this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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Lemmy World Rules

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In the mood for engineering / competence porn. What are your favourite novels / series? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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As an example, I love the Martian, and I think a lot of older books from authors like Asimov are heavily into engineering / competence porn. Other favs in this category include the standalone novel Rendezvous with Rama to leave you wishing for more, most of the Culture series for happy utopian vibes, Schlock Mercenary for humor, Dahak series for fun mindless popcorn.

Edit: I'm so happy to have found a replacement for r/books and the rest of them.

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[–] Mbourgon@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Several books in the League of Peoples series (start with Expendable) have this. Festina Ramos is competent AF without going into Mary Sue territory.

The Sten series (Allan Cole & Chris Bunch, military-ish sci-fi) has a fantastically competent lead.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Huh, it's not often I get series recs that I've never even heard of before. Thanks, will check them out!

[–] Mbourgon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Sten is from the late 80s, Expendable from late 90s. :). And there’s a shaggy dog story in the Sten books that’s takes… 4 books, I think, to get the punchline. LOL.