Topic: Hard Sci-Fi books that work for SM inspiration

[Marc R]

oooo....
where is this book?!

"Hammers Slammers" is a series, author David Drake Essentially any of his SF is both good, and rather toward the hard end. He's not a technophile, but some useful stuff in his books, not only the "Standard Cutting Bar" you're replying to above, but "Powerguns" which are essentially focused plasmatic repeaters, using energized copper ions for fuel. (Most of the cool tech stuff usually ends up being stuff used against the slammers, as they tend toward a standard kit, so the variety comes from the foes.)

His "Lt Leary" series has nice materials for a lower tech level. Plasma guns are unweildy. . .higly developed projectile guns, lowish tech space missiles (This series is another iteration of "Horatio Hornblower" inspired material akin to "Honor Harrington" or "Master & Commander" in style.)

His "Cross the Stars" books are an even lower tech level look similar to the leary books. Crude plasma weapons, no missiles, space combat by boarding parties even. (The inspirations here were the english and dutch corsairs and privateers who preyed on the spanish new world)

"Honor Harrington" books by David Webber are a higher, smoother tech level. (Like the hand pistols are "Pulsers" that fire high-ROF High-velocity explosive darts using gravitic impellers, in a pocket sized gun.) Mostly this focuses on ship tech though, not hand weapons.

I'll think of some more.

[markc]

 I have the first compalation of Hammers Slamers and I know there is at least 1 more. Also some of the Honor Harrington books are free from the publishes website. A very good way to see if you would like them or not.

MDC

[RandalThor]

Another good David Weber series is the Heirs of Empire series, which starts with Mutineer's Moon. Very cool.

I read this other one recently called: The Last World War. It involved the Earth being invaded by ailiens only they don't come in spaceships, they arrive through dimensional doors they create through their science. It was pretty-cool, though maybe not "hard" science fiction.

[Marc R]

There are Drake and Webber books available for free on www.baen.com (click on the free library).

Elizabeth Moon is also pretty good, the Serrano books on one end, with some delving into the issues of coldsleep, the realities of intersteller policing. (Planet Pirates).

There are quite a few good authors here (I'm looking at the free library list) "Mountains of Mourning" delves into the logic of police powers when you have a perfect truth drug handy.

[Usdrothek]

Peter F Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy:
1) The Reality Disfunction
2) The Neutronium Alchemist
3) The Naked God

Really in depth hard space opera with a huge cast of charcters. Great insight into the realities of managing a galaxy wide empire from politics to logistics and ship travel time. No faster than light communication, but ships have jump technology (akin to traveller).

Bitek starships/ space stations and those people with implanted genes to allow a collective 'telepathic' communication with others (people, bitek ships, bitek servitor creatures) possesing the same gene.

Realistic ship combat (ordinary ships have no artificial gravity). Good mechanical augmentation of humans for a variety of perposes from combat to zero-G engineering. I really like the neural net agumentation (neural nanonics) allowing instant comunication (datavise) with those with similar technology, remote operation of devices, skill software and control of body functions. I developed some rules for their use in my campaign.

My group played an 18 month SM campaign set in his 'Confederation' universe and like it very much.

[markc]

 I also loved The Night Dawn trilogy. Right now I am reading the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell and it is good but simple read but so far he has stuck to the same formula as the first three. But he is trying to break out of the old plot line and I hope he does as I enjoy the series. So far it has basicly focused on starship combat or at least that is what I seem to remember most from the past three books. But if you are looking for an epic sci-fi series I do not think this is what you are looking for.

 An older series I loved would be Bio of a Space Tyrant which I has seen back on the shelves lately.

MDC

[croakerdogboy]

I see Bio of a Space Tyrant on my shelves all the time. 

Seriously. I read Hammers Slammers and some of the sequels a long time ago I liked them then, but I think I traded them off at the used store. May have to replenish.

The question I have is what could be considered Hard Sci Fi. I read a lot of Golden Age Sci Fi. Asimov, Bradbury, Clark, etc.  Of course they were considered hard for the time, but I don't know what they would be considered now.

I can't honestly remember the last modern (written in the last two years) hard sci-fi that I have read excluding cyberpunk or mishmash fantasy stuff.

[Marc R]

Hard sci fi tends to be tech oriented. . .and usually quasi-realistic. . .soft sci fi is often just set in the future, or a galaxy far far away.

Lots of classics are Hard, like Rama, or Asimov's Robot books. . .I'd consider the foundation books more soft sci fi.

Bio of a ST is closer to soft than hard, though many people might disagree.

EE Smith, definitely hard sci fi, if dated to hell and gone.

There's a lot of people doing hard, tech oriented sci-fi these days. . .Webber, Moon, Ringo. . .

Oh, David Gerrold. . .his space opera is pretty good, but his "War of the C'torr" books are exceptional, if only for the originality of concept

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

With regard to the hardness of sf, you might like to consider reading:
http://www.kheper.net/topics/scifi/grading.html

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[ictus]

integral trees by Larry Nivan is a favorite of mine for using in sm/rm makes for some interesting and slightly odd gaming

[croakerdogboy]

Oh, David Gerrold. . .his space opera is pretty good, but his "War of the C'torr" books are exceptional

I'm behind you all the way on that one. I bought the first book when it came out, then went on to get the entire series. I liked them quite a bit. Then they came out with the new series. It was the "unedited authors version". Gave my old ones to my brother and purchased the new ones. Logically I figured they would be better, of course it's the authors original concept.

They were awful. I had a hard time reading them. I never believed that editors improved writers stuff until then.

[croakerdogboy]

I haven't read the Stainless Steel Rat series in quite a while. I am going to have to go back and do that.

[Mungo]

Real Hard SF: Alastair Reynolds

I did once a SF campaign in his universe and according to my players it had one of the coolest endings ever. Actually I used parts of the plot of "Revelation Space", and my players finally woke up the wolves (machines trying to kill all sentient organic life), dying in the process and putting entire humanity at risk. But they did not believe the warnings....

BR
Juergen

[markc]

I haven't read the Stainless Steel Rat series in quite a while. I am going to have to go back and do that.

 Do you know if the came out with a new book in the last 8 years? I read all the books back in the early 90's but I seam to remember somewhere that they were either thinking about a new book or one came out.

MDC

[croakerdogboy]

They are

The Stainless Steel Rat 1961
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge 1970
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World 1972
The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You 1978
The Stainless Steel Rat for President 1982
The Stainless Steel Rat is Born 1985
The Stainless Steel Rat Get's Drafted 1987
The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat 1993
The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues 1994
The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell 1996
The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus 1999

[markc]

 Thanks, I think that I have read 7 or 8 wich does look right based on the publishing dates you gave. I will have to look them up or justy wait a few more years and check to see if they are in the Sci-Fi book club list. I join about every 10 years or so to pick up some authors that I have miss'ed or to find some new gems.

MDC

[Hawkwind]

They were awful. I had a hard time reading them. I never believed that editors improved writers stuff until then.

LOL! Try comparing early Stephen King to later Stephen King - after he was popular enough to force the publishers to release his books unedited. The page counts blew out enormously for not much increase in the plot.

Its very, very rare to find an author who can properly edit their own material.

Hawk

[markc]

They were awful. I had a hard time reading them. I never believed that editors improved writers stuff until then.

LOL! Try comparing early Stephen King to later Stephen King - after he was popular enough to force the publishers to release his books unedited. The page counts blew out enormously for not much increase in the plot.

Its very, very rare to find an author who can properly edit their own material.

Hawk

 On the SK note, I read 3 or 4 books of his in the late 80's and figured out his pattern. So I do not really like to read his stuff anymore as I know by page 80 + or - 10 pages something is going to happen. It has been sometime so I do not remember the exzact pages when stuff was going to happen but you get the idea. In general I do like his story ideas and how he gets from the start to the end but I just have trouble with the road he presents to get from A to Z.

MDC

[Marc R]

"Armor" by Steakley is a good space armor source.

[croakerdogboy]

Armor is excellent. One of my favorites. Vampire$ is also pretty good. At least it's entertaining horror. Not that common anymore.