this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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In the mood for engineering / competence porn. What are your favourite novels / series? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/sciencefiction
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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.

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[–] AFKBRBChocolate 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (11 children)

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.

[–] Subverb 8 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

The Three Body Problem is bad. The hype for the book is a good example of "The Emporer's New Clothes".

[–] AFKBRBChocolate 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I was surprised at how little I liked it given the hype.

[–] Subverb 6 points 2 weeks ago

I did enjoy the parts about the Cultural Revolution and some of the dialog from Da Shi. That's about it.

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