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Fiction in Computer Science

Some time ago I asked in the rec.arts.books group on the Usenet about preferably-non-Science-Fiction books set in academic Computer Science or programming environments. Judging from results of that survey there don’t yet seem to be many such works that deal with the everyday dilemmas faced by programmers (technical and moral). This is why you’ll also find below a number of cyberpunk, rather than strictly-programmer, titles. Unlike the rest of TidBITS, this list has been formatted primarily for paper printout and, at 69 lines in length, should therefore fit easily on a single page. Enjoy!

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  |||||||| SciP+Fi  ction set in C-Sci\programming environs list by Ian Feldman
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  Written by:_____ _Book Title_; publisher'year, pp         v2.7           ISBN
  -----------       =============================== ------- ==== ##############
      John Brunner _Shockwave Rider_; Ray/Ballantine'84 $5_______ 0-345-32431-5
                    "cracking the net to free information for the common good"
       Pat Cadigan _Mindplayers_; ("an absolute must-have" --Bruce Sterling)
       Pat Cadigan _Synners_; Bantam $5; (virtual reality)_______ 0-553-28254-9
  Orson Scott Card _Lost Boys_; Harper Collins'92; (programmer and family
                    encounters strange events in North Carolina)
      Denise Danks _Frame Grabber_; St.Martin's, hrdb [GBP]17____ 0-312-08786-1
                    computer-illiterate journalix tracks down murderer via BBS
     Toni Dwiggins _Interrupt_; ("a techno-mystery set in Silicon Valley")
     Michael Frayn _The Tin Men_; Fontana, ("inspired lunacy" but out of print)
     David Gerrold _When HARLIE was One Release 2.0_; Bantam'88__ 0-553-26465-6
    William Gibson _Count Zero_; (computers as gods, part of a trilogy)
    William Gibson _Mona Lisa Overdrive_; (virtual reality)______ 0-553-28174-7
    William Gibson _Burning Chrome_; (cyberpunk short stories)___ 0-441-08934-8
    William Gibson _Neuromancer_; (industrial espionage)_________ 0-441-56959-5
                    (author guilty of inventing the cyberpunk genre)
       James Hogan _The Genesis Machine_; Del Ray'87 $3__________ 0-345-34756-0
       James Hogan _Thrice Upon A Time_; ("time travel for information")
       James Hogan _The Two Faces of Tomorrow_; Del Ray'79_______ 0-345-27517-9
                    ultimate test of AI-OS by letting it run a spacelab -> amok
     Stanislaw Lem _His Master's Voice_; (failed attempt to decode ET-message)
        Tom Maddox _HALO_ ("remarkable SF of robots & artificial intelligence")
  George RR Martin _Nightflyers_; Tor Books'87___________________ 0-8125-4564-8
       R A MacAvoy _Tea with the Black Dragon_; ("mystery around a computer
                    fraud situation; computing bits ring true.")
  Vonda N McIntyre _Steelcollar Worker_; in Analog Nov'92; (blue-collar VR)
      Marge Piercy _Body of Glass_; Penguin'92, 584pp; (data piracy++) review
                    finger "books=Body_of_Glass%danny"@orthanc.cs.su.oz.au
  ---> David Pogue _Hard-Drive_; Diamond'93 $5, 304pp____________ 1-55773-884-X
                    (*programmer dies in accident, leaves no documentation
                    behind; software firms fight for market share with virii;
                    "right out of the pages of MacWorld" --Steve Brock)
    Richard Powers _The Gold Bug Variations_; Morrow '91, (famous molecular
                    scientist ponders on the ?why? of love, life in EDP dept.)
       Paul Preuss _Human Error_; (nanotech computer infects brain-damaged kid)
     Thomas J Ryan _The Adolescence of P1_; ACE'79_______________ 0-671-55970-2
                    (runaway AI experiment takes over mainframes, wrecks havoc)
    Bruce Sterling _The Difference Engine_; (with W Gibson) Bantam'91; finger
                    "books=The_Difference_Engine%danny"@orthanc.cs.su.oz.au
       Cliff Stoll _The Cuckoo's Egg_; (non-fiction but reads like one); review
                    FTP <garbo.uwasa.fi>; /mac/tidbits/1991/tb048_18-Mar-91.etx
      Tom T Thomas _ME_; ("smart computers")
      Vernor Vinge _Across Realtime_; Baen Books_____________ [several titles
      Vernor Vinge _Tatja Grimm's World_; Baen Books__________ soon available
      Vernor Vinge _The Witling_; Baen Books___________________ as Millennium
      Vernor Vinge _Threats and Other Promises_; Baen Books_____ Books in UK]
      Vernor Vinge _True Names & Other Dangers_; Baen Books'87___ 0-671-65363-6
      Vernor Vinge _A Fire Upon The Deep_; Tor Books, 640p, $6___ 0-8125-1528-5
                    ("essentially about the future of the Internet")
       John Varley _Press Enter_; ("Short story, gruesome, but good")
        Ed Yourdon _Silent Witness_; ("Computer crime caper story; gumshoe
                    has to explain intricacies of computer OS to girlfriend")
  Herbert W Franke _Das Zentrum der Milchstrasse_; ("the center of the galaxy")
  Herbert W Franke _Letzte Programmierer_; ("'the last programmer';
                    I do NOT mean Frank Herbert!")
        Emil Zopfi _Computer Fuer 1001 Nacht_; Limmat Verlag, Switzerland
        Emil Zopfi _Jede Minute Kostet 33 Franken_; (last 4 in German; last 2
                    "set in the commercial computing world of the early 70's")
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  current version of this list via 'finger "scip+fi%danny"@orthanc.cs.su.oz.au'
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  compiled 930424; % mail -s "additions/ comments/ updates --->" [email protected]
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