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Comment by dobladov | Hacker News Reader

Can you recommend real sci-fi books?

Hold on, I didn't say it wasn't real sci-fi. I said it wasn't really "hard sf". As somebody else said, the definition of the genre is a little fuzzy. But in my experience the best hard SF doesn't handwave away inconsistencies, and uses our current understanding of science as a basis for the science in the story. Sophons are about as believable as dragons.

Stephen Baxter does a great job with hard sf, and much of Kim Stanley Robinson's work fits the bill.

Edit:

Oops I guess I did say that people who liked it hadn't read real SF. What I meant by that was that they were an exposed to a lot of the genre, because the "original" ideas in TBP I keep hearing people praise felt very familiar and tropey to me.

From the Baxter wiki segment on Xeelee Sequence:

"The central narrative is that of humanity rising and evolving to become the second most powerful race in the universe, next to the god-like Xeelee. Character development tends to be secondary to the depiction of advanced theories and ideas, such as the true nature of the Great Attractor, naked singularities and the great battle between baryonic and dark matter lifeforms."

Is this what you think is harder sci-fi than TBP, with better character development?

I would guess that they were thinking more about things like Voyage (which is an alternate history, but very hard sci-fi).

Not hard sci fi but I loved John Brunners work, especially Jagged Orbit... seeing what he was talking about 40-50 years ago is incredible. As soon as I finished it I grabbed 3 more of his books, they weren't as good but all interesting, on par with the Culture series which is another one of my favorites

I really wanted to like Ministry for the Future but I felt like it was 200 pages longer than it needed to be. But interesting premises.

Not OP, but Greg Egan is mentioned somewhat often around here. Having read some of is books (Schild's Ladder, Permutation City, Diaspora) I can firmly recommend them, and would assign them the "hard sci-fi" tag.

You can also never go wrong with Arthur C. Clarke. Another favourite of mine, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Charles Sheffield.

Greg Egan's diaspora is fantastic. I can't stop thinking about that book.

Greg Egan is so good. The last few books didn't quite click with me, but Diaspora is a book I return every few years.

If you are reading this, Greg: I want to have your book!

Permutation City is hard sci-fi? That has mind uploading and the dust theory of consciousness. Both of which are very speculative.

Besides those authors others have mentioned in sibling comments, give Alastair Reynolds a try. All of his work is hard sci-fi and very good.

Peter f Hamilton. The commonwealth series is incredible. I’ve read every single book of his and can’t find anything to complain about. IMHO, he’s up there with Alastair Reynolds, Greg Egan, Ian m. Banks…

Peter Watts; Blindsight, Echopraxia.

Be prepared for a wild ride.

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