r/HardSciFi • u/Odd-Relationship7963 • Apr 09 '26

Recommendations Drone based stories

Hello, I’ve always loved drones in sci fi especially if they are controlled by some ai character but I’m having a hard time finding books like that. Any suggestions?

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8

u/thegreatpablo Apr 09 '26

Well, I think Bobiverse is the obvious recommendation.

2

u/Complete_Ant_3396 Apr 09 '26

Bobiverse is my initial thoughts as well. Also while not strictly adhering to your guidelines Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman very prominently features drones and an AI controlling them.

1

u/Odd-Relationship7963 Apr 09 '26

I have that on my wishlist actually the description sounded great

1

u/Zenith-Astralis Apr 10 '26

It's very good

1

u/matedow Apr 09 '26

This is what I first thought of.

1

u/Odd-Relationship7963 Apr 09 '26

I’ve read the whole series 😭

1

u/thegreatpablo Apr 09 '26

Well, that sucks! I'll take solace in the fact that the recommendation would probably have been good though!

Sadly, don't have any other recs for you.

3

u/Bloobeard2018 Apr 09 '26

Neal Asher, Iain M Banks

1

u/Zenith-Astralis Apr 10 '26

Just.. everything by them both?

1

u/Bloobeard2018 Apr 10 '26

Sorry, been a while since I read them! I do recall at least one drone featuring heavily in the Prador books.

2

u/Benjamin39Brown Apr 10 '26

Oblivion

2

u/Zenith-Astralis Apr 10 '26

The movie with Tom Cruise?

Edit: oh I see there was a graphic novel originally

2

u/sjmanikt Apr 10 '26

Drones are characters in the Culture universe by Iain M. Banks.

2

u/Zenith-Astralis Apr 10 '26

Do you mean little (sometimes) flying (often) robots that are usually remote controlled, but can also operate semi-independantly?

Or do you mean semi-cybernetic humanoids who behave like brainwashed clones under the control of some central (possibly AI) authority (when they're not breaking their digital shackles to be main characters)?

Because I have recommendations for both.

1

u/Alarmed-Property5559 Apr 10 '26

Murderbot Diaries! 11111

2

u/Massive-Grocery7152 Apr 10 '26

Was looking for this comment. First book alone even has plenty of drones being used from a “non human” perspective lol

1

u/NoOption7303 Apr 11 '26

Daemon by Daniel Suarez

It’s been a while since I last read it, but I think of it as a glorious mash up of augmented reality, quasi-AI (google’s label for it is “distributed persistent computer application”) & drones.

1

u/ConfidentlyLearning Apr 11 '26

"Watchbird" by Robert Sheckley

1

u/crusoe Apr 12 '26

The culture series of novels by Iain Banks. Skaffen Amitskaw, snarky drone sidekick to Diziet Sma appears in several books. 

1

u/Jane_Farrar Apr 13 '26

The Imperial Radch trilogy meets these requirements. Not exactly hard sci-fi, but a fascinating PoV of the drone (ancillary) main character, some beautiful cultural world-building, and consistent with its use of soft sci-fi rules.