Campus novels about academic life are so common. But what about novels that are set at national laboratories (in which, the lab is itself a type of character)? A few good ones I have read…

Livermore

Carter Scholz, Radiance a roman a clef set in 1990s LLNL developing an imaginary missile defense system; it captures the flavor of bureacracy and career paths at the labs (in a depressing way). Gwern.net has it online.

Los Alamos

Thomas McMahon, Principles of American Nuclear Chemistry conveyed by a late-20s-year old in psychotherapy as he recollects his boyhood as a 13-year old growing up in the shadow of the Manhattan project. Compelling read, and it is a fun game to guess the pseudonyms (e.g., the famous Italian physicist Ferrini, the Danish physicist Ohr, Gloria Mundi who dies of cancer, …). (I suppose there is a chapter at Oak Ridge early on, but LANL is really the home here.)

Berkeley

Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo’s Egg – strictly speaking this is non-fiction, but it captures the feeling of Berkeley, and is an entertaining romp of tracking down Russian hackers in the 1990s.