To use a somewhat familiar character as an example: Tony Stark and his tech are all (basically) invented by him and represent a very significant advantage over basically everyone else, including governments. I'm NOT interested in any sort of super hero story, it's just super hero stories often have 'stupidly advanced tech controlled by one person' as either heroes or villains.
The other common example are dystopian novels where the villain invents an evil AI or something and needs to be stopped. I'm not interested in this type of story either, unless the main character is the villian with all the tech.
The character type I'm looking for is often the background or past historical figure in other stories. In Ready Player One, the entire VR tech and VR game world is basically invented by one super genius, but that character is barely part of the story. I want HIS story, the story told from the genius inventor's POV that goes on to be the father of VR or AI or Spaceflight.
A similar type of novel is super common in Litrpg and progressionfantasy genres, except it focuses on a crafting main character who creates super advanced magical items. What I'm looking for is basically that sort of story, but in our real world in our current day and with tech instead of magic.
Part of the draw of this type of story is the friction between one person with great power that has, up till now, typically been the realm of governments or other large power structures. Usually the action comes in from various organizations trying to control the new tech. However, that can't be the entire story, it also needs to actually use the tech. Most thrillers with a similar premise focus entirely on this conflict and very little on actually using the tech, which isn't what I'm looking for.
Types of stories that might fit:
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The MC manages to invent a true AI in their garage and works to protect it and use it to acquire wealth or improve other technology
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The MC develops a new super material and founds a company exploring its uses in energy generation, space flight, computers, etc.
The only books I've found for this have mostly been random webnovels and Kindle Unlimited-type self published works (which I'm totally fine with). Example would be Lux and the New Tech by Ken Pence which has a genius kid discover a super material which he then goes on to use as the base for a ridiculous number of other inventions. Idea -> Prototype -> actual product is unrealistically fast, just like how Tony Stark can fabricate something totally new and groundbreaking in just a few days. That's the kind of story I'm looking for.
by greenskye