7 ms·

* Seveneves (I haven't read much else from Neal Stephenson, but I've heard good things) * Children of Time / Children of Ruin (both really good) * Remembrance

by renke1 5y ago

* Seveneves (I haven't read much else from Neal Stephenson, but I've heard good things) * Children of Time / Children of Ruin (both really good) * Remembrance of Earth's Past (even the fan fiction one is good) * A lot of stuff from Alastair Reynolds (House of Suns being my favorite) * Classics like Tau Zero, The Forever War etc. * A Deepness in the Sky / A Fire Upon the Deep Although not all of these are strictly considered hard scifi, I guess. Btw, I love it when somebody asks this question every now and then on HN. Lots of stuff for one's (ever growing) reading list.

BLKNSLVR 5y ago
+1 for Seveneves. I found it so engrossing that just thinking about it now I can picture the shapes of that chain in zero-G, and the unexpectedly long-lasting hellscape consequences of the very early reveal. The CB radio...
- jsymolon 5y ago
  eh, 1st 1/2 great. 2nd half ... really falls apart
  - tartuffe78 5y ago
    Agreed, the first half was semi-realistic hard science fiction, the second half felt more like fantasy almost. It wasn't bad, but such a huge shift from the first half.
  - totoglazer 5y ago
    Strong agree. Luckily you can just stop reading at the end of part 1 and it’s still a very satisfying book.
  - Robotbeat 5y ago
    Yeah, they're really 2 different books. BUT, I enjoyed the 2nd half as well. The 1st book is already obsolete technologically in some ways (launch technology has progressed a lot in the last 5 years)[0], although very interesting. Which is one reason I like the 2nd part in that it extrapolates from the sociocultural/technological developments of the first book to see what the ultimate consequences could be. The book is also a sharp commentary on the destructiveness of social media... [0]side note: the speed of progress that SpaceX is achieving with Starship in Boca Chica is comparable to a pace you'd want in the first book... They're going so fast in Boca Chica, as if the Moon fell apart and they only have a couple years left before the Hard Rain to make humanity a multiplanetary species...
  - seer 5y ago
    To be honest I think I really like “long jumps in time”. It’s like the author builds up a world that you understand and care about, and then it becomes a backdrop of this new world, which adds another layer of complexity. There are parallels to notice and explore, “how things might turn out” tales, etc. The one other author I’ve seen pull it off was Brandon Sanderson in his Mistborn trilogy, though he does it 2 times (once for each book) where the previous one becomes “the legends” for the next one, with all the misunderstandings that this usually entails.
  - yongjik 5y ago
    Also, the author has an inexplicable obsession with chains moving in free space. (Okay, I get it, it's cool physics, but how is it any more practical than using a mega-catapult as an airport?)
throw1234651234 5y ago
Neal Stephenson's earlier work has "more soul" - Snow Crash / Diamond Age actually has characters you care about and like, his later novels get increasingly more abstract, though even better in the technical sense. I think the only character I remember from Seveneves is the cannibal leader, that's it. "A Deepness in the Sky" was REALLY good. The Forever War was good for the concept. In short, yours looks like a great list I will come back to, thank you. However, I do strongly dislike Remembrance of Earth's Past / The Three Body Problem - it's vastly overrated in my opinion and the characters make no sense. The best part of it was the intro to the first book which gave an interesting glimpse at history.
- arethuza 5y ago
  I really couldn't get into Snow Crash and I didn't finish Diamond Age but I love everything from Cryptonomicon forward. Jack Shaftoe is one of my favourite fictional characters!
  - throw1234651234 5y ago
    I know what you are talking about, despite being on the opposite end of that spectrum. Snow Crash / Diamond Age are cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk ala Gibson and completely different from Stephenson's other books. I couldn't even get through Cryptonomicon, and Jack Shaftoe did not strike me as a believable genius, nor his story. Anathem kind of strafed the line - it had SOME character development, and SOME action, but was mainly world-building / intellectual exploration. Stephenson's other books fall too far on that spectrum for me.
    - arethuza 5y ago
      Are you by any chance referring to "Bobby" Shaftoe the WW2 Marine Raider or his ancestor King of the Vagabonds, L'Emmerdeur, Half-Cocked Jack, Quicksilver, Ali Zaybak, Sword of Divine Fire, Jack the Coiner...
      - the__alchemist 5y ago
andyjohnson0 5y ago
I hated Seveneves. The first part was grim and unremitting and almost everyone died. It left me feeling kind of depressed, and unwilling to put up with what seemed to be a self-indulgent second part. Plus the premise was so unlikely and the ending felt unsatisfactory. I should have known: Stephenson doesn't really do endings.
- jefurii 5y ago
  The "Stephenson doesn't do endings" meme again. Sigh. Yes, the novel ends and it's obvious that the characters' lives keep going. Lots of authors do that. Real life often doesn't have endings or clear resolutions.
  - andyjohnson0 5y ago
    I wasn't aware that it was a meme. My comment was based on my own observations from reading a number of his books. > Yes, the novel ends and it's obvious that the characters' lives keep going. Lots of authors do that. Real life often doesn't have endings or clear resolutions. The characters lives do end with the end of the book (unless there's a sequel). You can certainly imagine how their lives might proceed, but a satisfactory ending doesn't preclude that either. Drawing together the elements of a story, completing the arcs, creating some kind of resolution: these are part of the storytellers craft. With Seveneves I thought he just ran out of steam. It felt like leaving a film ten minutes before the end and stumbling out into the daylight. Pretty dissatisfying at the end of a long book.

by renke1 5y ago

BLKNSLVR 5y ago

+1 for Seveneves. I found it so engrossing that just thinking about it now I can picture the shapes of that chain in zero-G, and the unexpectedly long-lasting hellscape consequences of the very early reveal. The CB radio...

jsymolon 5y ago
eh, 1st 1/2 great. 2nd half ... really falls apart
- tartuffe78 5y ago
  Agreed, the first half was semi-realistic hard science fiction, the second half felt more like fantasy almost. It wasn't bad, but such a huge shift from the first half.
- totoglazer 5y ago
  Strong agree. Luckily you can just stop reading at the end of part 1 and it’s still a very satisfying book.
- Robotbeat 5y ago
  Yeah, they're really 2 different books. BUT, I enjoyed the 2nd half as well. The 1st book is already obsolete technologically in some ways (launch technology has progressed a lot in the last 5 years)[0], although very interesting. Which is one reason I like the 2nd part in that it extrapolates from the sociocultural/technological developments of the first book to see what the ultimate consequences could be. The book is also a sharp commentary on the destructiveness of social media... [0]side note: the speed of progress that SpaceX is achieving with Starship in Boca Chica is comparable to a pace you'd want in the first book... They're going so fast in Boca Chica, as if the Moon fell apart and they only have a couple years left before the Hard Rain to make humanity a multiplanetary species...
- seer 5y ago
  To be honest I think I really like “long jumps in time”. It’s like the author builds up a world that you understand and care about, and then it becomes a backdrop of this new world, which adds another layer of complexity. There are parallels to notice and explore, “how things might turn out” tales, etc. The one other author I’ve seen pull it off was Brandon Sanderson in his Mistborn trilogy, though he does it 2 times (once for each book) where the previous one becomes “the legends” for the next one, with all the misunderstandings that this usually entails.
- yongjik 5y ago
  Also, the author has an inexplicable obsession with chains moving in free space. (Okay, I get it, it's cool physics, but how is it any more practical than using a mega-catapult as an airport?)

throw1234651234 5y ago

Neal Stephenson's earlier work has "more soul" - Snow Crash / Diamond Age actually has characters you care about and like, his later novels get increasingly more abstract, though even better in the technical sense. I think the only character I remember from Seveneves is the cannibal leader, that's it. "A Deepness in the Sky" was REALLY good. The Forever War was good for the concept. In short, yours looks like a great list I will come back to, thank you. However, I do strongly dislike Remembrance of Earth's Past / The Three Body Problem - it's vastly overrated in my opinion and the characters make no sense. The best part of it was the intro to the first book which gave an interesting glimpse at history.

arethuza 5y ago
I really couldn't get into Snow Crash and I didn't finish Diamond Age but I love everything from Cryptonomicon forward. Jack Shaftoe is one of my favourite fictional characters!
- throw1234651234 5y ago
  I know what you are talking about, despite being on the opposite end of that spectrum. Snow Crash / Diamond Age are cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk ala Gibson and completely different from Stephenson's other books. I couldn't even get through Cryptonomicon, and Jack Shaftoe did not strike me as a believable genius, nor his story. Anathem kind of strafed the line - it had SOME character development, and SOME action, but was mainly world-building / intellectual exploration. Stephenson's other books fall too far on that spectrum for me.
  - arethuza 5y ago
    Are you by any chance referring to "Bobby" Shaftoe the WW2 Marine Raider or his ancestor King of the Vagabonds, L'Emmerdeur, Half-Cocked Jack, Quicksilver, Ali Zaybak, Sword of Divine Fire, Jack the Coiner...
    - the__alchemist 5y ago

andyjohnson0 5y ago

I hated Seveneves. The first part was grim and unremitting and almost everyone died. It left me feeling kind of depressed, and unwilling to put up with what seemed to be a self-indulgent second part. Plus the premise was so unlikely and the ending felt unsatisfactory. I should have known: Stephenson doesn't really do endings.

jefurii 5y ago
The "Stephenson doesn't do endings" meme again. Sigh. Yes, the novel ends and it's obvious that the characters' lives keep going. Lots of authors do that. Real life often doesn't have endings or clear resolutions.
- andyjohnson0 5y ago
  I wasn't aware that it was a meme. My comment was based on my own observations from reading a number of his books. > Yes, the novel ends and it's obvious that the characters' lives keep going. Lots of authors do that. Real life often doesn't have endings or clear resolutions. The characters lives do end with the end of the book (unless there's a sequel). You can certainly imagine how their lives might proceed, but a satisfactory ending doesn't preclude that either. Drawing together the elements of a story, completing the arcs, creating some kind of resolution: these are part of the storytellers craft. With Seveneves I thought he just ran out of steam. It felt like leaving a film ten minutes before the end and stumbling out into the daylight. Pretty dissatisfying at the end of a long book.