Just finished reading Six of Crows, currently reading Crooked Kingdom. It’s satisfying reading Kaz’s thought process for the heist and other plans. I like how calculated his plans are and so elaborate yet it works well. Also, if you’ve watched Moriarty the Patriot, the way Moriarty plans and executes his schemes is also really fun to watch. I love a good, sound plan coming together not just because of plot armour (although the Ice Court heist wouldn’t have even worked if it wasn’t for plot armour, I mean it has some essence of logic that wouldn’t have failed but they wouldn’t have even gotten in the Ice Court). So any other books with highly intelligent characters just being intelligent?
by Big_Specialist5595
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You’d probably enjoy The Lies of Locke Lamora, which is about a fantasy heist.
I think you would also probably enjoy The Dresden Files, but that’s more about seeing a character grow become smarter over several books. But he’s a wizard private eye who tries to solve mysteries, and gets better at it as he goes.
If you don’t want fantasy, Shogun is an adventure novel filled with intelligent political scheming.
And if you read manga or watch anime, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion or Death Note would probably be in your wheelhouse
Miles Vorkosigan is generally described as a genius but he’s also hyperactive so his schemes sometimes blow up in his face. As he matures, though, the hyperactivity gradually tempers. The first book he appears in is The Warrior’s Apprentice (author is Lois McMaster Bujold; genre is SF), though there are 2 prequels focused on his parents and the background to prenatal trauma that contributed to both his hyperactivity and his intelligence.
Professor Dowell’s Head by Alexander Belyaev, a Russian horror classic about rival surgeons and their competing experiments.
Richard Stark’s Parker series. Parker is no intellectual in the traditional sense but I’m always so impressed by both his planning and improvisation when things go wrong. These are crime novels that can be reread many times, and still feel richly rewarded.
Here are some:
* Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
* Red Rising by Pierce Brown
* Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
* Sun of Suns by Karl Schroder. It’s not so much that these characters are depicted as unusually intelligent, everyone is just a very intelligent schemer, hatching elaborate plans.
* Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card. Classics, and first in a long and branching series, but later books definitely show more of the author’s personal beliefs which is not good if you disagree with him (religion and homophobia)