[unhealthy]

Hello

First time poster, several times reader (of this forum).
I've been going over alot of posts in these threads but I haven't quite found one that satisfy my needs for what I would like to read. I've found alot of similar stuff but somehow I can't make it out like something I would like.

Lemme hit you with some interesting points of what kind of books I'm looking for. Since I doubt what I want is in one specific book I'll just lay out some things I would like to see.

1. Scifi-noir. Now I know this has been up before, but the books I looked at didn't seem to fit into that. I don't know of any books like this but I know a movie I like alot; Blade runner. If you have seen The Animatrix you'll also remember "A Detective Story". Another movie which comes to mind is also Sin City. I really like that stereotype detective who has drinking problems, it's autumn, rain is pouring down, he's getting beat up by thugs etc. Basically everything is going bad for him and it's a hard world.
Even if you know some books like this that isn't scifi I would apprechiate that aswell.

2. Scifi-horror. This has also been up here a few times but mostly it just feels old and dated. Monsters are usually things that would scare an audience looking at a black/white movie with stiff movements and lame fantasy. I'm a guy who enjoys the mystique alot more than zombies or squid-face-man walking around killing people.
Under this category I could also mention that isolated places for this category is music to my ears. Spaceships or the south pole etc. If you have seen Sunshine, Alien, Pandorum. It also exists alot in games, Dead space and System shock 2 are two favorites. Now I know I said I prefer the mystique over the monsters, which isn't true if you look at my examples, but there's somehow a feeling of desolation and I quite like that.

3. This is a hard one, because I dunno how to describe it. I would love to read some scifi which, somehow, is about humans and our minds. Not scifi with aliens or virtual reality or AI. Just that we somehow evolved in a boring but realistic way and that we somehow have problems with our goverment, people are getting weird diseases and dying, explorations of the human mind, I dunno. Post-apocalyptical events perhaps?

This is basically what I'm looking for, if you want to I'd love to keep an open dialoge. I guess it might be pretty hard to find books that match these but just something similiar would be fine aswell.

Best regards!

[Ponerology]

I can list some books which I enjoy, as we seem to have similar tastes...

Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville
Vurt/ Falling Out of Cars, by Jeff Noon
Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
Solaris, by Stanisław Lem
The Stand, Stephen King
Dancers At the End of Time, Michael Moorcock
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
The Devil You Know, Mike Carry
Lots of Ray Bradbury; Philip.K.Dick (who wrote the story which became Bladerunner).

I'll keep thinking and let you know! :)

[livens]

Scifi - Noir, The only thing I have read that might fit into this would be Century rain by Alastair Reynolds. It also has a touch of horror in it. Great story and well written.

[Ropie]

Sci Fi Noir:

The Investigation Stanislaw Lem (excellent)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon (quite good)

[Sparrow]

If you want a noirish styled series of books then try Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Retrieval Artist novels. I've read four or five of them and they keep me coming back for more.

[Waiting]

Obviously - Noir by K.W. Jeter

Nightside City by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Whole Wide World by Paul McAuley

When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger

"Maybe" something by John Zakour

Added:

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Last read in about 1977, so my memory might be a little hazy and these might not be "noirish" enough, but:
The Man in the High Castle and/or Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick

[Michigan]

Already mentioned but the ones that came to mind for me are Century Rain by Reynolds and Altered Carbon by Morgan. Would possibly also include Chasm City by Reynolds. Don't know if these fit to a T what you are looking for but I kinda got the noir feeling from them and both Altered Carbon and Chasm City deal with minds and identity.

[Seli]

2 and 3 combined I think you can find in Blindsight by Peter Watts

noir, if you're willing to try fantasy as well the Dresden files series by Jim Butcher might be something you'll like

Borderline 3, since it is about the relationship between human and mind, but maybe not in the way you intend The speed of dark by Elizabeth Moon

[Zeratul]

Most of the cyberpunk genre can be described as SciFi-noir.

[WhiteWolf]

I'd agree with the Noir recommendations of ALTERED CARBON, especially, and also Reynolds' CENTURY RAIN and CHASM CITY. There is also a portion of Dan Simmons' great book HYPERION called THE DETECTIVE'S TALE (you still have to read the whole book) that would fit this category nicely. And the rest of the book will prove to be a wonderful bonus that you might not have been looking for.

SF/Horror I think is something that exists primarily in film. SF writers just don't go for the Alien/Pandorum/Event Horizon type of thing, I think, because it doesn't work as well on the printed page. There might be some out there, but you are more likely to find a horror writer including some SF elements than an SF writer including horror.

The last category I'm not sure about, but it sounds like you are looking for ANATHEM by Neal Stephenson or even A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ. It's hard to separate that kind of book from SF that deals with VR and AI. A lot of good SF stories struggle with the future of government, and there are a few good books out there dealing with disease and plague. The previously mentioned books by Alastair Reynolds cover these things as well, so you might want to consider killing a couple of birds at once, which is always nice.

My suggestion, read ALTERED CARBON and CENTURY RAIN. If you like them, then read CHASM CITY (maybe take a crack at REVELATION SPACE first, although you don't have to) and then get around to books like ANATHEM and HYPERION. Great stuff by great writers, all.