Looking for books with main emphasis on natural science

[Gabi]

I have to excavate this thread.

Meanwhile I've read some of the recommendations:

The Left Hand of Darkness
All Systems Red
Semiosis
Into the Drowning Deep
Nor Crystal Tears
Blood Music
Dune
Planetfall
The Sparrow
Grass
Children of Time
Mars trilogy by KSR


The following are on my TBR:

The Word for World is Forest
The Sands of Mars
The White Plague
Startide Rising
Spin
Dreamsnake
Remnant Population
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress


Some of the books I liked a lot, some ... I didn't.
But the only two that were about the topic I was looking for were
Children of Time (plus the sequel) and the Mars Trilogy.

So with a lot new members and new reads perhaps there is the one or other additional recommendation for natural science based SF in the line of those two mentioned above.

[Anna]

I haven't read it yet, but Survival by Julie E. Czerneda is on my TBR because it's written by a biologist, about biology. Some reviews say it's boring and just hundreds of pages of salmons mating :D but I'll get around to it one day.

Less biology oriented, but almost always connected to Survival is City of Pearl by Karen Traviss, also on my I-should-already-have-read-it-TBR.

Again, from my TBR, The Companions by Sheri S. Tepper sounds intriguing, I love the idea of Planet Moss, although it probably has nothing to do with moss.

[Anna]

The Companions starts with the *adorable* Litany of Animals:


elemental, monumental, fine phantasmic elephants;
hairless hippopotami, huddled close as spoons;
riotous rhinoceri, roistering on grasslands;
tiny tender tarsiers, eyes like moons;

plump pied pandas, pretty as a picture;
gay, giggling gibbons, gamboling in the trees;
awl–nosed aardvarks, excavating anthills;
glowering gorillas lollygagging at their ease.

light on the leaf mold, feather-footed field mouse,
tiny as a hazelnut, the bloodthirsty shrew
off in the outback, wombat, numbat,
gone to have a meeting with kid kangaroo

bulky-shouldered bison, built like a bastion,
wily alligator, floating like a log
wolf in the wildlands, jackal in the jungle,
dutiful and diligent, man’s friend, dog.

horrible hyenas, hairy noses quivering;
wildly running wildebeests, sometimes called the gnu,
laugh-provoking lemurs, loitering on tree limbs,
melancholy mandrill with his bottom painted blue

overbearing ostrich, fluttering his feathers
boulder-bounding ibex, helmed like a knight
curve-backed camel, king of the desert
prickly, stickly porcupine no animal will bite

big brown bruin bear, walking as a man does
toucan with a great tall trumpet for a nose
bald-headed vultures, vittling on vipers
(vultures will eat anything as everybody knows)

mad male orangutan, face like a soup bowl
curious xenopus, peculiarly made
quagga, quail, and quetzal, quaint concatenation.
solitary tiger, strolling in the shade

loudmouthed jackass, braying jeremiads;
bald-faced uakaris, kinky kinkajou;
high hairy travelers, yaks upon the mountain;
bringing up the rear with Zebra and Zebu.

[Trike]

Gabi wrote: "Some of the books I liked a lot, some ... I didn't.
But the only two that were about the topic I was looking for were
Children of Time (plus the sequel) and the Mars Trilogy."

So maybe something along the lines of Helliconia Spring (and sequels) by Aldiss. Possibly also The Three-Body Problem and sequels.

[P.L.]

Hi Gabi!

I'm so glad you started this thread. I'm so glad you compiled all the titles a couple posts up! :-) What a great list. If you want a reading buddy for any of your TBR give me a holler. I've wanted to read these four in particular:

The Word for World is Forest
Dreamsnake
Remnant Population
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

but have not gotten to them.

Has anyone mentioned Dawn by Octavia Butler? It's sort of an alien invasion/biology story (and psychology, evolution). No geology as far as I recall, but it might depend what you have in mind.

[DivaDiane]

Startide Rising and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress are both owned on my TBR...

[Quare]

I highly recommend A Door Into Ocean. The worldbuilding is exceptional and informed by the author's experience as a microbiologist.

Evolution has some really great speculation about its titular subject.

[Kai]

Great thread! I was also going to mention Steven Baxter's Evolution, and on a related non-fiction note Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale.

[P.L.]

I'm curious if 'natural world' includes climate change--and what people/readers here think about climate change in their fiction.

Oh and Joan Vinge did the Summer Queen/Winter Queen duo logy a couple decades back. It was sort of environmental.

[Anna]

Check out this thread about climate change in fiction:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[P.L.]

Hey Thanks Anna!

[Candice]

This is great! My other favorite genre is biology. I’ve read a few books that haven’t been mentioned yet that probably belong on the list.

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
The Genius Plague by David Walton
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Prey by Michael Crichton
Sphere byMichael Crichton

Okay, so it’s probably obvious that I’m a huge fan of Michael Crichton! But seriously, he wrote a lot of great biological science fiction during his lifetime. I need recommendations for similar authors and books. So, thanks for this thread!

Candice 🦖

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Haha I love your new sign-off emoji! Yeah, really great suggestions in this thread.

[Candice]

Thanks, Allison. I just thought of another one.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Candice

[Trike]

Of course, Crichton was a climate denier, so he ran hot and cold when it came to science.

[Eva]

Becky Chamber's novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate is about absolutely nothing else than exploring and cataloging the flora and fauna of various alien planets, and the researchers geeking out about it. It should be *exactly* what you're looking for!

If you're okay with biology, medicine, biological research etc. being a bit more in the background behind the characters and their stories, I'd recommend the Vorkosigan saga starting with Cordelia's Honor. Bujold herself was a biologist and it really shows! The first book in this two-book collection starts out with a survey party exploring an alien planet (but the focus shifts more on an emerging war and the very interesting characters as the story progresses. This novel was Bujold's debut and has some of the little flaws debuts tend to have, but it's still better than most other books I've ever read. The second novel in Cordelia's Honor has a strong future medicine focus (not saying more to avoid spoiling what happens), and the rest of the series follows her son Miles, who's the most lovable rogue ever. Although biology (both alien and human), body modification, and research is not the main focus of most books in the series, it is still a strong leitmotif or something that is thematized again and again.

[Cheryl]

Mammoth reminded some of us in a group of Crichton, and there's some biology in it, for example cloning, and elephants, and two different kinds of mammoths.

[Anna]

Anna wrote: "I haven't read it yet, but Survival by Julie E. Czerneda is on my TBR because it's written by a biologist, about biology. Some reviews say it's boring and just hundreds of pages of salmons mating :D but I'll get around to it one day."

I got around to it, and it is indeed hundreds of pages of (a woman thinking and talking about) salmons mating. I bought the entire series from Audible, and after trying to start it four or five times, I finally forced myself to listen to the first book, and then returned the entire series. It got much better after the excruciatingly slow start, but not so good that I wanted to use my credits for it.

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

You've read it already, but Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber fits perfectly with this natural science topic.