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 (Archimedes Engine #1)
Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories
Inhibitor Phase (Revelation Space, #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)
Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)
Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)
Revelation Space (Revelation Space, #1)
Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
Seveneves
Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)
Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)
The Martian by Andy WeirThe Forever War by Joe HaldemanLeviathan Wakes by James S.A. CoreyAltered Carbon by Richard K. MorganRendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Hard SF reading group
86 books — 58 voters
The Martian by Andy WeirRevelation Space by Alastair ReynoldsFoundation by Isaac AsimovDune by Frank Patrick HerbertRendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
best hard science fiction
439 books — 885 voters

The Martian by Andy WeirRendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. ClarkeThe Pythagorean by Alexander MorpheighLife After Life by Kate AtkinsonBefore the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Ultimate Hard Science Fiction
137 books — 222 voters


Scott Kaelen
Ah, Drilos. I wanted someone to talk to, but I never counted on a conversation quite so hilarious. Not only are you saying I’m the multiverse, but also that I’m becoming something devoid of existence? Ridiculous. Right now I’m just a disembodied consciousness, but as long as I exist in a void then the void won’t be a void. Right now I consist of energy rather than matter; it’s just nature’s way of compensating for the random space-time shifts of a being it apparently doesn’t want to die. Fission ...more
Scott Kaelen, The Hyperverse Accord

Andrzej Wronka
I’m writing these words on February 28th, barely two months after the event. At least I think I am. I can’t be sure when, or even if, it actually happened. Or what really took place. Then again: what is truth, if infinitely many truths can exist at the same time? But let me start from the beginning.
Andrzej Wronka, The Last

More quotes...
Hard SF This is a discussion group for this specific subgenre in SF where the plausibility of the scienc…more
1,196 members, last active 9 days ago
Best AI Fiction A group for readers who believe the most urgent fiction being written right now is about artific…more
3 members, last active 14 days ago
The Near Future The Near Future will read and discuss more science-fact based fiction and non-fiction that specu…more
20 members, last active 11 years ago
I would like to start a lively group discussion, filled with great book recommendations. Come to…more
4 members, last active 11 years ago

Tags

Tags contributing to this page include: hard-science-fiction, hard-sci-fi, hard-scifi, hard-sf, hardsciencefiction, science-fiction-hard, and sf-hard