Sci-Fi Recommendations

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

I have been on an Arthur C Clarke streak with a few other hard scifi novels thrown in. I've read:

Clarke:

2001: A Space Odyssey
2010: Odyssey 2
2061: Odyssey 3
3001: The Final Odyssey
Rendezvous with Rama
Rama 2
The Garden of Rama
Childhood's End
The Sands of Mars
The City and the Stars
The Fall of Night

I'd like some recommendations on scifi exploration. It's difficult to explain what I mean. I suppose I'd like a blending of the star trek feel with some hard scifi. I wouldn't mind reading any space exploration books that deal with encounters with aliens, ships, etc. I'm just kinda lost right now

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Lem, maybe?

[Cut]

Lem, maybe?

Lem is good, indeed. I have a favorite book by Lem, not Solaris, but I don't know the english title. I shall research and post it here.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Personally, I like LeGuin, but that's no so much road movie material as locale tourism.

[Sarge]

Rocheworld. Can't remember the author.

[RaconteurX]

Larry Niven is one of my favorites when it comes to classic hard sci-fi. His Known Space stories encompass quite a bit, Ringworld and its sequels likely being the best known. Niven's collaborations with Jerry Pournelle can be somewhat more hit-or-miss, but A Mote in God's Eye and its sequel The Gripping Hand are both good reads, as is their unrelated novel Footfall.

David Brin's Uplift Universe is also fairly engaging. The first three novels (Sundiver, Startide Rising and The Uplift War) are standalones, and the last three together form an extended sequel to Startide Rising. Perhaps not the hardest sci-fi out there, but the cultural basis for the civilizations is quite fascinating. A weird diversity of alien species abounds.

[RaconteurX]

Rocheworld. Can't remember the author.

That would be the late Dr. Robert L. Forward...

[Tomcat]

Does anyone remember a sci-fi short called "Brightside Crossing"?

I believe it was written by Bradbury, but I cannot find anything on it. It was a cool story that I read as a kid about adventurous Astronauts attempting the brightside crossing of Mercury. It was so long ago that I read it, but I have a fond memory of it... I'd love to read it again to see what I think now.

PS - never mind... the power of GOOGLE and Wikipedia and it was written by Alan E. Nourse.

[RaconteurX]

Does anyone remember a sci-fi short called "Brightside Crossing"?

According to Wikipedia... Alan E. Nourse's short story "Brightside Crossing" (Galaxy, 1956) is narrated by the only survivor of a failed four-man attempt to cross Mercury's sun-facing hemisphere at perihelion (when Mercury is at its nearest approach to the sun), which has become the ultimate sporting feat. No expedition has yet attempted the much easier feat of crossing the sun-facing hemisphere at aphelion (when Mercury is at its farthest point from the sun, and therefore cooler), because the knowledge and cartography acquired by such an attempt would make things easier for the eventual perihelion expedition ... and the members of that successful perihelion crossing would then receive all the glory. The story ends with the survivor volunteering to lead the next attempt, this one to be equipped with better refrigerants against the sun's merciless heat.

[Owen E Oulton]

Well, let's see... Some of my favourites are Glory Road (Heinlein), The Guns of the South (Turtledove), Shuttle! (Onley), [Foundation Trilogy (Asimov), Cyborg (Caidin)... My tastes are sort of eclectic, but shading towards heroic-type fiction.

[Slortar]

I'd give Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon The Deep a shot. If you like that, follow it up with Deepness In The Sky, which is a prequel (by about, oh, 30,000 years) but more meaningful if you've read Fire. Also, a key point about Deepness spoils one of the major issues of Fire.

Anyway.

It's a galaxy hopping exploration/first contact science fiction novel filled with all sorts of great things. I'm not going to bother spoiling all the cool stuff in it, but trust me, it's a great read. If I'm reading the OP correctly, it's right up your alley.

Kind of an interesting premise to the story--the galaxy has an odd physical effect to it. The laws of physics vary depending on where you are. The closer you get to the core of the galaxy, the more limits there are on science. In where we are, we can't exceed the speed of light, and computers can only be so intelligent. Go in too far to the core and chemical combustion doesn't necessarily work, human intelligence even begins to fade. Not a good place to be.

If you go farther out, certain kinds of science become much more possible. FTL travel, god-like artificial intelligence. The farther you go out, the more fantastic things get.

The plot hinges on something that arises become of this--it's become something of a cottage industry for civilizations to send expeditions to the fringe of the galaxy to search for Transcended artifacts. Unfortunately, one of these turns out to be a computer virus that rapidly begins to wreak havoc across the galaxy. Bad Things Ensue.

Deepness is considerably harder science fiction than Fire. I'm talking Bussard ramjet ships, people who have been metabolically altered into hyper-focused genius level states of mind, first contact with an alien race that lives on a planet where the summer/winter season cycle is so harsh the atmosphere freezes into solid form. It's a trip. I really wish he'd write more.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Thanks guys so much. I'm busy reading up on all of these great novels. Nice to see people still discussing things around here though.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Finding sf novels with attention given to characterization and style is hard... I got so damn tired of it after a while.

[First of Two]

I can't reccommend "Expedition" by Wayne Douglas Barlowe enough. It's a realistic imaginary look at the flora and fauna of an alien world that evolved similarly, yet startlingly differently, to life on Earth. Told from the point-of-view of a human explorer/artist, one of several people sent to investigate the planet. It's not a novel so much as an art showcase book.

(It was later made into the TV special "Alien Planet," which animated some of the critters but really IMHO made them far less cool than in the book.)

Also:

Larry Niven (anything, but I especially liked "World out of Time," and "Destiny's Road", the "Dream Park" mysteries and "Oath of Fealty" (with Steven Barnes), and "Lucifer's Hammer," (with Jerry Pournelle) "Legacy of Heorot" (with Pournelle and Barnes). You MUST read "Fallen Angels" (with Pournelle and Flynn) for an "alternative" look at global warming.

Robert Forward wrote "Rocheworld" and 4 follow up books, "Return to Rocheworld", "Ocean Under the Ice," "Marooned on Eden" and "Rescued from Paradise."

I reccommend anything by Harry Turtledove, especially the Great War series, 11-book saga which takes place in a world where the South won the Civil War, and runs from the 2nd Civil War in 1890 all the way through an Alternate WWII. Books are:

"How Few Remain"
"The Great War: American Front"
"The Great War: Walk in Hell"
"The Great War: Breakthroughs"
"American Empire: Blood and Iron"
"American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold"
"American Empire: The Victorious Opposition"
"Settling Accounts: Return Engagement"
"Settling Accounts: Drive to the East"
"Settling Accounts: The Grapple"
"Settling Accounts: In at the Death"

Also:
"Encounter with Tiber" written by Buzz Aldrin (yes, the astronaut) and Steven Barnes
"The Forge of God" and "The Anvil of Stars" by Greg Bear.

I could offer more, but that should keep you busy for a few years.

I considered listing every SF and Fantasy book I still own (I had to get rid of all the ones that weren't favorites to save space) But that would have been around 300+ books (not counting all the Star Trek.)

[The Tatterdemalion King]

I can't reccommend "Expedition" by Wayne Douglas Barlowe enough. It's a realistic imaginary look at the flora and fauna of an alien world that evolved similarly, yet startlingly differently, to life on Earth. Told from the point-of-view of a human explorer/artist, one of several people sent to investigate the planet. It's not a novel so much as an art showcase book.

Expedition is really cool.