Space-faring and Sci-fi - the book recommendation thread

[colmo]

This thread has a single purpose - to collate book recommendations that would be of interest to your average KSP player.

I'll start:

2001: A Space Odyssey (and sequels) - Arthur C. Clarke

The Rama series - Arthur C. Clarke again

Red/Green/Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson

The Algebraist - Iain M. Banks (this is the best sci-fi I have ever read)

The Culture series (including original novella, The State of the Art) - Iain M. Banks. (I've read a few, plenty more to go!)

Of the authors above, I would describe Arthur C. Clarke as a painter with words; his descriptions of the sometimes mind-boggling places and objects he writes of are detailed and enthralling; one feels he almost inserts humans into them as an afterthought. Kin Stanley Robinson's trilogy was obviously highly researched, has informed me greatly on the business of colonising another terrestrial planet, and had some quite weird spiritual elements. Iain M. Banks is a master at setting the stage, then taking you for a thrilling ride to the stunning finale, while occasionally letting rip with attacks on the barmier elements of the human condition.

[silent_prtoagonist]

Voyage - Stephen Baxter

I'm currently reading this one, a very detailed description of how the US could have gone to Mars by the 80s instead of building the Space Shuttle. So far I really like it, it does a remarkable job of being a hard scifi but still having interesting characters.

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke

One of my favorites, it's an (almost) complete collection of Clarke's short stories, up through about 1999. Kind of a tour de force of plot twists and surprise endings, all interwoven with his famous ability distill a sense of awe and wonder onto a page.

[Endeavour]

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I was forced to read Ender's Game for a class in school, and I am glad that I was. It is definitely one of my favorite books of all time.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a wild ride, and I would recommend it to anyone, whether they are looking for a Sci-fi read or not.

[pebble_garden]

There are so many excellent SF novels to recommend, but I'll limit myself to those which concern themselves with orbital mechanics to a greater or lesser degree (this IS the KSP audience, after all):

The Rolling Stones by Robert Heinlein

The Descent of Anansi by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes - an interesting use of a tether

The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven - a somewhat fantastic but wonderful exploration of a realm where people live in an Earthlike but weightless environment, and orbital mechanics is important to their day-to-day survival.

I've been meaning to write a short SF story that takes place in the near future, involving a rich, haughty playboy, his surface-to-orbit spaceplane, a malfunctioning computer, and his escort who just happens to have mastered a future version of something like KSP and manages to save everyone's bacon with a bi-elliptic transfer. If only I wasn't working 12-hour days!

[colmo]

There are so many excellent SF novels to recommend, but I'll limit myself to those which concern themselves with orbital mechanics to a greater or lesser degree (this IS the KSP audience, after all):

Please don't - if there are so many, batch them under certain themes to make the lists more accessible. If you think orbital mechanics is the only thing that pushes a KSP player's buttons, you are mistaken - I just had the idea for a sea-bed station...

[vexx32]

Hyperion! Awesome saga...

[silent_prtoagonist]

There are so many excellent SF novels to recommend, but I'll limit myself to those which concern themselves with orbital mechanics to a greater or lesser degree (this IS the KSP audience, after all):

The Rolling Stones by Robert Heinlein

The Descent of Anansi by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes - an interesting use of a tether

The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven - a somewhat fantastic but wonderful exploration of a realm where people live in an Earthlike but weightless environment, and orbital mechanics is important to their day-to-day survival.

I've been meaning to write a short SF story that takes place in the near future, involving a rich, haughty playboy, his surface-to-orbit spaceplane, a malfunctioning computer, and his escort who just happens to have mastered a future version of something like KSP and manages to save everyone's bacon with a bi-elliptic transfer. If only I wasn't working 12-hour days!

Three very interesting sounding books that I haven't heard of before. You, sir, are not helping me make progress on my reading list

[EnhancedCookie]

Even though it might not be interesting for the majority of the people who play ksp, i really recommend "The Foundation Trilogy" by Isaac Asimov. He is pure genius.

[Cthulufaic]

"Dune", by Frank Herbert, is a must read, same with the "WorldWar" Quadrilogy by Harry Turtledove.

The "Worldwar" saga is about a 1941 Earth, and then aliens invade. The powers of the time must work together to defeat the invaders, but how?

(BTW the aliens are lizardpeople)

[Johno]

A few to throw into the mix:

You can't go past the Discworld series, by Terry Pratchett. I have been a fan of these for a long time. If you've never read them before (*sigh* and you call yourself a geek . . . ), they're hard to describe, but let's have a go. The world of the discworld is one similar to ours, but with a few key differences - that the world is a disc, sitting on the back of four elephants which ride atop a turtle (with a tiny sunlet orbiting the whole works) is established scientific fact. And at the start of the series, there's a very strong ethic of "electricity? Physics? Why dabble in those sorts of dark arts when there's perfectly sensible magic available?"

The books have developed since the start. The early books had a distinctly Tolkienesque feel (well, like Tolkien if he'd used rather too much pipe weed and eaten one too many lembas wafers, and then had Spike Milligan edit his work!). Sword, sorcery, trolls, dwarves and dragons. Somewhere in the series (approaching 40 books!), the mediaevel stasis generator broke down, and we transferred to more of a steampunk feel, but the continuity still works.

If you're wondering where to start, I recommend the City Watch series. They begin with "Guards! Guards!" and continue with "Men at Arms", "Feet of Clay", "Jingo" and "The Fifth Elephant". There are more, but those five should get you hooked. And then you'll want to read more, such as the series revolving around the witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, and the series featuring Death (the Grim reaper) and his grandaughter Susan (yes, really!). . . . .

[TheCardinal]

Not a title but a name: Ben Bova. If you've never heard of him, WIKI is your friend.

[dt890]

btw nice little Easter egg if you search for : Answer to life the universe and everything, on Google

Edited August 14, 2012 by dt890
wops

[colmo]

quite surprised that no one have mentioned Douglas Adams books, Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy trilogy in 5 parts ftw. Big fan of the whole series.

It was mentioned, by Endeavour

I can't believe I forgot Dune - I've been told more than once to read it. Discworld is a little bit of a departure from the theme of space-faring sci-fi, but it's a must read regardless of your favourite genre.

[dt890]

oh lol missed that

[jfx]

"Endymion" and "The Rise of Endymion" by Dan Simmons - follow ups to Hyperion.

The Rise of Endymion has a great finale. Nice Change to Dune which just goes on and on and - several millenia later - on and on (I still love dune).

[GOOMH]

Does it have to be about space travel and does it have to be fiction? If not I've recently read How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown. The title basically explains it all but it gives you a wonderful insight into the life of an astronomer and background the planets and their discoveries. It's relatively short and you can pick it for about $10 now so it's a nice quick read.

[colmo]

Does it have to be about space travel

Preferably, but anything that would be of interest to a KSP player is fine, and it's up to your discretion anyway.

does it have to be fiction?

No, I'm definitely interested in non-fiction also.

[Sid]

I tried the Ben Bova books, but he mixes romance into his stories, and I want to read about how people 'FEEL' about each other from his point of view just about as much as I want a hole in my head.

Plus, at the time he was writing his books, he was a fully paid up member of the global warming watermelon religion. Maybe he still is.

Neal Stephenson is pretty good. I like 'Snow Crash' and 'Reamde'

[CosmicK3rbal]

I know it really isn't major sci-fi, but its still a great book.

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Gluzhovsky (I think thats how you spell it)

Great book and equally great games.

[Flymetothemun]

I'd recommend the space section of Tom Weller's Science Made Stupid. It's a parody/satire of a science textbook, and it even makes space funny. This guy got permission from Weller to upload it as a pdf. I also recommend every issue of NASA's Spinoff, a yearly book that shows what NASA technologies have done/been used in the commercial sector. If somebody asks you why you want to waste tax dollars on NASA, show them the recent Spinoff.

[Necandi Brasil]

Not Sci -Fi but really good books about space economy

Mining the Sky - John Lewis

The Moon: Resources, Future Development and Settlement / David Schrunk (Author), Burton Sharpe (Author), Bonnie L. Cooper (Author), Madhu Thangavelu (Author) (Haven't finished reading this )

Edited August 10, 2013 by Necandi Brasil

[MarkusA380]

Every book by John Scalzi!!!

[air805ronin]

Neal Stephenson is pretty good. I like 'Snow Crash' and 'Reamde'

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite books. I met him in Iowa City at a book reading for Reamde and he signed both my copy of that and Cryptonomicon.

I can also say that Heinlein is a good source of interesting and SHORT books. Compared to Neal Stephenson, you can read 5 early Heinlein novels in the timespan it takes to read Reamde. Heinlein books for the KSP junkie? (bear in mind most were written before we knew the atmospheres and suitability of life for Mars and Venus..)

• Rocket Ship Galileo - 4 teens and a scientist build a rocket, go to the moon. Suprises happen there. Bear in mine it was written in the 40's!
  
• 
  
• Space Cadet - a young man joins the Space Patrol
  
• 
  
• Between Planets - my favorite Heinlein novel. Seriously. Go read it. The Venus colony launches a revolution and a young boy is caught in the middle of it on the way to Mars.
  
• 
  
• Starman Jones - a boy runs away from home, stows away on board a space luxury liner, and eventually makes it to the bridge.
  

For some excellent Heinlein with very little to do with space voyaging but everything to do with colonising new worlds, read Tunnel in the Sky.

Edited August 12, 2013 by air805ronin

[pxi]

I'll add a few of my personal favourites:

Fiction:

Arthur C. Clarke - Rama Series (Personally I enjoyed it more than the 2001 series, which he's far better known for. A movie version has been in development hell for at least a decade.)

Neil Stephenson - Snow Crash, The Diamond Age

Robert Anton Wilson - The Illuminatus Trilogy, The Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy

William Gibson - Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Count Zero

Phillip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (I keep meaning to read more of his stuff)

Non-Fiction

Tom Wolfe - The Right Stuff

There's a lot more, but that's a few off the top of my head.

[The Jedi Master]

Rocket Boys, by Homer H. Hickam Jr.

A memoir by a real NASA scientist. Inspired by the launch of Sputnik, Homer H. Hickam Jr. starts an amateur rocket club (the Big Creek Missile Agency). The launches are described in detail (some of them a very kerbal ), and the book is very emotional in parts. Overall, a very good read. 10/10.