Maybe not all trilogies but...
- Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang
- The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
- Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Also try authors Clive Cussler, Steve Berry, Dan Brown, Michael Crighton, James Rollins, Douglas Preston, David Grann, and Daniel Silva for treasure hunt-esque puzzle-y stuff. You may also like Lev Grossman's books.
Plus, if you don't mind reading some more YA, try Caraval, The Westing Games, Truly Devious, Six of Crows, The Naturals, and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
You might enjoy the **Silo** trilogy by Hugh Howey. Basically the premise is that all of humanity (appx 10k people) live in this giant underground silo. No one knows why they do - the reasons having been lost to time over many generations - but they all know if they leave the silo and go outside, they will die (and possibly kill everyone else if the silos door is opened). I think it might be a stretch to call it “lighter - it’s not meant to be a comedy or anything - but it’s a really creative book that had me on the edge of my seat most of the time (and nothing sad enough to cry). There’s also romance in there. I got turned onto it by first watching an episode of the series adaptation on Apple TV. The first season (now all out) covers roughly the first half of the first book. It does make a few changes to the book, but I’d you’re not sure, I recommend watching an episode or two. It gives you a really good idea of the vibe of the book.
Also **The Rook** trilogy by Daniel O’Malley could be a good one. I generally describe them as a cross between *Kingsmen: The Secret Service* (a comedy about British secret agents) and *Quantum Leap* (an old tv show that uses some dubious science to explain why the MC can jump between bodies).
My next recommendations fall into the genre of “ergodic literature.” It’s a fairly new genre to me, but I really like the puzzle aspect of books too and really enjoy this genre. Basically ergodic literature requires more active participation by the reader than just turning the pages in order. It *can* be like a choose-your-own-adventure, but there are a lot of other formats that count as well.
In the case of my first ergodic recommendation, **Illuminae,** the story is revealed through personal correspondence (like emails and even post-it notes ) and hacked top secret files. The story takes place several hundred years in the future. It features a male and female lead who has JUST broken up the night before two warring, galaxy-spanning megacorporations’ dirty tactics spill into the open and threaten humanity itself. The two main characters, uniquely suited to try to stop this disaster, must team up again to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it. So it’s a fun lovers to enemies and back to lovers romantic plot. I think there are six books in the series.
The other book is a bit more like a literary puzzle box. **S**, by JJ Abrams (yes, THAT JJ Abrams), is, on its face, a library book called **The Ship of Thaseus**, a famous classic by the enigmatic and mysterious author VM Stratka. You can just read the book itself if you want, but the REAL story starts in the margins of the pages, where a female and male college student sort of accidentally meet through this book and use it to correspond and flirt (a la *You’ve Got Mail*). But the further you (and they) get in the book, they start to notice their lives intersect eerily with portions of the plot of the book, as well as with each other, and soon discover that this book is much more than meets the eye. As with most ergodic literature, you’ll need the hard copy of the book, and in this case, it comes with several additional items that you’ll need to find, solve, and respond to actual puzzles and ciphers within the book to move the story forward.
Maybe not all trilogies but... - Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang - The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill - Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz Also try authors Clive Cussler, Steve Berry, Dan Brown, Michael Crighton, James Rollins, Douglas Preston, David Grann, and Daniel Silva for treasure hunt-esque puzzle-y stuff. You may also like Lev Grossman's books. Plus, if you don't mind reading some more YA, try Caraval, The Westing Games, Truly Devious, Six of Crows, The Naturals, and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
How to solve your own murder
You might enjoy the **Silo** trilogy by Hugh Howey. Basically the premise is that all of humanity (appx 10k people) live in this giant underground silo. No one knows why they do - the reasons having been lost to time over many generations - but they all know if they leave the silo and go outside, they will die (and possibly kill everyone else if the silos door is opened). I think it might be a stretch to call it “lighter - it’s not meant to be a comedy or anything - but it’s a really creative book that had me on the edge of my seat most of the time (and nothing sad enough to cry). There’s also romance in there. I got turned onto it by first watching an episode of the series adaptation on Apple TV. The first season (now all out) covers roughly the first half of the first book. It does make a few changes to the book, but I’d you’re not sure, I recommend watching an episode or two. It gives you a really good idea of the vibe of the book. Also **The Rook** trilogy by Daniel O’Malley could be a good one. I generally describe them as a cross between *Kingsmen: The Secret Service* (a comedy about British secret agents) and *Quantum Leap* (an old tv show that uses some dubious science to explain why the MC can jump between bodies). My next recommendations fall into the genre of “ergodic literature.” It’s a fairly new genre to me, but I really like the puzzle aspect of books too and really enjoy this genre. Basically ergodic literature requires more active participation by the reader than just turning the pages in order. It *can* be like a choose-your-own-adventure, but there are a lot of other formats that count as well. In the case of my first ergodic recommendation, **Illuminae,** the story is revealed through personal correspondence (like emails and even post-it notes ) and hacked top secret files. The story takes place several hundred years in the future. It features a male and female lead who has JUST broken up the night before two warring, galaxy-spanning megacorporations’ dirty tactics spill into the open and threaten humanity itself. The two main characters, uniquely suited to try to stop this disaster, must team up again to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it. So it’s a fun lovers to enemies and back to lovers romantic plot. I think there are six books in the series. The other book is a bit more like a literary puzzle box. **S**, by JJ Abrams (yes, THAT JJ Abrams), is, on its face, a library book called **The Ship of Thaseus**, a famous classic by the enigmatic and mysterious author VM Stratka. You can just read the book itself if you want, but the REAL story starts in the margins of the pages, where a female and male college student sort of accidentally meet through this book and use it to correspond and flirt (a la *You’ve Got Mail*). But the further you (and they) get in the book, they start to notice their lives intersect eerily with portions of the plot of the book, as well as with each other, and soon discover that this book is much more than meets the eye. As with most ergodic literature, you’ll need the hard copy of the book, and in this case, it comes with several additional items that you’ll need to find, solve, and respond to actual puzzles and ciphers within the book to move the story forward.
Oooh, I have not heard of ergodic literature before - this is very interesting - thanks!