Hard Science-Fiction Literature

[boac89]

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

I keep checking to see when the Rama movie is starting development, but problems keep delaying it. Haven't yet bothered reading the Rama sequels. From what I hear they shift away from Rama and towards "relationships" and stuff. I couldn't give a monkey's butthole about that. I don't mind a bit of it in order to personify the characters a bit more but as a plot I have no interest whatsoever.

[Mr Shifty]

Peter F Hamilton has some interesting books as well

I recently started The Reality Dysfunction, but started to lose interest more and more as he introduced psychic powers and the ridiculous evolution of the Ly-Cilph and evil entities from another dimension that can possess humans. I wanted to like it, because there are some really good, interesting ideas there, and he has a flair for detail and realism in his descriptions of environments. But, demons and psychic entities? I'm about half-way through that (monstrously long) book; should I keep reading?

[Promii]

I second (third?) the Alastair Reynolds recommendation. The Revelation Space books have some sort of magic, reactionless drive

I wouldn't call the conjoiner drives reactionless. Their source of fuel/propellant is just, erm, novel, and effectively unlimited. But they definitely throw stuff out the back to accelerate, as demonstrated by things being destroyed by the drive flame as in mid-way through 'Revelation Space', or at the beginning of 'The Prefect'.

I'm just starting to read Peter F. Hamilton now. His stuff is harder than 'Star Trek' but softer than Reynolds IMO. FTL has been pretty much hand-waved so far.

[DrDima]

Michael Crichton and Asimov for me.

Started reading Hyperion, it's fun but not 'hard' sci-fi.

[ramses]

Found a great read with a book called The Martian by Andy Weir.

For some reason it was only available as an e-book or audio. Anyway if you have a kindle grab it from Amazon for something like $3.00.

Basically it's about an astronaut being left for dead on Mars. Now he has to figure out how to survive a few years on rations that will only last for months at best.