High-concept science fiction is a dare: take one idea far enough that the world has to rearrange around it. Time loops, simulated cities, minerals that break encryption — the concept is the engine, and character is the brake.
The best of these books do not explain the idea until you have felt its cost. That is the method I try to keep. Silentium is not interesting because it is a mineral. It is interesting because people will kill, lie, and legislate to own a silence they do not understand.
If you want a reading path: start with a concept novel you already love, then notice where the author refuses to look away from the human remainder. That remainder is the story.