# Down-to-earth science fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336 "2003-10-08T19:04:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/1 "2003-10-08T19:04:05Z")
Everyone gave me good advice on my [first science fiction thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=191938), so now I’m hoping to narrow things down a bit. I got a bit discouraged with some of the recommendations given The first part of _The Reality Dysfunction_, which a few posters gave the nod to, left me with no inclination at all to finish the rest of the series. Too far-flung. Too unconnected to my reality. However, another highly-recommended book – _Ender’s Game_ – was a little more up my alley. I didn’t actually like the book, but I breezed through it with no problems. So I’m looking for stories that take place today, or a few years ago, or a few years down the road but where it’s still recognizably Earth. First contact, time travel, super mutants, etc. all fair game but I find myself unable to enjoy a story if it begins like this: _“Fug-Nort of the Seventh Order gazed up at the twin moons of Klendor XV. He realized it was almost time for The Othering and missed his lifemate and their broodlings more than ever.”_ This is more my speed: _“Fred turned on CNN just in time to see the aliens dragging the president out of the White House, clutching his Tickle Me Elmo doll and sobbing uncontrollably.”_ Or: _“‘I’ve just created a rectal thermometer that sends its users into an alternate dimension!’ the professor shouted gleefully to his two horrified teaching assistants.”_ Except, you know, more intelligent. I hope everyone knows what I mean. As an example, I mentioned in my other thread _Manifold: Time_. Tough going, but I enjoyed it because I could identify with the characters, I could believe the background, and even though it took place in the near future, I recognized it as my Earth. Any takers? ---
**Author:** ![AV8R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AV8R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AV8R)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/2 "2003-10-08T19:42:55Z")
OK, here’s my recommendation for a science fiction novel involving artificial intelligence, but which occurs on normal planet Earth (in the 1960’s): _ **Colossus** _ by D.F. Jones Here is the basic plot idea, as found in [http://members.fortunecity.com/roogulator/sf/colossus.htm](http://members.fortunecity.com/roogulator/sf/colossus.htm) > [@](#): > > _Dr Charles Forbin activates his creation, the super-computer Colossus, which he has designed to take control of all US military installations. Once activated it is sealed into an impenetrable bunker. Moments later the Russians announce the existence of an identical computer Guardian. Colossus demands a line of communication with Guardian and is granted it, but the two computers’ level of discussion soon goes beyond anything understood by man. But when the President orders their link terminated, the two computers fire nuclear missiles and then use their combined threat to impose a new order on mankind for its own good._ It was also made into a movie in 1969: _ **COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT** _ The author also wrote two sequels. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/3 "2003-10-08T19:43:13Z")
I would read any of the three examples you gave. You should write them. 😃 Hm. _Contact_ comes immediately to mind. ---
**Author:** ![CyberPundit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@CyberPundit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyberPundit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/4 "2003-10-08T19:49:13Z")
How about Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson about the creation of a Mars colony? It’s set in the near future and as far as I can tell is technically realistic. It’s literally “down-to-earth” with interminable descriptions of Martian geology and terraforming but a pretty good book overall. The physical setting may not be familiar but the human and political themes are. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/5 "2003-10-08T22:13:19Z")
If you want Earth and still recognizable, another triilogy by Robinson is more to the point: His Orange County tilogy of _The Wild Shore_, _The Gold Coast_, and _Pacific Edge_. Near future but extrapolated in interesting ways. That would also cover many of Bruce Sterling’s books, including _Distraction_. I think Sterling does the most believable totally changed futures of any writer in the field. Cyberpunk is mostly near-future changes, so that means William Gibson from start to finish. Robert Charles Wilson is another fine writer who does fascinating works almost all of which are set on Earth. There’s also Nancy Kress and her Beggers trilogy about the changes genetic mutations would make. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/6 "2003-10-08T22:29:54Z")
Dan Simmons’ _Phases of Gravity_ is so down-to-earth that it’s almost not science fiction, but there’s enough there for a good sci-fi fan to chew on. Damn fine book, too. For something a little more outlandish, try _The Eyre Affair_ by Jasper Fforde. It takes place on Earth in the mid-1980’s (mostly), and the things in it are recognizable… for the most part. A pretty decent read. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/7 "2003-10-08T22:40:33Z")
The Stanley/Mars books SUCK, so skip those. Fore “real world” SF look to Ballard, or Lem, or Pollack, or Blumlein. Ballard’s _Concrete Island_ is about a man whose car crashes down a steep embankment in the center of a tangle spaghetti bowl of freeway overpasses. The walls are two steep for him to climb out with his broken leg, so he must live there for a time, drinking rainwater and eating from fast food litter. Then he finds out he’s not alone . . . Lem wrote _Solaris_, which is more a meditation on what is real and what is perceived than it is about spaceships. Lem is one of the few SF writers who, in my mind, should win a Nobel Prize for Literature. Pollack’s _Unquenchable Fire_ is a brilliant novel that starts from the premise that modern America is a society untouched by Christianity; we live in a culture of mainstream paganism. The local lawn and garden center sells lawn totems; channelers and seers are the superstars of the day. In this parallel Poughkeepsie, NY, the protagonist is a woman who’s never given religion much thought. Although she works for the city, clearing evil spirits away from municipal oracles, she doesn’t really believe in any of it. Until she’s made pregnant by a dream and the prophecies suggest that she will give birth to the messiah. But she wants nothing to do with it. Blumlein’s _The Brains of Rats_ follows pretty closely in Ballard’s shadow, but his stories of modern day SF horror are pretty powerful. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/8 "2003-10-08T22:41:26Z")
Lee Killough wrote a series of three books, The Doppelganger Gambit, Dragon’s Teeth, and Spider Play. Set in the near future, maybe seventy to eighty years from when the books were written, they are basically cop novels. What gave me a special interest is that they are set right in my home town of Topeka, Kansas. One cop loses her partner and is paired with another guy. In outlook, imagination, and personality they are polar opposites but as usual they do manage to forge a working relationship while solving whatever crime is the main impetus of the story. Some parts are hilarious to Topekans because Killough knows/knew the town well, and uses street and area names from now, while adding new places as well. Social mores have changed some. For example, in the first book the female cop, Jana, is roommates with a Shawnee County Medical examiner. He’s gay, and when the second book gets underway she is alone and looking for another roommate because Sid moved out to “marry the man of his dreams.” The books were written before Fred Phelps started picketing, or his descendants would have had heart attacks at that plot twist. I recommend the titles but you may have to go to a place like [www.abebooks.com](http://www.abebooks.com) to get them, as they are out of print. If you really want them I think I have an extra copy to lend out. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/9 "2003-10-08T22:41:59Z")
Also, Crichton’s medical thrillers count as SF, and they mostly take place in the real world, Jurassic Park aside of course. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/10 "2003-10-08T22:54:38Z")
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote two books- _Lucifer’s Hammer,_ a story about a meteor impact (years before Deep Impact and Armageddon,) and **Footfall** , an alien-invasion story also including a meteor impact. There is a significant amount of exposition through the modern-day characters who have to deal with these situations. Try _Childhood’s End_ by Arthur C. Clarke as well. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/11 "2003-10-08T23:07:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slortar \* > \*\*I would read any of the three examples you gave. You should write them. 😃 > \*\* \ Heck, he should submit them to the Bulwer-Lytton contest. \ ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/12 "2003-10-08T23:47:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > \*\*Robert Charles Wilson is another fine writer who does fascinating works almost all of which are set on Earth. \*\* Especially The Harvest. Plot: Alien entity comes to Earth and puts everyone (safely) to sleep. Entity gives everyone (and I mean everyone) the same dream: give up your humanity and see the universe forever. One in 10,000 decide not to go. The story revolves around a doctor who stays and has to watch his daughter slowly fade away. Would make a good movie or a bad Sci-Fi Channel show. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/13 "2003-10-09T00:03:38Z")
Kiln People by David Brin you can make cheap easy copies of yourself and it has a detective novel flair to it. (too bad the author is a jackass) I also like the Earthclan novels by said author. It’s the future we’ve found the universe full of crazied aliens full of their own concerns. Uplifting non self aware species is the main thrust of most of these races and they’re upset we seemed to make it on our own. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/14 "2003-10-09T00:22:17Z")
Robert J Sawyer. Any of his books, from what I have read so far. Which is: _Calculating God_ - the meeting of an alien and a palentologist at the ROM in Toronto, discussing whether God exists based on the science. There’s an interesting side-story, and its pretty thought-provoking. _the Neanderthal Parallax_ - consists of three books: Hominids, Hybrids and Humans. I have yet to read the last one (it’s in the mail as we speak) but it’s very contemporary, with a quantum-portal opening up between this Earth and an alternate earth in which the Neanderthals became the dominant hominid form. Somewhat lighthearted and easy to read. There are a bunch of other books by him too. I likely will read them eventually. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/15 "2003-10-09T04:12:31Z")
Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov [as a color, a shade of purple gray] Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein The World of Null A (written as A with a bar over it) - A E Van Vogt Titan - John Varley Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon - Spider Robinson These should be fairly connected to your reality–at least they are to mine. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/16 "2003-10-09T04:24:05Z")
Let me second the Niven/Pournelle suggestions of Footfall and Lucifer’s Hammer. Particularly Footfall. Easily one of the best alien invasion novels I’ve ever read. Guerilla warfare with “elephants” in hang gliders, and POTUS asking the Russians to launch at Kansas. Sweet apocalyptic goodness. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/17 "2003-10-09T04:31:44Z")
_Blood Music_ by Greg Bear. A scientist invents nanomachines which get injected into his bloodstream to surprising effect. Definitely set in a recognizable world, though what happens in the last quarter is wildly unpredictable. 😃 > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mnemosyne \* > **Robert J Sawyer. Any of his books, from what I have read so far.** Yes. He makes a deliberate point of writing books that take place in the here-and-now, with a big twist somewhere for the SF plot. _Calculating God._ An alien lands on the patio outside the Royal Museum of Ontario, walks into the lobby, and says, “I want to see a paleontologist.” Turns out the alien scientist has discovered the mass extinctions on his world coincide with those on other planets, and he and his kind believes this is evidence for the hand of God in the universe. The human paleontologist, an atheist, resists this explanation, until the aliens show him additional evidence… _The Terminal Experiment._ A computer scientist, investigating the possibility of life after death, uploads his consciousness into a mainframe computer. Specifically, he creates _three_ versions: one with the physical limitations edited out, one with the sense of mortality edited out, and a third unchanged as a control. The idea is to compare how the three versions vary, but when one of them commits murder, he has to figure out which one is responsible before it happens again… _Factoring Humanity._ In a story that starts out something like _Contact_, signals are received from space, which when deciphered seem to suggest an engineering diagram for some sort of device. But when it’s assembled, it turns out to do something completely unexpected… _Illegal Alien._ An alien vessel arrives in the middle of the Pacific. They seem to come in peace, but then a human is murdered and an alien is arrested. This leads to a courtroom trial; it’s a lot like _Law & Order_ plus aliens. _Hominids._ Energy scientists using a particle detector in a deep mine are shocked to discover a Neanderthal in the device: not a caveman, but a fully modern, language-using Neanderthal scientist. Word of warning: There’s one major subplot that I thought didn’t work in a big way. Other than that, a fun read. Sawyer’s stories are all similarly constructed; they take place in a recognizable modern world (with the exception of _Starplex_), one big twist is added to get the story moving, and the climaxes are (almost without exception) totally off the hook. Sawyer has all kinds of confidence in his ability to pull off these mind-blowing finales, and for the most part he usually does. Given what you’re asking for in the OP, I’d start with these. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/18 "2003-10-09T05:21:58Z")
I think you would be very happy with the work of Robert Charles Wilson. A lot of his stories are set in modern times and all of them have very believable, realistic characters, but they are very much science fiction. In ‘Mysterium’, a small town is transported into an alternate universe. In ‘A Bridge of Years’ a guy moves into a supposedly haunted house, and ends up finding a tunnel to the 1960s. ‘Darwinia’ starts out in 1912, and covers several decades of an alternate history where Europe was replaced by an alien jungle in 1912 (sounds very weird and it is, but it all makes sense in the end). ‘Bios’ is space opera, of a sort, but it’s not very far-fetched, and is only set a couple of hundred years in the future. I recomend reading ‘A Bridge of Years’ first. It’s a really easy book to get into, and will give you a taste for more of his writing. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/19 "2003-10-09T07:10:48Z")
Robin Cook’s medical thrillers might be to your liking. My favorite was Acceptable Risk. It’s about woman who was desended from a woman hanged during the Salem witch trials and her boyfriend who discovers that the hallucinations the girls suffered during the trials was caused by a spore. He and a team of scientists work to turn the spore into a Prozac like drug, while the girlfriend reads more and more about her ancestor. It was the intertwined stories I liked about this one. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336/20 "2003-10-09T07:26:11Z")
A firm aye on Robinson’s _Mars_ trilogy. Also on David Brin’s stuff, _Kiln People_ and _Earth_ are both relatively “down-to-earth” at the start (if you can swallow the immediate world-premise of Kiln). However, both admittedly fly into Wonderland at the end, so you may find yourself disconnecting towards the latter third. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-to-earth-science-fiction/206336.md?page=2)