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So, I dabbled a bit in Alastair Reynolds and Peter Hamilton, both of which I liked. Specifically, Reynolds had huge cosmic scale ideas that coupled with his devotion to "realistic" science adhering to the laws of nature create a real sense of awe. Hamilton I only read a sample of in "Fallen Dragon", but I liked his murky shades-of-grey kind of future that is maybe better or maybe worse than the present, and his attention to details was nice, especially a very interesting presentation of the teraformation of a planet.
I'm looking out for more, and don't want to stumble on the unremarkable ones. Greg Egen is a name that floated to my attention a couple of times, and the translated book "Three Body Problem" caught my attention (I think it is telling just how much the name of the book made me want to read it). Other than that, I know very little of the genre.
Any recommendations?
Also, out of curiosity - are there any women in the field of hard science fiction?|
I'm currently reading Elizabeth Bear's debut novel Hammered, which is a very good near-future hard sci-fi (and the first in a trilogy).
I've not read her myself, but Mira Grant is Seanan McGuire's hard sci-fi pseudonym.
Then there's three of Alastair Reynold's fellow countrymen: Iain (M) Banks, Cory Doctorow, and Ian McDonald.
Hmm... I've always said that I'm not that into hard sci-fi, but that was pretty easy to come up with...
You could also check out one of the various best of the year anthologies and pick some authors you like in there.
Paolo Bag... Bacigalupi has a new novel out that sounds pretty hard sci fi to me.
And while I'm recommending things in roughly this vein - try and get hold of Kathleen Ann Goonan's short story Electric Rain - bloody brilliant.
6 weeks since I ordered The Goblin Emperor, and it's not even been posted yet. Grrrr
You may have noticed me mentioning it many times before on these boards, and you probably at least considered reading it in the past, but one of my favorites is Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, which adheres to the laws of nature and creates a strong sense of awe.
Yeah, I do regard Asimov's original "Foundation" series (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation) as my favorite science fiction epic.
I popped in to recommend Peter F. Hamilton, but can see that you've already got him on your radar. Fallen Dragon is an awesome stand-alone.
If you aren't offended by profanity, I found Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan freakin' amazing (especially for a first novel). I liked it so much I bought (his novel) Thirteen in trade paper, which I will pretty much never ever do at this point.
Concur with Bjørn Røyrvik's recommendation on the Eschaton stuff from Charles Stross.
-TimD
The first four books in the Legacy of Aldenata (also called the Posleen Series) are some of my favorite military scifi books. Warning: do not read past the 4th book and do not read any of his other material. Pure grade crap.
After Book 4, he starts to let other authors write the story and he just takes credit as a co-author (being the originator of the series). They are *really* bad. Especially books 5 & 9.
His other books is where he goes a little crazy (the actual author goes a bit crazy) and starts including political rants in his books, both in and out of character. And boy does he hate - and I mean hate - anyone who isn't a true blood American Republican Patriot.
But those first four in the Posleen Series are true gems in military scifi. Highly recommended. It starts off in modern day America, and then aliens come to humanity and ask for our help in defeating a different alien incursion, because as humans we are really good at war. Humanity gets some of its better minds and sci fi authors to come up with upgraded weaponry, defense, and equipment for humanity's soldiers to use in the war, and we proceed to go on an intergalactic war against an aggressive alien species. Book 2 is where the enemy lands on Earth and we have to defend our planet. Books 3 & 4 continue the defense of earth.
And no political rants from the author. His earlier books (these four) were much better.
^^pretty much, yeah - regarding Ringo.
Speaking of time, the Forever War by Joe Haldeman was a good read. He also explored the time dilation problem with light speed travel. A war starts in the 1970s (it's assumed we have space travel by then), the soldiers head off via light speed, and when they return to earth it's nearly a century later. Every time they deploy, they have to deal with a new culture (by time) back home.
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The first four books in the Legacy of Aldenata (also called the Posleen Series) are some of my favorite military scifi books. Warning: do not read past the 4th book and do not read any of his other material. Pure grade crap.
I used to love military sci-fi until I went through military basic training. 6 weeks of getting pointlessly yelled at by morons for no reason and wasting my time on doing nothing at all kind of detracted from the romance and allure I used to have about being a soldier. I stayed away from the genre ever since.
Gotta say though, the concept of this series does sounds interesting. If I'll change my mind an resuming reading these kinds of book it will probably be either for this or for Scalzi's Old Man's War, which I hear is pretty good.
How hard is 'hard'? because Asimov wrote a lot of stuff I wouldn't consider hard, including Foundation.
True. That's why I didn't mention it in my first post.
But... what can I say? I liked it so much, I can't hear the name "Asimov" without mentioning Foundation.
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Have you read Forever War by Haldeman?The first four books in the Legacy of Aldenata (also called the Posleen Series) are some of my favorite military scifi books. Warning: do not read past the 4th book and do not read any of his other material. Pure grade crap.
I used to love military sci-fi until I went through military basic training. 6 weeks of getting pointlessly yelled at by morons for no reason and wasting my time on doing nothing at all kind of detracted from the romance and allure I used to have about being a soldier. I stayed away from the genre ever since.
Gotta say though, the concept of this series does sounds interesting. If I'll change my mind an resuming reading these kinds of book it will probably be either for this or for Scalzi's Old Man's War, which I hear is pretty good.
I'm in a constant state of "about to read it" but keep getting distracted by other stuff.I hear its a classic, though.
The first four books in the Legacy of Aldenata (also called the Posleen Series) are some of my favorite military scifi books. Warning: do not read past the 4th book and do not read any of his other material. Pure grade crap.
I used to love military sci-fi until I went through military basic training. 6 weeks of getting pointlessly yelled at by morons for no reason and wasting my time on doing nothing at all kind of detracted from the romance and allure I used to have about being a soldier. I stayed away from the genre ever since.
Gotta say though, the concept of this series does sounds interesting. If I'll change my mind an resuming reading these kinds of book it will probably be either for this or for Scalzi's Old Man's War, which I hear is pretty good.
It was the opposite for me. I fell in love with military sci fi while I was in the army. The Posleen series does have some basic training in it, but not much. Most of it is following various people - from LRRP to engineers to naval starship captains to simple soldiers to elite mobile infantry in mechanized combat suits, and each case of their challenges and accomplishments fighting the aliens. They also deal with incompetence of bad commanders, bad soldiers, bad politicians, sabotaged logistics, and more (and deal with the good and competent versions of all those as well).
But I also never had a fantasy version of the military before I joined. Sure, I was in Jr ROTC in high school, but I still didn't wear BDU's for fun and have fantasies of being a war hero like a lot of my friends did when we were teens. But out of all of us, I was one of the few that actually joined up and stuck with it past basic training. I do have one thing though: I have a hard time understanding why people fetishize the military but refuse to join it. At least Ringo was prior service.
I'm looking out for more, and don't want to stumble on the unremarkable ones. Greg Egen is a name that floated to my attention a couple of times,
Also, out of curiosity - are there any women in the field of hard science fiction?|
I went to school and [some of] university with Greg Egan. The hardest of science fiction authors.
On women in the genre, I read a book by Linda Nagata which was pretty good.
And people on this thread keep talking about stuff that is not hard SF as if it is. Iaan M Banks is a writer I really like, but hard SF? No.
I used to love military sci-fi until I went through military basic training. 6 weeks of getting pointlessly yelled at by morons for no reason and wasting my time on doing nothing at all kind of detracted from the romance and allure I used to have about being a soldier.
I understand the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket" is actually pretty true to life.
But all that being yelled at and apparently mindless aggression isn't pointless. It is designed to get the new soldier used to dealing with aggression. So you are somewhat defaming the army, you were being yelled at by morons, but it wasn't pointless.
I used to love military sci-fi until I went through military basic training. 6 weeks of getting pointlessly yelled at by morons for no reason and wasting my time on doing nothing at all kind of detracted from the romance and allure I used to have about being a soldier.I understand the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket" is actually pretty true to life.
But all that being yelled at and apparently mindless aggression isn't pointless. It is designed to get the new soldier used to dealing with aggression. So you are somewhat defaming the army, you were being yelled at by morons, but it wasn't pointless.
It's also worth noting that in addition to their more obvious cultural differences between countries, the sub-cultures of the military also vary. Based on prior posts, I don't believe Lord Snow resides in the U.S. so may have had his experience with military other than that of the U.S.A.
Also, completely disagree about John Ringo. I own many of his books and have read a few of his random posts here and there. I don't think anyone who can laugh at himself over the whole "Oh John Ringo, no!" thing has as much hate as you ascribe to him. On the other hand, I may be biased due to the awesome rendition he did of a DragonCon I attended in one of his books :)
-TimD
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I used to love military sci-fi until I went through military basic training. 6 weeks of getting pointlessly yelled at by morons for no reason and wasting my time on doing nothing at all kind of detracted from the romance and allure I used to have about being a soldier.I understand the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket" is actually pretty true to life.
But all that being yelled at and apparently mindless aggression isn't pointless. It is designed to get the new soldier used to dealing with aggression. So you are somewhat defaming the army, you were being yelled at by morons, but it wasn't pointless.
Oh, they definitely have a point - They are supposed to teach you to obey without thought. You are given purposefully moronic orders from people doing their best to be annoying asshats so that when the time come you you will follow orders even if they do not seem to make sense at the time. Your job is not to think, it is to act...
...Except that as it happens I'm not going to be a fighting man. I will soon start my active service as an officer in a software R&D arm of the army. My job is literally going to be thinking. I will never actually have to respond to a crisis situation in real time, my life will never be in danger and really my job will kind of be like a high tech job where you learn state secrets and get paid about 10% of what you would in a civilian company.
Which kind of makes the entire path of basic training I went through as pointless as they come. It didn't even "put me in the right state of mind" as being a soldier because fully three years have passed since I did it and only now am I about to start active service.
Knowing the pointlessness of it all might have made the experience more deflating than it would otherwise be, I suppose. But the allure of the idea of going through rough times with people, bonding with them and growing loyal to each other - which tends to be the emotional core of military SF stories - is now somewhat lost on me. The same way, I suppose, that one who experienced actual work as a farmer would be far less inclined to buy into new-age "back to mother earth" spirituality.
On women in the genre, I read a book by Linda Nagata which was pretty good.
Which book? And, awesome about Egen. Knowing a published author personally is one fantasy that has not lost its allure to me at all over the years. What entry point would you recommend to his works?
Lord Snow- On military training, I have read quite a bit in the area. I am not a soldier, its partly an outgrowth of a long term interest in martial arts.
Different sorts of soldiers are taught to behave differently. In Israel the soldiers who drive tanks are very disciplined and rank conscious. The paratroopers are much more informal. Why? Soldiers in tanks have to follow order w/o question. Paratroopers have to think for themselves to do their job.
On Greg Egan-
Well there was a 6 year gap in his publications, between 2002 and 2008.
The books after the gap are more technical, recommended for the science literate and prepared to think only. Zendegi is an exception, less technical and more low key. I recommend Incandescence. Its stand alone and kinda mind bending in its speculation.
Of his earlier novels, Distress, the first, is maybe not as good. Terenesia is marred to my mind by some weird outbursts about contemporary fashions in the humanities [I think that is what he is trying to talk about]. You could pick any really.
His website is at http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/BIBLIOGRAPHY/Bibliography.html.
On Linda Nagata, the book I read was Vast, which is the third in a series. I even googled it cos you asked. :P
Hope you find pleasure in here somewhere.
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Lord Snow- On military training, I have read quite a bit in the area. I am not a soldier, its partly an outgrowth of a long term interest in martial arts.
Different sorts of soldiers are taught to behave differently. In Israel the soldiers who drive tanks are very disciplined and rank conscious. The paratroopers are much more informal. Why? Soldiers in tanks have to follow order w/o question. Paratroopers have to think for themselves to do their job.
On Greg Egan-
Well there was a 6 year gap in his publications, between 2002 and 2008.
The books after the gap are more technical, recommended for the science literate and prepared to think only. Zendegi is an exception, less technical and more low key. I recommend Incandescence. Its stand alone and kinda mind bending in its speculation.
Of his earlier novels, Distress, the first, is maybe not as good. Terenesia is marred to my mind by some weird outbursts about contemporary fashions in the humanities [I think that is what he is trying to talk about]. You could pick any really.
His website is at http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/BIBLIOGRAPHY/Bibliography.html.
On Linda Nagata, the book I read was Vast, which is the third in a series. I even googled it cos you asked. :P
Hope you find pleasure in here somewhere.
Reading about basic training is a lot nicer than being there ;)
Thanks for the info and recommendations.
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Has anyone else read any Charles Sheffield? His background was in math and physics, so his stories tend to be fairly "hard." I thought his "Between the Strokes of Night" was a brilliant take on time dilation and surviving World War III. His "Heritage" series started great, but got worse as the series went on (don't even bother reading book 5).
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Good hard science fiction guys?
For modern stuff, I'd say go with John C. Wright's Count to the Eschaton series (starting with Count to a Trillion) or the Golden Age books (for hard transhumanism).
Clark's reasonably good at hard science fiction, but (probably for philosophical differences) I find his protagonists tend to be utilitarian jerk asses and his conclusions seem oddly cold and inhuman. Given that I know from the Sad Puppies thread that you're on the opposite end of the philosophical spectrum from me, you might like his stuff, like 'Childhood's End.'
Stay away from "The Cold Equations." Its hard science fiction by definition, but the short story basically requires a really stupid railroad plot.
I've heard Halderman's 'Forever War' is really good, but haven't got a chance to check it out myself.
Not sure how "hard" some folks would consider his S/F, but I've also enjoyed most of what I've read of Robert J. Sawyer's stuff (excepting Rollback, which I found myself annoyed by the main character part way through the book and set it down a few years ago and have yet to pick it back up).
-TimD
Bruce Sterling, Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, William Gibson, Paolo Bacigalupi, Neal Stephenson, Pat Cadigan. Some of those are XX genotype.
Peter Watts, particularly Blindsight and Echopraxia.
I'm still not sure what "hard" scifi even is.
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Hard Science fiction is Science Fiction with where science and scientific possibility and ideas are important. The complete opposite of Star Wars.
"Hard" SciFi definitely involves a good deal of legitimate scientific background when it comes to the technologies used. Less hand waving, more complex physics and mathematic theories extrapolated.
Peter Watts
- Blindsight is one of my favourite books of all time ever - not necessarily Hard, but "Technical"; lots of cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy of the mind applied really well. All of his books are thoroughly researched, and he has a background in Biology himself. Echopraxia, the "sequel", was totally wild on the brain. Still not sure about the end... probably need to read it again ;)
> Highly Recommend!!
Richard Morgan
- Altered Carbon, however, IS my favourite book of all time - it's not Hard SF though, more cyberpunk - and it's DEFINITELY extremly graphic and R rated. No other book has ever gripped me as much as that. You are THERE, completely in it all the way through.
> Super Intense and Awesome!!
Greg Egan
- This guy, however, is definitely the hardest I've ever read. Diaspora was a literal Mind-F**k - no other author has ever gotten to me to be able to perceive multidimensionality like that. Haven't tried his other stuff but I'm gonna try one of the ones recommended above.
> Really, Mind-Bendingly Hard
Vernor Vinge
- A Fire Upon the Deep // A Deepness in the Sky are also two of my favourites, but definitely fall into the "space-opera" end of things. His mathematical background really shows when relating the sheer scale of space.
> Epic, long space-opera books. Awesome aliens!
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TBH I've tried both Alastair Reynolds and Peter Hamilton, and I couldn't finish either of the Revelation (Reynolds) or the Void (Hamilton) series. Reynolds had some really cool concepts and his grasp of technical knowledge was great... but the characters were sooo flat. The Void series by Hamilton was promising at first, but I found the alternate story way too cliche and slow by the 2nd book that I couldn't bear to finish it. I even had the 3rd ready! :P
... to those who have some of the same reading background: should I bother with the other Hamilton stuff? (Pandora's Star)
OTOH I'm stoked to see lots more recommendations here :) Not enough SciFi in my life right now!
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The debut novel of Andy Weir - The Martian - is supposed to be very good hard sci-fi as well. It's the next book on my reading pile, looking forward to reading it. It's about an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars and his attempts to survive and get home. The research and depth of the novel are reportedly very good, with a strong basis in science.
Just spotted on wiki that it will have a big budget movie adaptation released later this year :o .
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The debut novel of Andy Weir - The Martian - is supposed to be very good hard sci-fi as well. It's the next book on my reading pile, looking forward to reading it. It's about an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars and his attempts to survive and get home. The research and depth of the novel are reportedly very good, with a strong basis in science.
Just spotted on wiki that it will have a big budget movie adaptation released later this year :o .
The Martian is one of my favorites. It is researched to the point where the author built a simulation to verify that the orbital paths described in the book are possible. The Martian is immensely clever, funny and convincing.
TBH I've tried both Alastair Reynolds and Peter Hamilton, and I couldn't finish either of the Revelation (Reynolds) or the Void (Hamilton) series. Reynolds had some really cool concepts and his grasp of technical knowledge was great... but the characters were sooo flat. The Void series by Hamilton was promising at first, but I found the alternate story way too cliche and slow by the 2nd book that I couldn't bear to finish it. I even had the 3rd ready! :P
I also tend to find Reynolds as a very poor character writer. His people always feel so... cold. Flat. More than anything, they are usually obsessive to a fault, pursuing their goals rigidly. But, I don't read him for interpersonal drama, I read him for awesome, grand scale, mind boggling ideas that are grounded by some convincing scientific speculation. Specifically his standalone "Pushing Ice" was awesome.
I'm still not sure what "hard" scifi even is.
Hard science fiction is more interested in actual speculation based on a real understanding of contemporary science than other forms of SF. That means it is usually more technical and detailed with the various technologies it invests and the way they will impact life in the future. It is allowed to make wild guesses and conjectures (see Interstellar) but they need to sound somewhat convincingly like something that may be possible given what we know. Also, as Krensky said, the laws of nature and limitations of technology usually serve as driving forces for the story.[jab] I'm surprised he didn't mention his favorite hard science fiction, the Asgardians of the Marvel comics -a clear demonstration of speculative prowess, breathtakingly plausible.[/jab].
In all seriousness, clearly the genre is not well defined, but there is a spectrum that most people would agree is "hard".
I haven't seen anyone mention Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars novels. I thought the first one, Red Mars, was best of the bunch, but he had interesting stuff going on in all of them, and in some ways they get even more science-y as they go.
Specifically his standalone "Pushing Ice" was awesome.
I've been a Reynolds fan since the first book came out. His characters could be better sometimes, but he has awesome stories. Pushing Ice was very good, but I also really liked Century Rain and the short story Diamond Dogs. That last one.. crazy good, just don't read it before going to sleep.
Greg Egan
- This guy, however, is definitely the hardest I've ever read. Diaspora was a literal Mind-F**k - no other author has ever gotten to me to be able to perceive multidimensionality like that. Haven't tried his other stuff but I'm gonna try one of the ones recommended above.
> Really, Mind-Bendingly Hard
Greg Egan is the Ron Jeremy of SF.
I suggest you try "Incandescence". Sounds like you would like it.|
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Specifically his standalone "Pushing Ice" was awesome.I've been a Reynolds fan since the first book came out. His characters could be better sometimes, but he has awesome stories. Pushing Ice was very good, but I also really liked Century Rain and the short story Diamond Dogs. That last one.. crazy good, just don't read it before going to sleep.
I could guess you're a fan, given the username.
I didn't get around to Century Rain or Diamons Dogs yet. So far I read pushing ice, the first two revelation space books, and blue remembered earth (which was not nearly as good as the others). Most people are saying that House of Suns is one of his best, so that's the one I'll be reading after I'm done with RS.
Oh, cool! Thanks everyone!
I believe the good Lord is being ironic.