I’m looking to get inspiration for my own writing. I need a hard sci fi series where earth (and earthlike worlds) are too rare, inaccessible, and/or previously spoiled beyond ability to sustain life. Bonus points if it is set on a multi-generational space station or starship without any other options and goes into detail about life support, living space, mineral mining and expansion of the station to accomodate a growing population, and daily life of it’s residents.
If anyone remembers Drifter Colonies from Titan A.E., that’s what’s in my head.
I’m looking for The Martian levels of realism, and I’m fine with a bit of “Unobtanium” clichés if they’re not core to the story.
People already mention the Mars series by Orson Scott Card, the Expanse series by Corey, and Seveneves by Stephenson, which are all fantastic and all fit your request well. Two others you might consider are:
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Very old school classic that features a moon colony fighting with earth.
- Beggars in Spain by Kress. Most of it is on a near future earth, but the last hunk of it involves a segment of people relocating to a space station.
To be fair, and no spoilers, but I’m not sure The Expanse qualifies for this request, technically. (As a huge fan of the books and series both)
Corey goes into pretty good detail about how they made Eros, Ganymede, and the generation ship livable. Seems like they qualified.
Clearly, that’s not the aspect I was hinting at. >!The first part of the request is the relevant section, not the “bonus points”, all due respect: “earth (and earthlike[sic] worlds) are too rare, inaccessible, and/or previously spoiled beyond ability to sustain life.”!<
The belters make a pretty solid example of what it sounds like OP is looking for. The entire setting doesn’t match to a T but there’s enough interaction with inhospitable environments to be worth looking into, I think.
Do you mean the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson?
Lol, I do! Not sure why I was thinking about OSC. Maybe just another writer known by three names.
All tomorrow’s by c.m koseman may be interesting to you. It’s a short story that examines the state of humanity several billion years in the future after they have evolved to be unrecognizable. Some civilizations thrived and became better, many devolved and live tortured existances. Quite a few lose the ability to speak or lose intelligence in general.
The Children of Time books by Adrian Tchaikovsky have a lot of those themes. Half of the first book is about an ark ship sent out to find a habitable planet because earth is dying. It spans hundreds of years as key crew members go in and out of hyper sleep. Relationships and political factions form and dissolve as the ageing ship continues its mission to find a new home.
The second book focuses on a terraforming crew that was sent to another star system to prepare a planet for humans. However, the planet’s ecology is so alien it proves very difficult to gain a foothold.
I’ll second this (though I’ve only read the first thus far). I don’t know that I’d consider it especially hard SciFi but it’s far from a space opera. I recall feeling like the justification for the creation of the arachnid race was a bit hand-wavey, but the level of thought put into their society more than made up for the required suspension of disbelief. Definitely one of my favorite books.
For something similar I’d also recommend Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward. It’s about the discovery of intelligent life on a neutron star, who develop at a rate exponentially faster than humanity. Also not super hard SciFi, but a great exploration into truly alien life.
I really enjoyed the first and could not get into the second in the children of time series
There’s a third now, I need to read it still. I liked the second, though
It’s possible Just wasn’t the flavor I was looking for at the time. I’ll give another go at some point. I hear great things from people so it’s probably just send me a thing
I loved the first two, but I had a hard time getting through the third. It has interesting concepts but it takes a long time to make its point. Plot structure spoilers:
spoiler
The main reveal should have happened half way through, not at the end.
Not quite what you’re after but I absolutely love Diaspora by Greg Egan.
It’s a different take on the same issues you’re asking about (not at first, but it’s not really a spoiler to say that it explores them whether or not it’s as necessary as your examples state), a take that leans more into different forms of existence rather than supporting our current existence in a different environment (but touches on aspects of that too, kind of). It’s mega-multi-generational while also not being that at all, depending on perspective.
Not quite what you’re after but I absolutely love Diaspora by Greg Egan.
Came here to say that it’s the BOOK OP is looking for , Moreover, it’s one of the authors present on the fediverse @gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz
I don’t know how the original version works, but in the French translation Francis Lustman made a real effort in building a coherent grammar with neo-pronoms which match very well the book tone, and is a great exercise.
However, Diaspora isn’t the most accessible Egan book. I mean, if you never heard about stuff like complex conjugate, or Penrose tiles you’ll struggle with some of the concept.
It’s a very non traditional story structure (at least to a western reader) but The Three Body Problem series has a lot of plot revolving around the lack of inhabitable worlds.
Wasn’t there a ship, or two, that had to escape into deep space for like, a long long time?
!yes, in fact those ships end up being very important to some big events in the last 2 books!<
Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven is a fantastic book that might be near what you are looking for. It’s about an asteroid impact on Earth, this removes a lot of the population and infrastructure and the story focuses on a few different groups of people as they make do with what they can find or scavenge, and then the resource battling that goes on between groups.
A story line I remember well is on a group that found an abandoned neighborhood and were astonished to find that it still had running water from the nearby local dam/reservoir. They lived here for quite a while in their relative luxury until it just stopped working one day. A burst pipe in some other neighborhood had slowly drained the dam faster than they would have used it up.
Anyway, it’s a great book because it feels so realistic as to what would really happen and the struggles people would actually be going through.
Alas, Babylon. Earth Abides. On The Beach. The Road. One Second After (this one is meh).
If you want some other good collapse survival books similar to Lucifer’s Hammer.
Yes, Earth Abides is also good! I had forgotten about that one until I saw your comment
Completely different angle towards the question but Metro 2033 (and sequels) might be a good source of inspiration. Not space themed but there might be some elements that can be a source of inspiration.
It’s about a post nuclear war Moscow where to survive humanity as set up a series of interlink communities in the underground metro tunnels. The book talks a lot about the daily life in the stations. One is known for growing mushrooms used in tea. One was burnt down leading the rest of the system to strictly control fires. Another gained a reputation as a capital like station because it’s entrance was next to a university and government building.
Not a true hard sci fi book (has things like irradiated mutants) but a lot of thought went into the logistics of living in the metro.
You might get some value from Stephen Baxter’s Manifold series; while they aren’t central to what you’re asking for they definitely deal with humanity coping with a hostile universe. Heinlein wrote a couple of short stories set on a generation ship, although I can’t bring the titles to mind. Accelerando takes place in many manufactured settings, rarely earth like (past the first major part). Brin and Benford’s Heart of the Comet may also point in the direction you want.
The Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson definitely fits the bill. The Ministry of the Future does too but it is more about the coming climate change disaster.
Love me some KSR.
His Mars series is my sci-fi Lord of the Rings.
Tau Zero is essentially where eventually within a few months no hospitable worlds exist. This is due to a spacecraft being out of control and reaching relativistic speeds.
Might not be quite “hard” enough, but perhaps try the Interdepency trilogy by John Scalzi.
The Expanse series is kinda like that. There are other planets, but most of the action takes place on ships, stations, and asteroids that have been converted into stations. It goes into depth about life in space, and everything from engineering to biology, sociology, politics, and theology.
The topic is straight brought up several times, including most notably in book 2 about the Jupiter moons, but they all claim it’s borderline impossible because all this is super delicate system only made possible by Earth anyway. Which is later proven true in last book.
Children of Time is nearly exactly what you’re looking for. The whole series doesn’t follow nicely with what you’re looking for but the focus remains on that aspect of things for lack of wanting to spoil anything. If nothing else read the first book, it’s exceptional.
Wholeheartedly agree. I’ve read the first and second, and liked the first the most. Still planning to read the third eventually.
I also should mention I “read” them on audible, and the narrator was good too.
FYI if you, like me, did not realize the third book was out, it is! I just bought it, gonna start it tonight
I didn’t realize there was a 3rd. I’m gonna have to go find it now
Someone what mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars trilogy, and that is really good, but his book Aurora is almost exactly what you are describing.
Highly recommend.
I was looking for Aurora. I also think it’s right on the money. Gets into the weeds with micro ecosystems.
The idea that humans need the diverse micro ecology of earth in order to not become ill over the course of generations is pretty interesting.
“The Dark Beyond the Stars” by Frank Robinson might fit for you. It’s set on a generation ship that can’t find a good landing spot.
“And all the stars a stage” (1971) by James Blish is another one where human-like aliens escape the destruction of their home world in 30 ships just to wander the galaxy looking for a new home, running into one disaster after another as their attempts to settle on various worlds end in failure and lives lost, until they happen upon a tiny, blue-green world with the most hospitable climate imaginable… with only one ship and a handful of survivors left.
It’s a poignant story of endlings, and the extinction of one species at the civilizational dawn of another.
