Source
r/scifi•
Assple

Books that heavily involve physics and astronomy?

I've got a list going of my next reads since I'm going through books like crazy. I was thinking this would be pretty awesome to read.

Would be cool to read something that involves physics and some of the crazy astronomical phenomena we all love to learn about. Black holes, supernovae, pulsars, galactic superstructures, etc would make for some great story science I'd have to think!

Edit: I should specify that I'm hoping to find sci-fi rather than science books

Between this thread and the First Contact one I'll be set with reading content for ages. You guys are great, thank you!

Posted Oct 9, 2018, 11:49 PM UTC · edited

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DannyBoy1979•

Maybe not exactly what you are looking for but I recommend The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey. It relies heavily on the true physics of space travel. Takes places 200-300 years in the future. Humans have colonized the solar system but no further. There is no FTL in this. A war is on the brink between the 3 main powers, Earth, Mars and the Belt. (workers in the asteroid belt).

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AsspleOP•

Oh man that sounds fantastic. Didn't know that was a book series! Sounds like that's next up on my reading list

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DannyBoy1979•

Oh my!! you are in for one hell of a ride. I hope you enjoy it. I absolutely love both TV and books. I'm at my third re-reading, in audio this time (Jefferson Mays does a wonderful job) and maybe 6th re-watch.

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tyrico•

Just because nobody explicitly said so yet, you might not know there's an amazing TV adaptation as well that is available on Amazon. The last season just finished book 3.

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SomnumAltum•

Came here to say this. Glad to see it's the top comment. Truly fantastic scifi.

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oracleoffabiandelphi•

Eon by Greg Bear

Tau Zero by Poul Anderson

Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter

Eater by Gregory Benford

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Gateway by Frederik Pohl

Inverted World by Christopher Priest

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Nyawk•

I would put Protector by Niven in there as well.

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T-DogSwizle•

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

So the earth is going to be destroyed and humanity has 2 years to figure out how to save themselves. They send 2000 people into space and they must survive for 5,000 years(when the earth will become habitatable again.) The book is broken into 3 parts-1 the building of the "Cloud Ark, 2, humans trying to Survive in Space, and 3, set 5000 years in the future it details humans returning to the planet.

The author writes a lot about orbital physics and genetic bottle neck in the book

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BlueSundown•

Neal Stephenson is always good for technical digressions.

Seveneves should have been a trilogy like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books, but these days I just appreciate when he finishes a project.

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gerusz•

Or at least a two-part book. The first two parts - before it cuts to +5000 AA - have a pretty good ending. It's the last part that feels rushed and tacked on, it should have been expanded into a proper book.

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tyrico•

Honestly just telling people about the 3rd part is kind of a spoiler. It's one of my favorite reveals ever.

To OP: Book is amazing. You should check it out.

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dnew•

Incandescence by Greg Egan, set on an asteroid circling a black hole or white dwarf or something.

Orthogonal by Greg Egan, set in an entire universe where time points in the same direction as space does.

Dichronauts, by Greg Egan (surprise) set in a universe where there are two space dimensions and two time dimensions.

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Raeldcr•

That hurts my brain trying to imagine that.

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dnew•

One definitely has to refer to his web site to follow along the physics. He even admits in Dichronauts that he couldn't even describe it in English; like the whole universe would necessarily be different densities of liquid, rather than having gas and solids, and such. Way weirder than Flatland.

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AsspleOP•

Damn, those sound like fascinating books. Those must be some crazy difficult settings to write about!

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dnew•

He does a bunch of other really fun ones.

Diaspora is about sapient AI. Permutation City is about simulated humans. Both awesomely good, and that's coming from someone with a PhD in theoretical computer science and decades of experience.

Schild's Ladder is about sub-quantum physics. Quarantine is about the Many Worlds Interpretation of QM. Distress is about another Theory Of Everything that goes breath-takingly awry. Luminous investigates the question of what it would be like if mathematical truth only propagated at the speed of light. And his Axiomatic collection is all kinds of "what is consciousness" investigations, all of which are lots of fun.

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Hokulewa•

For something unusual, The Integral Trees and sequel The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven.

Castaway humans surviving for generations in an alien life-bearing free fall environment within a vast gas torus formed from the remnants of a gas giant planet circling a neutron star in a binary pair with a sun-like star.

I finally understood orbital mechanics intuitively after reading these.

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AsspleOP•

Woah that's a pretty crazy enviornmeny. I'm definitely reading those, sounds fantastic!

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dalitortoise•

The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson contains some good technical science. Not so much space phenomena, but a lot of geological and biological things involved with living on and terraforming a new planet.

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donkyhotay•

Anything by Robert L. Forward. I've heard his novel Dragon's Egg described as "a primer on neutron stars with some plot added in". I wouldn't say it's that bad (despite the technical information I find his novels quite entertaining) but the guy definitely knows his stuff. Robert L. Forward is even harder on the hard/soft scifi scale then even Arthur C. Clarke is.

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liontrap•

I thoroughly enjoyed Rocheworld.

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barnett9•

Nobody has mentioned The Martian yet. It's the most realistic space sci-fi book out there, not quite as much astronomy and physics as biology and engineering, but still worth a try.

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AsspleOP•

I totally agree. That book is exactly the type of read I'm looking for. But I've already gone through it twice in the last couple months!

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thereezer•

You should definitely try the Mars trilogy by kim stanley-robinson then

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suit_of_armour•

That same author has a new book called Artemis and it’s really good! Check it out!

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BEAT_LA•

Artemis was fantastic and would be a fucking great movie.

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GrabbinPills•

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, and the rest of the trilogy. Huge components of the plot and story revolve around astronomical events and cosmic communication and exploration

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Hominin-Handcrafter•

Cosmos, by Carl Sagan

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AsspleOP•

That book is absolutely fantastic, but not quite what I'm looking for. I'm moreso trying to find an actual sci-fi rather than a science book.

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Hominin-Handcrafter•

Contact, by Carl Sagan?

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AsspleOP•

Ooh yes. Didn't even think to mention it, but that's absolutely one of the best books I've ever read!

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nyrath•

Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. Very hard core science. It is set on a massive planet spinning so rapidly that at the equator the local gravity is only 3 gees, but at the poles it is 700 gees!

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jvmills2•

I really enjoyed the Culture novels by Iain M Banks: socialist utopia, advanced AI, crazy planets and tech. All rendered very plausible though. My favourite is Player Of Games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture_(series)

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Katamariguy•

the Revelation Space books are pretty great with the physics of stars and near-lightspeed travel

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