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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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[-] Okokimup@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Red X by David Demchuk is fiction mixed with autobiography.

Twenty-One Truths About Love by Matthew Dicks is a novel told entirely in list form.

I didn't care for either book, but they were definitely unique structures.

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu was great and has been compared to Cloud Atlas, if that kind of structure is appealing to you.

[-] yum_burnt_toast@reddthat.com 1 points 11 months ago

another older recommendation is jacques the fatalist, where jacques is attempting to tell the story of his lovelife but is constantly interrupted by other people telling their own stories, there is a "reader" who interrupts the narrator to ask questions, and the narrator at times gets bored of telling the story and asks the reader to fill in their own details. it also has an entire section directly from tristam shandy near the end.

not sci fi or fantasy but worth a read if you have the patience.

[-] Someonedifferent@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

It’s not sci-fi, but Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar lets you decide in what order to read the chapters.

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this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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