Hard Science Fiction

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. It is characterized by rigorous attention to accurate detail in the natural sciences, especially physics, astrophysics, and chemistry, or on accurately depicting worlds that more advanced technology may make possible. Hard science fiction is driven more by ideas than characterization. Plausible science and technology are central to the plot.

Exodus: The Archimedes Engine (Archimedes Engine, #1)
Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories
Inhibitor Phase (The Inhibitor Sequence, #4)
The Object
Cold Eyes
Critical Mass (Delta-v, #2)
Wherever Seeds May Fall (Seeds, #1)
Theft of Fire (Orbital Space #1)
Light Chaser
Galaxias
The Flight of the Aphrodite
The Disturbance (The Disturbance, #1)
The Never Wars
Darkome
Our Lady of the Artilects
The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)
The Martian
Project Hail Mary
The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)
Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)
Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)
Revelation Space (The Inhibitor Sequence, #1)
Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
Seveneves
Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)
Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)
Project Hail Mary by Andy WeirSiouca Remembers by James MurdoMemory's Legion by James S.A. CoreyThe Saints of Salvation by Peter F. HamiltonSowing the Dragon's Teeth by Jonathan E. Hernandez
Space Opera Magnificentus!
62 books — 35 voters

Watership Down by Richard  AdamsAnimal Farm by George OrwellThe Call of the Wild by Jack LondonBlack Beauty by Anna SewellMrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
Through Another's Eyes: Xenofiction
451 books — 267 voters
The Martian by Andy WeirRevelation Space by Alastair ReynoldsFoundation by Isaac AsimovDune by Frank HerbertRendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
best hard science fiction
444 books — 866 voters

Ringworld by Larry NivenRendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke2001 by Arthur C. ClarkePushing Ice by Alastair ReynoldsRevelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Big Dumb Objects
68 books — 77 voters
The Pythagorean by Alexander MorpheighPiranesi by Susanna ClarkeBefore the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu KawaguchiDune by Frank HerbertRecursion by Blake Crouch
Mind-bending Science Fiction
246 books — 205 voters


Joseph A. Anderson
So, let me get this right. You invented this groundbreaking medical technology that changes the way we literally do everything in trauma and blood, and you are out here, 30.3 light-years away from Earth, on a planet where everyone involved in the Eden project was a hundred percent sure there’d be no DNA, blood, or anything? And now here we are playing with the DNA of an alien race? What is this? What is actually going on here?
Joseph A. Anderson, Eden 2:b

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Eduardo Kim, Artifact 115: Sancus Initiative - Book 1

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