Science Fiction books/stories?

[MKI]

I recently started reading The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. (no spoilers please) 

I was wondering if anyone has any other recommendations for hard sci-fi books, or anything to recommend or even review

[Kerbart]

Contemporary? Give The Expanse a shot. While not perfect it tries to stick to real world physics as much as possible.

[StrandedonEarth]

The Red Mars / Green Mars / Blue Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson was pretty good

Edited March 11, 2021 by StrandedonEarth

[NFUN]

The Three Body Problem

[MKI]

1 hour ago, Kerbart said:

Contemporary? Give The Expanse a shot. While not perfect it tries to stick to real world physics as much as possible.

Old **or** new, I don't care much. I was also looking into the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, but gotta read what I already have haha

[FleshJeb]

I have this anthology somewhere (I have a LOT of anthologies): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Wonder:_The_Evolution_of_Hard_SF

I remember the essays on science fiction in the preface, as well as the author bios being really educational.

Not limited to hard science fiction, but you might as well consider the best of the best: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_Hugo_and_Nebula_awards

I can't find a comprehensive list with all categories in one place, but these are a useful reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award#Categories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award#Categories

I've read 1/3 to 1/2 of the entries on all those lists (up through the 1990s), and I've never been disappointed.

[tater]

Seveneves was pretty fun.

Arthur C Clarke is always good for old stuff.

Larry Niven was a fave of mine rather along time ago.

 

[mikegarrison]

Yeah, the Mars books by Kim Stanley Robinson are great. Also, of course, there is The Martian by Andy Weir.

"Hard" sci-fi has always been hit or miss. Usually there are always a few things very "unhard" about it. And often when authors focus too much on the tech they forget to write a story.

Robert L. Forward was pretty notable as a very "hard" science fiction writer. Arthur C. Clarke also tended to try to stay kind of "hard".

2 minutes ago, tater said:

Larry Niven was a fave of mine rather along time ago.

Niven is more "hardish" than "hard", really.

[tater]

15 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

Niven is more "hardish" than "hard", really.

Yeah, absolutely.

16 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

"Hard" sci-fi has always been hit or miss. Usually there are always a few things very "unhard" about it. And often when authors focus too much on the tech they forget to write a story.

This. It's pretty difficult to not break some law of physics and have the sort of story people actually want to read.

I read all the Mars books, and they do a good job for "hard" probably because it's so near in time setting.

I forgot Forward, yeah, those are pretty interesting as well.

You mentioned The Martian, and honestly his next one, Artemis is also decent.

[mikegarrison]

24 minutes ago, tater said:

It's pretty difficult to not break some law of physics and have the sort of story people actually want to read.

Jane Austen never broke any laws of physics in her novels.

There are tons and tons of stories that don't break any laws of physics, but mostly they don't call them "science fiction".

24 minutes ago, tater said:

Artemis is also decent.

I started reading it, liked what I had read, and then somehow got distracted and didn't finish it before the library loan expired.

[tater]

16 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

Jane Austen never broke any laws of physics in her novels.

There are tons and tons of stories that don't break any laws of physics, but mostly they don't call them "science fiction".

Obviously I am discussing science fiction explicitly in this thread. I sort of assume some tech hook in anything that will get dumped into "science fiction" as a genre—need not be space travel, could be virtual realty, life extension, AI, or other tech not yet in existence, but plausible—still needs a good story, though. Those might not break physics, but space travel is either pretty much limited to the solar system, or it tends to at least break physics by adding some sort of FTL. Even Clarke did in 2001

The most recent novels I have read were in fact historical fiction, not science fiction (I just read a series books set in the age of sail—seven years war— the Carlisle and Holbrooke series a friend recommended), and while driving I've been listening to the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian (I read all of them years ago).

 

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by tater

[mikegarrison]

31 minutes ago, tater said:

The most recent novels I have read were in fact historical fiction, not science fiction (I just read a series books set in the age of sail—seven years war— the Carlisle and Holbrooke series a friend recommended), and while driving I've been listening to the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian (I read all of them years ago).

I read most of the Hornblower stories, but never really got into Aubrey/Maturin. On the other hand, turning back to science fiction, I love David Drake's version of Aubrey/Maturin, his "RCN series" with Daniel Leary as the Aubrey character and Adele Mundy as the Maturin character.

[tater]

8 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

I read most of the Hornblower stories, but never really got into Aubrey/Maturin. On the other hand, turning back to science fiction, I love David Drake's version of Aubrey/Maturin, his "RCN series" with Daniel Leary as the Aubrey character and Adele Mundy as the Maturin character.

Cool, I'll look for that one. I read Hornblower as well.

 

 

[mikegarrison]

9 minutes ago, tater said:

Cool, I'll look for that one. I read Hornblower as well.

The first one is called With The Lightnings.

It's actually available for free as an e-book, either directly from the publisher (Baen) or from Amazon as a Kindle book. Many Baen series have the first book available for free, in the hope that people will read them and then want to buy more.

Edited March 12, 2021 by mikegarrison

[Gargamel]

22 hours ago, tater said:

Seveneves was pretty fun.

I've read that one once and 3/4 times.    I hated the third act both times, couldn't even finish it the first time.  .  It's a good story, aside from the mysterious initial premise (which I'll accept, 'cause, plot, ya know?), and I enjoyed most of the first act, and a good portion of the second, but the third... blech.

As for other Hard Sci-Fi, Check out the "Lady Astronaut" series.  Really good view of an alternate space race. 

And I'll give a thumbs up to The Expanse.  To those who have read it, make sure you read all the shorter novellas they wrote also.   They really round out the story. 

[N_Danger]

Allister Reynolds-  Revelation Space, Blue Remembered Earth and Revenger are good starts to check out his work. 

I second the David Drake series mentioned.

Stephon Baxter has done some interesting hard sci-fi too. 

 

[Ziggy Kerman]

On 3/11/2021 at 10:30 PM, mikegarrison said:

Jane Austen never broke any laws of physics in her novels.

This just made me think about SCI-FI JANE AUSTEN
Steampunk Pride and Prejudice anyone?

[StrandedonEarth]

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke was also quite good. The other Rama books were okay, but YMMV on that.

I know Clarke was mentioned a few times already; just thought I'd mention that in particular.

[magnemoe]

On 3/12/2021 at 5:46 AM, tater said:

Obviously I am discussing science fiction explicitly in this thread. I sort of assume some tech hook in anything that will get dumped into "science fiction" as a genre—need not be space travel, could be virtual realty, life extension, AI, or other tech not yet in existence, but plausible—still needs a good story, though. Those might not break physics, but space travel is either pretty much limited to the solar system, or it tends to at least break physics by adding some sort of FTL. Even Clarke did in 2001

The most recent novels I have read were in fact historical fiction, not science fiction (I just read a series books set in the age of sail—seven years war— the Carlisle and Holbrooke series a friend recommended), and while driving I've been listening to the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian (I read all of them years ago).

Who brings me to an missing gag in an webcomic in an sci-fi universe. 
The gang was going to an movie (? yes some time ago) one of the posters was Stars at war, showing an cartoony fighter plane rocket around an gas giant with moons, probably some explosions in the background. Title was Stars at war. 
Response was, no I don't want to see an historic war movie who makes sense at this was year 2500 or later and we probably had fleet battles in space before this. 
I thought it was Freeefall, but author said no. Anybody know where I seen it? 

 

[MKI]

I finished the book (The Three Body problem) going to look into getting the second

I'll probably strive to finish the series before moving on, but I'll add the books mentioned above to my list and decide at a later time

[Maria Sirona]

The Martian. It is a vory gööd book.

[MKI]

Just a quick update, I finished book 2 (The Dark Forest) and started on book 3 (Death's End) of the Three Body Problem series.

I agree with reviews that say book 2 starts slow, but really picks up. So far book 3 has a great pace from the start, which I think is a good thing because its 600 pages lol.

Regardless, book 2's ending blew my mind. 

 

 

[Gargamel]

Just finished "Fold" by Peter Clines.   Good enough to send me hunting for the "second" book in the series, but they're not really a series... I dunno.   Anyways, this starts off hard sci-fi and progresses into a bit of mild horror.    The nice thing I found is that the author intentionally does not try to explain how the physics work, as that is one of the motifs of the book.  There's never, or at least little, need for suspension of disbelief.   It's a fun little read, and really should be the opening act of a series of books centered around the main character, not a collection of books with loose ties. 

[MKI]

On 4/11/2021 at 9:37 AM, Gargamel said:

Just finished "Fold" by Peter Clines.   Good enough to send me hunting for the "second" book in the series, but they're not really a series... I dunno.   Anyways, this starts off hard sci-fi and progresses into a bit of mild horror.    The nice thing I found is that the author intentionally does not try to explain how the physics work, as that is one of the motifs of the book.  There's never, or at least little, need for suspension of disbelief.   It's a fun little read, and really should be the opening act of a series of books centered around the main character, not a collection of books with loose ties. 

I actually read that book a few years back and have it on my bookshelf. I don't think there were any sequels available when I read it, but I'll keep an eye out and maybe re-read the original book to refresh my mind a bit. I might of just not looked very hard into it haha.

 

 

[Gargamel]

3 hours ago, MKI said:

I actually read that book a few years back and have it on my bookshelf. I don't think there were any sequels available when I read it, but I'll keep an eye out and maybe re-read the original book to refresh my mind a bit. I might of just not looked very hard into it haha.

 

 

No reason to reread unless you want to.    The series is more of a universe, and so far each book is completely standalone.