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)
Terraformer by Scott McElhaneyRed Mars by Kim Stanley RobinsonGreen Mars by Kim Stanley RobinsonDominion by Scott McElhaneyBlue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Synthetic Ecologies
19 books — 25 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


Joseph A. Anderson
The supposition was that the difference in energy when n (or v) changes by one is therefore equal to hv, the product of the Planck constant and the vibration frequency was always derived using these pre-revolution mechanics. This was, of course, dependent on gravity having an effect on an atomic level, while acknowledging that it does not. Absurd right? But for a transition from level n to level n+ one due to absorption of a photon, the frequency of the photon has nothing to do with Planck…” “At ...more
Joseph A. Anderson, Eden 2:b

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

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