[andrewflnr]

https://qntm.org/ra is also great, especially if you've read Sam's work and want more. It will appeal to technical types: magic is real and has a rigorous mathematical theory behind it, which is cool as far as it goes, but he takes it in an interesting direction from there.

[NooneAtAll3]

Ra shows the main flaw of that author in my eyes - he is incapable of making optimistic endings

I despise stories that are awesome enough to make me invested, but then make main characters (essentially) lose

[andrewflnr]

Fine Structure's ending is very optimistic, in fact. (edit: a lot of his short stories are, too.) But yeah, Ra is rather bleak. I guess it's not for everyone, but if you came in from "There Is No Antimemetics Division" it won't bother you.

[NooneAtAll3]

exactly because I came from antimemetics it bothers me as his default

[andrewflnr]

Then I'm confused about why you followed qntm from Antimemetics, which is already pretty bleak, but not enough to prevent you from reading Ra, which was somehow enough to put you off of his work forever. Why did you stop exactly there, reading more from an author who did something you don't like but not reading any farther to learn that he is capable of more?