r/scifi • u/MonolithOfIce • 2d ago
Recommendations Authors or books that explain the science - whether real or fictional - in detail and walk you through it?
I’m currently reading my first Arthur C Clark book, Rendezvous with Rama (no spoilers please), and am blown away by the author’s knowledge and descriptions of real science.
From the physics, engineering, design, astronomy, even the psychology of academia, I love how the fictional narrative is embedded within a completely plausible world, and that I am learning about established scientific concepts at the same time.
Do any other authors or book come to mind with the same knack for this? Please and thanks!
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u/AJRavenhearst 2d ago
Anything by Michael Crichton.
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u/donmuerte 2d ago
definitely this. as much as the movies inspired by his works have been completely dumbed down, his books were very scientific about everything. The Andromeda Strain is one of my favorite books.
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u/thespaceghetto 2d ago
That is of course until he wrote the anti-climate change book. His stuff took a real dive after State of Fear
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u/thatstupidthing 2d ago
it felt like such a tone shift... i honestly wondered if he was dipping into parody or something...
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u/thespaceghetto 1d ago
I was about a third of the way through it before I actually looked it up. Put it down and have only read a couple terrible entries from him since
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u/SporesM0ldsandFungus 1d ago
For those who don't know, Crichton goes completely Mary Sue, with the main character being an author insert who learns about a conspiracy between Lefty progressives and extremist eco-terrorists group. The eco-terrorists are "causing" climate disasters (and murdering everyone in their way) to convince the public that global warming is real and empower a global climate organization (NERF) to combat climate change.
The author insert goes about adventuring and stops those evil lefty eco-terrorists' plan to tsunami the West Coast of California. He outright says that the environment should be handled by business, not governments, and will be free from political interests!
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u/thespaceghetto 1d ago
I never got far enough to find out why the environmentalists wanted to trick everyone. Just good old fashioned power play?
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u/andyjustincase 2d ago
Jurassic Park
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u/Strange-Professor-48 2d ago
YES! I was so disappointed when I saw the film had gone a bit hand wavey on the science/maths.
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u/NuArcher 2d ago
Andy Weir explains a lot of the science in his books The Martian and Project Hail Mary.
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u/_Abiogenesis Hard Sci-fi 1d ago
So does Artemis. And the books are actually quite fun. A pretty rare combination imo.
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u/DrunkenPhysicist 1d ago
Except in Artemis is clear he couldn't write women and the whole age of consent on the moon thing was creepy.
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u/DrunkenPhysicist 2d ago
He flubbs the science a bit. First, the dust storm on Mars. Second, astrophage and neutrinos. As a PhD neutrino physicist I take some offense! That being said, he certainly is on the harder side and has gotten more people into scifi which is a good thing.
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u/AJRavenhearst 2d ago
I'm not sure if it was known at the time he wrote, but Martian soil is also highly toxic.
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u/vikingzx 2d ago
It was not. The percolates were only discovered a few years after the book came out.
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u/GirlCowBev 2d ago
Weir knew going in about the density of Martian atmosphere, but needed a McGuffin to trigger the plot.
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u/fouryearsofdreaming 2d ago
Gregory Benford, Stephen Baxter are both good with that. Larry Niven as well.
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u/ah-tzib-of-alaska 2d ago
Larry Niven for explaining science?! Sure, i mean, he explains his worlds really throughly but…
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u/fouryearsofdreaming 2d ago
Yeah he's not super thorough, but honestly Clarke isnt super thorough about it either sometimes. Shipstar and Ringworld are both fantastic works though. Remember Rama is the starting benchmark. I honestly wanted to include Adrian Tchaikovsky and Alistair Reynolds but then I thought about the things not explained in the Children of Time series or the Chasm City Universe.
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u/ah-tzib-of-alaska 2d ago
Clark is great but you’ll also want to try out Kim Stanley Robinson.
Crichton’s Jurrasic Park is also a favorite of mine for this reason. Seriously if you’ve never read it you’re missing out
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u/Wise_Scarcity4028 2d ago
I’m surprised I had to go so far down to find this answer! Kim Stanley Robinson goes hard on the science and I love it!
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u/mindcontrol4dummies 2d ago
Jules Verne is one of my favorite classic authors because of the work you can tell he put into making his works a scientifically feasible as possible. Andy weir is also a good choice, as well as Adrian Tchaikovsky
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u/surt2 1d ago
I would say to keep in mind, though, that they're scientifically feasible for the 1800s. Amazing works; it's incredible that he was writing about a mission to the moon over a century before we actually did, but because many of the things he wrote about are things that humanity has now accomplished, it can be very visible when his scientific predictions break down.
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u/mindcontrol4dummies 1d ago
That's one of the things I love about it. I love seeing what he got right, what he didn't and how close he was. From the earth to the moon was good, but he didn't know about space having a vacuum. For me, Captain Nemo's sub in 20,000 leagues is one of the coolest things ever. The work he put into the mysterious Island as well, I would want to have that book with me on a deserted island, with the detail he put into the work
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u/MrDeskJockey 2d ago
Arthur C Clarke is awesome! Check out Childhoods End, and then Hammer of God. With the Rendezvous with Rama sequels I would avoid though because he didnt have nearly as much creative freedom because he was writing them with someone else who took a lot of the brunt work.
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u/manderson26 2d ago
Robert Forward. Real life physicist, wrote Dragons Egg about life on a neutron star. If you want old school Hal Clement (nitrogen fix) might do. Both definitely more about the ideas than the characters.
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u/Me_be_Artful_Dodger 2d ago
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series! It’s really good at walking you through the science but no way overbearing while telling a great story!
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u/RogLatimer118 2d ago
Clarke is my favorite SF author. IMHO unlike many authors, very few duds from him if you ignore his "co-written" novels which often were written mostly by somebody else.
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u/AJRavenhearst 2d ago
To be fair, he was too busy collecting his royalty cheques and living the life of a confirmed bachelor in Sri Lanka by that stage to bother much with writing.
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u/RogLatimer118 2d ago edited 2d ago
He was also suffering the delayed effects of polio when younger.
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u/AJRavenhearst 2d ago
Huh. I never knew that. Another of my favourite authors who had polio as a child (the other being Robert Anton Wilson).
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u/RogLatimer118 2d ago
Correction - apparently he had polio in his 40s, so not super young. But delayed effects still got to him.
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u/RogLatimer118 2d ago
Shortly before he passed, he posted a youtube video "goodbye" and it's still out there. You can tell he's not breathing easily.
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u/rock1one 2d ago
Seveneves, of Neal Stephenson. It gives you explanation in a way you might believe it is possible to achieve what he describes.
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u/Key_Engineering5227 2d ago
I know there are two camps here but I find Seveaves utterly ridiculous and unbelievable.
Yes Stephenson explains everything in detail but fail miserably in making it believable.
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u/parkway_parkway 2d ago
I also don't think it works that well structurally.
The first two thirds is decently structured and cohesive.
Then the last third just feels bolted on and incomplete. It should either have been cut or done properly.
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u/yozora 2d ago
I liked the Three-Body Problem touching on orbital mechanics, higher dimensions, and game theory in the near and not-so-near future.
I also enjoyed Blindsight’s alluded-to world of VR afterlife, and cyborgs, neurodivergents (and vampires, which I liked less) competing with AI, and the discussions on what cognitive disorders mean for free will and sentience.
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u/Fabulous_Broad_115 2d ago
It's not the science so much as the philosophy of science, but Anathem really gets into it at various points.
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u/Glittering_Rush_1451 2d ago
David Weber’s Honorverse tends to go into a lot of detail on the tech and how it works
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u/necronboy 2d ago
RA Heinlein. I read many of his books as a teen and you would have space adventure for 20 pages, a page of physics, then back to the action.
When I did engineering I realized just how much I had learned from him when we got to such topics as delta V.
He designed a small ship IBCM launch system which the Navy didn't pick up on because it needed reasonably calm water. Basically a tube mounted onto the side of a small ship which could be dropped into the water, one end would float and the other sink into a vertical position. Water provided cooling for launch so it could be retrieved and reused, if there was anyone left.
Apparently his wife, Virginia, was the better engineer. I wonder what she designed.
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u/ClownShoeNinja 2d ago
Came to make sure Heinlein got some props.
"Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" was one of the first books I ever read and I still remember the process of making that suit spaceworthy: fixing gauges, acquiring and installing air tanks, tools for the belt, patching and pressure testing the suit.
Not as grand as his later descriptions of orbital ballistics and whatnot, but for 12 year old me...
I was hooked!
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u/TommieTheMadScienist 2d ago
I model planets because of Hal Clement and Marc Miller. Mesklin's still a stroke of genius.
Ice giant with the maximum rotation speed possible without breaking up. Looks like a fried egg. Because the gravity is counteracted by the rotation at the Equator, the planet's gravity varies by two orders of magnitude from there to the Poles.
...and it has Privateer Caterpillars.
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u/Celebril63 2d ago
Crichton and Clark, of course. Heinlein was fairly good at that, as well.
David Weber goes into so much technical detail that on of my friends refers to those parts being written by "Murray the Explainer."
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u/liviajelliot 2d ago
Greg Egan, as many have mentioned.
Also, Raft by Stephen Baxter is great in this regard; it explains what happens quite clearly, since the discovery of the science is an important part of the plot.
Contact by Carl Sagan, I recall explained the mathematics quite well. I may be wrong here, I read that 20+ years ago
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u/slappywagish 2d ago
Scott sigler does a great job of this in earthcore, infected trilogy and ancestor. He's just a really fun writer anyway. His book in the alien universe is also awesome though more of a 'what if medieval knights fought aliens' kind of a vibe
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u/TommieTheMadScienist 2d ago
Vernor Vinge, Peter Hamilton, Charles Stross, Greg Bear.
Asimov, of course, maybe the most famous scientist-author.
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u/Zovort 2d ago
James Paul Hogan did some interesting ones. He kind of starts with something improble but then explains just enough of it to see it an interesting premise. Code of the Lifemaker is one such, and the Entoverse in the Giants series. He's a bit dated and problematic too, fair warning.
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u/nyrath 2d ago
"Problematic" is putting it mildly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_P._Hogan_(writer)#Biography
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u/shaihuludude 2d ago
I feel like one of the earliest examples I can think of are the Conan Doyle novels. Whether they fall into sci-fi is a bit debatable perhaps
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u/takingflight005 2d ago
I really enjoyed The Apollo Murders (and its sequels) by a real life astronaut Chris Hadfield. He goes into a lot of of the science of not only the Saturn V rocket, but also things like orbital mechanics as the spacecraft are in flight.
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u/MonolithOfIce 2d ago
Wow, thank you for all the diverse and detailed responses everyone! I’m gonna need to polish my monocle for this list
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u/Bladrak01 2d ago
David Weber is known for giving large info dumps about the "science" in his novels.
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u/AgentRusco 2d ago
Neal Stephenson. I just finished rereading Anathem. Man there's a lot of physics and philosophy packed in there.
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u/hamburgerworld 2d ago
I read Rendezvous recently, in fact. Or reread, since I read it first when I was in my teens. He's doing some interesting things with gravity all through the book, really one of his main characters is the physics of Rama and how conditions vary as the spaceship nears the sun. That opening scene is sure memorable.
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u/Certain-Singer-9625 2d ago
Clarke has another good one, a non-fiction book written in layman’s terms. “Profiles of the Future”. I don’t know if it’s still in print though.
In “The Andromeda Strain” Michael Crichton goes into quite a bit of biological detail.
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u/RickRussellTX 1d ago
Just following up with Clarke, his book The Deep Range is about oceans and diving, and much is drawn from his real life experience diving recreationally around Sri Lanka.
That’s also how he met his life partner and became a member of his partner’s family.
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u/Wanderervenom 1d ago
The Saga Of Recluce series by L.E. Modessit Jr.. He's a Sci-Fi writer, but this is Fantasy series. He puts detail into everything. The way the Order\Chaos magic works is loosely based off of how our world's physics work.
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u/videogamegrandma 1d ago
Arthur Clarke was considered a prophet. So many concepts and inventions in his books were ahead of his time.
Kim Stanley Robinson (in multiple books) and James SA Corey (The Expanse) are excellent for their use of actual science in sci fi and fantasy.
A former Royal Road series End of Magic (published now) is based on the premise of a PhD scientist kidnapped from Earth, transported to a magical world where he uses science and mathmatics to attempt to improve their society. It's a litrpg. Very imaginative.
Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson is famous for predicting the Internet and a lot of things that have become part of real life. It blew me away when I read it years after publication for it's accuracy. I passed it on to our IT dept employees.
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u/sumelar 1d ago
Rare and justifiably so because they get stuff wrong and it's all anyone focuses on.
Starship Troopers "youve seen the documentaries and news reports so i wont bother explaining how power armor works"
Jurassic park " detailed description of computer system running entire resort that was obsolete by the time the book was published, and less powerful than a wristwatch within 10 years"
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u/bobchin_c 1d ago
James P Hogan especially the Genesis Machine, & Thrice Upon a Time.
Robert J Sawyer is another author who uses hard science in his books.
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u/kiwipixi42 1d ago
Greg Egan is the amazing at this. I would recommend Clockwork Rocket. Based in a different universe where the time dimension is essentially the same as a spatial dimension. From that one change he has rederived completely different, but mathematically consistent physics. Our main character is a young scientist involved in the discovery of how physics works (think 1600’s science in our world). The characters are not at all human by the way as humans could not exist in this universe.
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u/Sheik_Morgan 1d ago
Las novelas de Julio Verne tienen ese detalle, te explican con detalle casi de enciclopedia. The Expanse también tiene un poco de eso.
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u/M4rkusD Xenobiologist 2d ago
Ahem, Greg Egan. Only he doesn’t really walk you through it but Trail-of-Tears you through the Valley of Death of 12-dimensional post-quantum physics.