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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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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[–] 9bananas@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

"Planetfall" by Emma Newman might fit your preferences judging by the things you said about books you've read! it's a 4 book series (i think) and mostly deals with the inner psychology of the main character of each book. also has a bunch of engineering in it, mostly hard sci-fi!

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

"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.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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 :)

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.

[–] Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

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!

[–] wax@feddit.nu 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Just finished Exodus: The Archimedes Engine on audible. Space opera with a lot of world building. S bit slow to get started, but I really enjoyed it.

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[–] hoodles@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Another vote for Greg Egan. And I too really enjoyed the Children of Time series and anything written by Alastair Reynolds, although I don't think the genre is exactly what you're looking for. Finding modern, hard sci-fi really is pretty difficult.

I get where you're coming from with KSR's Mars series. I think Ministry for the Future was a better read, personally.

Also, I find that a lot of Crichton scratches similar itch to Andy Weir. Especially things like Andromeda Strain and Airframe.

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