Please suggest a book that has strong elements of game theory, or has intelligent characters who make logical decisions.
Basically something with visible reasoning where I could say "oh yeah, that's smart".
I think ender's game gives a pretty good idea of what I am thinking of.
Andy Weir's books are pretty good as well but I would prefer a focus on adversarial thinking rather than just problem solving.
Also it doesn't have to have the term "game theory" ever pop up in the book, I just mean that the book can be analysed from a game theory perspective.
As a negative example, The Player of Games by Iain M Banks frequently mentions game theory but is not what I am looking for. Good book but the rules of the games played are completely abstracted. (I asked chatgpt this question and got recommended this book, unfortunately not what I was looking for).
Sherlock Holmes is similarly entertaining, but Sherlock is smart for the sake of being smart and none of his conclusions are things the reader could deduce with just the given information.
by Abject-Antelope-8789
3 Comments
I kind of think you might be looking for a high quality spy book, here.
Don’t know if this would scratch the itch for you but the Expanse series (James S.A. Corey) comes to mind. Game theory is specifically part of one of the subplots, and there’s a (super-tough yet very likeable) politician who’s extremely adept at playing the game against other governments and shady mega-corporations. Only catch is that you have to get into the second book for this politician character, the eighth for the game theory bit.
You might like The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson, it’s very much about strategy, power, and calculated decisions where you can actually follow the reasoning. Also Dune has a lot of that long-term strategic thinking and political maneuvering, especially once you get into the power dynamics. If you want something more direct and modern, The Three-Body Problem explores logical decision-making under pressure in a really interesting way.