Hello everyone.
Tough request here.
I am looking for similar works in contemporary SF, or perhaps simply F, that are similar to Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. I am completely uninterested in fantasy SF. Many upon many of friends have tried to get me to read about lost space freighters, and warring human colonies in A.D. 2648, and people who use neural devices to slip into different bodies. Thank you, but no thank you. I am looking for plausible contemporary SF, and by contemporary I mean set in current, or very near future, and by plausible I mean events and tech that are, or may reasonably, be taking place, now or in very near future. People that criticize my predilections do forget that1984 was an SF novel. It was dystopian (another +), and reality seems to mirror its speculations. I enjoyed the 2 aforementioned Gibson novels so much because they are grounded and not far-fetched and predict events/scenarios that exist or may very well come into being. I have been searching myself, and there do not seem to be many current writers in this genre. I am not ashamed to ask for assistance here! Again, most of my fellow nerd and geek friends (like me too) are heavy into heavy fantasy SF, and this just isn't my cup of tea.
So sorry to bother everyone here with a request.
But many thank-yous to those who may help in my search.

Some of Bruce Sterling's short stories, (in Crystal Express and Globalhead and A Good Old-Fashioned Future) particularly the Leggy Starlitz ones, are firmly placed in the close to present day. And his Heavy Weather and (marginally) Holy Fire.

But I think your requirement is a little narrow. You might enjoy Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, and even his Snow Crash, but Diamond Age would forever elude your grasp with that present-day restriction, and you'd miss a lot of good sf that isn't space opera / Star Trek / Star Wars.

PR is quite similar to The Crying of Lot 49. Check it out.

I would like to recommend Denis Johnson's "Tree of Smoke". Not sci-fi, not even about a contemporary topic, but conspiracy-laden, full of inter-woven narratives, dense, challenging, stylistic, and thoughtful.

Amazon review here:
http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Smoke-Novel-Denis-Johnson/dp...id=1195872530&sr=8-1

quote:

Originally posted by darknes:
I would like to recommend Denis Johnson's "Tree of Smoke". Not sci-fi, not even about a contemporary topic, but conspiracy-laden, full of inter-woven narratives, dense, challenging, stylistic, and thoughtful.

Amazon review here:
http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Smoke-Novel-Denis-Johnson/dp...id=1195872530&sr=8-1

I got about a hundred pages into that. I have yet to get through a whole book of his.

Maybe I'll try it again. It was due back at the library.

If you want more apophenia, try Foulcault's Pendulum which has a similar plot wokring itself out.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
PR is quite similar to The Crying of Lot 49. Check it out.

Never hear of it. I'll definitely check it out!

quote:

Originally posted by psyclone:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
PR is quite similar to The Crying of Lot 49. Check it out.

Never hear of it. I'll definitely check it out!

Huh? You've never heard of it? You're joking, yeah?

Thomas Pynchon?

It's short anyway. Real short. he ususally write longer books. Much longer.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:

quote:

Originally posted by psyclone:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
PR is quite similar to The Crying of Lot 49. Check it out.

Never hear of it. I'll definitely check it out!

Huh? You've never heard of it? You're joking, yeah?

Thomas Pynchon?

It's short anyway. Real short. he ususally write longer books. Much longer.

It's really short, but it actually took me 5 years to finish - and digest - the whole thing. His writing is so dense. You have to read it as a stream of consciousness that, in a way, flows straight through your own when you're getting it right. Non-linearity in the extreme. Gravity's Rainbow is the same way, even at times conveying a sense of physical movement. Some of the most challenging writing around.