I most recently tried to work my way through Gnomon by Nick Harkaway, but though the premise is interesting, the writing style can really self-indulgent so I probably won't finish it. Gist of the premise is that it's a British [u/dys]topia where an omnipresent surveillance system called the Witness is instituted to facilitate 100% transparency and democracy. It regularly organises committees among citizens and streamlines issues so that people can vote effectively and with full openness. MC is a pseudodetective working for the Witness, and the case is that a woman died in Witness custody. She dives into the woman's mind with future tech, but ends up getting multiple fictional memories, as though the woman was multiple different fictional characters in different worlds. It's a technique used to block intrusive memory scanning, but the MC has never seen something so in-depth. Unfortunately, the prose can get really tiresome, so I've not gone beyond a third of the book.
Just before this, I read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Quite an interesting read, though the start is very slow. It's about a man who is within a world that is nothing but marble hallways and statues.
Like Woland I go through feast and famine periods of reading, dunno what or when I'll read next.
Rez
I read Hyperion before and I was hit really hard by that section you're on. The father's entire struggle through it, the theme of Abraham's sacrifice, that was really good. Shan't spoil anything, but the father's "final response" to the whole situation resonated a ton with me.
The bishop's tale is also pretty sick.
I hear the sequels aren't great though? Not verified it myself.
