Programming Fiction?

trønderen

The old classics by James P. Hogan are holding up surprisingly well, such as the 25 year old Realtime Interrupt[^], or more than 40 years old (!) The Two Faces Of Tomorrow[^]. I still enjoy these books! Apparently I am not alone, considering that they are still in print. Another 40+ years old book that (contrary to the Hogan novels) never tried to be reliable, seen from a IT professional's point of view, is Thomas J. Ryan: The Adolescence Of P-1[^]. It is fun, but far more outdated than the Hogan books, and no longer in print; you must accept a used copy. If you come across it, read it just for fun - but I don't think it is worth going to extremes getting your own copy. (Rather, spend your money on Hogan!)

thatraja

trønderen wrote:

The old classics by James P. Hogan are holding up surprisingly well, such as the 25 year old Realtime Interrupt[^], or more than 40 years old (!) The Two Faces Of Tomorrow[^].

Nice picks, I'll add this to my list :thumbsup:

trønderen wrote:

Another 40+ years old book that (contrary to the Hogan novels) never tried to be reliable, seen from a IT professional's point of view, is Thomas J. Ryan: The Adolescence Of P-1[^]. It is fun, but far more outdated than the Hogan books, and no longer in print; you must accept a used copy. If you come across it, read it just for fun - but I don't think it is worth going to extremes getting your own copy. (Rather, spend your money on Hogan!)

Even used one comes with big $. Wish there's digital versions.

thatraja

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FunctionalFirst

You might like the Laundry File books by Charles Stross. The Atrocity Archive is the first in the series.

_WinBase_

when i was last a wage slave some 30 years ago, most of the legacy code i had to maintain was bogus - is that the same thing?

Slow Eddie

I started this one and got bored to tears and dropped it. Does it get better later on in the book?

One vote against.

Slow Eddie

I Robot, (the original, not the chopped up version of the movie), if you can find it is great. It is a very old book. It started me reading Science Fiction when I was 8 years old. I am 71 now. In these days when people are programming robots, it talks about the pitfalls of applying programming logic to the real world.

Good read for all of us

GuyThiebaut

I kind of know what you mean, the characters are very cold and it's hard to remain engaged at times. I found it was worth sticking with, I enjoyed reading it through to the end. I am someone who really likes character development in novels and my criticism is that there is no real character development, but the ideas in themselves kept me going. [Edit] the pace of the novel does pick up after a bit.

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

― Christopher Hitchens

agolddog

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a computer as a pretty important character. Comedy, not science fiction though, if that matters.

Paul Kemner

Tor has a list of 8 SF books that get programming right. 8 Science Fiction Books That Get Programming Right | Tor.com[^] Some authors have played with the similarity of programming and the use of magic, where the slightest syntax error or vague specifications can have unintended and disastrous consequences. The Monkey's Paw trope is an example of that.

Member_5893260

Read some Greg Egan. I can recommend Permutation City, Distress, Teranesia, and most of all, Diaspora, which, for any programmer, is nothing short of stunning.

nobody158

Wiz Biz series by Rick Cook is one of my favorite series about programming in magic.

Moshe Katz

[The Cuckoo's Egg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Cuckoo's\_Egg\_(book)) is technically non-fiction, but it sure reads like fiction.

Member 2709101

If I'm in the mood, I reach for some Neal Stephenson, so that's a very good start. Not specifically programming as such, but very engineering/tech based. Snow Crash (below) is described as "like many of Stephenson's novels, it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics and philosophy." My personal favourites: * Interface * Diamond Age * Cryptonomicon * Snow Crash

thatraja

Including this to my list :thumbsup:

thatraja

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thatraja

Agree that most movies chopping up source material. I saw the movie. I'll include this to my list(Though started reading Asimov short stories already).

thatraja

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thatraja

Even I found this page recently, useful one :thumbsup:

thatraja

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thatraja

agolddog wrote:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a computer as a pretty important character. Comedy, not science fiction though, if that matters.

As long as related to computers, it's a tick. :thumbsup: I heard about the series already.

thatraja

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