Techno-Thrillers discussion

What are you reading this year?
- In the rough vicinity of techno-thriller
- Expand our horizons a bit
- Skip book-of-the-month here

I suggest using the add book/author button to add a book cover and author photo, or in words [Title] by [Author] (Year first published). Maybe share a line or two about it ... the plot / your thoughts.

2024 techno-thriller-ish reads:

Wool by Hugh Howey (2012)

It’s shy of a thriller. People are living in an underground Silo, because something happened to the world outside, and no one in this generation can even remember what happened. I suppose the Silo is the technology. Good more for the thoughts you will have while reading it trying to figure it out. It is a good show on Apple TV.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966)

Is it really sci-fi? Not the stereotypical sort. There’s a “treatment” and it’s effect is the story. Arguably yes. It showcases how people are mistreated if they are at the very low or very high end of the IQ spectrum. Not a thriller. This was the full novel, but the original short story is probably the better way to go.

Patriot Games by Tom Clancy (1987)

Jack Ryan, former Marine on vacation in London, stops terrorists who randomly try to kill the Prince of Wales in front of him. This comes back to haunt him. Red October was technothriller. This had no technology per se, though it geeks out a bit on tactics, gear, techniques.

Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman (2018)

Israeli covert ops from pre-Israel to present. Non-fiction. There’s technology, tactics, techniques, and a mission where someone dies seemingly at least every few pages. Eye-opening … for better and for worse. Eye-opening.

Ice Station by Matthew Reilly (1998)

A call for help by Antarctic researchers yields more than they bargained for. Action packed!

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (2016)

Read this, barely keeping ahead of the Apple TV series. Explores quantum superposition. Chapter 13 of the book (episode 8 of the show) strike me as classic scenes of the genre.

Shift by Hugh Howey (2013)

Prequel to Silo. Slow & scatterbrained initially, explains the why of Silo (which was interesting). Appreciated it by the end, particularly parts about Jimmy.

Not a techno-thriller, and more horror than thriller. I put it down about 1/4 of the way through to start Extinction. Maybe I'll go back to it, but it feels unnecessarily long-winded. Very Stephen King-ish.

Binary by John Lange (Michael Crichton, 1972)

Crichton was determined to write books and in his first decade seemed to just throw in the random ingredients he thought were essential to get attention. Cover (naked woman) has nothing to do with the story. It’s about a volatile mixture of two components, and a federal investigator trying to stop such a mixture from being used to wreak havoc on San Diego. Got made into maybe his first movie—TV movie of the week called Pursuit, made in 1972.

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré (1963)


The spy thriller that put author le Carré on the map. Is he better than Ian Fleming? Is he one of the best English writers of the 20th century? The jury is still out. I am leaning toward no and no. Still waiting for the thriller part to manifest, now at about the midpoint, but I say the same about Clancy just about every book I read.

Update: Finished. 3 stars. Not the phenom some see.

I decided my next read will be:
by Audie Murphy

I've seen most of Audie Murphy's films and have been really interested in reading about his war service.

Steve wrote: "Binary by John Lange (aka, Michael Crichton)

The cover has a naked woman. Crichton was determined to write books and in his first decade se..."

I tried to get some of these early Crichton novels through my library but haven't had any luck. These are the only Crichton novels I've not read so I'm eager to fix that oversight.

Just finished Delta-V, my first Suarez book. Decent read and interested in the sequel.

For the Halloween season approaching, I decided to start Dead Silence. Set in space but not a technothriller..

Dead Silence

Evan wrote: "Just finished Delta-V, my first Suarez book. Decent read and interested in the sequel."

Tom and I did a Buddy Read of Delta-V in July. When you’re ready, we’re probably both game for the sequel, Critical Mass to read along if you want to call it out. Buddy Read isn’t as wide as Book of the Month, just a few people. Honestly, Book of the Month is probably just me and a couple people too, but we get like 12 votes on the Book of the Month poll and I never know which book is going to win. Buddy read is on-demand, just what you want.

The Satan Bug by Alistair MacLean (1962)


Horrible virus stolen from top secret British lab is a threat to humanity.

Freedom™ by Daniel Suarez (2010)


The sequel to Daemon concludes his story of a computer virus that sweep the world. Is it worthy of #10 on Best Technotrillers Ever? Update: Entertaining, but no, wasn’t worthy of #10 for me.

Read this one for Halloween season. Book started great but then turned bit flat and the end result of what was actually the culprit ended up being such an anti-climax. Won't be reading Barnes' other book, Ghost Station.

Having read most of Weir's great work already, tried out this novella. Was pretty good and very quick read.

The 2nd book in The Long Winter series. So far so good, about halfway. I will finish the trilogy but will probably take a break from the series after this book.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption
by Laura Hillenbrand (2010)

A biography of a WWII B-24 bombardier who went down in the Pacific and survived many days lost at sea only to be taken prisoner, and subjected to mistreatment. No it’s not a technothriller, though he speaks of the emerging bombers of the time, and he experienced several harrowing bombing runs.

Station Breaker by Andrew Mayne: astronaut's first mission to space goes horribly wrong, chaos ensues.


Just finished this good page-turner that I would not have even known about if I didn't see it mentioned on Reddit. There is sequel but I've got other TBR to get to. Every chapter was 3-4 pages, very interesting but makes it even faster to read.

Dust by Hugh Howey (2013)


Not sure if the ongoing season 2 Silo series on Apple TV is derived from the 3rd book Dust or has just taken its own liberties, straying from the content of Wool (#1) and Shift (#2). So, I’m reading the 3rd. So far the answer seems to be no. Season 1 took liberties deviating at will from the first book, but it roughly stayed on the path in the long run.