Ask HN: Dystopian Sci-fi books that take place in San Francisco to recommend?
Looking to read some sci-fi. Anything that takes place in a dystopian San Francisco and involves hackers. Do you have any suggestions? "Altered Carbon" by Richard K. Morgan: primarily takes place in a futuristic Bay Area, including San Francisco. explores a world of technology, body swapping, and cyber intrigues. "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson: a setting in a future San Francisco, handle topic nanotechnology "Counting Heads" by David Marusek: futuristic vision of San Francisco, focus on technology and AI. "Autonomous" by Annalee Newitz: not exclusively in San Francisco, handles AI, piracy, and corporate control. Why explicit San Francisco? :)
Taking the possibilities into account, there's might be no San Francisco anymore in some near distant future. Watch San Andreas for that. We'll need Dwayne Johnson in the future, as he's experienced being that one role player. Hahahaha Diamond Age was great, but isn’t that mostly set in/offshore of Shanghai? It does. I just re-read it over the Christmas holiday. There’s a brief segment where one of the characters travels to Vancouver. But nothing happens in San Francisco. Don’t let this fact dissuade you. It’s great post-scarcity sci fi. Depends on the map your looking onto :) I remember, but, may have forgotten. Time to take another approach.. thx I didn't know Altered Carbon was a book. I loved the show on Netflix! As somebody who often likes books more than movies/shows, this one was unfortunately the exception. Somehow it didn’t click with me, even though I loved the first season of the show. I think I went into reading the book with the expectation of learning much more about the background of the world, and I did, but unfortunately that left me with more plot holes that the show managed to navigate around better. The show also converted somebody we only hear from in the form of quotes about a past rebellion to a present figure and main character which I then missed in the book. I think you're thinking of "Cryptonomicon" instead of "The Diamond Age." Cryptonomicon takes place almost entirely in the Bay Area, IIRC. It has been a while since I read it, but I recall Cryptonomicon taking place mostly in south-east Asia. Are you thinking of Snow Crash? It's set on the west coast of the US (if I remember correctly). Both books are great. Thank you for a great list :) The Bridge Trilogy by William Gibson (technically cyberpunk but close enough). Virtual light and all tomorrow’s parties in particular. Parts of his new series takes place in SF - The Peripheral and Agency. I'd be more specific, but it's somewhat spoilers. Only thing is, Agency isn't really dystopian imo. Without getting too far into the plot, there are definitely dystopian elements, though the part in SF isn't really dystopian in the way that Bridge Trilogy is, so yea. Depends on what OP wants. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart is a more gentle post-apocalyptic story, but very beautiful. Not really much in the way of hackers. I like how it chronicles a procession of animal population boom and bust cycles that would naturally happen in the wake of humans disappearing. Little brother by Cory Doctorow. Phillip K Dick has many short stories that take place in SF. The Minority Report collection is a good read. The titular story is not in SF, but several others are. "The Man In the High Castle" by Phillip K. Dick takes place in an alternate reality San Francisco where the Japanese and Germans won World War II. The main character is a Jew hiding from extermination who runs a shop selling Pre-World War II American memorabilia. There are a few sci-fi things like global rocket travel in there, and definitely plenty of dystopia. You’ll be wanting to read William Gibsons so-called Bridge Trilogy, which starts with “Virtual Light”. I particularly enjoyed "The Great Bay" by Dale Pendell. It's a collection of short stories that are linked through the next 16,000 years of Californian history after a 2021 global pandemic and subsequent environmental catastrophe. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart takes place around the Berkeley area in a post-apocalyptic world. Not quite sci-fi but a fantastic read nonetheless. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Bladerunner) "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick... turning into Bladerunner No Place to Hide By Glenn Greenwald and
Uncanny Valley By Anna Wiener The Fact of The Moon Is Stranger Than Most Dreams by Jacob Daniel Palmer is shockingly good. Honestly, the best thing I’ve read in years. “ In a near future, slowly collapsing America, three bumbling stoner artists fall into a universe of murder and high strangeness. Abram, a frustrated artist, and his girlfriend Edie, a successful artist and successful stoner, live in a nearly abandoned San Francisco along with Abram's best friend Kenner, a transient, philosophy-spouting psychonaut. Days run together in this post-work, climate-ravaged metropolis, until a stranger slips Abram a memory card loaded with cryptic government documents, flinging the trio into a bizarre world of hired assassins, aliens, bio-terrorists, and virtual reality deities. On the run, pursued by an evil they can't imagine, are they actually in danger, or are they unwitting pawns in a plot to put the dying Earth out of its misery? A psychedelic road story, it’s an intoxicating, absurd, conspiracy-laden ride into a not so distant future.”