I was just thinking about this–what are some examples of sci-fi without faster-than-light anything? Travel or communication which means no hyperspace, no warp drive, no transporter, no ansible–nothing. I think it would be interesting to read what some authors’ interpretations of that would be. Because it seems a lot of them take the easy way out and fabricate some way around it.
If it’s “good” sci-fi, so much the better.
Arthur C. Clark’s 2001 A space odyssey
You know, I thought of that, but what about after Bowman enters the monolith orbiting Saturn ('cause it’s Saturn, not Jupiter, in the first book)? Sounds like FTL to me.
Right. Go back to the old masters. Asimov has a ton of old short stories that deal strictly with stuff inside the solar system, or just on earth (like many of the robot stories).
Clifford Simak’s City is a good one, too (although, technically, there is a FTL drive in there, but it has no real impact on the stories … one character pilots the experimental FTL ship and is never heard from again), about mankind gradually being superseded by its offspring–robots and genetically engineered talking dogs.
And I assume those Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars books are all sublight, but I haven’t read them. Any Robinson fans?
oooooh…close, but, no cigar. That l’il bouncing baby boy at the end sure could get around.
How about Cradle of Saturn by James Hogan?
Arthur C. CLarke’s The Songs of Distant Earth is 100% FTL-free.
H.G.Wells First Men in the Moon and * War of the Worlds*
Jules Verne From the Earth to the Moon
Ray BradburyThe Martian Chronicles
Silent Running
The film version of 2001 specifically mentions that the time lags in the television interview have been deleted, so other than the open-to-interpretation ending, I’d say it counts.
Of course, all these examples remain within our solar system. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any stories dealing with interstellar travel that don’t have some high-tech workaround to keep the story moving, either some means of folding space, going faster than light, or putting crews into suspended animation.
Two that pop to mind are Tau Zero by Poul Anderson and Orphans of the Sky by Robert Heinlein.
The list for fiction goes on for pages and pages. Some are:
Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama
John Varley’s stories in The Persistence of Vision and his trilogy Titan, Wizard, and Demon, “Press ENTER” and “The Pusher” (which does have star travel, but does not go FTL).
Octavia Butler, “Speech Sounds,” “Bloodchild,” and Wild Seed and the early Patternmaster novels, not to mention The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents
William Gibson’s Neuromancer and his other cyberpunk novels.
Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age
Some of Larry Niven’s work – “Wait it Out,” “The Coldest Place,” “Inconstant Moon,” “Becalmed in Hell,” “The Organleggers”
Asimov’s “Marooned off Vesta.” His anthology Earth is Room Enough is a collection of stories set on Earth with FTL, including “The Fun They Had.”
Most of Ray Bradbury’s “Martian” stories.
Hal Clement’s Half Life
R.A. Lafferty’s “What Was the Name of that Town?”
Harlan Ellison’s “Replent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman” “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” and “A Boy and His Dog.”
Fred Pohl’s Man Plus and “The Gold at Starbow’s End” (space travel, too, but not FTL).
Harold Waldrop’s “The Ugly Chickens”
Pam Sargent’s “Danny Goes to Mars” (about Dan Quayle, BTW).
Kim Stanley Robinson “Mars” trilogy – Red Mars, Blue Mars, and Green Mars
Terry Bisson’s “macs”
Robert Silverberg’s “Good News from the Vatican” and his novel
Dying Inside
John Wynham’s The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes.
Edgar Pangborn’s Davy
If you’re talking about movies, there are fewer, but some include:
Deathwatch
Johnny Mnemonic (You didn’t say it had to be good 
)
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Day of the Triffids (Though the book is infinitely better)
Them!
Tarantula
I’ve barely scratched the surface.
Vernor Vinge’s Deepness in the Sky has some really great STL stuff. Also a very, very good read.
A lot of Robert Heinlein’s early books deal with a non-FTL universe. I don’t think that he did any that were exo-solar, but they’re all pretty accurate as far as the “hard” science goes (i.e. drive systems, space suits, etc.). You should read his The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Space Cadet, The Rolling Stones, or The Man Who Sold the Moon if you want good SF that doesn’t have any FTL.
Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly is another one that comes to mind, now that I think about it.
I can’t remember for sure, but I think the movie Silent Running had no FTL technology. All of the books/stories I can think of have already been mentioned.
RR
ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness wrote:
What’s wrong with suspended animation?
If I remember correctly, the ship in the movie Alien (the Nostradamus?) used a slower-than-light propulsion system.
snow crash by Neil Stevenson is a great sci-fi book, all based here in earth in the not so distant future.
Specifically, inter-stellar travel without FTL:
Time For The Stars (Heinlein)
Orphans of the Sky (Heinlein, already mentioned)
Tau Zero (Pohl, also already mentioned)
I highly recommend these!
No chance, there. They clearly go between stars in a finite amount of time. Remember that it was only going to take 10 months to get back to earth at one point.
That Ben Bova trilogy about the scientists that are exiled from Earth and take a few generations to reach a nearby star…
The Exiles trilogy? That might be what it’s called. I forget.
Whaddabout Blade Runner?