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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.

FiniteLooper ,

Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven is a fantastic book that might be near what you are looking for. It’s about an asteroid impact on Earth, this removes a lot of the population and infrastructure and the story focuses on a few different groups of people as they make do with what they can find or scavenge, and then the resource battling that goes on between groups.

A story line I remember well is on a group that found an abandoned neighborhood and were astonished to find that it still had running water from the nearby local dam/reservoir. They lived here for quite a while in their relative luxury until it just stopped working one day. A burst pipe in some other neighborhood had slowly drained the dam faster than they would have used it up.

Anyway, it’s a great book because it feels so realistic as to what would really happen and the struggles people would actually be going through.

bhmnscmm ,
@bhmnscmm@lemmy.world avatar

Alas, Babylon. Earth Abides. On The Beach. The Road. One Second After (this one is meh).

If you want some other good collapse survival books similar to Lucifer’s Hammer.

FiniteLooper ,

Yes, Earth Abides is also good! I had forgotten about that one until I saw your comment

FullOfBallooons ,
@FullOfBallooons@leminal.space avatar

You might want to check out Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. The book is about the people of the Exodus Fleet, a group of multi-generation ships that left Earth years ago. Even though the fleet eventually found other planets for them to live on, many are content to continue living out in space. It’s a neat little slice of life book about this community doing their part to keep these ships going.

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.

RampantParanoia2365 ,

Saving this thread for good book suggestions.

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.

Admetus ,

Tau Zero is essentially where eventually within a few months no hospitable worlds exist. This is due to a spacecraft being out of control and reaching relativistic speeds.

AFKBRBChocolate ,

People already mention the Mars series by Orson Scott Card, the Expanse series by Corey, and Seveneves by Stephenson, which are all fantastic and all fit your request well. Two others you might consider are:

  • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Very old school classic that features a moon colony fighting with earth.
  • Beggars in Spain by Kress. Most of it is on a near future earth, but the last hunk of it involves a segment of people relocating to a space station.
nightwatch_admin ,

Do you mean the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson?

AFKBRBChocolate ,

Lol, I do! Not sure why I was thinking about OSC. Maybe just another writer known by three names.

littlebluespark ,
@littlebluespark@lemmy.world avatar

To be fair, and no spoilers, but I’m not sure The Expanse qualifies for this request, technically. (As a huge fan of the books and series both)

skulblaka ,
@skulblaka@startrek.website avatar

The belters make a pretty solid example of what it sounds like OP is looking for. The entire setting doesn’t match to a T but there’s enough interaction with inhospitable environments to be worth looking into, I think.

littlebluespark ,
@littlebluespark@lemmy.world avatar

See above 🤗

AFKBRBChocolate ,

Corey goes into pretty good detail about how they made Eros, Ganymede, and the generation ship livable. Seems like they qualified.

littlebluespark ,
@littlebluespark@lemmy.world avatar

Clearly, that’s not the aspect I was hinting at. >!The first part of the request is the relevant section, not the “bonus points”, all due respect: “earth (and earthlike[sic] worlds) are too rare, inaccessible, and/or previously spoiled beyond ability to sustain life.”!<

AFKBRBChocolate ,

Hmmm, I just read that to mean there was some reason people had to terraform or create an artificial habitat, not that it had to be that specific plot point.

OurTragicUniverse ,
@OurTragicUniverse@kbin.social avatar

Inverted World by Christopher Priest is kinda this.

FireTower , (edited )
@FireTower@lemmy.world avatar

Completely different angle towards the question but Metro 2033 (and sequels) might be a good source of inspiration. Not space themed but there might be some elements that can be a source of inspiration.

It’s about a post nuclear war Moscow where to survive humanity has set up a series of interlinked communities in the underground metro tunnels. The book talks a lot about the daily life in the stations. One is known for growing mushrooms used in tea. One was burnt down leading the rest of the system to strictly control fires. Another gained a reputation as a capital like station because it’s entrance was next to a university and government building.

Not a true hard sci fi book (has things like irradiated mutants) but a lot of thought went into the logistics of living in the metro.

Nemo ,

Maybe not “hard” enough for you (eg. it has absibles) but Becky Chambers’s Record of a Spaceborn Few is about life on a fleet of generation ships.

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.

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.

HisBane ,
@HisBane@kbin.social avatar

Might not be quite "hard" enough, but perhaps try the Interdepency trilogy by John Scalzi.

whosdadog ,

The whole premise of the book is returning to earth, but The 100 starts out in the way you’re wanting including multigenerational space stations and resource limitations.

HopeOfTheGunblade ,
@HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social avatar

You might get some value from Stephen Baxter's Manifold series; while they aren't central to what you're asking for they definitely deal with humanity coping with a hostile universe. Heinlein wrote a couple of short stories set on a generation ship, although I can't bring the titles to mind. Accelerando takes place in many manufactured settings, rarely earth like (past the first major part). Brin and Benford's Heart of the Comet may also point in the direction you want.

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