Newer Sci-fi

[BearMountainBooks]

Eric Flint's Mother of Demons comes to mind (planetary exploration). He probably wrote others along those lines, although I have not read tons of his stuff and there is a huge range.

Mark Van Name also writes some space adventures...I think I'd classify them closer to space opera, but maybe somewhere in between. I did like Scalzi's Old Man's War. It might not turn out to be his favorite, but it has a lot of appeal.

[BearMountainBooks]

And it may be too far off hard science and into adventure/space opera/undefined, but I also enjoyed Stephen Goldin's work, specifically Jade Darcy and the Zen Pirates. There were at least two in the series and I don't recall which one came first--that one or Affair of Honor. I'm a pretty character driven reader, but you might find something in Goldin's backlist and I think he does write some fantasy as well, so you'll want to be selective when browsing!

[wayspooled]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

I'll list those for him. I might actually get some of them. They look interesting.
Are most ebooks?

For The Win is available for free download at Cory Doctorow's site. Don't know how that makes him money. http://craphound.com/ftw/download/

All the rest seem to be amazon/kindlerized.

Reamde btw is being made into a mini-series and Ready Player One into a movie.

[curtw]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

He really liked the Martian - I haven't read it yet, but from what I gather it was man against terrain, and that might be the conflict he likes.

Sticking with sci-fi, some thoughts if the first-person narrative/internal dialog is something he found appealing:

For the psychological aspects, I'd recommend Frederik Pohl's Gateway.

If it's the problem-solving, there a couple of books that require the reader to solve right along with the protagonist: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe, and Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.

The "planetary survey" aspect of each of these is minimal, but there's something there.

[Alpha o]

Isn't Gateway part of the Heechee series? I've got that. Another no-go.

Like I said, Thanks.

I've put all these recommendations in a list and emailed it to him. I can't say how long it will be before he investigates. I've saved a copy for myself.

I bought one of the first Roku players and he let it sit for 2 years before installing. I flat out told him I wanted Major League Baseball and got him to hook it up since we used the main TV. He didn't have a clue about what a streaming device was. He can tell you how and why you are losing power over transmission lines and the like.

There's 2 short stories from one of the old magazines of the 50/60s I'd like to find.

One is the "Ballad of Lost C'Mell", the other was about an alien from red sun who got hipped on classical music. For some reason, I think Brian Aldiss wrote it.

Thanks again

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

Isn't Gateway part of the Heechee series? I've got that. Another no-go.

Like I said, Thanks.

I've put all these recommendations in a list and emailed it to him. I can't say how long it will be before he investigates. I've saved a copy for myself.

I bought one of the first Roku players and he let it sit for 2 years before installing. I flat out told him I wanted Major League Baseball and got him to hook it up since we used the main TV. He didn't have a clue about what a streaming device was. He can tell you how and why you are losing power over transmission lines and the like.

There's 2 short stories from one of the old magazines of the 50/60s I'd like to find.

One is the "Ballad of Lost C'Mell", the other was about an alien from red sun who got hipped on classical music. For some reason, I think Brian Aldiss wrote it.

Thanks again

If you like short stories no one is better than Nancy Fulda. She writes quite a bit of hard sci/fi, although I personally prefer her lighter stuff (But I read cozies for heaven's sake!) She has an anthology and a bunch of singles. One of her stories was up for a ... major award. I can't remember the award because I don't pay attention to those things. The name of the story was Movement. I think.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

One is the "Ballad of Lost C'Mell"

It's in We the Underpeople by Cordwainer Smith, edited by Hank Davis. A collection of his Underpeople stories.

$6 from Baen

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

If you like short stories no one is better than Nancy Fulda. She writes quite a bit of hard sci/fi, although I personally prefer her lighter stuff (But I read cozies for heaven's sake!) She has an anthology and a bunch of singles. One of her stories was up for a ... major award. I can't remember the award because I don't pay attention to those things. The name of the story was Movement. I think.

Movement was up for Nebula and Hugo

Certainly not about planetary exploration though.

[HarryT]

Might enjoy the book I've just finished reading: "Mission of Gravity" by Hal Clement. An SF classic and definitely in the "hard SF" category.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Might enjoy the book I've just finished reading: "Mission of Gravity" by Hal Clement. An SF classic and definitely in the "hard SF" category.

Excellent Book! Published before the Nebulas and the year the Hugos started.

[kennyc]

speaking of planetary exploration, here's one of my flash fictions from last year you can share with him if you like.



Planetary Survey S-2732-m4
by
Kenny A. Chaffin

All Rights Reserved © 2014 Kenny A. Chaffin



The survey ship focused on m4 as it was the only planet in the habitable range. The long dead signals had come from this planetary system but none in recent times. The planet closest to the star was too hot to harbor life and if it had ever had an atmosphere it would have been short-lived, likely burned and blown away by the stellar wind shortly after the planet’s formation. The next two were shrouded in toxic gases and clouds causing their surfaces to be almost hot and deadly as the first. The more distant planets were gas giants and frigid moons. That left m4 for examination. Following standard procedure they proceeded with a full preliminary scan of the small planet, recording visual, radar, sonar and ultrasound images and maps of the surface. All data fed directly into the computers for analysis, categorization and evaluation which would continue for days following the data collection.

After a dozen days of orbiting, shifting orbits, scanning, mapping, sorting and sifting it was clear there was no sign of life, no intelligently created structures, no cities, no evidence of agriculture. Everything was natural, normal and had been that way for a very long time – billions of years.

A thin atmosphere existed but even here it was being stripped away by the stellar wind. There were signs of ancient geological activity and erosion by water or other liquid yielding channels and flows but nothing recent and channels and erosion were tempered by on-going filling and shifting of wind-blown sands. Just as the crew was ready to write it off as one more lifeless system there was a strong reflected signal, an anomaly from the ground piercing EM waves. Nothing was visible optically. Whatever it was, was beneath the shifting sands and dust of the planetary surface.

A sterile reconnaissance drone was dropped which carefully excavated the artifact, first exposing a mast with some type of sensors and then the rest. It was clearly of intelligent design, a silver wheeled metallic machine and clearly not of this world since it was one of a kind. Perhaps a reconnaissance drone similar to the one they had used to excavate it. It was assumed that it must have been abandoned or failed or perhaps gotten stuck in the loose soil and been gradually covered over by the windswept dust and sand. Compositional and mechanical analysis along with the erosion and decay of its exposed components indicated that it was approximately a billion years old. The question was where were its masters, the ones who sent or left this small six-wheeled rover on this dry red planet?

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

If you like short stories no one is better than Nancy Fulda. She writes quite a bit of hard sci/fi, although I personally prefer her lighter stuff (But I read cozies for heaven's sake!) She has an anthology and a bunch of singles. One of her stories was up for a ... major award. I can't remember the award because I don't pay attention to those things. The name of the story was Movement. I think.

Unfortunately, both collections of Cordwainer Smith are out of ebook print. Some of them are available as separate stories on amazon.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It's in We the Underpeople by Cordwainer Smith, edited by Hank Davis. A collection of his Underpeople stories.

$6 from Baen

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Unfortunately, both collections of Cordwainer Smith are out of ebook print. Some of them are available as separate stories on amazon.

Oh, so it is. Sorry - I was logged in at baenebooks and so I wasn't shown the "Not currently Available" as I bought it when it was released.

[HarryT]

Yes, sometimes when Baen lose the rights to a book, it continues to be downloadable by people who've bought it previously, and sometimes it isn't. This is an example of the former.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Might enjoy the book I've just finished reading: "Mission of Gravity" by Hal Clement. An SF classic and definitely in the "hard SF" category.

Mission of Gravity is available in the Kindle Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited programs. If you buy it from Amazon US, it costs $7, but the entire trilogy is available for $7.99.