SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Earlier I was thinking about the "Mannerpunk", or "Fantasy of Manners" genre, in which the genre elements take a distant backseat to vivid and often quirky characterizations.

It seems like most of the examples of this genre are Fantasy: The Gormenghast Novels, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint books... I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for books that would qualify as "Sci-Fi of Manners"?

The first one that comes to mind for me is Kage Baker's In the Garden of Iden -- which I have not read yet, but it seems like it would fit.

Probably a lot of Connie Willis' books would fit here as well.

Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villiers books would qualify, I think: Star Well, The Thurb Revolution, and Masque World. (Some of us are still waiting for The Universal Pantograph.)

I would say that Anne Leckie's Ancillary Justice fits this bill except for the "distant back seat" part, as the character interactions really depend on the social norms of the culture she's created. The Science Fiction elements are just as important and inform the story completely.

Similarly, my favorite Neal Stephenson novel, The Diamond Age, has a very peculiarly-mannered society as filtered through SF, where the tech and social mores go hand-in-hand.

I love Bujold to pieces but A Civil Campaign requires an entire series to get to it. Yo really cannot read it standalone. If you can make it all the way through the series - which is totally worth it, by the way - this is definitely "Georgette Heyer in space"

Try Lord Darcy. It's less a comedy of manners and more of a whodunit, but it has some of the same elements. That's still a fantasy/alternate history, though. For sci-fi there is To Say Nothing of the Dog - which definitely qualifies, and maybe Heart of a Dog which has some of the same elements, though it's more a brutal satire of errors.

Another good series is Jo Walton's Small Change alt-hstory: a manor whodunit, a detective mystery, and a comedy of manners in that order. Begins with Farthing.

Other possible tangents: The Eyre Affair and its sequels, parts of Cloud Atlas.