As an example, I love the Martian, and I think a lot of older books from authors like Asimov are heavily into engineering / competence porn. Other favs in this category include the standalone novel Rendezvous with Rama to leave you wishing for more, most of the Culture series for happy utopian vibes, Schlock Mercenary for humor, Dahak series for fun mindless popcorn.

Edit: I’m so happy to have found a replacement for r/books and the rest of them.

  • wax
    1·
    1 day ago

    !Didn’t make it clear, but I was mainly referring to the storyline on the inhabited planet. I got annoyed by the main character essentially slaughtering natives and then at some point admitting to himself that he knew nothing about them as a species. Towards the end of that plot line there was some negotiation with the cult leader back on earth, at which point I was quite fed up.!<

    There were a lot of fun aspects too though, like bob discovering stuff and making gadgets.