Author Topic: Plausible sci-fi books  (Read 106780 times)

Offline Jason

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Plausible sci-fi books
« on: 10/03/2006 09:39 pm »
I was wondering if I could get some recomendations on some plausible sci-fi reading material? Plausible meaning technology that's within our reach in say 50 to 100 years from now. I've read some Bova and that's alright, but is there anything that would delve into the technology a little deeper? Thanks.

Offline nacnud

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #1 on: 10/03/2006 10:37 pm »
Heres a few worth checking out.

Stephen Baxter - Voyage is supposed to be a good might have been if the Apollo program had been continued rather than the Shuttle. Titan is similar but uses shuttle era tech.

Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars is more speculative but a good read.

Charles Stross - Accelerando is a new take on the cyber punk novel.

Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space is more of a far future space opera novel but I'll add it in here as it is what I am currently reading.

Offline Dom

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #2 on: 10/04/2006 10:37 am »
Quote
nacnud - 3/10/2006  6:20 PM

Heres a few worth checking out.

Stephen Baxter - Voyage is supposed to be a good might have been if the Apollo program had been continued rather than the Shuttle. Titan is similar but uses shuttle era tech.

Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars is more speculative but a good read.

Charles Stross - Accelerando is a new take on the cyber punk novel.

Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space is more of a far future space opera novel but I'll add it in here as it is what I am currently reading.


I'd recommend ALL of Alastair Reynolds' books --- fantastic reads, even his short stories. I'd have to say he's my fav sci fi author these days.

I've only read a few of Baxter's books, Voyage not being one of them. That being said, I have enjoyed what I've read from him.

Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #3 on: 10/04/2006 10:51 am »
Coincidentally, I'm re-reading Stephen Baxter's "Voyage" now. It is a very moving book and you really feel like you've been into space after reading it. Also, I felt a little sad that America's space program didn't follow a similar course to the one portrayed in the novel. America would have had Astronauts on Mars in the mid-1980s if this timeline and mission design had been followed, but with other technological and geopolitical consequences.

"Titan" is a powerful novel, though a depressing one at times and with some baffling choices by Baxter in both the story and style. But it's main virtue is that you feel you've been taken somewhere; on a real voyage of discovery to an alien world, in this case, Titan.
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Offline PurduesUSAFguy

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #4 on: 10/04/2006 12:07 pm »
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MATTBLAK - 4/10/2006  5:34 AM

Coincidentally, I'm re-reading Stephen Baxter's "Voyage" now. It is a very moving book and you really feel like you've been into space after reading it. Also, I felt a little sad that America's space program didn't follow a similar course to the one portrayed in the novel. America would have had Astronauts on Mars in the mid-1980s if this timeline and mission design had been followed, but with other technological and geopolitical consequences.

"Titan" is a powerful novel, though a depressing one at times and with some baffling choices by Baxter in both the story and style. But it's main virtue is that you feel you've been taken somewhere; on a real voyage of discovery to an alien world, in this case, Titan.

I too really liked Voyage but that was a depressing book for its own reasons, we get to Mars in Voyage but the program is cut to only one mission and they are only on the surface for 30 days. I understood why he did it from a story standpoint but the failure of the NERVA test flight also sort of irked me.

I for one would highly recomend the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy, my three favorite books hands down and while alot of the technology is speculative, I would say its very solidly based in reality and is a good baseline for what we will be playing with around mid-century and beyond. IIRC the books take place between 2038-2170.

Offline Jason

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #5 on: 10/04/2006 03:09 pm »
I did read the Mars trilogy by Robinson and that's actually the type of books that I had in mind. I'll have to check into Voyage and Titan. Thanks.

Offline mike robel

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #6 on: 01/06/2009 11:41 pm »
I have two:

Marooned by Martin Caiden (both the mercury and apollo versions)
Voyage by Stephen Baxter

Offline relyon

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #7 on: 01/07/2009 12:29 am »
Rendezvouz with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Bob
« Last Edit: 01/07/2009 12:30 am by relyon »
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Offline Proponent

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #8 on: 01/07/2009 02:09 am »
Marooned by Martin Caiden (both the mercury and apollo versions)

Any idea where I could get a copy of the Mercury version?

Offline sciencebuff6513

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #9 on: 01/07/2009 02:15 am »
Pandora's star by peter f hamilton

Offline NUAETIUS

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #10 on: 01/07/2009 02:37 am »
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
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Offline spacedem

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #11 on: 01/07/2009 02:48 am »
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Seconded.  The whole trilogy.

Offline Bill White

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #12 on: 01/07/2009 03:15 am »
Voyage by Stephen Baxter
« Last Edit: 01/07/2009 03:16 am by Bill White »
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Offline gomorrha

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #13 on: 01/07/2009 06:34 am »
Voyage and Titan - both by Stephen Baxter.
"The Grand Tour" by Ben Bova (several books).

Offline mike robel

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #14 on: 01/07/2009 06:39 am »
Marooned by Martin Caiden (both the mercury and apollo versions)

Any idea where I could get a copy of the Mercury version?

Sorry. no.  I found mine in some obscure used book store, I think in Kansas of all places.  E-bay?

Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #15 on: 01/07/2009 07:00 am »
I have two:

Marooned by Martin Caiden (both the mercury and apollo versions)
Voyage by Stephen Baxter

Yes, "Voyage" by Stephen Baxter is one of my very favourites -- it literally moved me to *tears* at the future that was lost to us. But at least Baxter also makes us ask whether or not it would have been worth sacrificing all else in space history for just one Mars shot? I also thought his "Titan" (released 1997) was powerful and brilliant but depressing too -- many of the things portrayed in it have come true, including the loss of 'Columbia', and the rise of extremist religion, politics, terrorism and an increasingly weird world.
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Offline tonyq

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #16 on: 01/07/2009 10:55 am »

Yes, "Voyage" by Stephen Baxter is one of my very favourites -- it literally moved me to *tears* at the future that was lost to us. But at least Baxter also makes us ask whether or not it would have been worth sacrificing all else in space history for just one Mars shot? I also thought his "Titan" (released 1997) was powerful and brilliant but depressing too -- many of the things portrayed in it have come true, including the loss of 'Columbia', and the rise of extremist religion, politics, terrorism and an increasingly weird world.


I really enjoyed both 'Titan' and 'Voyage', for the simple reason that they are based around known, or at least credible technologies and events. As others have said, his vision of the loss of Columbia and also the portrayal of the first Chinese manned flight were uncannily similar to the real events, although written several years before. However most of his subsequent work has moved away from the 'fact based fiction' criteria and is lost to me, as a result.

Also, don't forget Michael Cassutt's 'Red Moon' and 'Tango Midnight'.
The latter is set in the early 21st Century ISS/Soyuz/Shuttle/Chinese Manned era and provides a credible account of how space tourism, commercial activity and co-operation might have evolved, also set against the background of a less than happy world.   

Offline William Barton

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #17 on: 01/07/2009 11:16 am »
I would strongly recommend any number of hard SF books by Allen Steele, as well as the others mentioned above. Also anything by Eric Kotani (which is the pen name for space scientist Yoji Kondo). And if I may be permitted a brief squeak on my own has-been horn, "Fellow Traveler," by William Barton and Michael Capobianco (Bantam, July 1991, just before the Soviet Union fell!) is a portrayal of a NEO expedition using an extrapolation of Soviet equipment that had been demo'd by 1989 (the year the book was written, before history so swiftly slew our pipe-dream). It has as an appendix an expanded version of "Harvesting the Near-Earthers," our 1989 Ad Astra article on space resource utilization. This stuff was my main contribution to contemporary thinking on the matter.

Offline William Barton

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #18 on: 01/07/2009 11:23 am »
For anyone who's interested in the deeper roots of hard SF, I would strongly recommend reading Arthur Clarke's first two novels, "Prelude to Space" and "The Sands of Mars." The latter, from 1951, has very obsolete planetology, but is otherwise startlingly modern in its technology and outlook. Plus the centeral character of Martin Gibson (a journalist sent on the shakedown cruise for the first interplanetary passenger liner) is quite well worked out and thoughtful.

Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: Plausible sci-fi books
« Reply #19 on: 01/07/2009 12:10 pm »
Allen Steele's "Lunar Descent" is a terrific book. Also, for an alternative history based on the "Von Braun Paradigm" of space program -- I've read Steele's "The Tranquility Alternative" more than once.
« Last Edit: 01/07/2009 12:11 pm by MATTBLAK »
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