# Can anyone recommend any good techno-thriller novels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519 "2013-10-06T18:28:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Why\_Bother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Doctor\_Why\_Bother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Why_Bother)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/1 "2013-10-06T18:28:31Z")
Hi all. I had an idea for what I reckon could be a potentially decent techno-thriller story, but since I don’t really read all that much of that particular genre, I don’t really know where to start. Can anyone give me a few good recommendations? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![chinchalinchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@chinchalinchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chinchalinchin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/2 "2013-10-06T18:46:38Z")
Pretty much anything by Philip K. Dick, except anything written within a few years of his death. He went kind of crazy and thought God was a machine in space that transmitted via a pink laser beam the idea that reality was actually fake and time stopped after the Romans killed Christ. Or something. Yeah, don’t ask. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan is another good example of what you’re looking for, I think. It’s a gritty future novel where you can download your consciousness at the instant of death and be inserted into another body. Crazy government/corporate conspiracies abound. The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by someone whose name escapes me might be another, although I’m not sure you’d classify it as a thriller. Basically humanity builds a giant intelligent super computer. The computer goes crazy, as they are wont to do, takes over the world and then digitizes reality and uploads everyone into a virtual reality where no one can die. People, lacking excitement in their lives, turn to death sports and the like. They invent new ways to kill each other but right before the instant of death Prime Intellect saves them. One women figures out how to kill herself before Prime Intellect can reassemble her and she is dead for fourteen seconds or something before she is brought back. She becomes a celebrity and hijinks ensue. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/3 "2013-10-06T18:57:21Z")
While good books, **chinchalinchin** , I’m not sure those are really what most people consider as [techno-thrillers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno-thriller). In my mind, the techno in techno-thrillers are at most slightly more advanced then what’s available at the time the book is written. More stuff like Tom Clancy and Neal Stephenson, Not so much stuff with sentient androids and computer-derived immortality . ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/4 "2013-10-06T19:06:17Z")
Just pick a Michael Crichton book at random and start there. ---
**Author:** ![chinchalinchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@chinchalinchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chinchalinchin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/5 "2013-10-06T19:21:01Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > While good books, **chinchalinchin** , I’m not sure those are really what most people consider as [techno-thrillers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno-thriller). In my mind, the techno in techno-thrillers are at most slightly more advanced then what’s available at the time the book is written. More stuff like Tom Clancy and Neal Stephenson, Not so much stuff with sentient androids and computer-derived immortality . Fair enough. I would contend sentient androids and computer derived immortality isn’t so far off, but then in my youth, I managed to kill about half of my brain cells with various chemicals, so I’m probably bonkers. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/6 "2013-10-07T20:13:12Z")
I really enjoy the Joe Ledger series by Jonathan Maberry. The first is [Patient Zero](http://www.amazon.com/Patient-Zero-Joe-Ledger-Novel/dp/0312382855). There are five novels in the series currently in print and at least two more planned. All have a strong bio-terrorism element. As an aside, I also recommend his straight horror works as well. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/7 "2013-10-07T20:41:26Z")
**Daemon** by Daniel Suarez. Dying techno- billionaire plants a program to go off on his death and take control… ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/8 "2013-10-07T22:12:08Z")
Can’t go wrong with [Snow Crash](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/830.Snow_Crash?from_search=true) or [Reamde](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10552338-reamde?from_search=true), by Neal Stephenson. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/9 "2013-10-07T22:23:11Z")
Matthew Reilly’s got some good novels of this sort. Have a read of Ice Station, and see what you think. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/10 "2013-10-07T22:42:24Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Can’t go wrong with [Snow Crash](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/830.Snow_Crash?from_search=true) or [Reamde](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10552338-reamde?from_search=true), by Neal Stephenson. I beg to differ; _Reamde_ was terrible and long (and terrible). It should have been titled _Reamed_. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/11 "2013-10-07T23:14:23Z")
William Gibson’s recent stuff, especially Pattern Recognition, Spook Country and Zero History. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/12 "2013-10-08T03:40:43Z")
Is Tom Clancy too obvious for what you’re asking? My favourites in the genre, in no particular order are as follows; **Tom Clancy** - Red October through to Sum of all Fears, IMO he started to go downhill after that. The next two, Without Remorse and Debt of Honour are readable, but whatever you do don’t go further than that, it will sully your opinion of someone who started out as a decent author. **Larry Bond** - Red Phoenix and Vortex were both decent. I don’t recall thinking much of his third book. **Eric L Harry’s** first novel _Arc Light_ I recall liking very much. But may be hard to locate, I seem to recall seeing it is now out of print. I don;t think his next two were anywhere near as good. **Dale Brown’s** earlier ones were OK, but the longer the series went the more incredible the events an scenarios became to keep the main series protagonist in the books. **Stephen Coonts** - Flight of the Intruder was good his work also went downhill IMO **Harold Coyle** - I’ve only read the first 3-4 of his books, and I really enjoyed the first couple. I liked that they had a really granular focus, and followed a small armoured unit (I think it was a company sized unit IIRC) I haven’t read some of them in quite some time, so hopefully there’s not too much rose coloured memory happening. But I did recently reread some of my Clancy collection. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/13 "2013-10-08T03:47:12Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > William Gibson’s recent stuff, especially Pattern Recognition, Spook Country and Zero History. Pattern Recognition is one of my favorite books period. But you can also look at his earlier stuff but it is very advanced tech. But there is a lot of tech and a lot of thriller. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/14 "2013-10-08T04:00:07Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I beg to differ; _Reamde_ was terrible and long (and terrible). It should have been titled _Reamed_. I’ll second this. Stephenson is one of my favorite authors, but Reamde was terrible. Cryptonomicon is a much better techno-thriller by the same author. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/15 "2013-10-08T06:31:53Z")
Like Simplico says I think most of the recommendations in this thread aren’t really techno-thrillers as I understand the term. For the OP, ‘Firefox’ by Craig Thomas is a classic, all of his books are good but more on the ‘thriller’ side of the spectrum than ‘techno’. I also really liked ‘Storming Intrepid’ by Payne Harrison, ‘Thunder of Erebus’ was pretty good as well. Though those were written some time ago so may not really suit. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/16 "2013-10-08T09:18:42Z")
The Cobra Event by Richard Preston. Chilling and very real. I echo the Michael Crichton suggestion too. Personally I find him an average writer but his ideas are gold. ---
**Author:** ![MilTan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@MilTan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MilTan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-techno-thriller-novels/670519/17 "2013-10-08T12:05:39Z")
I rather liked _Alif the Unseen_, though there’s a strong supernatural element to it, so it’s more like Neil Gaiman by way of Neal Stephenson than Stephenson alone.