Top 20 Geek Novels

Malacca writes "The Guardian's computer editor Jack Schofield has posted a list of the Top 20 Geek Novels in English since 1932. The polling method is unscientific, but it throws up some interesting choices. Definitions of 'Geek Novels' aside, the usual suspects like Neal Stephenson and William Gibson feature, but Terry Pratchett's 'The Colour of Magic' at #9? Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" at #17?" What would you put on that list?

Comments

Good Omens

[ZahrGnosis]

I'm glad someone mentioned "Good Omens". For anyone who has heard of Neil Gaiman OR Terry Pratchett and hasn't read this book: you're really missing something. It happens that my favorite author for a while was Pratchett, and a good friend of mine was into Gaiman... we recommended the book to each other with serendipitous timing, and it's been a favorite ever since. Highly recommended.

Re:The Colour of Magic is a weird choice...

[hotzeyboy]

While I love all the discworld books, "Going Postal" would definately be the one that I think belongs on this list. It even has a bunch of hackers named the GNU(which is still a recursive acronym), talks about packet space and involves a very low tech spoofing exploit.
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Re:The Colour of Magic is a weird choice...

[TheRaven64]

I think my favourite geeky touch was the cryptographical engine whose acronym was E.N.I.G.M.A. (also not spelt out, and also only spotted on the second reading). The geek references have always been there though. In The Colour of Magic (I believe, possible The Light Fantastic) there is a druid talking about people wanting to upgrade to the latest 33 Megalith stone circles - published when a 486 DX 33 was top of the range.

Another geeky author I can recommend is Jasper Fforde. The Well of Lost Plots, the penultimate book in the series that started with The Well of Lost Plots would appeal to many Slashdot readers (read the earlier ones first though) dealing, as it does, with the topic of DRM. Set in the book world, the world inside fiction, Thusday Next, litterary detective, discovers that the next version of the book OS (an upgrade from the old 8-plot system to a new, improved, 32-plot system with all sorts of extra features) contains a system which prevents a book from being read more than three times. It's full of references to classic literature and more geeky references (a large number of comments about old versions of the book OS, for example, held for old versions of MS DOS). A good read for anyone, and the book to use to explain DRM to your less technically inclined friends.