# Needed: Hard Sci-Fi recommendations

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-hard-sci-fi-recommendations/520643>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 9, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-hard-sci-fi-recommendations/520643 "2009-12-09T22:11:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-hard-sci-fi-recommendations/520643/21 "2009-12-10T19:58:07Z")

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I like Michael Flynn’s \*Firestar \*series. It’s very near-future science fiction (rapidly becoming alternate history) about the development of a private space program, spearheaded by a wealthy businesswoman who has a secret fear of a planet-killing asteroid impact and is desperate for mankind to develop the technology to defend itself against one. The first book reminds me of _The Right Stuff_, with engineers developing reusable spacecraft intended to reach low earth orbit and return, and the test pilots who are eager to fly them.

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**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-hard-sci-fi-recommendations/520643/22 "2009-12-10T20:03:38Z")

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Another source for hard sci-fi is TV Tropes’s section on “Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness”. From there, I found this [webpage](http://www.kheper.net/topics/scifi/grading.html) with its own gradation of science fiction hardness, and more importantly, lots of examples.

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**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-hard-sci-fi-recommendations/520643/23 "2009-12-10T21:52:44Z")

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> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#):
>
> A. E. Van Vogt has sort of fallen by the wayside, but I’d read anything by that guy. Gregory Benford and Greg Bear are another couple of authors that I have enjoyed.\<snip\>

Van Vogt is anything **but** Hard-Core SF. He may be better remembered as the spokewriter for woo. A different tack, maybe, I would suggest book re-editions published by NESFA press ([NESFA Press - NESFA](http://www.nesfa.org/press/)). They specialize in reprinting older out-of-print SF and that might be an attraction in itself.

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