Hard Science Fiction

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. It is characterized by rigorous attention to accurate detail in the natural sciences, especially physics, astrophysics, and chemistry, or on accurately depicting worlds that more advanced technology may make possible. Hard science fiction is driven more by ideas than characterization. Plausible science and technology are central to the plot.

Exodus: The Archimedes Engine (Archimedes Engine, #1)
Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories
Inhibitor Phase (The Inhibitor Sequence, #4)
The Object
Cold Eyes
Critical Mass (Delta-v, #2)
Wherever Seeds May Fall (Seeds, #1)
Theft of Fire (Orbital Space #1)
Light Chaser
Galaxias
The Flight of the Aphrodite
The Disturbance (The Disturbance, #1)
The Never Wars
Darkome
Our Lady of the Artilects
The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)
The Martian
Project Hail Mary
The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)
Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)
Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)
Revelation Space (The Inhibitor Sequence, #1)
Leviathan Wakes
Seveneves
Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas AdamsThe Mote in God's Eye by Larry NivenA Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor VingeThe Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le GuinDune by Frank Herbert
Intriguing Aliens
282 books — 176 voters
ReCOgnition by Mark DowsonReCognition - Hypno-Xia, Part 3 by Mark DowsonThe Three-Body Problem by Liu CixinLOH by Rajeev NandaDune by Frank Herbert
Best Intelligent Sci-Fi
293 books — 349 voters

The Pythagorean by Alexander MorpheighPiranesi by Susanna ClarkeBefore the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu KawaguchiDune by Frank HerbertRecursion by Blake Crouch
Mind-bending Science Fiction
251 books — 213 voters
Super Powereds by Drew  HayesSteelheart by Brandon SandersonFirefight by Brandon SandersonSuper Powereds by Drew  HayesSuper Powereds by Drew  Hayes
Super Powered Characters Worth Reading
221 books — 224 voters


Sarah Mazza
Live your life. Don’t subscribe to other people’s ideals because this is what happens. One way or another, it will crush you.
Sarah Mazza, I Dream in Color

Joseph A. Anderson
The supposition was that the difference in energy when n (or v) changes by one is therefore equal to hv, the product of the Planck constant and the vibration frequency was always derived using these pre-revolution mechanics. This was, of course, dependent on gravity having an effect on an atomic level, while acknowledging that it does not. Absurd right? But for a transition from level n to level n+ one due to absorption of a photon, the frequency of the photon has nothing to do with Planck…” “At ...more
Joseph A. Anderson, Eden 2:b

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Tags contributing to this page include: hard-science-fiction, hard-sci-fi, hard-scifi, hard-sf, hardsciencefiction, science-fiction-hard, and sf-hard