15 tech fiction picks: Curl up with these good books

A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan No. 1), by Arkady Martine

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the Teixcalaanli Empire only to find that her predecessor has died, in A Memory Called Empire. The imperial court is in a time of turmoil, and nobody will admit the death wasn't an accident. Now, she must solve the murder, rescue herself, and save her home from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion. She also has to deal with an alien culture that is seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret. Described as a space opera, it has the intrigue of politics with the imagination of a good sci-fi novel.

SEE: 10 books every small business entrepreneur should read (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Ancestral Night, by Elizabeth Bear

Halmey and Connla are salvage operators, who live a marginal existence with just enough chance of striking it big, which is what keeps them going. They search for lost vessels, human and alien. Then they discover an alien species thought to be long extinct. This discovery could be the tipping point that launches a war, in Ancestral Night.

SEE: The 27 most underrated science-fiction books (TechRepublic)

Empress of Forever: A Novel, by Max Gladstone

In Empress of Forever, Vivian Liao is an extremely successful innovator and radical thinker. But just before her greatest achievement, she is catapulted through space and time to a far future. She finds herself trapped between a horde of sentient machines and a sect of warrior monks while she tries to confront the Empress--but who is she? Will she figure it all out and make it back home?  

SEE: Women in Tech (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Fall; or, Dodge in Hell: A Novel, by Neal Stephenson

In Fall; or Dodge in Hell, Richard Dodge Forthrast, a millionaire who founded a gaming company, is now semi-retired, but a medical procedure causes him to become brain dead. His family uploads his brain data into the cloud so he can live in the future. Is the digital world the utopia he hopes for? This long tome (883 pages) has a sweet family story.   

SEE: CNET Book Club: Neal Stephenson explores the long, weird future in Fall, or Dodge in Hell (CNET)

Last Tango in Cyberspace: A Novel, by Steven Kotler

Lion Zorn is an empathy tracker, who can spot cultural shifts and trends before they happen. Arctic Pharmaceuticals uses his skills, but a routine job leads to the discovery of a gruesome murder, and Lion finds himself neck-deep in a world of eco-assassins, soul hackers, and consciousness terrorists. Last Tango in Cyberspace is a neo detective story with a gritty, grown-up vibe.

SEE: The Big Nine, book review: Visions of an AI-dominated future (ZDNet)

Machines Like Me, by Ian McEwen

The author of the best-seller Atonement is now tackling tech fiction. Machines Like Me is set in 1980s London, and tells the story of Charlie, a young and reckless man who is in love with his upstairs neighbor, Miranda, who has a hidden past. He's bought a highly developed robotic human named Adam created by Alan Turing after his success on the Enigma machine. Charlie tries to woo Miranda, and Adam finds himself in the middle of it all.

SEE: Software robots' workforce contributions will increase 50% in the next 2 years (TechRepublic)

Million Mile Road Trip, by Rudy Rucker

A trumpet solo opens up a connection to a place called Mappworld, and three California teens go on a Million Mile Road Trip in a purple 1980s station wagon powered by a dark-energy motor, graphene tires, and quantum shocks. They must stop carnivorous flying saucers from invading Earth, and perhaps find love along the way. There are zombie cops, saucer pearls, and something called a Groon. For extra fun, there are even a few illustrations. Its jacket describes it as a phantasmagoric roller-coaster ride. 

SEE: Put these screen-free gifts on your holiday list to engage your brain (TechRepublic)

Velocity Weapon: The Protectorate Book 1, by Megan E. O'Keefe

In Velocity Weapon, Sanda and Biran were siblings destined for greatness. Sanda is a sergeant who can take on any enemy, while Biran is a politician planning to use his position to prevent conflict from escalating. Then Sanda's ship is blown out of the sky and she awakens 230 years later on a deserted enemy warship controlled by an AI. How can she and Biran make things right? Find out with this rollicking adventure through time and space.

SEE: Special feature: Autonomous vehicles and the enterprise (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Recursion, by Blake Crouch

New York City cop Barry Sutton investigates a strange disease called False Memory Syndrome, in which sufferers find themselves going crazy over memories of things they never experienced. Neuroscientist Helena Smith has dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let people preserve their memories, allowing users to relive their favorite moments. But Sutton discovers a force that is tearing apart the past, and he and Smith must work together to defeat it. Recursion is a strange story that is sure to keep the reader guessing. 

SEE: CNET Book Club: Blake Crouch messes with your memories in Recursion (CNET)

Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Ruin is the sequel to his award-winning novel, Children of Time. Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program went to a planet called Nod, where scientists discovered alien life, but their mission was to replace the life with Earth's memory. The empire fell, and the plans and decisions were lost. Later, humanity and its spider allies detect radio signals between stars, and they send a vessel to find others from Earth. But they woke something on Nod that probably should have been left alone.

SEE: Photos: 41 books every techie should read (TechRepublic)

The Girl Who Lived Twice: A Lisbeth Salander novel, continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series, by David Lagercrantz

The Girl Who Lived Twice is the sixth novel in the series, which was started by Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. After Larsson's death, Lagercrantz took up the task of chronicling the lives of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. This time, Blomkvist is searching for the tough and wiley hacker Salander, who is missing, to help him identify a dead man whom Blomkvist believes she might know. But Salander is busy trying to end her long-lost twin sister, Camilla, who runs a hacker syndicate and lures men to do her bidding.

SEE: Tech books for Christmas: Food for thought (ZDNet)

Today I am Carey, by Martin L. Shoemaker

In Today I am Carey, Mildred, who has Alzheimer's disease, is aided by a full-time android named Carey. The android becomes a copy of Mildred in order to fill in the gaps in her memory. Once Mildred dies, Carey must figure out who Carey should become, protecting Mildred's family, including a little girl named Millie, who will grow up alongside the android. But Carey struggles to understand life and all its challenges. 

SEE: CNET Book Club: Douglas Rushkoff on why we all need to join Team Human (CNET)

Zed, by Joanna Kavenna

In Zed, Guy Matthias is the CEO of a trans-Atlantic company and self-appointed guru of the Digital Age; his company operates without control of governments or law. But his life is falling apart. His wife is tired of his cheating and wants to leave, bad software has led to deaths, he's having trouble making a deal with China, and a hacker is on his trail. Guy has to figure out his life, with one looming question: How do you live in reality when nobody knows anything, and all knowledge, all certainty, is partly, or entirely fake?

SEE: CNET Book Club: Holiday 2018 gift guide special (CNET)

The God Game: A Novel, by Danny Tobey

Releases Jan. 7, 2020.

When a mysterious chatbot that's been programmed to think it's God asks a group of five high school friends to play a game, it sounds like a fun thing to do in their senior year. It starts out like Dungeons & Dragons come to life, but then the messages become ominous and the stakes turn deadly. Who else is playing The God Game, and how far will they go to win? The book even comes in a box that's made to look like a video game.

SEE: Five top tech books for the holiday period (TechRepublic)