The Hard SF Renaissance

Don't underestimate the size of this volume! It's almost 1,000 large pages in small print. Excellent selection of real hard SF stories. An inspiring and challenging read. I found myself alternating between dictionary, encyclopedia and video searches (google video and youtube) in order to try and wrap my head around many of the concepts. The editors did a truly masterful job in selecting, introducing and ordering the stories to achieve a full immersion into science, politics and futurism. The introductory notes that precede each story are brief, but do a great job of placing the author into the proper scientific and political context. I never realized just what a tight knit club hard SF is. The focus of most stories is not science alone, however. Most take place in the near future, and in imagining the future, the authors cannot and do not ignore the politics, economics and sociology that would be required to achieve it. Make no mistake, these guys are hard core Libertarians for the most part. Thanks to this book, I am giving money to the Ron Paul campaign! I also never quite realized that hard SF doesn't confine itself to physics alone. There are stories by biologists, statisticians and geneticists. If i were a natural sciences teacher, I would require my students to get this book. I recommend taking your time with this anthology. I paused in my reading of it to check out novels and other stories by a number of the authors included here. I think of this anthology as a text book, or maybe a syllabus, for the hard science fiction fan.

A really fine, top quality selection of stories. The other writing by the editors is also really good, talking about the SF, the politics, and a piece about each writer, that is enough to boost it to the 5 level, give the stories themselves average 3.8 out of 5. Or, call the whole thing 4.8 out of 5 if you like, rounded up. Hard SF Renaissance : Gene Wars - Paul J. McAuley Hard SF Renaissance : Wangs Carpets - Greg Egan Hard SF Renaissance : Genesis - Poul Anderson Hard SF Renaissance : Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson Hard SF Renaissance : On the Orion Line [Xeelee] - Stephen Baxter Hard SF Renaissance : Beggars in Spain [Beggars in Spain] - Nancy Kress Hard SF Renaissance : Matters End - Gregory Benford Hard SF Renaissance : The Hammer of Gud - Arthur C. Clarke Hard SF Renaissance : Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelly Hard SF Renaissance : Mount Olympus [Return to Mars] - Ben Bova Hard SF Renaissance : Marrow - Robert Reed Hard SF Renaissance : Microbe - Joan Slonczewski Hard SF Renaissance : The Lady Vanishes - Charles Sheffield Hard SF Renaissance : Bicycle Repairman [Chattanooga] - Bruce Sterling Hard SF Renaissance : An Ever-Reddening Glow - David Brin Hard SF Renaissance : S3xual Dimorphism - Kim Stanley Robinson Hard SF Renaissance : Into the Miranda Rift - G. David Nordley Hard SF Renaissance : The Shoulders of Giants - Robert J. Sawyer Hard SF Renaissance : A Walk in the Sun - Geoffrey A. Landis Hard SF Renaissance : For White Hill - Joe Haldeman Hard SF Renaissance : A Career in Sexual Chemistry - Brian M. Stableford Hard SF Renaissance : Reef - Paul J. McAuley Hard SF Renaissance : Exchange Rate - Hal Clement Hard SF Renaissance : Reasons to Be Cheerful - Greg Egan Hard SF Renaissance : Griffins Egg - Michael Swanwick Hard SF Renaissance : Great Wall of Mars - Alastair Reynolds Hard SF Renaissance : A Niche - Peter Watts Hard SF Renaissance : Gossamer [Xeelee] - Stephen Baxter Hard SF Renaissance : Madam Butterfly - James P. Hogan Hard SF Renaissance : Understand - Ted Chiang Hard SF Renaissance : Halo - Karl Schroeder Hard SF Renaissance : Different Kinds of Darkness - David Langford Hard SF Renaissance : Fast Times at Fairmont High - Vernor Vinge Hard SF Renaissance : Reality Check - David Brin Hard SF Renaissance : The Mendelian Lamp Case - Paul Levinson Hard SF Renaissance : Kinds of Strangers - Sarah Zettel Hard SF Renaissance : The Good Rat - Allen Steele Hard SF Renaissance : Built Upon the Sands of Time - Michael F. Flynn Hard SF Renaissance : Taklamakan [Chattanooga] - Bruce Sterling Hard SF Renaissance : Hatching the Phoenix [Heechee (Robinette Broadhead)] - Frederik Pohl Hard SF Renaissance : Immersion - Gregory Benford Gene Wars - Paul J. McAuley 4 out of 5 Wangs Carpets - Greg Egan 5 out of 5 Genesis - Poul Anderson 3.5 out of 5 Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson 4 out of 5 On the Orion Line [Xeelee] - Stephen Baxter 4 out of 5

If, like me, you lament the state of science fiction today, and if, like me, you long to read stories that will transport you back to the days of the masters of "hard" science fiction--writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Hal Clement and Malcolm Jameson--then this thick volume could be just what you're looking for. In general, I find today's science fiction unreadable. Every once in a while, out of desperation, sheer boredom or an attack of unwarranted optimism, I pick up a new-release SF paperback, or check one out from the library. I am invariably disappointed. Some current SF books I can't even finish, whereas I continue to read the old ones over and over. I can't recall ANY memorable SF books written within the last 20 years. In my humble opinion, there are very few recent books that even begin to compare to the "hard" SF classics like "Space Cadet," "The Deep Range," "Mission of Gravity" or "Bullard of the Space Patrol," to name just a few. "The Hard SF Renaissance," however, gives me some hope that all is not lost. If you're a fan of "hard" SF, the stories in this book should appeal to you. While I don't agree that they collectively presage a "renaissance" of the "hard" SF style, they are nonetheless all quite good and live up to their billing. I commend this volume to you if you want to read good, "hard" SF without having to pull out an old, dog-eared, brittle 1950s classic from your collection.

This anthology includes some of the most insightful speculations I have ever encountered. Do you wonder where we are headed as a species? Do your ponderings of the future keep you awake at night, imagining what is possible? When you read the paper or watch TV, can you keep from wondering "what does it all mean" for this ever-the-more complicated and confounded global civilization? Then this book is for you. Fantasies and nightmares abound in this collection of short-stories; the common theme of science and technology as a cultural catalyst binds these very different contexts and characters in an extremely readable anthology. No bird-people, no tap-dancing robots...no motherbrains, and only a few laser-beams. This stuff is far-out without all of the bells and whistles. It approaches the question of what lies ahead from the perspective of a human being living in the late twentieth/early twenty-first century--eye-witness to the marvels and horrors of the modern and postmodern age. This is the stuff that makes you simultaneously hopeful and terrified of what lies ahead for Homo sapiens.

A monumental anthology waith many of the best stories published in the last ten years, including many novellas not easily included in smaller anthologies.Some particular favorites: "Reasons to be Cheerful" by Greg Egan. A young boy finds himself a little too happy with his life. He has a tumor in his brain that has the side effect of making him happy, even when faced with the news of his approaching death. He undergoes a radical new surgery, but afterward, can he ever be happy again?"Into the Miranda Rift" by G. David Nordley. An exciting new variation on "Journey to the Center of the Earth," except here to journey is through the middle of Uranus' moon."Great Wall of Mars" by Alistair Reynolds. A pyrotechnic, breathtaking tour-de-force space opera from one of the most exiting new SF talents."Fast Times at Fairmont High" by Vernor Vinge envisions a near future where the junior high science projects of techno-savvy young students can have global repercussions."Understand" by Ted Chiang shows how deadly it can be to become smater than everyone else."Griffin's Egg" by Michael Swanwick is a captivating depiction of a future lunar society."Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly is both a re-examination of the issues in Tom Godwin's classic "The Cold Equations," and a thoughtful examination into the implications of dealing with alien intelligences who have alien mores and priorities."Marrow" by Robert Reed. Humans living and traveling on a gargantuan alien-constructed starship populated by millions of beings invesigate a mystery deep in the center of their own ship, finding there a world stranger than any outside of the ship.All the storoes in this book range from very good to excellent. There isn't a stinker in the bunch. A worthy addition to any science fiction bookshelf.