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Quoted: Anyone have any suggestions for the actual 'colonization' of some alien world? Like the actual landing on some completely unknown unexplored planet, exploring and building up a colony, sort of thing. View Quote Episodic tale about a "Tamer", a member of an elite Astronaut Corps that opens new planets for colonization. This is hideously dangerous work and the monetary costs are such that sending Earth's very best, equipped with the highest tech is the only feasible way to do it. The book interleaves the protagonist's narrative with epistolary scientific and social background of his world. Tunnel in the Sky by Heinlein. Outworld settlement calls for serious survival skills. These are taught in an advanced High School course. The story follows one class on their graduation exam: being dumped on an unknown world to survive for 10 days. Notable for the "You're the rabbit, not the fox" monologue. Legacy of Heorot by Niven and Pournelle. First colony tale about an alien predator and the disastrous, downward spiralling fight to stop it. It's Beowulf in space, deliberately. |
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Quoted: Anyone have any suggestions for the actual 'colonization' of some alien world? Like the actual landing on some completely unknown unexplored planet, exploring and building up a colony, sort of thing. View Quote This is one where things didn't go as planned. Failed To Load Product Data |
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The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu.
There's a lot of technical and science jargon that made it really hard for me to enjoy so I stopped reading it. Instead, I found the audiobook on YT. |
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Quoted: Mindbridge by Haldeman. Episodic tale about a "Tamer", a member of an elite Astronaut Corps that opens new planets for colonization. This is hideously dangerous work and the monetary costs are such that sending Earth's very best, equipped with the highest tech is the only feasible way to do it. The book interleaves the protagonist's narrative with epistolary scientific and social background of his world. Tunnel in the Sky by Heinlein. Outworld settlement calls for serious survival skills. These are taught in an advanced High School course. The story follows one class on their graduation exam: being dumped on an unknown world to survive for 10 days. Notable for the "You're the rabbit, not the fox" monologue. Legacy of Heorot by Niven and Pournelle. First colony tale about an alien predator and the disastrous, downward spiralling fight to stop it. It's Beowulf in space, deliberately. View Quote I keep trying to think of something bad I have read by Pournelle. |
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Quoted: Revelation Space is SciFi horror not world building. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes I like the world he built starting with revelation space. Certainly horror elements but I keep reading all the new stuff he writes that take place in that world. Melding virus and ultras. Hope he writes more. |
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I have enjoyed Paolo Bacigalupi "windup girl" a lot. He is starting to get more stories in the world he is making.
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Red Rising is the best series I've ever read. Not "hard" sci-fi I don't think, but it's absolutely fantastic. New book is coming in 2023.
The Sun Eater series is the same style of book and also very good. I'm on book three right now. The universe feels absolutely massive in this series and they travel all over it. Again, I don't think it's "hard" sci-fi. |
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I enjoyed the the "Forgotten Ruin series" and "Galaxy's Edge series" By Jason Anspach and Nick Cole.
Easy reading military Sci Fi with D&D mixed in with the Forgotten Ruin series. |
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Quoted: These are great! https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/86695/architecture-2543195.jpg I tore through them, and now I have to sit and wait for the third and final volume. View Quote I'm 1/3 through Shards of Earth. Does it get better? |
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The Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright.
Set a hundred thousand years from now, humanity has populated the Solar System and has enjoyed an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity for thousands of years. As a Kardashev Type 2 technological civilization, stagnation, self satisfaction and preservation of the status quo has set in at all levels. One man, Phaethon, whose motto is "Deeds of renown without peer" has been using his incalculable wealth and unparallelled engineering skill to build a starship capable of traveling at near C. But the powers that be aren't happy with this, and join together to undermine his plans even as an ancient enemy sets its sights on the human Golden Age. Gigantic in scope and concept, featuring vast sweeps of a nightmarishly bloody future history, the story follows the various factions and entities, human, transhuman and AI, who have a stake in aiding or preventing Phaethon from reaching the stars. |
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Quoted: A lot of good recommendations so far. I will state the the "Bobiverse" series is one of my favorites. Ready it twice now. While there is some "magic" fixes, they were discovered over long time periods and the "magic" tech itself also advanced over time as well, like it should. It was all done very well. No warp speed or wormholes or anything of that sort. I will say by the 4th book things got a little harder to follow due to all the characters, but that could be because there was so much time between the release of the 4th book after the first 3, so maybe I just forgot. "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir (The Martian) is another good one and another one of my favorites. The book was not what I expected. Not purely "hard" sic-fi, but there is a scientific approach to the "magic" that I appreciate. And it breaks just like everything else. View Quote Thread necro! Another vote for the Bobiverse series. I just finished reading the 4 books. All awesome. You could almost treat book 4 as a stand alone novel from the series. |
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FLX8V84?tag=arfcom00-20
When itinerant cave diver James Tighe receives an invitation to billionaire Nathan Joyce's private island, he thinks it must be a mistake. But Tighe's unique skill set makes him a prime candidate for Joyce's high-risk venture to mine a near-earth asteroid--with the goal of kick-starting an entire off-world economy. The potential rewards and personal risks are staggering, but the competition is fierce and the stakes couldn't be higher. Isolated and pushed beyond their breaking points, Tighe and his fellow twenty-first century adventurers--ex-soldiers, former astronauts, BASE jumpers, and mountain climbers--must rely on each other to survive not only the dangers of a multi-year expedition but the harsh realities of business in space. They're determined to transform humanity from an Earth-bound species to a space-faring one--or die trying. View Quote Written by Daniel Suarez, who wrote Daemon and Freedom(TM). Awesome read. |
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I just finished reading the Ice Moon Series by Brandon Morris. Cool series.
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Quoted: Now I’m reading The Three Body Problem. It’s interesting. View Quote Notice how they never actually say the name of the Chinese leader during the scenes in/around the Cultural Revolution? They even redact his name (which obviously has three letters) from the reports concerning SETI in the 60's.... |
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Quoted: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FLX8V84?tag=arfcom00-20 Written by Daniel Suarez, who wrote Daemon and Freedom(TM). Awesome read. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FLX8V84?tag=arfcom00-20 When itinerant cave diver James Tighe receives an invitation to billionaire Nathan Joyce's private island, he thinks it must be a mistake. But Tighe's unique skill set makes him a prime candidate for Joyce's high-risk venture to mine a near-earth asteroid--with the goal of kick-starting an entire off-world economy. The potential rewards and personal risks are staggering, but the competition is fierce and the stakes couldn't be higher. Isolated and pushed beyond their breaking points, Tighe and his fellow twenty-first century adventurers--ex-soldiers, former astronauts, BASE jumpers, and mountain climbers--must rely on each other to survive not only the dangers of a multi-year expedition but the harsh realities of business in space. They're determined to transform humanity from an Earth-bound species to a space-faring one--or die trying. Written by Daniel Suarez, who wrote Daemon and Freedom(TM). Awesome read. Influx is another fantastic Suarez book. I like everything he's written. |
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I'm finally reading 'Downbelow Station' and so far it is excellent.
Neal Asher's 'Polity' books are great. |
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Took me 40 years to get to it, but I'm glad that I finally read "Downbelow Station" by C.J. Cherryh.
It's outstanding. |
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Quoted: Took me 40 years to get to it, but I'm glad that I finally read "Downbelow Station" by C.J. Cherryh. It's outstanding. View Quote I always avoided it because she is a woman. But now that you have recommended, maybe I will check it out. Oh, but your last rec was terrible so I will skip. but I am also curious so I will give it a try. |
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The “bob verse” series by Dennis Taylor. quite fun.
Pushing ice ( don’t remember the author. single book) Hail Mary (Andy weir, also did Martian ) All are hard science fiction, not fantasy sci-fi . Didn’t realize that I had posted all this earlier. Lol |
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Saturn Run - John Standford and Ctein
The Last Astronaut - David Wellington Hull Zero Three - Greg Bear Project Hail Mary and Artemis - Andy Weir |
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You gotta get Ringworld and it’s sequels and THEN read the Fleet of Worlds quintet.
Niven. |
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Hard SF is based on established laws of physics with nothing included that can't at least be projected from what we know now. The Ringworld universe has casual FTL, teleportation and magic spaceship hulls. |
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Another fantastic epic tale of Earth forming and joining a technology trading network with aliens is Edward Lerner’s InterstellarNet group of short stories and novels, available in one complete 1,000 page volume.
Starts pretty much in current times and follows a future history for the next several hundred years. |
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Quoted: Hard SF is based on established laws of physics with nothing included that can't at least be projected from what we know now. The Ringworld universe has casual FTL, teleportation and magic spaceship hulls. View Quote Perhaps Known Space has developed knowledge of physics beyond what we currently understand. Hard SF is where the physics are internally consistent and the math checks out, within that framework. You saying Niven isn’t hard SF is like Pythagoras saying calculus is fantasy math. |
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Quoted: Niven is the DEFINITION of hard SF. He almost single handedly invented the genre. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Niven is great and I love Ringworld, but none of his stuff is hard SF. Niven is the DEFINITION of hard SF. He almost single handedly invented the genre. Rik makes a good case but there are some Niven books that are hard scifi according to his definition such as the Man Kzin Wars and Legacy of Heroet. |
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Quoted: Perhaps Known Space has developed knowledge of physics beyond what we currently understand. Hard SF is where the physics are internally consistent and the math checks out, within that framework. You saying Niven isn’t hard SF is like Pythagoras saying calculus is fantasy math. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Hard SF is based on established laws of physics with nothing included that can't at least be projected from what we know now. The Ringworld universe has casual FTL, teleportation and magic spaceship hulls. Perhaps Known Space has developed knowledge of physics beyond what we currently understand. Hard SF is where the physics are internally consistent and the math checks out, within that framework. You saying Niven isn’t hard SF is like Pythagoras saying calculus is fantasy math. If you say so. I am not saying Niven hasn't written some hard SF, but IMHO the Known Space stories are not among them. There's a lot of handwavium in there. |
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