81–88 of 88 posts
Can ye recommend any novels / authors that are as hard sci-fi as KSR or Arthur C Clarke?
Contact by Carl Sagan. It's a nice tale about a passionate SETI scientist, by an author known more commonly for nonfiction and TV.
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+1 for Seveneves. I found it so engrossing that just thinking about it now I can picture the shapes of that chain in zero-G, and the unexpectedly long-lasting hellscape consequences of the very early reveal. The CB radio...
eh, 1st 1/2 great. 2nd half ... really falls apart
Really loved the Mars trilogy when I was a teenager. The clunky character development and invented politics haven't aged super well, but the stories are still interesting. I also enjoyed The Memory of Whiteness and The Years of Rice and Salt. More recently I tried reading Aurora (2015), but the book is a downer and a slog. Not recommended. Didn't finish it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(novel)
Currently reading Ministry for the Future, which in some ways is a very optimistic book, but is still quite grim. Also, I'm thinking perhaps next time I'm tempted to read a book with climate change as the subject, I'll wait until winter to do it, rather than in the summer when the described scenes are a bit too easy to imagine by simply stepping outside. Read the mars trilogy and Rice and Salt as well. I like his opt…
It's my first KSR book. I wish I'd started with the Mars trilogy as previously planned.
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Currently reading Ministry for the Future, which in some ways is a very optimistic book, but is still quite grim. Also, I'm thinking perhaps next time I'm tempted to read a book with climate change as the subject, I'll wait until winter to do it, rather than in the summer when the described scenes are a bit too easy to imagine by simply stepping outside. Read the mars trilogy and Rice and Salt as well. I like his opt…
I'm having trouble with Ministry for the Future. It seems like it might be more of a manifesto than a novel. I've been pushing on...it seems like the plot might come together but I'm not positive yet and I'm considering giving up. It's my first KSR book. I wish I'd started with the Mars trilogy as previously planned.
Seeing this on HN, reading the article and the comments, really reminds me of how much I respect KSR. His 2312 brought me back to reading hard sci-fi after too long not really reading much fiction at all for a long time. The ideas presented in it reminded me of a sense of wonder at the scope of future possibilities that had previously been lost under an ever increasing pile of marital, parental, and financial respons…
Seeing this on HN, reading the article and the comments, really reminds me of how much I respect KSR. His 2312 brought me back to reading hard sci-fi after too long not really reading much fiction at all for a long time. The ideas presented in it reminded me of a sense of wonder at the scope of future possibilities that had previously been lost under an ever increasing pile of marital, parental, and financial respons…
Do you have A Sea of Words, the lexicon for reading O'Brian's novels? I highly recommend having it by your side while you read. It helps a lot.
One terminology that particularly struck me was what's now referred to as a "cut splice"[0]. The use that particular word was jarring, in that it's not the type of novel to have cursing scattered through it. The reason for its usage is historical accuracy.
Can ye recommend any novels / authors that are as hard sci-fi as KSR or Arthur C Clarke?
Alastair Reynolds, especially his Revelation Space trilogy are great hard sci Fi novels. He's a former astrophysicist so he knows the hard limits. I find most of his works to be good musings on humanity with a bit of alien horror.
I think his other works are good, but in my view Pushing Ice is an usually good stand alone work.
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Neal Stephenson's earlier work has "more soul" - Snow Crash / Diamond Age actually has characters you care about and like, his later novels get increasingly more abstract, though even better in the technical sense. I think the only character I remember from Seveneves is the cannibal leader, that's it. "A Deepness in the Sky" was REALLY good. The Forever War was good for the concept. In short, yours looks like a great…
I really couldn't get into Snow Crash and I didn't finish Diamond Age but I love everything from Cryptonomicon forward. Jack Shaftoe is one of my favourite fictional characters!