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Good hard sci-fi ebooks?

 
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Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/19/2012 4:12:57 PM   
Perturabo


Posts: 2013
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Status: offline 		I just bought a reader and I'm wondering if there are any besides Through Struggle the Stars.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/19/2012 5:34:31 PM   
SLAAKMAN


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Status: offline 		Good idea. Ill look for some.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/19/2012 7:21:20 PM   
Dave Briggs


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Status: offline 		Try "The Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell. Great space combat and theme.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/19/2012 7:23:25 PM   
carnifex


Posts: 1291
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Status: offline 		http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Donaldson

Scroll down to The Gap Cycle. I highly recommend these.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/19/2012 7:46:34 PM   
jamesm

 

Posts: 728
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From: Cairns, Australia
Status: offline 		You can not go past David Weber's Honor Harrington series.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/19/2012 10:22:42 PM   
Jevhaddah


Posts: 487
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From: Scotland
Status: offline 		I iz reading EE Doc Smiths Skylark series atm... I am a sucker for very early and early Sci-fi

Cheers

Jev

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/19/2012 11:53:15 PM   
Perturabo


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quote:

ORIGINAL: jamesm

You can not go past David Weber's Honor Harrington series.

That's not hard sci-fi.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dave Briggs

Try "The Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell. Great space combat and theme.

quote:

"The Lost Fleet"

Lol, his ebook files are more expensive than those embedded in paper readers.

I had the first part. I gave it to a local library as there was a promotion where they promised to buy the rest of fantasy/sci-fi series, when one donates a book.
So, they have bought the whole "The Lost Fleet" series but someone stole the whole series from the library before I got to rent them. Along with two other books that I have donated and some other very good series that I wanted to read.

quote:

ORIGINAL: carnifex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Donaldson

Scroll down to The Gap Cycle. I highly recommend these.

Lol, his ebook files are more expensive than those embedded in paper readers.

Also, is it really hard sci-fi. I mean with aliens and stuff? Are the ships and weapon system and stuff based on current understanding of physics?

Anyway, when I talk about hard sci-fi I mean something that won't make an Atomic Rocket reader cringe and when I talk about ebooks, I mean an ebooks where the price is decreased by the cost of providing a paper reader, not increased.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jevhaddah

I iz reading EE Doc Smiths Skylark series atm... I am a sucker for very early and early Sci-fi

Cheers

Jev

Are they on Gutenberg? I remember enjoying his Triplanetary.

I also love retro sci-fi. What would you recommend from the very early and early stuff?

< Message edited by Perturabo -- 12/19/2012 11:55:16 PM >

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 2:53:17 AM   
VPaulus

 

Posts: 863
Joined: 6/23/2011
From: Portugal
Status: online 		I've always loved Heinlein's "Starship Trooper". I hated the Paul Verhoeven movie.

E.E. "Doc" Smith is a must also. But they aren't good ebook editions that I know. :(

< Message edited by VPaulus -- 12/20/2012 2:57:13 AM >

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 6:09:03 AM   
nicwb

 

Posts: 250
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Status: offline 		I would recommend,

Richard Morgan

"Altered Carbon" followed by "Broken Angels" and "Woken Furies"

or

Neil Asher's "Polity SEries" of novels

If its militaryt in tone then definitely anything David Weber or perhaps David Drake.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 12:43:35 PM   
Perturabo


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quote:

ORIGINAL: VPaulus

I've always loved Heinlein's "Starship Trooper". I hated the Paul Verhoeven movie.

It's quite awful that they have hijacked the i.p.

Now there will never be a decent movie/animated adaptation of Starship Troopers.

quote:

ORIGINAL: VPaulus

E.E. "Doc" Smith is a must also. But they aren't good ebook editions that I know. :(

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s#a9515
I don't know what's their quality, though.

quote:

ORIGINAL: nicwb

I would recommend,

Richard Morgan

"Altered Carbon" followed by "Broken Angels" and "Woken Furies"

or

Neil Asher's "Polity SEries" of novels

If its militaryt in tone then definitely anything David Weber or perhaps David Drake.

More stuff that costs more as a file than when as the paper reader version.

I'm not interested in anything that isn't at least 2/3 less expensive than the paper reader version. I have just spent 300PLN on an my own hardware and I didn't do it so that I would pay them more for reading on my own hardware than for them providing me with hardware to read it.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 1:27:20 PM   
VPaulus

 

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From: Portugal
Status: online
quote:

ORIGINAL: Perturabo


http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s#a9515
I don't know what's their quality, though.

For me it's important the look & feel of a ebook, for example with no space between paragraphs, etc.

BTW, Calibre, it's a software tool that any ebook owner must have. It's free and it really helps a lot in converting, formatting, cataloguing and managing your ebook colection.
http://calibre-ebook.com/

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 3:05:32 PM   
Vasquez


Posts: 291
Joined: 12/29/2000
From: München, Bayern, Deutschland
Status: offline 		I liked John Ringo`s "Invasion" Series (military Sci-Fi). Not sure if they are avaiable for e-books.

"General, Take your second corps, whipe the invasors south of the potomac, relief the First Corps and cover Washington"
"Uhm. Who are we? The Waffen-SS?"

=)

< Message edited by Vasquez -- 12/20/2012 3:07:53 PM >

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 3:43:11 PM   
HanBarca


Posts: 418
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Status: offline 		"The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman. One of the best ever hard sci-fi novels. I've read it, umh, like 5 times.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 4:55:01 PM   
bean5671


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try http://www.stephen-baxter.com/
hopefully you understand a little physics if not you will learn a bit

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 5:26:40 PM   
Jevhaddah


Posts: 487
Joined: 11/24/2005
From: Scotland
Status: offline 		The EE Dpc Smith Skylark books are on Manybooks and Guttenberg... I think.. there is a website with ALL of them set up by fan, but I am unsure of copyright issues...

Cheers

Jev

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 6:31:33 PM   
Perturabo


Posts: 2013
Joined: 11/17/2007
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: VPaulus

BTW, Calibre, it's a software tool that any ebook owner must have. It's free and it really helps a lot in converting, formatting, cataloguing and managing your ebook colection.
http://calibre-ebook.com/

Can it help in stuff like converting a wiki article or a web tutorial into an ebook?

quote:

ORIGINAL: bean5671



try http://www.stephen-baxter.com/
hopefully you understand a little physics if not you will learn a bit

Meh. More stuff that costs the same or more for a file than for the paper reader version.

Though, it seems that libraries in my city have 13 of his books. I'll check them out, thanks.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/20/2012 7:37:00 PM   
VPaulus

 

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From: Portugal
Status: online
quote:

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

Can it help in stuff like converting a wiki article or a web tutorial into an ebook?

As you know there are several different types of ebooks format and the ereaders don't read all formats. So with converting I meant converting between those types. But I would give it a try because one of the formats is htmlz which is nothing more than a zipped html page.

You've also Sigil, which edit/create Epub format from html and xml sources, but it's not very easy to work with:
http://code.google.com/p/sigil/

< Message edited by VPaulus -- 12/20/2012 7:42:06 PM >

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/21/2012 4:16:30 AM   
Southern_land


Posts: 2258
Joined: 11/19/2007
Status: offline 		Man plus was reasonably "hard scifi" in its day I think

okay it's not hard sci fi but I have to reccomend Peter F. Hamiltons Night's dawn trilogy for sheer scope (if nothing else they were released as 9 books in the States) or the Patrick Tilley's amtrak wars series (6 books)

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/21/2012 5:15:38 AM   
Erik Rutins

 

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Status: online 		Just as a side note, if you haven't read "Through Struggle the Stars" yet, it's available here:

http://www.thehumanreach.net/

... and a sequel is on the way for 2013.

Regards,

- Erik


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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/21/2012 12:12:02 PM   
martok


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Status: offline 		Just about anything by Clarke or Asimov would qualify (especially the latter's Robot and Foundation series), although I don't know if they're available in ebook form. I also second the recommendation of Weber's Honor Harrington novels.

A couple folks I know also really like Poul Anderson. I'm not terribly familiar with his work, although I did read (and enjoy) Harvest of Stars.




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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/21/2012 2:44:22 PM   
Perturabo


Posts: 2013
Joined: 11/17/2007
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Just as a side note, if you haven't read "Through Struggle the Stars" yet, it's available here:

http://www.thehumanreach.net/

... and a sequel is on the way for 2013.

Regards,

- Erik

I'm looking forward to that sequel. "Through Struggle the Stars" is the only military sci-fi book that I've read that treats science really seriously. I really liked the space combat scenes.
The writer is both a journalist and have done extensive research for the book.
So he not only generally got science right but also got characters right. It's a rare combination in sci-fi.

And the author is sane enough to notice that paper books are so expensive, mainly because they come with their own reader.
It was the first ebook novel that I bought. I couldn't afford an e-reader back then, so I have simply printed it in a print-shop - IIRC it was because the paper version wasn't available from any European store.

quote:

ORIGINAL: martok

Just about anything by Clarke or Asimov would qualify (especially the latter's Robot and Foundation series)

I remember Asimov suddenly being very careful to not mention atomic shields, atomic engines and atomic blasters in his later Foundation novels.


I have found a list of recommended stuff on the Atomic Rocket site:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/atomicnovel.php


< Message edited by Perturabo -- 12/21/2012 3:04:14 PM >

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/21/2012 8:09:45 PM   
Hertston


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From: Cornwall, UK
Status: offline 		My recommendation would be Alistair Reynolds Revelation Space stuff. That is 'hard' sci-fi while, much as I enjoyed some of it, very little listed so far has been. For a single novel, Peter Watts' Blindsight is the best I've read in a while.

< Message edited by Hertston -- 12/21/2012 8:10:35 PM >

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/23/2012 2:17:59 PM   
WBaugh

 

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Status: offline 		This may not fit the bill but The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey have been fantastic reads. They have released 2 or the 3 planned books:

http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-Expanse-James-Corey/dp/0316129089/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1356272080&sr=8-4&keywords=james+s+a+corey

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/29/2012 7:52:27 PM   
JM230

 

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From: Finland
Status: offline 		Haven't yet read the series myself, but I keep hearing only good things about the Ender's game books. Not sure if it's hard sci-fi though.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 12/29/2012 9:33:30 PM   
Hertston


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From: Cornwall, UK
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quote:

ORIGINAL: JM230
Haven't yet read the series myself, but I keep hearing only good things about the Ender's game books. Not sure if it's hard sci-fi though.


It isn't, but what it lacks in plausible science is outweighed by some pretty hefty and thought provoking themes. Or at least the first two are; the series got more and more dragged out and, IMHO, boring after that.

I'm fascinated to see what they have done with the movie, as Ender's Game is essentially a story about young kids forced into behaviour, including brutal violence, that real young kids really shouldn't be watching on screen (and I'm usually fairly liberal on such things). I don't really see how they can retain the essential themes while also retaining an audience. It's virtually impossible to publicize a film about children as an older teen/adult flic, yet make a film you could take children to see and you no longer have Ender's Game.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 1/3/2013 11:32:44 AM   
LoBaron


Posts: 3887
Joined: 1/26/2003
From: Vienna, Austria
Status: offline 		Greg Egan by all means. He plays with the physics of the Universe as we know it like a child plays with snowflakes. It is simply
wonderful. I once thought Baxter is the master of grand scale hard SF, but only until I read the first Egan books.

One of the best I have read is "Diaspora".
Was available for €6,49 last time I looked at Amazon Kindle shop...

"Oceanic" is also cool, if you are into short story SF.
You cannot go wrong with him, he is the pope of realistic SF IMHO.


I like Stephen Baxter but he sometmes seems to have difficulties in fluent writing IMHO. He is a great Physician, has a wonderful fantasy,
but is only a mediocre writer. Still read all his books.

Iain Banks for not-so-hard but plausable, intelligent and funny, and extremely well written SF. "Excession" was sensational, but I liked close to all
of the "Culture" series. He is a great non-SF writer as well ("Walking on Glass", "The Wasp Factory",....)

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 1/3/2013 1:18:03 PM   
parusski


Posts: 4470
Joined: 5/8/2000
From: Wyoming, Even Liberals Welcome
Status: offline
quote:

I would recommend,

Richard Morgan

"Altered Carbon" followed by "Broken Angels" and "Woken Furies"


Have to agree. I read Morgan's book several years ago. Recently I bought the audiobook versions of the three books and listened them with great pleasure.


quote:

Try "The Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell.


Yes, try Jack Campbell.

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RE: Good hard sci-fi ebooks? - 1/11/2013 5:07:03 AM   
Bletchley_Geek


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From: Living in the fair city of Melbourne, Australia
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Perturabo
So he not only generally got science right but also got characters right. It's a rare combination in sci-fi.


Yes, indeed it is. Some of my favourites having both:

* Kim Stanley Robinson Mars saga. I think the strongest of the three is the first "Red Mars", featuring really memorable characters and plausible technology (which already exists, interestingly enough).
* "The Ender Game" by Orson Scott Card. All very hard, the only "literary license" taken there with physics is the notion of information exchange across vast distances through quantum entanglement. I loved the "Internet" depicted in the book.
* Gregory Benford's "In the Ocean of Night". Characters might not be top-notch, and the socioeconomic predictions there might make you smile (keep in mind that it's a 1970's book, and the future did indeed look very bleak back then). "Great Sky River", by the same author, is maybe better (and much darker). "Timescape" is also quite good.
* "Anathema" by Neal Stephenson. Bar the alternate universe traveling loophole license, the science there is very good. Who wants death rays when you can drop a 1 ton metal rod from orbit?
* "The Forever Peace" by Joe Haldeman. He gets right the basics of tele-operated war waging and the characters are quite remarkable.
* "A Deepness in the Sky" by Vernor Vinge. Much better - in my opinion - than the better known "A Fire Upon The Deep". Go Qeng Ho!
* David Brin and Gregory Benford's "Heart of the Comet". Great story, the license taken here deals with a 'biological computer' which allows to upload minds into them

Some where the characters and writing is weak, yet I remember them fondly:

* "Eon" by Greg Bear. A bit of a rip-off of Rendezvous with Rama, though.
* "Dragon's Egg" by Robert L. Forward. 2D characters but you'd learn a lot about stellar physics :)

Note that the notion of "hard sci-fi" is a moving target. Stuff that seemed plausible in 1983 might not sound as sensible now in 2013

PS: Gah, I just noticed that by answering I ruined the best post count ever: '1234'

< Message edited by Bletchley_Geek -- 1/11/2013 5:13:56 AM >

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