Eighteen SFF novels that get serious about economics

Jeff Somers is the author of Writing Without Rules, the Avery Cates series, The Ustari Cycle, Lifers, and Chum (among many other books) and numerous short stories.

At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog he tagged eighteen science-fiction and fantasy novels that get serious about economics, including:

Infomocracy, by Malka Older

Older’s debut novel—the first of a now-complete trilogy—imagines a world where the entire population is divided into groups of 100,000, known as centenals. Each centenal can vote for the government they wish to belong to—governments ranging from corporate-dominated PhilipMorris, to policy-based groups with names like Liberty, while a global organization called Information seeks to police elections and ensure that the many governments keep their promises and play by the rules. Older doesn’t skimp on the economic aspects of such a world, as each government has its own approach (including, of course, a government called Economix whose entire focus is economic policy), ranging from the economies-of-scale focus (AfricanUnity) to large-scale corporate interests (Heritage). While the economics aren’t the main focus of the story, they’re important to it, and the structure of the fictional universe allows for a lot of fascinating exploration of economic concepts.

Read about another entry on the list.

Infomocracy is among Emily Wenstrom's eight science fiction novels that explore the human dilemma, Jeff Somers's fifty science fiction essentials written by women, Joel Cunningham's twelve science fiction & fantasy books for the post-truth era, and Sam Reader's six most intriguing political systems in fantasy and science fiction.

The Page 69 Test: Infomocracy.

--Marshal Zeringue