Can anyone recommend something similar to John Brunner's

[raccoon]

STAND ON ZANZIBAR and THE SHEEP LOOK UP?

[blindpig]

1. Nothing really comes to mind.

I gravitate to tales of environmental ruin but can't really think of anything quite the same. I think a lot of that angst went to cyberpunk.

The Sheep Look Up scarred my mind for life, even if some of Brunner's scenarios didn't pan out look at what we face today. ;(

I'll be interested to see what responses you get, more fodder for me too!

STOP KILLING ME!

[phantom power]

2. Peter Watts

Wrote a couple books Starfish and Maelstrom, which have a sort of claustrophobic, black humor to them. They are set in a world of overpopulation and energy-starvation. The term "maelstrom" is his name for what the Internet becomes. A domain of near-total chaos populated by evolving self-replicating rogue programs (the distant descendents of our viruses), which all computers need to protect themselves from, as much as "use."

He's apparently added two more books to this series, which I haven't read yet. The first, Starfish, is readable as a standalone novel, and Maelstrom is the sequel, but it also ends with it's plotlines tied up, although it's clear that there's plenty of fodder for the next two books, which I'm looking forward to.

People, the environment, and software interact in surprising, humorous, and almost infinitely-cynical ways in these books. I loved them.

[blindpig]

3. I'd forgotten those.

Behemoth is the third installment, very black indeed. Don't know where the 4th will go, there's not much left.

[phantom power]

4. I saw that the 4th is subtitled "Seppuku" :-)

[raccoon]

5. Thanks, I'll look into his stuff. nt