[warfangle]

I think that was the point? :)

It's some of the most subversively existential SF I've ever read.

[throwanem]

Will you elaborate? I know those words, but still the point you seek to make with them eludes me.

[schwarrrtz]

One of the big themes in the series is how people find meaning in their lives given that they basically want for nothing. When you can have any material possession created for you on demand, what do you do with yourself?

For example, in The Player of Games, Gurgeh devotes his life to games of strategy, and Yay to orbital architecture. Neither character needs to work for a living, so why bother working at all?

[ethbro]

Vernor Vinge's two Deep books (I haven't read the third) were right up there for me. Albeit simultaneously terrible from a "Jesus, this is %&#$ed up, but also plausible" perspective.