edit: oops, looks like you already found this while i was posting: http://eclipsephase.com/downloads/eclipsephase_references.pdf I'd strike out Peter Hamalton as a sad mary-sue, and add Chris Moriarty to the list. but if you're looking for the primary sources, I think the most noticeable inspirations in EP are Brin and Morgan with other popular themes splashed in here and there. the ETI/TITAN/Exurgent thing seems like something right from Verner Vinge, but its just as easily any singularity/lovecraftian horror crossbreed you could imagine. It would be pretty easy to substitute Vinge's name for Reynolds or Banks or Stross or some other author. Im sure they all had their influences, which is why theyre on that list. but I dont think theres anything you can do to replace Richard K Morgan and David Brin as the major shapers of the technology and flavor behind the setting. it would be hard to argue that uplifts, coronal lifeforms, forking, cortical stacks, cheap synth-morphs, and mesh inserts came from anywhere else.

I'd keep [i]Pandora's Star[/i] and [i]Judas Unchained[/i] as contenders just because of the way that Hamilton explores the various aspects of digitized intelligence and the effect that such a form of immortality would have on human civilization. Just gloss over the chapters about Ozzie and they're pretty damn good books. Even the [i]Dreaming Void[/i] has some value by exploring how a transhumanist society might begin to define itself by lifestyle choices. (advancer, multiples, dreamers, ect.) Sure Hamilton's characters are pretty lousy but the way that he actually structures his society is nothing short of brilliant, and very internally consistent. Another one I'd add is [i]Downbelow Station[/i] by C. J. Cherryh. What the characters went through on that station is probably a hell of a lot like what most survivors went through during The Fall.

Oh, one other to add to the list. [i]Mindscan[/i] by Robert J. Sawyer. It's about a guy with a genetic condition that will eventually kill him copying his brain into an android. Interesting twist is that the process doesn't 'move' his consciousness from his meat body to his metal one it copies it so while the android version of the main character assumes his former life the meat version gets shipped off to a retirement home on the moon to wait until a stroke kills him. Another woman who undergoes the same process has her son sue her for bilking him out of his inheritance by not dying when she was supposed to.

In the "Mirrorshades: a cyberpunk anthology" by Bruce Sterling, there are two novels: "Snake-Eyes" by Tom Maddox & "Stone Lives" by Paul Di Filippo (author mentionned in inspirations for EP), which fit some tropes of EP to the T. In the first, a guy equiped with some pieces of neural control cyber during the war is fighting against madness and being reeducated by an AI. In the second; Corps rule over ghettos; fighting for ownership of these, the most impoverished people being offered nice contracts like "test this combat toxin and if you survive we will offer complete regeneration in our healing vats" (so that you can get rid of other affliction you got from your condition. Kind, isn't it?)

Grabula wrote:

Anyone have any solid suggestions for scifi books that might provide some inspiration for EP? I've got a solid library of non fiction related to the SIngluarity concept, nano-tech and all the other stuff involved in EP. I'm primarily looking for some suggestions on science fiction reading that might be apropriate. I've got to say, it's been a long time since I was this excited about an RPG, and I haven't even picked up the core rules yet lol.

Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies by Richard Morgan are a must, especially with regard to the impact of re-sleeving on the human mind and relationships etc.

Agree with the 2312 suggestion, as always Kim Stanley Robinson excels in describing habitats and societies. In this he tackles several of the space habitat types found in EP. Brilliant stuff and very relevant. Haven't finished it yet so no spoilers please.

Im working on (nearly finished with) 2312. Next is Reynolds' new one or Existence by Brin, not sure which. Beyond that lies Leviathan Wakes and Throne of the Crescent Moon-- a Mideastern style epic fantasy. Gotta mix it up a little, right?

Chevre wrote:

Definitely the Takeshi Kovacs novels. Also Ghost in the Shell (in pretty much any format, but particularly the Stand Alone Complex series), Accelerando by Charles Stross, and Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix series. I'd also recommend John Scalzi's Old Man's War, although less for the setting (more aliens and FTL travel) and more for the main character's reaction to sharing his brain with a muse.

I just finished reading those(Old man war), I have to agree they do give you a good idea about Muses and uses of those. It also has limited uploading as well. I also agree that Kovacs novels are a must read and yes Stand alone complex is near enough to a must as well. Revelation space are also a good read as they tackle some of the issues of ep, uploading minds and hostile ETI's. I am sad to say I can't add anything that has not been spoken of already in this thread, but some of the things listed are on my to read list.

They would be Furies, but better the smartblood alone makes them better. The CDF specie forces would be past those really as they are strong and faster then even normal CDF Morphs. I do not think Jared was a beta, he was an alpha that suffered corruption due to them never having done a stored upload before. The Gumdains(Sp?) however would make a niffty morph, space adapted humans and well within EP's techno limits

I suggest my favorite source for atrifacts and other stuff: http://www.orionsarm.com/ The encyclopedia is useful an the novel are ok, i consider EP the prequel of this setting.

Jane was not a fork, but an original personality born in the body developed used the ADN of a deceased woman (it can be understood that it was the deceased wife of the protagonist in the first novel, but as far as I know it was never even suggested). The Ghost Brigades would be more akin to Lost generation characters into high-end fury morphs, without async powers. I would like to suggest you to have a look at Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix, since in Rimward there is a mention to one of its habitats (that with one men and his lots of wifes!)

Schismatrix is almost required reading for EP. Loads of relevant ideas and quirky societies. I like "The Quantum Thief" by Rajaniemi - loads of good ideas, from simspace prisons to mass-mind superintelligences to anti-panopticon societies.

Heinlein's 'Friday' has some parts that could relate to EP and Pods/Futras/Custom Grown People.

I'm here to suggest Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams. Its about a soldier re-lifed on his backup insurance after somebody kills him and he has to figure out why.

Some lesser known items: * Polish writer Jacek Dukaj (you can find a few things by him in English at http://dukaj.pl/English/ReadingRoom) * more anime, for those who would like to watch something EP-themed: Akira (classic on the coming of singularity), Dennou Coil (great treatment of AR), EVE No Jikan (AI story), Ergo Proxy and Blassreiter (nano-fuelled apocalypse, with some AIs and associated stuff), Bubblegum Crisis 2040 (for a more classic treatment of it), Cowboy Bebop (has a very good feeling for "solar system space opera"), Kiddy Grade (can be seen as a post-singularity space opera universe, some silliness nonwithstanding), UN-GO (detective stories in a GitS-like universe), Appleseed -verse stuff (more GitS like universe, if not as good story wise), Moonlight Mile, Planetes and Space Brothers (all deal with quite realistic near future settings focusing on first steps in serious solar system exploration), Serial Experiments Lain (cyberpunk), Starship Operators (good treatment of space combat)

I read Gridlinked. One of Asher's best books, which isn't really saying that much though. If you like a cool and violent protagonist it is certainly a good enough read, but if you haven't read a lot of scifi there are certainly better books out there.

I just wrapped up Existence. Imagine it as a philosophy text about 80% of the issues building up to EP, with a story wrapped around it. Great if you're looking for a history lesson and a good think. Story was so-so.

The HeeChee saga by Frederik Pohl makes a good case for why the infomorphs should be the [i]most[/i] desirable state instead of the least desirable.

Use of Weapons. For the anti-hero thing, but really you should just go through all his Culture novels (maybe skip Inversions), plus Against a Dark Background. Unfortunately Iain Banks is dying, he has terminal stage bladder cancer and has only months to live :( He's the 2nd best writer imo, a big loss

_Slow Engines of Time_ by Elisabeth Vonarburg (not sure what the original French title is). It's all about artificial people, and the consequences of being one.

It's not sci-fi, but the depiction of anarchist societies in Eclipse Phase inspired me to pick up [i][b]Homage to Catalonia[/b][/i] by George Orwell. [i]Homage to Catalonia[/i] featuring Orwell's experience in an anarchist army, of all things. Presently reading [i][b]Vacuum Flowers[/b][/i] by Michael Swanwick, which features, among other EP-esque tropes, zerg-g slums, reprogrammable personalities, asteroid/comet herding, and Earth taken over by a collective mind (a la the Borg). [i][b]Neuromancer[/b][/i] by Gibson is one of my favorite works, and the second half of the novel somehow feels particularly appropriate to EP: inhuman hyper-elite immortals living in an orbital casino!

Indeed, re: Orwell: oh god, the ending of [i]1984[/i]!

Baalbamoth wrote:

tried to read pattern recognition and got so bored I took the book back... what happened to Gibson?

I've been "meh" about the latest Gibson trilogy myself. A friend described it as "high hipness to weirdness ratio". His latest book is being made now, different than the Bigend trilogy. From the snipets being released of the book, my friend concluded that the hipness:weirdness ratio is being reversed. We shall see.

John C Wright's [u]The Golden Age[/u] is great for taking the implications of rep ecconomy, AR, and Muse interactions to their logical conclusion. He's really writing more in a posthuman genre but he has extreme depth in the way he imagines and details the world and much of it is applicable to EP He also has impressive facility with creating and inserting future-jargon and techno-babel thickly into the text in a way that few authors are able to achieve. (Stross, Morgan, Vinge, Rodenburry and Lucas not withstanding.) His terminology seems grounded in real science and natural to the setting and characters without being self-referential in a way that that is jarring or requires explanation outside of the narrative flow. It's a tight bit of craftsmanship around a writing problem that plagues me. Having very little action or violence it's not my typical flavor of fiction. But it's an excellent example of setting-as-character equal to Eclipse Phase. There's a sweet juxtoposition that, in such a grand setting, the story seems to revolve around a twisted little personal mystery and there's a novelty in nearly every paragraph. Over all it's a joy to read. [b]Read Joe Haldeman[/b] I don't see him mentioned enough on these forums. [u]Forever War[/u] is remarkable and worth while simply for being the hard sci-fy counterpoint to Starshiptroopers. [u]Forever Peace[/u] is even more important from a transhuman standpoint for its exploration of the coming effects nanotechnic post scarcity and what might happen in society if neural technology like XP allowed us to truly know each other. I'd also encourage you, if you're at all interested in military fiction, to look at Ian Douglas. He's not great at making characters and he's certainly annoyingly gungho about the USA and Marines but he does the math and does an honest job of looking at future warfare, alien physiology, the fermi paradox, and astrophysics from a hard science perspective that takes its cues from current science. His single departures from provable science are his use of zero-point energy and space warping through control of gravitational singularities. He's more interesting and uses less handwavium than John Scalsi in my opinion.

OneTrikPony wrote:

[b]Read Joe Haldeman[/b] I don't see him mentioned enough on these forums. [u]Forever War[/u] is remarkable and worth while simply for being the hard sci-fy counterpoint to Starshiptroopers. [u]Forever Peace[/u] is even more important from a transhuman standpoint for its exploration of the coming effects nanotechnic post scarcity and what might happen in society if neural technology like XP allowed us to truly know each other.

+1 for Joe Haldeman. I really enjoyed both of those books. I found Forever Peace to be an interesting spiritual successor to the first book. *edited to put some not that spoilery (but potentially?) stuff in between spoiler tags*