How to: Hard Science Fiction
_Novels which place an emphasis on scientific accuracy and/or technical detail; where the science itself is a central topic._

#### [A Deepness in the Sky](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky) (2000) _by [Vernor Vinge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernor_Vinge)_ [4.32]

Though written after _A Fire upon the Deep_, _A Deepness in the Sky_ is a prequel to Vinge's earlier novel, and shares one of its protagonists: the Qeng Ho trader Pham Nuwen. Though I read _A Fire upon the Deep_ once and enjoyed it, I've read _A Deepness in the Sky_ at least half a dozen times, and consider it my favorite hard sci-fi novel, period. Vernor Vinge was one of the first people to propose the idea of the technological singularity, and the near-future novels he wrote a decade or more ago have revealed themselves to be almost eerily prescient. - [@isochronous](https://github.com/isochronous)
Description
> After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.
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  > The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens' very doorstep for their strange star to relight and for their planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifty years....
#### [A Fire Upon the Deep](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77711.A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep) (1992) _by [Vernor Vinge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernor_Vinge)_ [4.1]
Description
> _A Fire upon the Deep_ is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge’s career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale.
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  > Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind’s potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these “regions of thought,” but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.
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  > Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children—and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.
#### [Aurora](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23197269-aurora) (2015) _by [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson)_ [3.7]

This was, I thought, an emotional read. I really connected with the characters and their struggle. It was interesting seeing the ways they overcame each obstacle despite overwhelming odds. It also shows what could happen when desperate people are left to fend for themselves without a governing force. - [@davidmerrique](https://github.com/davidmerrique)
Description
> A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system.
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  > Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.
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  > Our voyage from Earth began generations ago.
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  > Now, we approach our new home.
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  > AURORA.
#### [Blindsight (Firefall #1)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48484.Blindsight) (2006) _by [Peter Watts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Watts_%28author%29)_ [4.0]

A cast of strange and wonderful characters. Overarching themes on consciousness, transhumanism, humanity and first contact. This book has everything. - [@davidmerrique](https://github.com/davidmerrique)
Description
> It’s been two months since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since—until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us. Who to send to meet the alien, when the alien doesn’t want to meet? Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder, and a biologist so spliced to machinery he can’t feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior, and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find—but you’d give anything for that to be true, if you knew what was waitin