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?
“S” by J.J. Abrams(yes, that one) and Doug Dorst
At face value it is a book about a man who became a member of a ship’s crew and his journey. There is a second layer of editors notes left by the translator. Then there is a third layer of two previous readers of the book. There are puzzles and clues tucked into the pages of the book that you, as the third reader, try to understand what the fuck is actually going on.