Recommendations for hard science fiction

[vonfirmath]

My nephew (12 in a few days) is looking for hard science fiction to read that is clean.

 

I read science fiction, but not so much hard science fiction. Any ideas?

[regentrude]

What is considered "hard" science fiction?

[Twigs]

Dune (?)

[WishboneDawn]

What is considered "hard" science fiction?

 

 

A real knowledge of science on the part of the author that informs the book. There's a lot of sci-fi out there that's sort of like Star Wars where it's more just about making space a setting for what's otherwise a traditional fantasy or adventure story. I like all kinds myself but it's generally the hard science fiction that asks real and important questions about how we interact with and use science and technology.

 

I probably wouldn't put Dune in the hard category for instance. Asimov would be more hard sci-fi. I'm sort of drawing a blank aside from the big masters like Asimov and Heinlen. I'm nurzing the toddler at the moment. I'll post again when the brain isn't being sedated by hormones. :D

[WishboneDawn]

I should ask though if that's what the nephew means before hard sci-fi...?

[LisaMarie6]

I found this article by MIT Technology Review. It lists their top ten hard science fiction.

[WishboneDawn]

I found this article by MIT Technology Review. It lists their top ten hard science fiction.

 

 

That was an excellent list. Vernor Vinge is great and I love C.J. Cherryh. She actually has a page with the best explanation of how Latin works that I've ever read. :)

[LostSurprise]

I need you to specify 'clean' and possibly how 'hard' SF. Swearing? Characters might have sex but its not descriptive just a part of the character dynamic?

 

Isaac Asimov~I, Robot; Foundation series, Cave of Steel series, short stories

HG Wells~The Time Machine, War of the Worlds

Jules Verne~10,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Arthur C Clarke ~ Childhood's End; 2001

 

Almost everything before the mid-'60s will be clean.

 

Larry Niven

Vernor Vinge

Neal Stephenson

 

All have hard SF. Stephenson and Cherryh are too adult for this age. Vinge is great, I love Rainbows End, but specific novels may have some sex. Niven is older. Great for physics but again, '70s swinging view of sex (undescriptive generally) and sometimes gets a bit dull.

 

http://www.hardsf.org/HSFSBkLt.htm

 

http://www.goodreads...science-fiction

 

From these lists (which aren't particularly hard IMO), I would say Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) is a great book at 12. Some violence and a little swearing (very little). The movie is coming out this year. Simak and Pohl are generally clean enough but their themes may be dull to a 12 year old.

 

Definitely get Ender's Game and I, Robot.

[vonfirmath]

Heinlein is out -- at least his adult stuff. WAY too adult of relationships. (And I never considered it hard SF? Though I do like some of the ideas he promulgates).

 

I was thinking hard like Gregory Benford (but I haven't read any of his books), Larry Niven. The story has a solid back ground in the science. Clean is no descriptive sex and the romantic relationships are not a big part of the story (But in a hard book I'd expect the science to be the story, not romance anyway)

 

I love Ender's Game and will suggest that. It is quite clean enough. But hadn't thought of it as hard. So maybe I do like some hard SF :)

[regentrude]

Stanislaw Lem.

The brothers Strugatski.

many Russian Sci fi authors of the second half of the 20th century

[LostSurprise]

Lem is good, but sometimes the plot is a bit slow. He'd probably like Pirx the Pilot though.

 

Most of Heinlein's juveniles are not hard SF. Heck, not many of his 'adult' novels aren't either. He prefers to dabble in politics and sociology, not science (although The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers do dabble a bit...they are a few years off though...Troopers may be fine but Mistress has a lot of sex and plural partners/marriages). Tunnel in the Sky or Double Star would be fine, but they focus more on politics than science. Door into Summer is a nice vague time travel story. I think a 12 year old would enjoy Tunnel in the Sky the best. Very survivalist, lots of proto-democratic process.

[sbbulliv]

Lois McMaster Bujold: the Miles series. She explores some interesting philosophy of science questions, especially about genetics, that seem to be even more pertinent lately.

[Ravin]

Heinlein's young adult stuff is great. If "clean" (whatever that's supposed to mean) is what you're after, NOT his adult stuff, but some of the good ones:

 

The Rolling Stones

Podkayne of Mars

Red Planet

The Menace from Earth (short story)

Farmer in the Sky

Starship Troopers

Actually, a lot of his short stories, written for young adults or not, are really good, including most of the Future History stories.

[nmoira]

This is one of my favourite annotated book lists:

 

Contrary Brin (David Brin's blog): Science Fiction for Young Adults: A Recommended List

 

Brin keeps it updated. Some good recs in the comments too.

[vonfirmath]

Thank you! Suggestions here as well I hadn't even considered hard. So that's good.

[Julie Smith]

This is the most SCIENCE fiction series I have ever read.

• Inherit the Stars, May 1977,
   
  
• The Gentle Giants of Ganymede, May 1978,
   
  
• Giants' Star, July 1981,
  

 

http://en.wikipedia....i/Giants_series

 

Here is a quite about the first book in the series, "the exhilarating sense it conveys of scientific minds at work on real problems and ... the genuinely exciting scope of the sf imagination it deploys."

 

The last two books in the series aren't great like the first three. They came out many years afterwards.

 

It is written to adults, but I can't remember much of anything inapprorpriate. They really just stick to the story of the science investigations. I don't remember much of anything about the personal lives of the characters.

 

The back of Inherit the Stars

The man on the moon was dead. They called him Charlie. He had big eyes, abundant body hair and fairly long nostrils. His skeletal body was found clad in a bright red spacesuit, hidden in a rocky grave. They didn't know who he was, how he got there, or what had killed him. All they knew was that his corpse was 50,000 years old -- and that meant that this man had somehow lived long before he ever could have existed!

 

The book and it's two sequels to me read like science fact. -- Well except for the ficition elements of a 50, 000 year old skeleton on the moon wearing a space suit. But the explanations of how that all happened sounds like very logicial science fact.

[Julie Smith]

The back of Inherit the Stars

The man on the moon was dead. They called him Charlie. He had big eyes, abundant body hair and fairly long nostrils. His skeletal body was found clad in a bright red spacesuit, hidden in a rocky grave. They didn't know who he was, how he got there, or what had killed him. All they knew was that his corpse was 50,000 years old -- and that meant that this man had somehow lived long before he ever could have existed!

 

The book and it's two sequels to me read like science fact. -- Well except for the ficition elements of a 50, 000 year old skeleton on the moon wearing a space suit. But the explanations of how that all happened sounds like very logicial science fact.

 

(I tired to add this to my previous post. But supposedly it contains something that triggers the secrutiy system and asks me to type things from an image to prove I'm human. But it has no image.)

[AK_Mom4]

Julie's right - Inherit the Stars is Amazing!

 

Also - Voyage of the Star Wolf, Ring of Charon and it's sequel, David Brin's Uplift series, Asimov's Foundation (at least the first few), most of Pohl's books.

[Susan in TN]

Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham - not common to find in the USA, but a sci-fi classic that ds loved. I believe the story was turned into a BBC TV series and/or a movie. I don't know if it's hard science or not.

[LostSurprise]

This is one of my favourite annotated book lists:

 

Contrary Brin (David Brin's blog): Science Fiction for Young Adults: A Recommended List

 

Brin keeps it updated. Some good recs in the comments too.

 

 

Great list. Not necessarily hard SF, but a good solid list of SF novels for teens.

[Julie Smith]

Another idea (Not as hard core SCIENCE as the Giant series, but nothing can top that one)

 

A four book series that starts with Far-seer

http://www.sfwriter.com/exq1.htm

 

The author Robert J. Sawyer wanted to grow up and become a palentogists, but his parents made him pick a fall back option. (I think at the time only one dinosaur palentogists had full time employment in the country). So he picked Science-fiction writer as his fall back option.

 

Mix dinosaurs with great science fact in a fiction setting. I think considering his age this one might be more appropriate. But I do remember some violence. As the eating of children. (But it's dinosaur children kilt for a good reason. ... the world they live in they gave birth to on average 8 eggs at once. The world would quickly become over populated if all lived so they only let one egg live out of each group of 8)

 

You can read the cover blurp and the first chapter at the above link.

[Julie Smith]

Another idea (Not as hard core SCIENCE as the Giant series, but nothing can top that one)

 

A four book series that starts with Far-seer

http://www.sfwriter.com/exq1.htm

 

The author Robert J. Sawyer wanted to grow up and become a palentogists, but his parents made him pick a fall back option. (I think at the time only one dinosaur palentogists had full time employment in the country). So he picked Science-fiction writer as his fall back option.

 

Mix dinosaurs with great science fact in a fiction setting. I think considering his age this one might be more appropriate. But I do remember some violence. As the eating of children. (But it's dinosaur children kilt for a good reason. ... the world they live in they gave birth to on average 8 eggs at once. The world would quickly become over populated if all lived so they only let one egg live out of each group of 8)

 

You can read the cover blurp and the first chapter at the above link.

[scholarly]

M.T. Anderson's "Feed" is an excellent young adult sci-fi novel. Plot: what if everyone had the internet in their brain - deals with youth and technology saturation. There is one instance with some sexuality where a teen boy and his dying girlfriend plan to have intercourse but don't.

 

Other goodies already mentioned:

 

Starship Troopers, Heinlein

Foundation, Asimov

[ElizabethB]

The only thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned are Kathy Tyers if he would like Christian Sci-Fi (the science in her Shivering World is particularly interesting) and a really interesting secular sci-fi book I can't remember the name of, I will describe it, maybe someone can think of the title.

 

It is by a relatively little known author who was a scientist, I think a physicist, but I'm not sure. After a space flight to another planet, humans encounter a primitive species that is very small and either light or gravity or magnetic based. They had very fast life spans, so after a few minutes of human time, the species has lived for generations. After a month or a year, they are more advanced than we are. The science and thought behind the story were fascinating.

 

While not exactly sci-fi, some of Michael Chrichton's books are science heavy. Not all of them may be appropriate for a 12 year old, though, some of them have pretty intense adult situations.

 

OK, I did think of one more author...Sylvia Engdahl, her early works for young adults are very thought provoking. They are science based but not science heavy, they are more science philosophical.

[Mrs Mungo]

Some of Ursula LeGuin's books are considered hard sci-fi.

[Punchie]

Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham - not common to find in the USA, but a sci-fi classic that ds loved. I believe the story was turned into a BBC TV series and/or a movie. I don't know if it's hard science or not.

 

I would consider it hard SF. Everything that happens in in the book is a direct result of human technology (genetic/plant engineering and bombs/missiles orbiting the Earth). I love this book b/c it's more of a character study than anything. On that note, it might be a bit slow-paced for a 12 yr old.

 

ETA: The Chyrsalids was (and still is) one of my favorite books. I read it for the first time when I was around 12 yrs old.

[LostSurprise]

I would say the opposite. Day of the Triffids is not hard SF because there is no 'science' behind anything. They find the plants in the Amazon. They breed the plants for food. The world goes crazy (easiest way to say it without spoilers). There are no explanations for anything. Its a speculative plot line to examine what humans would do if truly challenged by another species, one we can't imagine fearing.

 

This reminds me of the Octavia Butler novel Kindred. The plot has a basic time travel component at its center, but because there's no reasoning why the person time travels, the author does not even consider it to be a SF novel. There's no science. Its a novel which uses a SF trope in order to explore what would happen if a modern woman was faced with a historical situation. The people are the plot, not the science.

 

Another way to think of it is, does the author care about how this and that was done? A soft SF writer uses the imaginative elements of SF to explore people or action. A hard SF writer may also do that, but they genuinely care how those scientific elements occur. You'll see a much greater focus on technology, biology, physics, engineering, and how those things affect or define the world they created.

[Punchie]

I guess the causes for the disaster (specifically the meteor shower) are speculative. From that perspective, it wouldn't be hard SF. I always interpreted both that and the triffids as man-made, and that the triffids did a great job adapting to the Amazon, but weren't from there originally.

 

What about Mars by Ben Bova?

[Julie Smith]

I would consider it hard SF. Everything that happens in in the book is a direct result of human technology (genetic/plant engineering and bombs/missiles orbiting the Earth). I love this book b/c it's more of a character study than anything. On that note, it might be a bit slow-paced for a 12 yr old.

 

ETA: The Chyrsalids was (and still is) one of my favorite books. I read it for the first time when I was around 12 yrs old.

 

 

I loved http://en.wikipedia..../The_Chrysalids The Chysalids when I was younger. I suppose I still do but I haven't read it in decades.

 

I feel that the majority of the books mentioned in this thread are not hard Science - fiction. They are great books that use science fiction elements. But to me is the difference is that in a hard science fiction book the science takes the front seat. The characters a back seat. Every chapter talks about the science involved in the book.

 

I suppose till I read "Inherit the Stars" I didn't know the difference because until then I had never read a hard Science - fiction book.

 

To explain the difference let's look at the book "Farmer in the Sky".

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer_in_the_Sky

 

Family goes to space and become farmers on Ganymede. The story could be pretty much the same and have the family going on a long journey by boat and having to struggle against hard conditions to become farmers on an inhospital island. There is talk about gravity, oxygen, ... but they are not central to the story.

 

But then look at Inherit the Stars. The story could not be told in any other way. They discover a man on the moon who is 50, 000 years old. The science used to look at his body. His tools he had with him. Trying to put the clues together to figure out how a human man died on the moon 50,000 years ago.

 

To just follow the clues you talk about how old the earth is, the evolution of man, how man differs from other species on the planet, when the moon was formed, how many is adapted to a 24 hour long day, how to decode other languages, the formation of the moon, the difference between the farside and the nearside of the moon, ... and this is just what I remember from reading in over 10 years ago.

 

It pulls you in and grips you with a mystery. But in many ways it is also like reading the most exiciting science puzzle ever.

 

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/424640921

[ElizabethB]

I found it through this list, which looks like an interesting list with some other possible leads:

 

http://astrosociety.org/edu/resources/scifiprint.html

 

Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward

 

Book Description

In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms--the cheela--living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers . . .

 

http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Egg-Del-Rey-Impact/dp/034543529X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371007831&sr=8-1&keywords=Dragons+egg