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Archivist’s Note: These pages have been archived from the now defunct hardsf.org. This project is still in progress. The HTML and CSS have been rewritten.
These pages are the property of the original author. I do not own them and they are provided here only as an archive. I will remove these pages should it be requested by the original author(s).
This section includes a number of avenues to finding good hard SF books. There is a list of authors associated (to one degree or another) with hard SF. There are recommendations from authorities such as SFWA, and recommendations from individual hard SF readers. There’s a list of books chosen by a hard SF internet group for their monthly book-to-discuss.
This section has included lists of books that won SF awards. However, a more extensive (and more dependably updated) source for SF awards can be found at: http://locusmag.com/SFAwards/index.html.
If you would like to add your own “10 best hard SF books” list, send it in.
This section provides links to sites related to SF authors. Most of these sites are not run by the author, however they should provide useful and/or interesting material pertaining to the author and his/her work. The listed authors are not intended to be a complete list of all SF authors, and the sites listed for a particular author may not be a full list of all sites pertaining to the author. As this is a hard SF-oriented site, hopefully the material related to hard SF authors will be more thorough than for other authors.
Each site listed under an author should be preceded by an indicator of what kind of site it is. “Official” usually means a site run by the author, but is sometimes used in other cases when the author is deceased. It was not always easy to decide whether a particular site would be better described as an “Info site” or a “Fan site”, sites with either designation will tend to share some things in common. Sites described as “Bibliography” often include reviews as well. “Book downloads” sites only refer to sites with free, legal downloads.
The intention was that the listed sites should not require you to subscribe or pay money to get the information, stories or books (at least at the particular page at the site linked to here). Of course, some of the sites are commercial and sell things elsewhere. These sites may or may not be the best place to do purchasing, no sites are being endorsed for that.
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Related SF Tech Articles Shape-Shifters, Body-less Beings, Inter-species Communication
Related Genre Articles On Hair-splitting & Judging SF
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One of the things that distinguishes SF from other genres is the exploration of future possibilities, good and bad. Not that SF has a total corner on the market. A novel that explores what might happen in the future if a woman was elected President is not "science fiction" (at least as I use the term). Nor do all SF stories explore ideas and possibilities. It's just that if you are writing about ideas and possibilities for the future, many of the things that would be worth writing about would place the story at least partly in SF.
Being a more science-oriented SF site, some of the science issues / possibilities are discussed here.
We live in a time when we are faced with important choices involving pollution, climate change, bio- and nuclear weapons, plant and animal species extinctions, drug-resistant diseases, cloning, genetic engineering, hi-tech government spying, etc. Science and the future are (or should be) upwards in our thoughts and priorities.
In the June 2006 issue of Scientific American, the writer of their Skeptic column explained why he has changed from a skeptic about climate change to one who accepts the need to work on the issue.
Many of these questions have been handled in SF for years. Fiction can be used to bring such issues to public attention. SF can help readers imagine different choices and consequences. We also need to deal with these questions outside of fiction, so the items in this section are not necessarily directed just to SF readers and writers.
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In this section, you'll find various things that don't fit into the other sections.
There are "Articles", which deal with topics that don't quite belong in another section.
Under "Other" are graphics, puzzles, poems, and humor or other not-so-serious material...
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