Hard Science-Fiction Literature

[boac89]

Can anyone recommend any "hard science fiction" to me? For people that don't know what that is, it's where the author doesn't just make stuff up and call it science. Instead they use actual, explained science or possible science as part of the story (such as fuel consumption, celestial mechanics, thermodynamics, etc)

Already have:

The Space Odyssey Series

The Rama Series

The Mars Series (Red, Green, Blue)

Contact

I never read fiction before because the realism was lacking (the exception being The Hobbit and LOTR), but I've found I love hard sci-fi and can't find much of it.

[tavert]

Anything by Robert L Forward. The human characters in his novels aren't necessarily the deepest, but the stories, the science, and the aliens in his novels are always really interesting. His books usually have an "appendix" with all sorts of technical information about elements of the story.

[Brotoro]

Larry Niven's stuff is good.

[Specialist290]

A lot of Robert A. Heinlein's stuff is diamond-hard, aside from the occasional handwaving he does to have FTL travel in some of his books (and the fact that he portrays Mars and Venus as inhabited by intelligent beings -- which, granted, hadn't yet been ruled out when he started writing). Some particular recommendations:

Space Cadet

Farmer in the Sky

Starship Troopers (Don't watch the movie. I'm not kidding, it's awful even considered independently of the book.)

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Rolling Stones (Written years before the band formed, so no relation.)

Citizen of the Galaxy

[Awaras]

'A deepness in the sky' by Vernor Vinge, 'Existence' by David Brin, 'Leviathan Wakes' by James S.A. Corey.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Awaras

[Xeldrak]

Well you obviously got Arthur C. Clarke covered

I realy enjoyed The Forever War by Haldeman - it's not as hard as Clarke but still far away from Star Trek and good read.

[rodion_herrera]

David Brin is pretty "hard" http://www.amazon.com/David-Brin/e/B000APAXV6

[boac89]

Thanks! I'll have to check these out. I really love the books that are possible futures based on current life. In the same way that 2001 used the technologies of the day, and the trends in space travel to predict the world of 2001 (and would have been pretty accurate if funding and direction hadn't been cut all over the world).

As someone with a pretty good understanding of celestial mechanics (as I'm sure most of you are too) as well as being an aerospace engineer, it really destroys my immersion into the story when there's something in the book that is clearly impossible.

[boac89]

A lot of Robert A. Heinlein's stuff is diamond-hard, aside from the occasional handwaving he does to have FTL travel in some of his books

I was actually really enjoying Red Mars until it skipped ahead a bunch of years to when corporations and settlers arrived, and then apart from a line now and then to make it obvious they're on Mars, most of what was going on could have been set on Earth in any period. I completely lost interest and stopped reading. I figured there was no point reading Blue Mars or Green Mars since they're obviously set on a planet not even remotely like the Mars we know now.

[Pyotor Gagarin]

If I had to pick five novels to show someone what hard SF is all about, I would pick:

Niven/Pournelle: A Mote in God's Eye

Haldeman: The Forever War (already mentioned)

Vinge: The Outcasts of Heaven Belt

Heinlein: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (already mentioned)

Pellegrino/Zebrowski: The Killing Star

I really should have a utopia story in there, but I haven't found the right one yet:)

[Brotoro]

Niven & Pournelle's Footfall has a great space battle at the end.

[macegee]

Stanislav Lem and Arthur Clarke are the most favourite for me. Try Tales of Pirx the Pilot or A fall of Moondust, and see if you'll like it.

Edited June 5, 2013 by macegee

[Xeldrak]

I read Asimov - The Gods Themselves a few weeks ago - directly after reading Heinlein's The Moon is a harsh Mistress. Both are quite cool, but I'd say, that Asimov is definitely "harder" - even if is middle-part might a little bit strange.

[Mr Shifty]

I'll second Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. It's a prequel to his earlier novel A Fire Upon the Deep, but unlike that one, is actually hard sci-fi.

Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space novels are excellent space operas that are hard sci-fi, in that they don't have FTL travel. They have pretty far future, but plausible high-tech with an interesting take on the Fermi Paradox.

[Promii]

I second the Revelation Space series recommendation. Reynolds has a new series that qualifies starting with Blue Remembered Earth and the soon to be released On the Steel Breeze. Also the stand alone Pushing Ice and House of Suns (the latter is very very far future so it runs headfirst into Clarke's 3rd law but I would still call it hard-ish).

I'd also recommend Charles Stross. Singularity Sky and its sequel Iron Sunrise have FTL travel but the causality implications are acknowledged. Accelerando and its sequel (not really but set in the same universe) Glasshouse are really good too but Glasshouse deals very little with space travel if that's what you're looking for. Saturn's Children has a good premise but I did not enjoy it as much as his other work (the American edition also has a rather embarrassing cover).

Edited June 4, 2013 by Promii

[Alesium]

I have to third the Revelation Space series! Well, it's not so much a series as it is different stories in the same universe (the exception is Redemption Ark and its sequel Absolution Gap, both of which are sort of sequels to Revelation Space). It is so wonderful and full of science and technology that could very well be realistic in the future. It also has a great, clever storyline that kept me enraptured the whole time I read it. Then I picked up the next book in the series, Chasm City... that did nothing to dampen my appreciation of this author. This has been the only non-Star Wars sci fi book series that's held my interest.

[architeuthis]

Lots of excellent suggestions:)

I've always loved the heady techno-optimism of the golden age sci-fi. There was a positive message contained in the hard- and somewhat less hard sci-fi of the late 40's through the 60's, that for mankind's myriad struggles and adversity there exist concrete solutions, that science endows us with powers literally magical compared to those possessed by man for the vast bulk of the history of his existence, and that there is nothing truly fundamental stopping us from forging our destiny across the milky way. Anyway suffice it to say that I heartily recommend Heinlein's juveniles, such as Space Cadet, or some of his collection like The Past Through Tomorrow. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama was excellent, but also checkout A Fall of Moondust, Earthlight or The Fountains of Paradise. Issac Asimov, while being my favorite, was probably consistently the least hard of the three (...at least in terms of his fiction). He regularly employed tropes such as hyperdrive and forcefields, but he did generally attempt to respect science throughout.

Don't neglect more recent authors though! I totally agree with Promii regarding Charles Stross, and Mr Shifty regrading Vernor Vinge. As far as relatively recent hard sci-fi goes I would add Karl Schroeder and Peter Watts to the list. Particularly good was Schreoder's Permanance; Sun of Suns isn't exactly the kind of hard sci-fi you'd normally expect, but it is a scientifically plausible subversion of the currently popular steampunk sub-genre. Also Watt's Blindsight was excellent, though dark. I eagerly look forward to his next novel.

[Stochasty]

Many good suggestions here (and I find it somewhat amusing that I've read everything that has been recommended so far in this thread). I'd add Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, which contains only slightly implausible science and which has steadfastly remained my favorite book from when I first read it at age 8 through today. (The immediate sequels are also good, but alas they get progressively less good as they get less immediate, to the point that the newest "Enderverse" books are disappointments compared to the first.)

That said, on a slightly different (and somewhat depressing) note I have found that my ability to enjoy science fiction has, over the last ten years, declined in direct proportion to the growth in my abilities in actual science, to the point where these days it is rare that I find a science fiction novel that I can enjoy. Rather, I've taken lately to reading more of what I'd call "hard fantasy," such as the work of Brandon Sanderson (ie, fantasy with rules, such that there's an in world logic to the magic, but which, by dent of still being magic, doesn't run afoul of my b.s. detector).

[Promii]

Watt's Blindsight was excellent, though dark. I eagerly look forward to his next novel.

Should be noted that Blindsight is available for free as an ebook under a Creative Commons license. I believe Stross's Accelerando is similarly available.

[boac89]

Great suggestions. Another thing I was thinking about the other day (while finishing off 2010 for the billionth time) was that if done right, I'd really love someone to do a reboot of the Space Odyssey series as movies. All 4 of them. People have talked about filming the last 2 as sequels to the 2 out already but they would obviously have different actors (both actors of Floyd are dead) and different styles. I also love 2010: The Year We Make Contact but it's not very loyal to the book which is 1000000* better and the film also has some pretty glaring scientific errors.

A LOTR style quadrilogy (4 long movies each coming out about a year apart) that sticks closer to the books, with an obvious exception for the first one which would need to be changed to be closer to the events in the Kubrick movie, would be epic.

Of course if it did happen someone would completely screw it up and we'd end up with 4 awful, bad CGI, blasphemic wastes of time. I can dream though....

Who would you cast in the main roles?

Floyd, Bowman, Poole, Floyd Jr, etc.

[Mr Shifty]

Should be noted that Blindsight is available for free as an ebook under a Creative Commons license. I believe Stross's Accelerando is similarly available.

Watt's Rifter trilogy is also available as a creative commons download. It is good, but extremely dark deep-sea/future dystopia/apocalyptic sci-fi. Not space, but the sea is the next best thing.

[rkman]

"Dune" - Frank Herbert

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert

(two movies based on the book)

any SF written by Jack Vance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Vance

[Xeldrak]

"Dune" - Frank Herbert

While I think, that it's an awesome Series - I'd hardly call Dune hard scifi.

[PaleoGamer]

Great suggestions. Another thing I was thinking about the other day (while finishing off 2010 for the billionth time) was that if done right, I'd really love someone to do a reboot of the Space Odyssey series as movies...

I'd rather see a Rendezvous with Rama movie. They could ignore the sequels though.

[Rickenbacker]

I second (third?) the Alastair Reynolds recommendation. The Revelation Space books have some sort of magic, reactionless drive (which is kind of explained in one of his short stories), but other than that they're pretty hard sci-fi. Pushing Ice is perhaps the most interesting, though, as it starts out in a very near future. I nearly yelped with delight when it mentioned that it would take half an hour or so to turn the ship 180 degrees without breaking it - that never happened in Star Trek!

Peter F Hamilton has some interesting books as well, though they're more space opera with some hard science elements. I especially like the Commonwealth Saga (two books, real bricks at well over 2000 pages in all), which explores the effects of rejuvenation (no one dies anymore) and stable wormholes (there are no more spaceships, everyone takes the train between planets, through fixed wormholes!), but all his books are good, with well developed characters and interesting settings as well as moral decisions.