Does anyone know any Hard Sci Fi books about humans surviving without any hospitable worlds?

I’m looking to get inspiration for my own writing. I need a hard sci fi series where earth (and earthlike worlds) are too rare, inaccessible, and/or previously spoiled beyond ability to sustain life. Bonus points if it is set on a multi-generational space station or starship without any other options and goes into detail about life support, living space, mineral mining and expansion of the station to accomodate a growing population, and daily life of it’s residents.

If anyone remembers Drifter Colonies from Titan A.E., that’s what’s in my head.

I’m looking for The Martian levels of realism, and I’m fine with a bit of “Unobtanium” clichés if they’re not core to the story.

cygnii,
cygnii avatar

The Silo series of books by Hugh Howey was very much about those things. There is one season of the TV show Silo as well.

Adderbox76,

I’ve come to believe that once we seriously get into Space, there will come a point where “Planets” are not our primary residence at all.

I feel like O’Neal Cylinders have the advantage of a controlled environment and the lack of a gravity well hindering further exploration.

Flumpkin,

The Culture series novel, my favorite optimistic and hard sci fi that includes artificial intelligence (minds that have giant ships or habitats for bodies and humanoid avatars to interact with people).

They basically never live on planets because they are inefficient and “inelegant”. They live on gigantic ring orbitals that have a fraction of the mass of a planet but multiple times the surface area. No big take-off energy needed either. They also live on gigantic ships that endlessly cruise the milky way. Highly recommend!

Another thought about “colonizing planets” would be that it’s basically a form of genocide. Imagine someone had colonized earth half a billion years ago or just a few million years ago. Humanity would never have existed. Just stepping foot on a planet like they do on star trek is basically ecocide - with the introduction of completely foreign and possibly incredibly disruptive micro organisms. Besides the ethical aspect there would also be the loss of information - if you imagine a pristine planet to be a bio computer creating countless unique and new genetic variations and new forms of chemistry. Quite possible not something that can be covered with a computer. Or observing primitive planets as a source of entertainment. There are lots of reasons why outside of a few “home planets” advanced civilizations would never terraform existing biological systems, and would find artificial habitats far more efficient or practical.

init,
@init@lemmy.ml avatar

ANOTHER series I just remembered and highly recommend is the Unincorporated Man series. I think there are 4-5 books in the series. Pretty good IMHO. Similar to The Expanse, it’s the Inners vs the Belters, and explores personal liberty and person hood from the perspective of owning “shares” of yourself like a company.

The conflict is awesome, and two military strategy geniuses duke it out in a Legends of the Galactic Heroes sort of way–one has all the resources and latest tech, the other is scrappy and has to deal with extreme resources shortages. Awesome story.

nxdefiant,

I’m going to go the other way and recommend The Fifth Season, which is technically a fantasy trilogy but which has won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, because (as if that wasn’t a spoiler) it’s got a ton of sci Fi in it.

It’s basically about people on a planet that keeps dying. They’ve had to deal with so many apocalyptic events that prepping for the next one defines the entirety of their civilization. If you want a window into the psychology of a society constantly on the verge of destruction, I can’t think of a better series.

BallShapedMan,
@BallShapedMan@lemmy.world avatar

My suggestion will spoil a bit of the ending so I’m putting it in a spoiler tag.

3 Body ProblemIn the third book it very much meets this criteria and I think has some fantastic ideas I’d love to see expanded on

Blue_Morpho,

There is little hard scifi in the 3 Body problem. And nothing of what the OP asked about.

BallShapedMan,
@BallShapedMan@lemmy.world avatar

You don’t think so? I thought it did.

Blue_Morpho,

Unfolding proton as a fundamental particle is wrong. Protons are made up of 3 quarks. Quantum teleportation doesn’t enable ftl communication. Ftl engines. Higher dimensions. Collapsing dimensions. Pocket universe.

There is a chapter about building realistic space stations in the shadow of Jupiter and two realistic space ships one of which goes right into the fantasy realm of higher dimensions.

Maybe 50 pages out of 500 are hard scifi.

BallShapedMan,
@BallShapedMan@lemmy.world avatar

I was sold on the first stuff being real… I guess that makes it good fiction. I know there was a lot that wasn’t but I thought since OP was looking for inspiration that some of the stuff here would help…?!

RampantParanoia2365,

Saving this thread for good book suggestions.

thebardingreen,
@thebardingreen@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz avatar

The Interdependency series by John Scalzi portrays a society where some number of star systems, containing only one habitable planet which is at the very far reaches of the wormhole network, are connected together by wormholes. The society is called “the Interdependency” because every orbital habitat, dome and underground city is hugely dependent on trade with other habitats… without robust transfer of goods and raw materials EVERYONE would die… and this DOESN’T prevent stupid, short sighted, greedy humans from gambling with the stability of it all for their own personal economic and political gain. Fun books. Like most Scalzi, it’s not too deep. But it’s lots of fun.

Firipu,
@Firipu@startrek.website avatar

Can vouch for that series. Great fun.

DAMunzy,

That’s what immediately came to my mind!

init, (edited )
@init@lemmy.ml avatar

Children of Time series goes over this a little bit, especially in the first book. Colonists end up waking up early due to a malfunction and end up falling into a devolving tribalistic race to the bottom on their journey to the planet.

EDIT: As for “hard” scifi, while I wouldn’t say this series is at the same level as The Martian or maybe The Expanse, it is pretty good with trying to keep things real, especially with regards to the human threads of the story.

Dagwood222,

bookshop.org/p/books/…/113411?ean=9780316452502

Author and book information. Good series.

retrieval4558,

It’s a very non traditional story structure (at least to a western reader) but The Three Body Problem series has a lot of plot revolving around the lack of inhabitable worlds.

MojoMcJojo,

Wasn’t there a ship, or two, that had to escape into deep space for like, a long long time?

OurTragicUniverse,
OurTragicUniverse avatar

Inverted World by Christopher Priest is kinda this.

plactagonic,

Read Dune if you didn’t read it it goes deep in to ecology and terraforming of Arrakis, Fremen surviving on it,water relations in environment…

Another inspiration for you may be Scavengers Reign - animated series about surviving on lush planet that is really inhospitable for humans.

demoman,

Dune is a fantastic series!

saigot,

All tomorrow’s by c.m koseman may be interesting to you. It’s a short story that examines the state of humanity several billion years in the future after they have evolved to be unrecognizable. Some civilizations thrived and became better, many devolved and live tortured existances. Quite a few lose the ability to speak or lose intelligence in general.

mdhughes,
@mdhughes@lemmy.ml avatar

John Varley’s 8 Worlds books (pre- and post-reboot) have had to colonize the rocks of the Solar system, tho they’re not that technical, and he rarely moves past the Moon. Also Gaea (Titan, Wizard, Demon) has an extremely alien habitat; there are other Gaea creatures, just the protagonist one is crazy but also Human-friendly.

Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky is about life on STL, multi-generation starships.

Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix is mostly set in habitats, asteroid mining, and Martian terraforming, but also a very alien hive.

  1. NEVER BORN. “You mean we all came from Earth?” said Nikolai, unbelieving.

“Yes,” the holo said kindly. “The first true settlers in space were born on Earth—produced by sexual means. Of course, hundred of years have passed since then. You are a Shaper. Shapers are never born.”

“Who lives on Earth now?”

“Human beings.”

“Ohhhh,” said Nikolai, his falling tones betraying a rapid loss of interest.

GrabtharsHammer,

“The Dark Beyond the Stars” by Frank Robinson might fit for you. It’s set on a generation ship that can’t find a good landing spot.

rekabis,

“And all the stars a stage” (1971) by James Blish is another one where human-like aliens escape the destruction of their home world in 30 ships just to wander the galaxy looking for a new home, running into one disaster after another as their attempts to settle on various worlds end in failure and lives lost, until they happen upon a tiny, blue-green world with the most hospitable climate imaginable… with only one ship and a handful of survivors left.

It’s a poignant story of endlings, and the extinction of one species at the civilizational dawn of another.

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