Hey Lemmings,
I’ve just finished up the second of John Scalzi’s Lock-In novels and I’m looking for some recommendations for some new books in the same vein. I’ve enjoyed a bunch of sci-fi mysteries like The Murderbot series, the I Robot novels, even Niven’s ARM stories. So throw me some more like that if you can.
Might not be an exact fit, but maybe Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. It’s not a mystery per se, but there is definitely an element of “what’s actually going on here” for the main character to sort out.
It’s funny I started on Scalzi with Redshirts, which was good but felt like a short story that he padded out to make a novel with. I then read the Old Man Wars series and it just wasn’t for me. It felt like a slog to get through and I was about to give up on Scalzi but I figured the first Lock In book was already in my reading list on my library audiobook app so I’d give it a go, and man that turned me around on Scalzi really right in my groove. So I’ll give Fuzzy Nation a go next and see if I just don’t like the Old Man’s War series.
Starter Villain might also scratch that itch for you, but to be honest, I’m just a big Scalzi fan. Kaiju Preservation Society and When the Moon Hits Your Eye were a lot of fun too.