The Hard Sci-fi thread

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Surprised nobody has made a thread for this yet. As much as I love soft sci-fi and science-fantasy (including some very cheesy stuff!) my favourite genre is probably hard sci-fi as it tends to be more exciting and imaginative to me.

Whats everyones favourite hard sci-fi novels/writers?

My personal favourite is probably "Dragon's Egg" as I love the idea of alien life evolving on a neutron star and I love how they are also the primary protagonists. Since Robert L Forward was an astrophysicist, it's very hard on the realistic science side which just makes the exciting concepts in it more believable and inspiring.

Second would be "Mission of Gravity" by Hal Clement, gotta love the idea of the Oblate planet and the main character is an alien centipede which is badass. Of course I love Arthur C Clarke and such too.

[Psychosplodge]

At what point does hard sci-fi become soft sci-fi?
Does "The lost fleet" count as hard sci-fi? Quite like that series.

[Deadlift]

Not heard the phrase "hard" sci fi, not sure if it counts but I loved all the books based in the Dune universe. Frank Herbert's books are great and I really enjoyed the evolution of the different factions in the story's that span thousands of years. The prequels by his son and co were not bad and I found the butlarian jihad series enjoyable. I liked how they introduced the origins of the Dune universe tech into these books. The final book which was also written by Herbert's son and co (sorry cant remember the names) was also very good. I liked how they were able to tie in their prequels into the end of the story very much.
If you have never read the back story to Baron Harkonnan and why he is a floating pustulating fatman then your missing a treat.
Arthur C Clarks books are good, I read a series about a massive spaceship with its own Eco system that travels the galaxy picking up different species and having them mix in its internal world and observing the results as an experiment. I can't remember the name of the series but it's very good. I did find A C Clarks writing a bit haunting though considering the claims of him having an unhealthy interest in children. One part of the series is where an old man is having to a relationship with a very young girl to procreate the human race on this huge spaceship. It harked of wishful thinking on his part as the author to be honest.

Asimov is cool, I like short stories and his idea of the 3 rules for AI is fantastic.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

My two favorite hard sci-fis have to be [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footfall"]Footfall[/URL] and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mote_in_God%27s_Eye"]The Mote in God's Eye[/URL] (w/ sequel [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gripping_Hand"]The Gripping Hand[/URL]). They both feel a lot like the author sat down, designed an alien race, figured out how that biology would inform its society/customs, and then built the plot around that, makes it feel a lot more involved than typical sci-fi. (Don't let Footfall's covers put you off, the artists can't get over drawing the aliens as "SPACE ELEPHANNNNTS".)

At what point does hard sci-fi become soft sci-fi?

Pretty much any sci-fi which sits down and describes how the futuristic technology works using contemporary/theoretical science, instead of relying on "space magic".

[Wolfshade]

What is hard sci-fi?

[Psychosplodge]

In context of its in universe physics or actual physics?

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

A bit of both - having a couple of breaks from reality is useful for having a cool setting, after all, but too many and it becomes soft sci-fi. It's the difference between 40k's "We get FTL by jumping into hell!" and Mass Effect's "We get non-time-dilated FTL by applying an electrical current to Eezo, lowering the mass of nearby objects." (Not that I'd necessarily call Mass Effect a hard sci-fi setting.)

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Yeah, The Rev pretty sums it up well. Nice to know we both like that genre too!!

I haven't read Footfall, but I loved Larry Niven's Ringworld books. Yeah, that's another aspect of why I like the genre - there is often a lot of "worldbuilding" which I am a sucker for lol. I like how they often go hardcore into the aliens too - probably why it is my fave genre really. The Cheela in Dragon's egg are pretty weird and alien too, I like that their minds work a million times faster than ours (but have shorter lifespans than us) - makes what they accomplish more impressive in a way.

@Deadlift, Dune is pretty much the definition of Soft sci-fi being that it is a science-fantasy setting. It is by far my favourite soft sci-fi/science-fantasy setting. Arthur C Clarke's works are probably the most popular and arguably some of the best hard sci-fi - "Rendezvous with Rama" being a good example... you kinda picked the best examples from each end of the spectrum there :P

[Deadlift]

Thanks for that, I just couldn't get my brain to engage the name of those books, yes the Rama series that's the one. The last book being exceptionally good.

[DarkLink]

The Lost Fleet is definitely hard sci-fi, most of the story is about the importance of FTL and relativity with regards to ship to ship combat.

Most of the sci-fi falls more in the center. Leviathan Wakes and Old Mans War both explain the logic behind the way that society has formed around various technologies, but that's more setting than story, and the plot itself is character driven. I can't actually think of any really recent big hard sci-fi books (other than The Lost Fleet), to be honest. They're out there, I just haven't read them.

What is hard sci-fi?

Where the physics and/or social implications of advanced technologies involved are explained rather than implied or handwaved. Star Wars is soft sci-fi, because they never explain how anything actually works (actually, Star Wars is as much fantasy as sci-fi). I, Robot is a classic hard sci-fi, because the entire point of the story is to explore the implications of the Three Laws of Robotics in minute detail.