Physics is not the only science. Technology is not the only -ology. Any recommendations for sci-fi books where less obvious sciences power the story?
I seldom read 'hard sf' and tend to go for ones that uses the soft sciences ie. social sciences - politics, sociology, psychology feminism, ecology, etc. I find the effects of science and technology on people just as interesting as the science and tech itself. In fact, I prefer it if the tech-talk took a backseat to the story.
Some of my favourite sf novels include:
Oryx and Crake and
The Handmaid's Tale both by Margaret Atwood
Any of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks, especially The Player of Games and
InversionsAir by Geoff Ryman
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
Dawn by Octavia Butler
On the somewhat lighter side, Sheri S. Tepper writes science fiction and 'science fantasy' novels that range from good to silly, but nonetheless have some interesting if heavy-handed ideas about ecology and feminism, and are usually fun to read.
The Species Imperative trilogy by Julie Czerneda (leading of with
Survival) is good bio SF written by a writer trained in biology...
Anyone know of any Chemistry based SF?
Biology gets a fairly good selection from andromida strain through to various aliens, but chemsitry always seem a bit left out when it comes to fiction.
Much of
Hal Clement's work is chemistry based, mostly physical chemistry.
Starlight is built around the phase diagram of water-ammonia mixtures, for instance.
Wasn't EE 'Doc' Smith a chemist?
>7 damn, dukedom beat me to it.
Geology gets a starring role in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (begins with
Red Mars). Also
Richter Ten by Clarke & McQuay,
Rift by Walter Jon Williams.
Meteorology in Bruce Sterling's
Heavy Weather and John Barnes'
Mother of Storms.
Anything by
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. They tell real stem winders that are all full of speculative science.
Everything from botany and monsters, to artificial blood, to biology, to psychology, to archaeology, to misbegotten children, to computers, to hydrology and extreme climates.
I think they describe their work as techno-thrillers, but from what I've learned in the three threads so far devoted to the topic "What is SF" these are definitely science based fiction set in the present.
While each of their books is a standalone work, characters flow from one to the other.
Most of these are tales of terror and horror. Just the stuff you guys should like. The best is
Cabinet of Curiosities if you just want to check them out.
BTW, these two dudes know how to write.
Blood Music by Greg Bear is great story with a biological focus.
What about sociology?
iansales@8,
I believe E. E. Smith was a food chemist, specializing in the chemistry of donut mixes - I remember reading that somewhere.
Paul Krugman (Economics Nobel laureate) said that he became an economist from reading Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. I guess this would cover social sciences as well.
Atlas Shrugged is an alternate history based on the discredited science of economics and free market fundamentalism (which would be a branch of theology).
PKD studied philosophy, which explains his work.
Harry Turtledove did his dissertation on Byzantine history.
The last 2 aren't "hard sciences," but do give the author a different perspective on the creative process.
Personally, I don't read SF for the "science" stuff, but on different takes on social arrangements, political systems, etc.
L.E. Modesitt and the Eucologic Envoy pieces though science is not delved too deeply. Isn't
Cyteen focused around a scientist?
Peter Watts does biochemistry scifi.
Message edited by its author, Feb 11, 2009, 11:26pm.
Not at book length, but in Howard Waldrop's story
The Ugly Chickens, the science in question is (of course)
ornithology.
Nancy Kress' Begger's series is centered around bio/genetic-engineering
Next by Chrichton focuses on human genetics. I found it in the regular fiction section of my library but I consider it Sci-Fi. Bit of a soapbox piece on the patenting of human genes but a good read.
#17 you need to be careful when taking the piss out of Rand - some people might think you're being serious...
I think the OP meant real sciences, not made-up ones.
Sales, sometimes even fish in barrels need to be shot ;) Especially with her rabid fanboys in the Treasury Department. It's not like her philosophy is responsible for Wall Street and the global economy collapsing in on itself like a dying star. Too bad she didn't live in Somalia, since there aren't any bad government regulations getting in the way of free enterprise.
Today's science is tomorrow's alchemy. Future people -- if they exist and we're all destroyed in the
Robot Wars -- will see us as simpletons at the mercy of lab coat-wearing wizards.
Psychohistory may be a made up science, but sociology certainly is real. Asimov was a real scientist, but reading the Foundation series from the standpoint of learning a scientific fact, I think we are more observers of great swaths of history unfolding, just as it was destined to be.
The Languages of Pao is actually based on the Whorfe-Sapir Hypothesis, which has been largely discredited.
#33
You are right, of course. I still prefer to think of the book as related to linguistics rather than to pre-scientific anthropological/psychological speculation.
ah..once again - for a nice mix of "ologies" w/in one book of terrific SF short stories - Ted Chiang's
stories of your life and others. Math, linguistics, biology...ummm yeah, theology but w. great imagination. My vote for the best collection of short stories in SF by any author. You can have your own favorite, but this one is mine!
#25
To split hairs, I would more accurately call this a novel of neuropsychology instead of neurophysiology. Watts' characters are a who's who of common neuropsychological disorders: anomic aphasia, somatosensory agnosia ("blindsight" is an example of this type of dysfunction), etc. I mention this mainly to lament that fact that, while in general I really like
Watts, I felt like his characters in
Blindsight walked fully formed from a neuropsych textbook.
Btw, what sciences do you folks think
Anathem is dominated by? Western (Analytic) Philosophy (as in, one long argument for Platonic realism)? I think there's alotta otherstuff going on in there too... Although I've kinda gotten the impression that more than 50% of the reading public (from comments in forums here and elsewhere, conversations with friends, etc) seem to HATE this thing!
edited to add: I did not mean to imply by the above that I believe Philosophy is a Science with a capital 'S' (any more than Psychology, Sociology, or Gods Help Us, Economics), but this is another argument entirely.
Message edited by its author, Feb 13, 2009, 4:53pm.
I'd just like to say that reading L.Sprague de Camp
Harold Shea Enchanter series was a memorably pleasant experience.
It deals with the quasi-science of symbolic logic, which I've found to be reasonably common ground in SF.
I was still in the early throes of a B.A. degree and to be able to explore Spenser's faerie queendom before I'd read (part of) the book was...strange.
The anthology
Time Probe edited by Arthur C. Clarke contains short stories from a sampling of scientific fields: archaeology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, cybernetics, meteorology, exobiology, mathematics, medicine, physics and physiology.
The
Omni Book of Medicine contained some near-future speculative medical sci-fi I believe.
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear - biology, genetics.
>24 re:
Jurassic ParkBack in the day when I was in college
Jurassic Park was required reading for our Summer Science Symposium on "Recombinant DNA." When the movie came out the local paper came and interviewed the prof whose lab I worked in because he was actually trying to sequence dinosaur DNA from insects trapped in amber.
jeepers, other -ologies.
A reader thereof steps over to his bookshelf for...
hmm, any additions to an already lengthy list?
Lessee now:
linguistics powers
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
genetic theology and much other sideways looking is at the core of
Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury
What about power of art as a science?!?
Carve the Sky by Alexander Jablokov
There are other novel(s) out there where their/our art thrashes our/their culture, take that, oh all-powerful physical science...
Could use some help with those titles, though.
Kim Stanley Robinson -
Icehenge. A good book with many themes and layers, not a small part of it concerns archaeology in the future.
Archaeology crops up quite often, though many writers seem to take their basic archaeological references from Indiana Jones. But Jack McDevitt's
Engines of God should get a mention.
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