★ indicates a particlarly strong recommendation.
Q is my subjective impression of the writing quality. 3+ means the writing didn't bother me, 4 means the writing is a reason to read, 5 means it blew me away.
R is a crude measure of the /r/rational nature. 3+ means that the writing scratches the rational itch, 4 means I think /r/rational would enjoy it more than a normal person, 5 means I consider it specifically rationalist fiction.
U is how unique the story is. Basically, would you be missing out on something important if you didn't read it? 3+ means you might regret not reading it, 4 means some of its qualities are very hard to find, 5 means there's nothing else quite like it.
Webnovels
| Q | R | U | ||
| ★ |
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
fanfic
(Has its own fanfiction, most notably Significant Digits.) |
4 | 5 | 5 |
| ★ | Mother of Learning timeloop | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| ★ | Worm | 5 | 3 | 5 |
|
Ward
(Sequel to Worm, read that first.) |
4 | 3 | 5 | |
| Twig | 4 | 3 | 5 | |
| Pact | 4 | 2 | 5 | |
| ★ | Worth the Candle unfinished | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| ★ | Beware of Chicken unfinished humor genre_savvy | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Super Minion unfinished | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
| Vainqueur The Dragon unfinished humor litrpg | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Vigor Mortis unfinished | 4 | 1 | 2 | |
| Never Die Twice | 4 | 2 | 2 | |
| Dungeon Crawler Carl unfinished humor litrpg | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Forge of Destiny unfinished | 4 | 0 | 2 | |
|
Arrogant Young Master Template A Variation 4
unfinished
humor
genre_savvy
(Writing is iffy, plot quality peters out partway through.) |
2 | 3 | 5 | |
| ★ | A Practical Guide to Evil unfinished genre_savvy | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| ★ | Dungeon Keeper Ami unfinished fanfic litrpg | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| ★ | Unsong | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| ★ |
Crystal Society
(Trilogy, first book is materially better.) |
4 | 4 | 4 |
| ★ |
Friendship is Optimal
fanfic
(Has its own fanfiction, most notably Caelum Est Conterrens.) |
3 | 4 | 3 |
|
Luminosity
fanfic
(Has a sequel that I liked less.) |
3 | 5 | 3 | |
| Time Braid fanfic timeloop | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| Chunin Exam Day fanfic timeloop | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| ★ | The Waves Arisen fanfic | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| Pokemon: The Origin of Species fanfic unfinished | 3 | 5 | 4 | |
| The Two Year Emperor fanfic genre_savvy litrpg | 2 | 4 | 3 | |
| Harry Potter and the Natural 20 fanfic genre_savvy litrpg unfinished | 2 | 3 | 2 | |
| Animorphs: The Reckoning fanfic unfinished | 3 | 4 | 3 | |
| The Dark Wizard of Donkerk | 3 | 4 | 3 | |
| Shadows of the Limelight | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| Glimwarden unfinished abandoned | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| ★ |
There Is No Antimemetics Division
(http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-055 is background reading.) |
3 | 5 | 5 |
| ★ | Ra | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Cordyceps humor | 3 | 4 | 4 | |
|
How to survive Death on a Daily Basis
unfinished
abandoned
(Plot quality peters out partway through) |
4 | 2 | 3 | |
|
Everybody Loves Large Chests
litrpg
humor
(Fun, but lots of unnecessary sexual content.) |
3 | 1 | 4 |
Novels
| Q | R | U | ||
|
Sufficiently Advanced Magic
litrpg
(First book in series.) |
3 | 3 | 3 | |
| ★ | Perilous Waif | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| ★ |
Mistborn: The Final Empire
(First book in trilogy. Author is prolific if you like it.) |
4 | 3 | 4 |
| Blindsight | 4 | 3 | 5 | |
| A Girl Corrupted by the Internet is the Summoned Hero?! humor | 3 | 4 | 4 | |
| ★ | The Martian | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| ★ | Project Hail Mary | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| ★ |
The Name of the Wind
(First book in a trilogy.) |
5 | 3 | 5 |
| Merchant Princes Series | 4 | 2 | 3 | |
| A Deepness in the Sky | 3 | 2 | 3 | |
| ★ | Snow Crash | 4 | 2 | 4 |
|
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
(If you like Snow Crash, you'll probably like this.) |
4 | 2 | 4 | |
| ★ |
Cryptonomicon
(Best enjoyed in high school before learning any cryptography.) |
4 | 4 | 5 |
| Anathem | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| ★ | Seveneves | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| ★ |
Making Money
(There is a prequel, Going Postal, which can be read first. If you like this book, there are many more Discworld novels.) |
5 | 3 | 5 |
| ★ |
Player of Games
(Many other books set in this universe.) |
4 | 2 | 4 |
|
Neuromancer
(Mostly interesting for historical reasons.) |
4 | 1 | 5 | |
| ★ | Ender's Game | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| ★ |
The Skylark of Space
(Mostly interesting for historical reasons.) |
4 | 1 | 4 |
Shorts
| Q | R | U | ||
| ★ | Envoy | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| ★ | Here's a Story About Changelings | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| ★ | The Rules of Wishing fanfic | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| ★ | Tower | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| ★ | Humanity Fuck Yeah stories | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| ★ | Professor Riddle and the Quest for Tenure fanfic unfinished abandoned humor | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| One Compile Man fanfic humor | 3 | 4 | 4 | |
| ★ | I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| ★ | Lena | 4 | 4 | 5 |
|
Other qntm Stories
(If you want more qntm stories.) |
3 | 2 | 4 | |
| The Metropolitan Man fanfic | 3 | 5 | 4 | |
| The Last Christmas fanfic | 3 | 5 | 4 | |
| Branches on the Tree of Time fanfic | 3 | 5 | 4 | |
| ★ | Ever After | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| ★ | Three Worlds Collide | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| The Sword of Good | 4 | 5 | 4 | |
| ★ | Beisutsukai Stories | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| ★ | That Alien Message | 4 | 5 | 5 |
|
Other Eliezer Yudkowsky Stories
(If you want more Eliezer Yudkowsky stories, ones I like that didn't quite make the cut are 'Non-Player Character' and 'The Hero with a Thousand Chances'.) |
4 | 4 | 4 | |
| ★ | ...And I Show You How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes humor | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| ★ | Samsara humor | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| ★ | Answer to Job | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| The Whispering Earring | 3 | 4 | 4 | |
| ★ | The Witching Hour | 3 | 3 | 5 |
|
Other Scott Alexander Stories
(If you want more Scott Alexander stories, ones I like that didn't quite make the cut are 'The Last Temptation of Christ', 'The Study of Anglophysics', and 'Asches to Asches'.) |
3 | 3 | 4 | |
| ★ | The Fable of the Dragon Tyrant | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| ★ | The Cambist and Lord Iron | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| The Egg | 4 | 1 | 3 | |
| ★ | The Last Answer | 4 | 2 | 4 |
Comics
| Erfworld litrpg | |
| ★ | The Order of the Stick litrpg genre_savvy humor |
| The Promised Neverland | |
| ★ | Ultimate Rock-paper-scissors humor |
| Fleep | |
| Girl Genius | |
|
Schlock Mercenary
humor
(The first comics are very rough. The author says to consider starting with Force Multiplication at https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-11-29.) |
Nonfiction
Unread
|
Too Like the Lightning
(Very well-written, author is smart, I lost interest a few chapters in.) |
|
|
The Wandering Inn
(Very polarized opinions, lots of people like it, I was bored.) |
|
|
The Vorkosigan Saga
(Been recommended to me multiple times, on my to-read list. Lots of stories in universe, link goes to the starting point I was recommended.) |
|
|
The Need to Become Stronger
(Naruto fanfic, popular but I haven't read it.) |
|
|
Cenotaph
(Worm fanfic, on my to-read list.) |
|
|
The Northern Caves
(I wasn't able to finish it, cool concept but kind of slow.) |
|
|
Fall of Doc Future
(Popular webfic, on my to-read list.) |
|
|
Permutation City
(Novel, Haven't read it.) |
|
|
The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere
(Ongoing webfic, on my to-read list.) |
|
|
Lighting Up the Dark
(HPMOR-inspired Naruto fanfic, haven't read it.) |
|
|
Marked for Death
(A rational Naruto quest, haven't read it.) |
|
|
The Erogamer
(An erotic mostly-rational Gamer story. Extremely popular even among people not interesting in the erotic part. Tried it but wasn't my thing. You need an account to read it.) |
|
|
Delve
(Popular LitRPG, I got bored and dropped it.) |
|
|
With This Ring
(Young Justice SI fanfic, haven't read it.) |
|
|
Shears
(MLP fanfic, haven't read it.) |
|
|
Pith
(Good original webfiction, reminds me a bit of Worm. Dropped it after a few chapters.) |
|
|
The Daily Grind
(LitRPG, starts a little slow, I dropped it but on my try-to-read-again list.) |
|
|
Accelerando
(Popular novel, haven't read it.) |
|
|
Fine Structure
(Webnovel, on my to-read list.) |
|
|
Octo
(Webnovel, on my to-read list.) |
|
|
Floating Point
(Webnovel, haven't read it.) |
|
|
City of Angles
(Webnovel, haven't read it) |
|
|
There is no Epic Loot here, Only Puns
(Popular webnovel, haven't read it.) |
|
|
Chili and the Chocolate Factory: Fudge Revelation
(Rationalist fanfic, very popular. I didn't really understand why it's good, stopped after a few chapters.) |
|
|
Transdimensional Brain Chip
(Webcomic, haven't read it.) |
|
|
All Night Laundry
(Interactive horror webcomic, haven't read it.) |
|
|
Never Die Twice
(Webnovel by the author of Vainqueur the dragon, haven't read it.) |
|
|
The Perfect Run
(Timeloop webnovel by the author of Vainqueur the dragon, the humor didn't really land for me but some people like it.) |
|
|
Pale
(By the same author as Worm, unfinished, haven't read it yet.) |
|
|
Nation
(Terry Pratchett novel, haven't read it but all his stuff is good. Brassica_Rex on Reddit says it's a good rational YA novel.) |
|
|
The Freeze-Frame Revolution
(Novel, haven't read it.) |
|
|
An Infinite Recursion of Time
(WTC-inspired, played-straight timeloop litrpg harem fic.) |
|
| The Simulacrum | |
| The Calamitous Bob | |
|
You Needed Opponents with Gravitas
(Worm/The Culture Crossover) |
|
| The Last Angel | |
| Nowhere Land |