Thank you for Alien Clay - enjoyed this tremendously. Reminded of Asimov’s Green Patches as a remote ancestor.
Some updates: I’ve enjoyed Alien Clay, I did not enjoy Snow Crash. In fact I didn’t finish it. I can see how it would be appealing to someone else though.
I’m most of the way through “The Sky People” by SM Sterling. First of a trilogy. They call it an “Alternate History” because it’s Stirling, and that’s his big thing, but I’m not sure that fits.
Basically, it’s an old school “Jungle Venus” story, set in a Solar System in which Venus and Mars are like they used to be in classic sci-fi books, because of interference by some aliens in the millions of years leading up to the story’s time setting.
Not great art, but fun if you miss those old kinds of stories.
There’s a brand new sequel to that, btw: "The Lords of Creation "
Yeah, I read the sequel “In the Courts of the Crimson King” and it was interesting to see that old-school, Barsoom style setting. But I barely remember anything of the novel. So must not have been that great.