I’m looking to get inspiration for my own writing. I need a hard sci fi series where earth (and earthlike worlds) are too rare, inaccessible, and/or previously spoiled beyond ability to sustain life. Bonus points if it is set on a multi-generational space station or starship without any other options and goes into detail about life support, living space, mineral mining and expansion of the station to accomodate a growing population, and daily life of it’s residents.
If anyone remembers Drifter Colonies from Titan A.E., that’s what’s in my head.
I’m looking for The Martian levels of realism, and I’m fine with a bit of “Unobtanium” clichés if they’re not core to the story.
Inverted World by Christopher Priest is kinda this.
The whole premise of the book is returning to earth, but The 100 starts out in the way you’re wanting including multigenerational space stations and resource limitations.
People already mention the Mars series by Orson Scott Card, the Expanse series by Corey, and Seveneves by Stephenson, which are all fantastic and all fit your request well. Two others you might consider are:
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Very old school classic that features a moon colony fighting with earth.
- Beggars in Spain by Kress. Most of it is on a near future earth, but the last hunk of it involves a segment of people relocating to a space station.
Do you mean the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson?
Lol, I do! Not sure why I was thinking about OSC. Maybe just another writer known by three names.
To be fair, and no spoilers, but I’m not sure The Expanse qualifies for this request, technically. (As a huge fan of the books and series both)
Corey goes into pretty good detail about how they made Eros, Ganymede, and the generation ship livable. Seems like they qualified.
Clearly, that’s not the aspect I was hinting at. >!The first part of the request is the relevant section, not the “bonus points”, all due respect: “earth (and earthlike[sic] worlds) are too rare, inaccessible, and/or previously spoiled beyond ability to sustain life.”!<
The belters make a pretty solid example of what it sounds like OP is looking for. The entire setting doesn’t match to a T but there’s enough interaction with inhospitable environments to be worth looking into, I think.
Might not be quite “hard” enough, but perhaps try the Interdepency trilogy by John Scalzi.
Saving this thread for good book suggestions.
Children of Time is nearly exactly what you’re looking for. The whole series doesn’t follow nicely with what you’re looking for but the focus remains on that aspect of things for lack of wanting to spoil anything. If nothing else read the first book, it’s exceptional.
Wholeheartedly agree. I’ve read the first and second, and liked the first the most. Still planning to read the third eventually.
I also should mention I “read” them on audible, and the narrator was good too.
I didn’t realize there was a 3rd. I’m gonna have to go find it now
FYI if you, like me, did not realize the third book was out, it is! I just bought it, gonna start it tonight
Someone what mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars trilogy, and that is really good, but his book Aurora is almost exactly what you are describing.
Highly recommend.
I was looking for Aurora. I also think it’s right on the money. Gets into the weeds with micro ecosystems.
The idea that humans need the diverse micro ecology of earth in order to not become ill over the course of generations is pretty interesting.
If you also accept TV series, Battlestar Galactica may interest you.
It deals with a small fleet of survivors desperately seeking a new home planet, who live in constant paranoia due to the enemy being able to plant sleeper agents within their crews. I remember they had to mine asteroids for fuel.
I’m going to go the other way and recommend The Fifth Season, which is technically a fantasy trilogy but which has won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, because (as if that wasn’t a spoiler) it’s got a ton of sci Fi in it.
It’s basically about people on a planet that keeps dying. They’ve had to deal with so many apocalyptic events that prepping for the next one defines the entirety of their civilization. If you want a window into the psychology of a society constantly on the verge of destruction, I can’t think of a better series.
The Expanse series is kinda like that. There are other planets, but most of the action takes place on ships, stations, and asteroids that have been converted into stations. It goes into depth about life in space, and everything from engineering to biology, sociology, politics, and theology.
The topic is straight brought up several times, including most notably in book 2 about the Jupiter moons, but they all claim it’s borderline impossible because all this is super delicate system only made possible by Earth anyway. Which is later proven true in last book.
You might want to check out Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. The book is about the people of the Exodus Fleet, a group of multi-generation ships that left Earth years ago. Even though the fleet eventually found other planets for them to live on, many are content to continue living out in space. It’s a neat little slice of life book about this community doing their part to keep these ships going.
Ohhhhh boy, I get to nerd out. OK, super short story; reading and chatting about The Expanse book series got me pointed towards the work of Alastair Reynolds. The early parts of his universes arch aren’t really relevant for your purposes, but in the latter books, how humanity survives on lifeless rocks, is exactly what you’re looking for. Plus, he’s a astrophysicist doctor, iirc, and it is quite quite good hard Sci Fi.
I finished Alastair Reynold’s Pushing Ice a few months ago and it’s kind of close to what OP is looking for. Also a really good book!
I love Alastair Reynolds
Tau Zero is essentially where eventually within a few months no hospitable worlds exist. This is due to a spacecraft being out of control and reaching relativistic speeds.
The Children of Time books by Adrian Tchaikovsky have a lot of those themes. Half of the first book is about an ark ship sent out to find a habitable planet because earth is dying. It spans hundreds of years as key crew members go in and out of hyper sleep. Relationships and political factions form and dissolve as the ageing ship continues its mission to find a new home.
The second book focuses on a terraforming crew that was sent to another star system to prepare a planet for humans. However, the planet’s ecology is so alien it proves very difficult to gain a foothold.
I’ll second this (though I’ve only read the first thus far). I don’t know that I’d consider it especially hard SciFi but it’s far from a space opera. I recall feeling like the justification for the creation of the arachnid race was a bit hand-wavey, but the level of thought put into their society more than made up for the required suspension of disbelief. Definitely one of my favorite books.
For something similar I’d also recommend Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward. It’s about the discovery of intelligent life on a neutron star, who develop at a rate exponentially faster than humanity. Also not super hard SciFi, but a great exploration into truly alien life.
I really enjoyed the first and could not get into the second in the children of time series
There’s a third now, I need to read it still. I liked the second, though
It’s possible Just wasn’t the flavor I was looking for at the time. I’ll give another go at some point. I hear great things from people so it’s probably just send me a thing
I loved the first two, but I had a hard time getting through the third. It has interesting concepts but it takes a long time to make its point. Plot structure spoilers:
spoiler
The main reveal should have happened half way through, not at the end.
Just a loose round up so far
Seveneves Neal Stephenson
Tau Zero Poul Anderson
Metro 2033 Dmitry Glukhovsky
The Children of Time Adrian Tchaikovsky
Lucifer’s Hammer Larry Niven
Pushing Ice Alastair Reynolds
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Diaspora by Greg Egan
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martin
The 100 Kass Morgan
Interdependency trilogy by John Scalzi.
Silo series of books by Hugh HoweySeveneves is incredible, with the caveat that the last chapter of the book was almost handwavey with regards to the author’s conclusion of where humanity ended up. 10/10 otherwise.
What’s the rest of his works like? I’ve read snow crash and loved it, will give seveneves a go.
Highly recommend Anathem and Diamond Age. Cryptonomicon and Baroque Cycle are more tours-de-force but if you are nerdy enough (I mean c’mon this applies to all his work) and very into history, I can recommend those too.
Seconded!
I wouldn’t call Cryptonomicon a tour de force, I remember it fondly. But then again, I’m mildly interested in cryptography and historical background to stuff never hurts when presented entertainingly 😀
Thumbs up for the Silo series. Even though it’s not in outer space, many other boxes tick: multi-generation, environmental systems, spoiled planet …
