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Quite a misanthropic hint of dystopia. Read a few Brunner books and I ended up disliking the author quite a lot.
All these suggestions are oooold. Did everybody stop reading SF before the millennium? (He says, having mostly stopped reading SF by the millennium)
If I were going to make a not-too-heavy 20th century recommendation, I think it'd be Neuromancer and the sequels. Cyberpunk has never been better than that.
The Rudy Rucker books @SideshowBob recommended are a lot of fun, fwiw.
itsbruce-
I bow to your more recent assessment of him, I last read his books in the early 90s.
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Did everybody stop reading SF before the millennium?
shots fired ;)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, really really interesting concepts and also big fuck-off spaceships
A Long way to a small angry planet by Becky Chambers (and all the sequels) absolutely fits the OP's request of not too heavy
withered_preacher
el_presidente
John Brunner for a hit of dystopia.