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.
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.
Someone what mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars trilogy, and that is really good, but his book Aurora is almost exactly what you are describing.
Highly recommend.
I was looking for Aurora. I also think it’s right on the money. Gets into the weeds with micro ecosystems.
The idea that humans need the diverse micro ecology of earth in order to not become ill over the course of generations is pretty interesting.
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.
Surprised no one has mentioned The Expanse series. A ton of world building in very different kinds of environments. Space stations, small ships, big ships, generation ships, asteroids, moons, planets.
The environments are well thought out in how the residents would need to adapt
It was the first thing I thought of but I thought Earth was still too viable for OP in the first few books, plus the science isn’t The Martian level hard.
Cibola Burn especially was really cool with the world building. Things that you don’t really hear of in other novels or even think of like the fact that alien plant life would be completely inedible to us are dealt with in detail.
Maybe have a look at The Long Winter Trilogy by A.G. Riddle (available at kindle unlimited)
The Bobiverse series is about a person who dies and wakes up as an AI that must replicate itself across the stars, while humanity ends on Earth.
Read Dune if you didn’t read it it goes deep in to ecology and terraforming of Arrakis, Fremen surviving on it,water relations in environment…
Another inspiration for you may be Scavengers Reign - animated series about surviving on lush planet that is really inhospitable for humans.
John Varley’s 8 Worlds books (pre- and post-reboot) have had to colonize the rocks of the Solar system, tho they’re not that technical, and he rarely moves past the Moon. Also Gaea (Titan, Wizard, Demon) has an extremely alien habitat; there are other Gaea creatures, just the protagonist one is crazy but also Human-friendly.
Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky is about life on STL, multi-generation starships.
Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix is mostly set in habitats, asteroid mining, and Martian terraforming, but also a very alien hive.
- NEVER BORN. “You mean we all came from Earth?” said Nikolai, unbelieving.
“Yes,” the holo said kindly. “The first true settlers in space were born on Earth—produced by sexual means. Of course, hundred of years have passed since then. You are a Shaper. Shapers are never born.”
“Who lives on Earth now?”
“Human beings.”
“Ohhhh,” said Nikolai, his falling tones betraying a rapid loss of interest.
If you also accept TV series, Battlestar Galactica may interest you.
It deals with a small fleet of survivors desperately seeking a new home planet, who live in constant paranoia due to the enemy being able to plant sleeper agents within their crews. I remember they had to mine asteroids for fuel.
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.
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.
Yes, Earth Abides is also good! I had forgotten about that one until I saw your comment
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 as set up a series of interlink 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.
The Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson definitely fits the bill. The Ministry of the Future does too but it is more about the coming climate change disaster.
Love me some KSR.
His Mars series is my sci-fi Lord of the Rings.
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.
Saving this thread for good book suggestions.
Might not be quite “hard” enough, but perhaps try the Interdepency trilogy by John Scalzi.
