Lady of Mazes

Schroeder sets his novel in a ringworld where overlapping, technology-filtered realities coexist — each manifold its own cultural bubble, invisible to the others. When a mysterious force collapses those borders and destroys protagonist Livia Kodaly's world, she journeys outward to seek answers and confronts the deeper architecture holding her civilization together. Kirkus called it 'the hard SF novel of the year,' and the praise is earned: the layered world-building is exceptional, the ideas about technology, identity, and cultural preservation are genuinely interesting, and the storytelling is lean and efficient. The caveat is real — this is philosophically dense hard SF that may disorient readers new to the genre, and it isn't widely known outside the core SF community. But for readers who want ideas alongside story, it's a standout.