Did Hawken get enough of a presence in the video game world's mind share for this reductive amalgamation to work? I mean it's not perfect since the Roller lady isn't a mech, but still.
Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle Trilogy, and the unrelated Seveneves if you want to lean into Stephenson. Reamde can be safely ignored, Anathem is take it or leave it. It's good but it's also a little more out there. It does however probably have Stephenson's strongest denouement of all his books, something he's been criticized about elsewhere.
Ann Leike's Imperial Radch books (starting with Ancillary Justice) are really quite good, and I recommend them wholeheartedly.
NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy (Starting with The Fifth Season) are a LOT to deal with, but they are also some of the best books I've read in a long time and really have shit to say.
If you like the Reality Disfunction series then you probably should check out Hamilton's commonwealth books. Well, Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained at least. Following books jump timelines and settings and become less essential as they go, although I do think there is value in the Void trilogy.
Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series (starting with The Way Of Kings) is a very strong series of books, but god be careful because you can just get tossed off in tangents to his other weaker Cosmere books and like, that's a lot of work. A lot.
Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy (starting with The Assassin's Apprentice) are some of the best fantasy books I've ever read. The following trilogies and other related and unrelated works of hers have varying quality.
Somewhat tangentially, The Name Of the Wind is the such a piece of god awful embarrassing piece of sad wish fulfillment that I had to stop listening to the McElroy brothers because they like it so much. Truly risible. Just, man, so bad. So so bad. But you know, to each their own.
@vinny Seveneves is basically a great book establishing a universe, the the first half of a book following up on it. Not sure what happened to the rest of it.
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