Quote:
Originally Posted by sourcejedi
<ontopic>I don't think anyone's mentioned Greg Egan yet. If I had to define hard sf, I'd start by pointing at Greg Egan.
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You beat me to it. I love Greg Egan's short stories every since reading one as part of a university class.
He has heaps of stories on his website and also has a lot published in magazines like Asimov's.
The Axiomatic collection is very good. He writes a lot about the nature of consciousness.
And he's from my city!
re: Space Opera - to me space opera has only superficial sci-fi elements (e.g. Star Wars, though I find the prequels are a bit more overt with some sciency things).
And another recommendation is The Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. It is ostensibly about 'man meets alien', which the OP didn't want, but it's actually a far more original and interesting take on that than I've ever come across. It takes a very realistic approach. Although it is somewhat of the 'military' genre, there really isn't much of that war type stuff.
edit: I think you can buy Mote for $5 from Baen without DRM. I'm pretty sure that's where I got it.