarctica


Kim Stanley Robinson - 1997
    He arrives on the frozen continent and immediately begins making contact with the various scientific and political factions that comprise Antarctic society.What he finds is an interesting blend of inhabitants who don't always mesh well but who all share a common love of Antarctica and a fierce devotion to their life there. He also begins to uncover layers of Antarctic culture that have been kept hidden from the rest of the world, and some of them are dangerous indeed. Things are brought to a head when the saboteurs—or “ecoteurs” as they call themselves—launch an attack designed to drive humans off the face of Antarctica.

The Sentinels: The Devil's Hand / Dark Powers / Death Dance [Robotech Omnibus]


Jack McKinney - 1995
    But the Robotech Masters were already on their way to Earth. And at Tirol, the SDF-3 would face the galaxy's fiercest warlord: the Invid Regent!#2 Dark PowersStranded on the far side of the galaxy after battling the Invid hordes, the Robotech Expeditionary Force's chances for survival were slim. But suddenly a starship unlike any other appeared -- manned by an incredible assortment of beings determined to challenge the Invid Regent himself! REF volunteers and their war mecha signed on for a campaign that would mean their destruction -- or liberty for the planets of the Sentinels!#3 Death DanceFour months had passed without a word from the Sentinels. Fearing the worst, the Expeditionary Mission to Tirol began truce negotiations with the Invid Regent himself. But far away, the surviving Sentinels were stranded on Praxis, a planet in cataclysm. Deep within that world's core were answers to the Sentinels' prayers -- if they could only reach them before Praxis tore itself apart...

The Moon Pool


A. Merritt - 1918
    Merritt's writings. Set on the island of Ponape, full of ruins from ancient civilizations, the novel chronicles the adventures of a party of explorers who discover a previously unknown underground world full of strange peoples and super-scientific wonders. From the depths of this world, the party unwittingly unleashes the Dweller, a monstrous terror that threatens the islands of the South Pacific. Although Merritt did not invent the lost world novel, following in the footsteps of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Burroughs and others, he greatly elaborated upon that tradition. This new edition includes a biography of the author, and an introduction detailing Merritt's many sources and influences, including the occult, mythological, and scientific discourses of his day.