As an example, I love the Martian, and I think a lot of older books from authors like Asimov are heavily into engineering / competence porn. Other favs in this category include the standalone novel Rendezvous with Rama to leave you wishing for more, most of the Culture series for happy utopian vibes, Schlock Mercenary for humor, Dahak series for fun mindless popcorn.
Edit: I’m so happy to have found a replacement for r/books and the rest of them.
I’m sure you’ve read or heard this before, but project hail mary is great. The whole bobiverse series was incredibly satisfying to read and the 5th book is out recently in the form of an audio book. Low pressure, low commitment series thats just full of engineering porn.
Yeah, I loved pretty much all of Andy Weir. I should get back to the Bobiverse. I tried it once and couldn’t get into it for some reason. I don’t recall the exact details now, and maybe I was misunderstanding something, but there was some stuff about his drones destroying entire solar systems for raw minerals, that just seemed plain nonsensical to me? I guess with all the good things people are saying about it I should go back and figure out what rubbed me wrong the first time.
there was some stuff about his drones destroying entire solar systems for raw minerals, that just seemed plain nonsensical to me?
Not sure what exactly seems nonsensical to you but it’s a well known concept that is also explained thoroughly in the books. You might want to read up on von Neumann probes.
Like I said, I possibly misunderstood or missed something. I’m familiar with the concept of Von Neumann probes, but an entire solar system to build a small handful of probes seems overkill. How big are these probes? If it turns out to have been a gazillion probes, or they’re jupiter-sized, then I guess that’s where my misunderstanding was.
Yeh, I guess you really did miss something. I’m sure the purpose of mining a solar system was not to make more simple probes.
Good to know. I’ll slot Bobiverse in once I’m done with Greg Bear
I’m stuck on Bobiverse too. This whole section on the Archimedes alien did me in.
You will miss nothing by completely skip those parts. I do so on re-reads.
Holy shit, new bobiverse? Thanks for the knowledge.
If you end up searching online for that kind of things, “hard science fiction” is the phrase that’s usually used for it.
A lot of good recommendations here. Some endorsements and other recommendations:
- Project Hail Mary by Weir is a no brainer choice if you liked The Marian. He gets the science right.
- Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky is amazing, and the first of a trilogy, so more to read.
- The whole Expanse series, by James Corey is good and he does a good job with the science, especially the celestial mechanics.
- The Uplift series (starting with Sundiver) by David Brin is great, and Brin is will known for hard SF. It’s from the 80s.
- Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, is great and the first of a series as well.
- Beggars in Spain, by Nancy Kress, is great, with a good science background, though it’s more genetics than engineering. Really cool story though.
- I also agree with the recommendation on Saturn’s Children, by Charles Stross. Also the first of a loose series.
On the flip side, I really didn’t care for Three Body Problem, and though the Bobiverse books seem fun, I’m not sure I’d call them firmly hard SF.
I haven’t read Beggars in Spain or Saturn’s Children yet, will take a look!
I’d love to hear what you think, I enjoyed both quite a lot.
Murderbot series has a tremendous amount of tech.
The first two thirds of Seveneves is really good at exactly what you describe. Once you get to the third part (you’ll recognize it) just pretend the book ended before that.
I liked the third half. But it’s quite a shift
Seveneves was a wild ride, and I appreciated the way its scope broadened, but I definitely wasn’t expecting it.
Hard scifi by Greg Egan is a trip and you’ll never be the same afterwards. Permutation City and Diaspora are my favorites.
For more modern take, Children of Time is beautifully narrated and I could listen to it all day for years and never get tired of the narrator.
For a universe that keeps on going with problem solving Vorkosigan Saga is very feel good and I think in line with a book like the Martian albeit a bit less hard though solid on its approach to deduction and wit.
Yep! Everybody here keeps mentioning Greg Egan and I’ll give him a shot. The rest I’ve read and love. Thanks!
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars is pretty hard-scifi.
Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space not so much but very entertaining.
Edit: for light reading Stross’s Saturns Children is fun.Thanks! I bounced off the Mars trilogy. All the petty human drama and politics just felt way too much like current news (which is probably a compliment to his writing skills, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for at the time). I think I probably need a very relaxed state of mind to be able to dive into it. As for Rev Space, I’ve read about half of it before losing track of the various threads and time jumps.
Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves has a lot (A LOT) of orbital mechanics jargon if you’re into that sort of thing. Personally, I skipped most of it.
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds fits pretty well. I like the progression of figuring out how to survive and thrive as their situation changes. I also quite like how the book deals with questions like how sentient species might interact despite the vast gulf of distance and time that exist between their civilizations.
That looks really interesting, definitely gonna check it out, thanks!
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is like Horatio Hornblower in space. The main character has dwarfism and accidentally commandeers a mercenary fleet as a teenager.
Freaking Miles antics.
“Quarter Share: Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper” is a good one. It’s usually not at high stakes as 'The Martian", but it’s a journey across a well developed science fiction galaxy with a thoughtfully detailed societies and economies. And keep an eye out for the author, Nathan Lowell, here on the Fediverse. He seems nice.
“The Long Earth” is another in that the starting premise is deceptively simple, and then every social, economic and political upheaval stems directly from the single core science fiction premise.
I really loved the concept and worldbuilding of the Long Earth. However I felt that the books didn’t focus as much on the nitty-gritty as I’d like, instead becoming really metaphysical. I’d have loved to see how every aspect of society changed over time, but instead got a human interest story about a few people. Fun, but ultimately I felt like a lot of potential was wasted.
Solar Clipper looks like some nice cozy slice of life SF, will put that on my list for when I’m in the mood for that :)
Agreed on “The Long Earth”. It was fun, but on the light side of what the premise begs for.
I keep hoping we get more entries that explore the possibilities even further.
the mars trilogy (red mars/green mars/blue mars) by kim stanley robinson
Thanks! I bounced off the Mars trilogy. All the petty human drama and politics just felt way too much like current news (which is probably a compliment to his writing skills, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for at the time). I think I probably need a very relaxed state of mind to be able to dive into it.
fair. to be honest, i havent read it since it was released in the 90s. i mostly remember the tech
Allow me to chime in with a science fiction favorite: A Canticle For Leibowitz By Walter M Miller. It’s a collections of three interrelated novellas set a few thousand years apart… but there are themes and one character present in all three. Compelling characters and lots of humor make this a must read.
Anyone else read it?
It’s a brilliant book, though I have yet to read the sequel. Can’t recommend it enough.
Isn’t that funny — me too. I’m not sure why I keep putting it off. Perhaps because it was finished by another author… the guy who wrote “They’re Made of Meat.” His name escaped me presently.
Thanks, I’ll put it on my list!
The Red Mars trilogy has some competence porn characters.
Thanks! I bounced off the Mars trilogy. All the petty human drama and politics just felt way too much like current news (which is probably a compliment to his writing skills, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for at the time). I think I probably need a very relaxed state of mind to be able to dive into it.
Just finished Exodus: The Archimedes Engine on audible. Space opera with a lot of world building. A bit slow to get started, but I really enjoyed it.
Edit: not sure if I would classify it as engineering porn though, although there is an emphasis on use of technology
Argh. Peter Hamilton. Don’t all his books end with deus ex machinas? I got so annoyed at how Night’s Dawn ended that I’ve avoided all his books ever since.
First book by him for me, so can’t comment on his overall style. The main plot didn’t resolve in this one, it leaves it to a sequel. There’s definitely a tendency to introduce technology from ancient races in the plots which may be used in that way. Didn’t feel jarring to me in this book though.
Nathan Lowell’s Trader’s Tales From the Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper series is pure competence porn. There’s very little action or intrigue, just some guy working his way up from the bottom in interstellar travel and trade via, well, competence. Haha!
