Techno-Thrillers discussion
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Some of us are active, and we’re growing:
- 130 members on Apr 18, 2024
- 140 members on Jun 30, 2024
- 150 members on Aug 30, 2024
- 160 members on Nov 8, 2024
- 170 members on Dec 20, 2024
- 180 members on Jan 28, 2025
- 190 members on Feb 23, 2025
- 200 members on Apr 9, 2025
- 210 members on May 25, 2025
- 220 members on Jun 25, 2025
- 230 members on Jul 16, 2025
- 240 members on Aug 23, 2025
Locations:
Australia: ACT, NSW
Bahamas
Belgium
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Brazil
Canada: ON, QC
Columbia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Finland
France
Germany
India: KA, MH
Ireland
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UK: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland
US: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, LA, MO, MA, NE, NC, NJ, NY, OK, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY (27 of 50)
Ages: 23 - 80
Men (mostly) & a couple dozen women
Readers, many writers, & a publisher
Let us know if we need to add more.
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• Name
• Location: city, province/state, country
• Flavor: something about your location
• Favorites in the technothriller genre:
- Book(s)
- Author(s)
- Quote(s)/Scene
• Role: note if author, publisher, promoter
Members will reply welcomes. Welcomes will be deleted later by the moderator, leaving just your bio for the longer term. You can always edit/format/delete your own posts.
Mod
Location: Tucson, Arizona, USA
Local Flavor: Tucson is arguably the best place to see a saguaro cactus or eat a carne seca chimichanga (Mexican food, Sonoran style).
Favorite techno-thriller book(s):
Project Hail Mary
Favorite techno-thriller authors:
Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Andy Weir
Favorite scene: In Project Hail Mary, where … (view spoiler).
Hi there,I just finished Artificial Wisdom and clicking through the links led me to this group. I'm only a little late :) Here's my tombstone data and then some thoughts / asking-for-a-friend about the book.
Name: Harry
Location: Governor's Harbour, Eleuthera, Bahamas
Flavour: Paradise six months of the year, paradise + hurricanes the other six. It's like living at the end of a bowling alley. Sooner or later, someone is gonna throw a strike.
Fav Book: Does Station Eleven count in the genre? Otherwise Hail Mary
Fav Author: Andy Weir
Role: Reader, Author
I loved Artificial Wisdom until about the 50% point then got into the mystery rhythm of clue-nextChapter-clue-... but that passed quickly enough and I got back to loving it. Then the ending ... hmmm. From reading the acknowledgments, it sounds like his daughter demanded more, which might explain why it felt rushed/tacked-on.
I'm all for leaving the door open to a sequel, but I think the questions he left open to build that door were important to close off. Like ... in a whodunnit, don't you have to say whodunnit?
Anyway, I still really liked it, but it went from a 5 to a 4 for me with the finish.
Mod
Welcome. Your interest in Project Hail Mary and Artificial Wisdom resonates with me. Yeah, the ending on Artificial Wisdom was disappointingly abrupt, but I liked the meat of it, and a sequel seems likely. That said, the ending of most technothrillers leaves me wanting. Liked the end of Project Hail Mary.
You questioned if Station Eleven was in the genre. If science/sci-fi and thriller are top genre tags and fantasy is not, it often is. It had sci-fi, not thriller. Feel free to nominate it for BOTM. In some sense, if the group votes for it … it’s close enough.
The description reminded me of The Road which some people cite as a sci-fi. The world as we know it ends, but it doesn’t say why. There was no science. Pulse rarely gets up, so that one was not thriller so much as an apocalyptic slog, but I still liked the book.
I concede forcing The Murderbot Diaries down this group’s throat. It is sci-fi, hacking, and action/thriller, but was too far-fetched … too sci-fi, set where there is no Earth, and they jump through worm holes in space ships. In hindsight, it really wasn’t the technothriller genre. But, the group consistently voted for them, so I won’t lose too much sleep over my digression.
𝙰𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜! 𝙵𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚍𝚍 𝚖𝚎 💟𝙸'𝚖 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝙽𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚗 𝙸𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍, 𝚄𝙺. 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎𝚜, 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚢, 𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚛, 𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎.
I'm new to Goodreads and have been slowly adding the books I've read. I stumbled across this group and got an alert, so figured I'd offer up a reply. • Name: Michael J. Lalonde
• Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
• Flavor: Very heavy traffic :(
• Favorites in the technothriller genre:
The Hunt for Red October
Tom Clancy
There's more but I would be here all day trying to list them all. Needless to say, like many others, Clancy is what got me into the genre.
• Role: Author
The Quiet War: Canadian Front
Steve wrote: "Welcome Mary!Welcome Michael!"
Thanks
Hello to all. I'm Victor and I'm writing from Armenia, Colombia. I'm new to GoodReads and I'm very happy to be part of this group where I hope to learn more about this wonderful genre.
I just finished reading ‘The Fear Index’ by Robert Harris and it left me with a lot of ideas in my head, reminding me of some Michael Crichton and Preston & Child stories :)
Mod
I added Columbia to the list of locations we’re from.
Mod
We added Brazil to the list of member countries!
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Love the idea for this group. Interesting place to come for sci-fi that could be reality.
I joined Goodreads mainly because I am a new writer and published my first book.The Hunt for the Red October and Tom Clancy in overall are big influencers for me.
I haven't gotten to filling out my list of books yet, but I will!
Thanks for hosting this group!
Hello there, I'm S. A. Black. Nice to meet you all!• Location: USA
• Favorites in the technothriller genre:
- Ready Player One
- Stephen King
• Role: I'm a newly published indie author and enjoy reading.
Name: RomainLocation: Lausanne, Switzerland
Local Flavor: One of the big wine region of Switzerland with vineyards looking over the Leman Lake
Favorite techno-thriller book(s):
The Dervish House
Glasshouse
Neuromancer
No list will be complete, no list will be perfect.
Roles: avid reader, author
Name: ChrisLocation: West Yorkshire, northern England
Flavour: Also known as the Heavy Woollen District, the area is rich with industrial heritage
Favourites:
Books - Cryptonomicon (Stephenson), Daemon (Suarez)
Authors - Clancy, Crichton, Stephenson, Forsyth
Quotes - “Didn’t they know that the only unhackable computer is one that’s running a secure operating system, welded inside a steel safe, buried under a ton of concrete at the bottom of a coal mine guarded by the SAS and a couple of armoured divisions, and switched off?”
(Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives)
Role: reader and inchoate author
Mod
Still feels like an inchoate group here, with hit and miss participation.
Name: RyanLocation: Northern Virginia
Flavor: It's the Swamp - half the people around me work for "the government" - IYKYK
Favorites: Too many to count - this is my favorite genre to read. Can't believe it took me this long to find this group.
Huge fan of:
Tom Clancy
Clive Cussler
Michael Crichton
James Rollins
Matthew Reilly
Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Stephen Coonts
Dale Brown
A.G. Riddle
Steve Berry
Robert Ludlum
Role: I'm an indie author, but here mostly as a reader - would love to get more recs! Especially of the James Rollins/Matt Reilly type technothrillers, I feel like there's not enough well-researched ones out there.
Welcome, Ryan! I also love Matt Reilly. You might like The Beach by Patrick Lee and Event by David Golemon.
Jed wrote: "Welcome, Ryan! I also love Matt Reilly. You might like The Beach by Patrick Lee and Event by David Golemon."Read Event - loved it, but it turned into Tremors in the 2nd half! The sequel was better. I'll look into The B[r]each, thanks - it looks like it's up my alley.
Hi everyone, I’m Cody 👋I’m new here and excited to join this group! I’ve always loved connecting with readers and other authors who enjoy discussing books.
A little about me: I recently published my newest novel, The Edge of Control, a psychological thriller with AI, suspense, and a touch of the unexpected. Along with that, I’ve written across different genres including thrillers, cookbooks, and horror. Writing for me is all about creating worlds that spark thought and conversation.
Outside of writing, I enjoy learning, building creative projects, and of course, reading as much as I can.
I’d love to get to know everyone here—what’s the last book you read that completely pulled you in? 📚
Looking forward to some great conversations!
– Cody
Hello everyone! 👋My name is Cody Alaniz, I’m from Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA.
One thing I love about my area is the mix of Cajun culture, food, and the resilience of the community—it’s a place full of stories and energy that always inspires me.
As for technothrillers, some of my favorites are:
Books: Daemon by Daniel Suarez, Neuromancer by William Gibson, and The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.
Authors: Michael Crichton, Daniel Suarez, and William Gibson always keep me hooked.
Quotes/Scenes: One that really sticks with me is from Neuromancer — “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” The imagery captures exactly why I love the genre.
My role here: I’m an author. My book The Edge of Control dives into AI, power, and the human struggle to control the very technology we create. I’m looking forward to connecting with other readers and writers who share this passion, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on favorite technothrillers, too.
Excited to be here and join the conversation! 🚀
Mod
I’m going back trying to learn the geographic whereabouts of our Indian brothers here. Pune (POO-nay) has 7.2M population, making it 7th largest in the most populous country on the planet. It is in the Maharashtra (MH) state, same as Mumbai, in western India. I’m reading that it is the “Oxford of India”, which is to say known for it educational institutions. Does that sound right?
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The Indian contingent of this group is growing. I’m going to attempt to start keeping track of states/provinces, as I do for the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Maybe Americans are more oblivious geographically beyond their own area, but I’m guessing I’m not the only one who knows next to nothing about Indian geography, so, I’ll take people on my learning journey. I understand (reading online) that Bangalore is an anglicized version of the city name, and since 2014 the city is officially known as Bangaluru. At 15M population in the “agglomeration” (a new word for me for contiguous populated cluster of cities), it is the 5th most populous agglomeration behind Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, and Madras. It is 28th in the world, and the biggest city in southern India. It is bigger than Paris, London, and Chicago, … a bit shy of Los Angeles. This is in the state of Karnataka (KA). In the southwestern area, not quite the southern tip. I’m reading that it is the “Silicon Valley of India”. Does that sound right?
Techno-Thrillers
Books mentioned in this topic
The Dervish House (other topics)Glasshouse (other topics)
Neuromancer (other topics)
Ready Player One (other topics)
The Hunt for Red October (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Stephen King (other topics)Tom Clancy (other topics)
Michael Crichton (other topics)
Tom Clancy (other topics)
Andy Weir (other topics)
Join us for:
Book of the Month (BOTM):
- members post to nominate books
- I'll put out a poll and we'll vote
- selected books are put on the group bookshelf
- we read ... early, as scheduled, or late
- we "discuss" by just posting to the book thread
- no zoom meetings or such ... so far
- we rate, review, and rank the book on our list
Lists:
- see our rank-ordered lists of favorites
Group Watch:
- if book is coming out as a movie/series, post it
- if not on the bookshelf, I'll add it
- read in advance, and post to discuss as it airs
Buddy Read (BR):
- any time, proposed by any member
- member posts to propose to a “buddy read”
- can suggest one or several books of interest
- one/more other members reply to join
- then, the book can be put on the bookshelf
- suggest you pick the next whole month
- buddies read, discuss, rate, review, and rank
Challenges
- see the categories in the Challenges folder
- post books you’ve read that fit the challenge
Bookshelf:
- see what books we’ve read
Author Self-Promotion:
- many group members are also authors
- do not shelve your own book
- do not nominate your own book for reads
- post about your book/offer in Author folder
- watch for member-author BOTM opportunity