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Post by The Astronomer on Mar 5, 2017 11:19:26 GMT
Orion's Arm. Though, reading its Encyclopedia is probably more interesting.
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Post by thorneel on Mar 16, 2017 14:17:14 GMT
A classic, The Forever War. For what I heard, the graphic novel adaptation is great as well (if you can find it). There is (a rather impractical) FTL, and latter tech is not as hard, but it's still hard enough SF.
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Post by subunit on Mar 17, 2017 4:58:06 GMT
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, if you haven't read it.
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Post by acrosome on Mar 20, 2017 13:12:13 GMT
Corsair was a fun read. I liked Stephen Baxter's Ring series, though in later stories the tech is arguably so advanced that it is indistinguishable from magic. I also liked KSR's Mars triology, thought the setting was definitely the whole point (well, including the politics). Seven Eves was hard but for some reason I didn't like it. It all seemed far too unlikely.
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Post by Durandal on Mar 21, 2017 14:38:35 GMT
A classic, The Forever War. For what I heard, the graphic novel adaptation is great as well (if you can find it). There is (a rather impractical) FTL, and latter tech is not as hard, but it's still hard enough SF. The Kindle edition (not the same, I know) was released on amazon for $3.99. And if you like doorstopper Tom Clancy wannabe types, there was Silver Tower by Dale Brown. Basically an SDI-wet dream story. Makes me want to do an 80's Cold War challenge thread...
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Post by tuskerkerman on Apr 16, 2017 18:39:04 GMT
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Post by The Astronomer on Jun 9, 2017 11:27:57 GMT
POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING - DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU WANT TO AVOID BEING SPOILED [SPOILERS] PUT THIS IN [spoiler]HERE[/spoiler] , YOU...!
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Post by batflag on Jun 9, 2017 20:46:43 GMT
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancillary_JusticeIt has FTL, and no mention of radiators. So it isn't really hard sci-fi. However, it takes an interesting look at AI, what it means to be an individual, mind uploading and shared consciousness between multiple bodies. I'm reading the Ancillary series now, and I don't find it to be very hard as it glosses over the technical aspects of space flight. But to the author's credit, the books aren't focused on the technical aspects, and do an excellent job exploring the concepts bigbombr listed above instead. Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson is reasonably hard SF and a gripping story - the implications of a generation ship, the limits of terraforming, and the hard decisions relating to limited delta-v are major plot points. Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is a little inconsistent and flawed, but I love it anyway. It formed the basis of my understanding of what terraforming could mean on both a planetary and a human scale.
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Post by jonen on Jun 10, 2017 12:56:34 GMT
Seveneves deserves a mention, given this is the official forum for a game with another Dead Earth. Starting off in a not too distant future, the book starts off with the moon exploding. Other than that the science is harder than most anything else, and the epic story of the book is how to deal with the fallout of the moon exploding. The book is divided in three parts: Part one Part one is the span of time between the moon exploding and the Earth being rendered uninhabitable. Lots of details about the issues and bottlenecks of spacelift and the infeasibility of evacuating the Earth. Part two Part two is set between the Earth being rendered uninhabitable and the survivors reaching a place of relative safety. Plenty of orbital mechanics. Part three Part three is five thousand years later when the Earth has recovered enough to be worth resettling (and thus fighting over). More orbital mechanics and some fairly neat takes on SF applications of various stuff. For instance, this part starts with a person donning a flight suit with wings, running off and gliding on thermals up to a skyhook, basically getting into orbit with nothing but musclepower, thermals and orbital infrastructure. It's on the list: www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php
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Post by thorneel on Jun 10, 2017 15:21:55 GMT
Looks interesting, let's see... "There was also a character that vaguely reminded me of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson" Well, nevermind. I've read enough in the news about infatuated bigots whose TV-related success people somehow believe can translate anywhere else, and who keep on saying (and tweeting) idiocies with complete disregard for corrections, partially thanks to a rabid fanbase ready to defend anything tooth and nail without concern for reality, thanks.
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Post by EshaNas on Jun 20, 2017 11:10:40 GMT
I've been on a Space novel/book binge of late.
These are the ones I've read recently. No FTL travel or comms and at the least plausible tech.
On To The Asteroid by Travis S. Taylor and Les Johnson. A bit awkward, and the dialogue isn't going to win any awards, but a very mundane scifi work about asteroid mining and deflection. Some nifty tech appears, such as using superconductors as a radiation shield, which interested me a lot.
Coyote by Allen Steele is a veteran by this point, the collage of tales of plucky scientists and their families who flee the oppressive future theocratic United States by hijacking its vanity project of a spaceship and colony-project to the eponymous Coyote, a (fortunately) habitable moon around a Gas Giant.
Crowded Orbits: Conflict and Cooperation in Space by James Clay Moltz brings one back to reality with the current affairs of the space right around Earth: our satellites, space-stations, and the geopolitics behind them.
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Post by srbrant on Jun 21, 2017 6:38:32 GMT
THE KILLING STAR.
That is all.
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Post by omnipotentvoid on Jun 27, 2017 7:29:39 GMT
Any recommendations for hard sci-fi that takes a deeper look into mature interplanetary/interstellar civilizations' cultures, societies or communities? While there are some sci-fi books that look deeper into this, the only hard sci fi I've found that goes in this direction is the three body trilogy, but even in this series truly mature civs are only mentioned in passing in the third book.
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Post by Crazy Tom on Jun 27, 2017 12:28:47 GMT
I greatly enjoyed the depictions of 'combat' between satellites - it was a nice change of pace to see how it might happen between low powered unmanned satellites instead of the rip roaring torchips we see most of the time. But I had 3 issues with the book: - The myth of Helium 3 moon mining needs to die. Should have used rare earth metal asteroid return instead.
- The romance subplot did nothing, went nowhere, and felt like it was included for no reason other than to have a romance subplot. I found it detracted from the story.
- The villain at the end(the rival to the hacker we are introduced to first)... just... it's just... what.
Any recommendations for hard sci-fi that takes a deeper look into mature interplanetary/interstellar civilizations' cultures, societies or communities? While there are some sci-fi books that look deeper into this, the only hard sci fi I've found that goes in this direction is the three body trilogy, but even in this series truly mature civs are only mentioned in passing in the third book. Lockstep introduces an incredibly elegant way to have interstellar civilization without FTL by synchronized bouts of mass suspended animation. I'd really recommend it.
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Post by EshaNas on Jun 27, 2017 15:21:29 GMT
Any recommendations for hard sci-fi that takes a deeper look into mature interplanetary/interstellar civilizations' cultures, societies or communities? While there are some sci-fi books that look deeper into this, the only hard sci fi I've found that goes in this direction is the three body trilogy, but even in this series truly mature civs are only mentioned in passing in the third book. 2312 and Blue Remembered Earth? Though the latter has been called 'Libertarian Africans in SPACE', so there might not be much variety there, including an all pervasive security net sans one 'totally rad and free anarchy city on the Moon'.
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