Mathematical SF

[[deleted user]]

Hey everyone,

I'm curious if anyone knows of any good books based on mathematical concepts. I read Christopher Priest's Inverted World a while back and loved the idea behind it. It's based on a world with hyperbolic geometry. The story kind of falls apart near the end of the book but the first 3/4s were outstanding.

Flatland also comes to mind.

If anyone else has read anything else based on math concepts, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks in advance!

[Tom]

Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession

Not SF, but all about maths

Inverted World is one of my all-time favourites

[Allen]

I would imagine that Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is the gold standard if you are looking for math concepts. Not SF but I am not sure there is a heavy math SF book.

[[deleted user]]

Thanks - I'll have to check those out!

[Chris]

Ted Chiang has a couple of good stories in his collection Stories of Your Life and Others (still out of print, I think, but you can get it on abebooks.com for $10). One is about a mathematician discovering that all of our math is essentially false. The other is about trying to communicate with an alien species that understands math in a completely different way than us.

The other stories in there are amazing, too.

[Tamahome]

Chris wrote: "Ted Chiang has a couple of good stories in his collection Stories of Your Life and Others (still out of print, I think, but you can get it on abebooks.com for $10). One is about a mathematician dis..."

It'll be reprinted October 1st by Small Beer Press with an unstupid cover. Or you can get a drm free ebook.

[[deleted user]]

Tamahome wrote: "Chris wrote: "Ted Chiang has a couple of good stories in his collection Stories of Your Life and Others (still out of print, I think, but you can get it on abebooks.com for $10). One is about a mat..."

I really enjoyed exhalation. I'll have to pick that up.
Thanks for the recommendations!