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Non spaceship, non dystopian hard sci-fi?

jccjcc
edited May 2008 in Everything Else
All my favorite sci-fi authors are dead, so I'm looking to expand my horizons. ^^; I'm in the mood for some hard science fiction that involves no spaceships or aliens or robots or space colonies, but isn't a gritty dystopian future.

Any advice?

Comments

  • gomidoggomidog
    edited May 2008
    I've been reading James Triptree Jr. stuff lately. She's dead, though.

    edit: Never mind. There are often Spaceships.
    Post edited by gomidog on
  • AprecheApreche
    Recent William Gibson?
  • JasonJason
    The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. It's been a while since I read it, but I think it fits all your requisites.
  • jccjcc
    edited May 2008
    The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. It's been a while since I read it, but I think it fits all your requisites.
    Whoops, forgot about space colonies. ^^;
    Post edited by jcc on
  • JasonJason
    Hey, JCC, can you make me some lunch, but don't use any hot food, and I don't feel like a sandwich. You have to make it, not order it, and you can't use any ingredients I have at home. No starches and no proteins. No vegetables, either. Oh, and I can't have liquids or I'll die.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited May 2008
    Refer to Wednesday's episode.
    More specifically: superficial much?
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • JasonJason
    Diaspora by Greg Egan.
  • jccjcc
    Hey, JCC, can you make me some lunch, but don't use any hot food, and I don't feel like a sandwich. You have to make it, not order it, and you can't use any ingredients I have at home. No starches and no proteins. No vegetables, either. Oh, and I can't have liquids or I'll die.
    Well see, the science fiction that I like is science fiction that was speculative fiction about the impact of new science. The old fantasy with futuristic props stuff is also nice, but it's a lot easier for me to find. When hard science fiction people were writing about the atom bomb and space travel and robotics, the fields were booming, these things were current.

    Where's the science fiction on the cultural impact of genetic modification of crops, or digital piracy, or new uses for the electromagnetic spectrum? Or even computers, where's the computer sci-fi? Are we still looking at HAL, or is there more to it now?
  • gomidoggomidog
    Thing is, I can think of isolated stories in collections, but once you start getting into the novel territory, he only things I can think of off the bat are cyberpunk books, like Idoru or Neuromancer.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited May 2008
    Where's the science fiction on the cultural impact of genetic modification of crops, or digital piracy, or new uses for the electromagnetic spectrum? Or even computers, where's the computer sci-fi? Are we still looking at HAL, or is there more to it now?
    Perhaps look through some of the more recent Hugo or Nebula award winners?
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • ......
    I'm in the mood for some hard science fiction that involves no spaceships or aliens or robots or space colonies, but isn't a gritty dystopian future.
    Is it still (hard) science fiction with those limitations?!
  • jccjcc
    edited May 2008
    I'm in the mood for some hard science fiction that involves no spaceships or aliens or robots or space colonies, but isn't a gritty dystopian future.
    Is it still (hard) science fiction with those limitations?!
    I think many people would say yes. The "hard" in hard sci-fi refers to how rigourous the authors are with the concepts involved, and how much poetic license they take with the science used, not what particular topics are being featured. Like if you have sound travelling in a vaccum during your space battles, and technology that acts like magic (no limitations, 100% reliable, idiot-proof, etc.), it's probably not hard sci fi, even though there's nothing about the subject that necessarily prevents it from being so.

    Don't get me wrong, I like soft sci-fi too, you can do a lot of fun things when you have full access to poetic license, it's just a different kind of story.
    Post edited by jcc on
  • ......
    Eh, you missed my point I guess. What I meant is, can you still call it science fiction if you take out all those things you don't want in the book? If I think about science fiction I think about concepts like in the movie AI, Star Wars, etc. As for hard and soft, never saw either used before (just Science fiction), but by your definition I'd hate any soft science fiction novels with space crafts. I tend to really dislike any science fiction stuff where the space ships make noise, I mean, PEW PEW PEW!!1!
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    edited May 2008
    The Difference Engine, Mathematicians in Love, Flatterland, maybe. Here is a nice collection of both Flatland and Sphereland.

    There aren't that many books about happy futures because the future isn't going to be happy.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • FunfetusFunfetus
    I don't know that much about this stuff, so I don't know if it counts as "hard" sci-fi at all, but Cory Doctorow?
  • AtheriShadowAtheriShadow
    I'm nearing the end of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and I recommend it highly, but it seems to be rather on the dystopian side of things. I don't know where it should be placed on the hard vs. soft scale, but at least there's no space ships with lasers and magical hyperdrives and such.
  • rhinocerorhinocero
    I don't know that much about this stuff, so I don't know if it counts as "hard" sci-fi at all, but Cory Doctorow?
    Cory Doctorow is a very good writer, but he is also very, very far from being 'hard'.

    You seem to be generally looking for near-future stuff that deals with problems we could conceivably face. Some of Greg Bear's stuff falls into this category - I'm thinking of Darwin's Radio here. There's recently been more science fiction that deals with the Singularity, and that might be right up your alley - Accelerando and Rainbows End come to mind. But that's about all I can think of.

    With regards to stuff like
    the cultural impact of genetic modification of crops, or digital piracy, or new uses for the electromagnetic spectrum
    most of that is going to be short stories, so I'd just check out recent short story collections.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    I agree that the best thing you should look into is the near future stuff. You mentioned "the cultural impact of genetic modification of crops, or digital piracy," and the book that immediately comes to mind is Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton. It covers both those topics, sans robots and spaceflight. Not the best book out there, but the one that comes to mind first.

    Most of the other sci-fi that doesn't contain either dystopia or space elements usually have time travel elements, a device that you'd also not like so much.

    My other podcast is the Science Fiction Book Review Podcast and of the 17 episodes so far, only Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson and The Peace War by Vernor Vinge come close to your demands.
  • ......
    time travel elements
    Oh! The Man Who Folded Himself. No robots, no aliens, no space travel, just a man with a time travel belt meeting himself. A fun short read, if you don't mind sex.
  • rhinocerorhinocero
    time travel elements
    Oh! The Man Who Folded Himself. No robots, no aliens, no space travel, just a man with a time travel belt meeting himself. A fun short read, if you don't mind sex.
    Well, if we're going to be getting into time travel to meet yourself, I think I have to bring up "All You Zombies".
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