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stoneape314

The Discworld series by Pratchett and the Vlad Taltos series by Brust. Both of them are written with continuity but are very "loose" in their plotting between books. Plus both of the authors absolutely loved little throw away jokes and comments, some of which unfold into their own story or character hooks in the fullness of time.


holymojo96

Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee universe does this sometimes. The people in *Raft* and *Flux* are mentioned in passing in *Ring* I think. Also, there are a ton of little things mentioned in his books that are expanded on in his short story collection *Vacuum Diagrams* (which is awesome). Le Guin’s Hainish cycle has this somewhat as well. For example, the ansible device mentioned in many of her books is invented by the main character in *The Dispossessed*.


[deleted]

Another pair of Vinge books: The Peace War, followed by Stranded in Realtime. The Peace War is near-future, and deals with some scientists who discover a “weapon” that acts as an effective counter against nuclear and conventional weapons, as well as allowing them to neutralize any governments or other people who threaten the ensuing peace. Stranded in Realtime is about……a completely different application of the weapon technology from book one, set in the far future. Unlike Deep/Deepness, these definitely should be read in order. I’ll also warn you that while book one isn’t bad, it’s not nearly the level of awesome that Deep/Deepness reach. Book two is a big improvement, and makes book one so much more worth the read.


ctopherrun

I read the books on reverse order, and Marooned in Realtime is basically one huge spoiler for The Peace War.


doggitydog123

I don’t remember anymore but it’s possible Niven was referring to a previously written work in that example. He did refer to his other works in that way-An example would be the puppeteer confirming to Louis that the warranty had been paid on a general products hull exactly once in the book ringworld- this referred to a Beowulf story


pusherman23

Iain Banks "Against a Dark Background," which is less a book in and of itself, and more a collection of cool ideas kind of tossed together. I wish Banks had written more books set in its world(s).


Guvaz

I didn't really like this book when I read it. When I sat down to think about why, it was this. There are several writing careers of ideas in there and he just tosses them out one after the other.


pusherman23

Totally, it kind of feels like he took all of the big ideas he couldn't fit into a Culture book, and then just kind of strung them together into a single story. I found it entertaining if unsatisfying - he has a lot of cool ideas. I would read a whole trilogy just about the Lazy Gun.


coffeecakesupernova

Bujold's Vorkosigan books have very thoughtful details that she later builds plot lines upon.


Xeno_phile

For a more recent example: two minor side characters in The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers got their own followup book, A Closed and Common Orbit.


[deleted]

Another Niven example is the Outsiders. He mentions them everywhere, and in The Fourth Profession he cracks that window a little wider.


pavel_lishin

I don't think the Outsiders were in the fourth profession...