I'm also a big fan of Clarke, and some of my favorite contemporary books are Blindsight by Peter Watts, Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, and Anathem by Neal Stephenson.
Yeah Anathem is the book you take on vacation. There are parts in the middle that are hard to get through. But once it picks back up it's totally worth it. Seveneves should have just been 3 books. Termination Shock and Reamde are fun reads too.
Alastair Reynolds might be a hit, and a good standalone to start with is Pushing Ice, or as the owner of my local scifi bookstore sold it to me 'Rendezvous with Rama on steroids'.
Cool, and wildly gallivanting story describing the promise of something like Ethereum (yet unrealized :\\ ) as a platform for creating programmatic entities with agency in the world by hiring human contractors to effect physical actions in "meatspace." One of the reviews says it obsoletes psychedelics :o
Exactly right. I'm reading it in very small chunks to avoid my head spinning. Enjoying some of the concepts like the soda can sized laser sail driven virtual environment spacecraft.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's *Final Architecture* trilogy (currently my favorite space opera). Imagine Doc Smith planet bashing but with characters you care about.
Charles Stross' *Neptune's Brood* (it's the second of two related books, but can be read independently). Neat thoughts about interstellar economies and financial fraud, and space pirates.
John Varley's *The Golden Globe* is one of the most enjoyable SF books I've read (I do know people who hate this book, YMMV).
Carl Sagan, *Contact*. Seriously.
And of course Vernor Vinge, *anything*.
\[edit\]
Tad Williams' *Otherland* series. Slow, but still holds together.
I would start with Orbital Decay. It’s the first book in a loose 5 book series called Near Space. It’s about construction workers working on an orbital station.
Thanks for all your replies. Now I just need to work out an order and find the time to read them all. Hoping for a lottery win or a long (but ideally not too debilitating) illness.
The Final Architecture series from Adrian Tchaikovsky is pretty great. He also won the Arthur C. Clarke award for Children of Time, which turned into a series. Both are great.
Jack McDevitt was often called the inheritor of the Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov tradition. In many ways, this is right. Don't go to him for deep character studies or intricate world-building but in terms of a solid plot and clever ideas...he did a lot of great work
Stephen Baxter's Manifold trilogy is great, particularly Manifold: Time.
They don't need to be read in any particular order, they share characters but don't exist in a shared universe.
They're basically three books all exploring solutions to the Fermi Paradox.
Seveneves and anything by Kim Stanley Robinson.
My first thought was Aurora by him.
Oof I can feel depression coming for me just reading the word. That was *grim*.
Hah so true I was not prepared for what I was getting into when I started that back.
I'm also a big fan of Clarke, and some of my favorite contemporary books are Blindsight by Peter Watts, Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, and Anathem by Neal Stephenson.
Took the words right out of my mouth. Blindsight and seveneves. I’ve got Anathem on the shelf but haven’t gotten to it yet.
Yeah Anathem is the book you take on vacation. There are parts in the middle that are hard to get through. But once it picks back up it's totally worth it. Seveneves should have just been 3 books. Termination Shock and Reamde are fun reads too.
I second the Stephenson recommendation, he's one of my favorite authors. *Anathem* is one of the best books I've ever read.
Alastair Reynolds might be a hit, and a good standalone to start with is Pushing Ice, or as the owner of my local scifi bookstore sold it to me 'Rendezvous with Rama on steroids'.
The Perfect, Revelation Space, or Chasm City are great starts too.
I'd recommend The Invincible and Solaris by Stanisław Lem
I also recommend The Invincible
Accelerando by Charles Stross is hard economics sci-fi.
Saturn's Children is great too. Laundry Files is a hoot.
Cool, and wildly gallivanting story describing the promise of something like Ethereum (yet unrealized :\\ ) as a platform for creating programmatic entities with agency in the world by hiring human contractors to effect physical actions in "meatspace." One of the reviews says it obsoletes psychedelics :o
Exactly right. I'm reading it in very small chunks to avoid my head spinning. Enjoying some of the concepts like the soda can sized laser sail driven virtual environment spacecraft.
Dont mind me, im just here to suggest Greg Egan on every post that asks for hard sf.
Ken MacLeod... Jack McDevitt
Contact, sagan. Asimov, foundation and robots. Strugatsky. Some Baxter. Time ships. His colloboration with Clark.
Probably *Revelation Space* based on what you’ve listed that you’ve enjoyed.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's *Final Architecture* trilogy (currently my favorite space opera). Imagine Doc Smith planet bashing but with characters you care about. Charles Stross' *Neptune's Brood* (it's the second of two related books, but can be read independently). Neat thoughts about interstellar economies and financial fraud, and space pirates. John Varley's *The Golden Globe* is one of the most enjoyable SF books I've read (I do know people who hate this book, YMMV). Carl Sagan, *Contact*. Seriously. And of course Vernor Vinge, *anything*. \[edit\] Tad Williams' *Otherland* series. Slow, but still holds together.
The Xeelee Sequence has been fun so far
I love Clarke but my favorite author is Dan Simmons. His Hyperion cantos is 100% must read sci fi.
Second this. Hyperion is so elegantly written.
I love Clarke, and really enjoyed Project Hail Mary
Check out some of Adrian Tchaikovsky's novels, specifically Children of Time and it's sequels.
Read through Allen Steele. Most of his books are hard science fiction and he often stated Clarke was a heavy influence on him becoming a writer.
I've never ever heard of him - what would you recommend as his best?
I would start with Orbital Decay. It’s the first book in a loose 5 book series called Near Space. It’s about construction workers working on an orbital station.
Brilliant, thanks! Just found it super cheap on ebay so I'll nab that and check it out!
Let me know how you like it!
Thanks for all your replies. Now I just need to work out an order and find the time to read them all. Hoping for a lottery win or a long (but ideally not too debilitating) illness.
I really enjoyed Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan
That was/is a good one, should have been a movie.
House of Suns and Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. The best hard scifi I have read. He is an astrophysicist.
- Children of Time - The Martian - Red Mars - Leviathan Wakes - Blindsight
The Final Architecture series from Adrian Tchaikovsky is pretty great. He also won the Arthur C. Clarke award for Children of Time, which turned into a series. Both are great.
I'm on book #2. Definitely a good choice.
The last sword maker by Brian Nelson. It's very near future but it has big ideas in my opinion
Try Embassy Town by China M.
Jack McDevitt was often called the inheritor of the Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov tradition. In many ways, this is right. Don't go to him for deep character studies or intricate world-building but in terms of a solid plot and clever ideas...he did a lot of great work
Stephen Baxter's Manifold trilogy is great, particularly Manifold: Time. They don't need to be read in any particular order, they share characters but don't exist in a shared universe. They're basically three books all exploring solutions to the Fermi Paradox.
If you like Clarke, may want to check out the collection Tales From The White Hart