I'd add Neal Stephenson's Seveneves to the Space Travel and perhaps comet sections. There was some excellent physics that dealt with issues like inertia, delta-V, orbital parameters, simulated gravity and complex dynamics (bolos etc) in great detail. As well, it handled long-term day to day life in space as a first class element of the book.
Another "hard sci-fi" suggestion: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Goes into a lot of detail about some potentially interesting things (moon science and orbital mechanics come to mind), if you enjoy that. I learned that I don't, but still really enjoyed it for the great story.
There's also more realistic / near-future sci-fi, see for example Neal Stephenson's excellent 'Seven Eves', which I recommend for anyone interested in spaceflight.
Hah. I actually just had this conversation earlier today with a friend (who I know is interested in this stuff):
Me: Have you read Anathem? A decent chunk of the book and the plot is all about orbital mechanics.
Him: No, but have you read Seveneves? There's a ton of orbital mechanics in that book.
Me: Huh. Well I guess we found his pet subject.
(Btw, I didn't really mind the orbital stuff in Anathem, but I found the repetitive explanations of the many-worlds idea, adding just one tiny new tidbit each time, a little annoying by the end.)
Aw! I thought Seveneves was amazing and the orbital mechs made it even better. (Author sounded like it was tedious in the opener)
I absolutely LOVE it when a scifi author gets that stuff right and it's great working it through in your head as you absorb the story they're weaving. Really added something to the book. Very much like Arthur C. Clarke's work - stuff that would work that way in real life.
I'd suggest the excellent Heart of the Comet by Gregory Benford (an astrophysicist), a story about mankind's first attempt to live on a comet, including all the hardships that come along with it and the changes which occur there and on Earth over time.
Those two are fantastic, and if you like Vernor Vinge check out "A Deepness in the Sky" -- I think it's his best work, and is much more plausible (centered around slower-than-light travel).
If you like it, you might enjoy a book called Seveneves. The first sentence involves the moon blowing up, and the rest of the book is about the consequences of that. Quite good, imo.
Saturn Run by John Sandford and Ctein (2015) has a appendix where the authors runs down the science behind their space science (and calls out something like Star Treky science explaining). I read this after the Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter series Time’s Eye series, which also has fantastic science themes.
I also recommend _Stellar Migration and the Human Experience_, which is chock full of stuff about Dyson spheres, "star lifting" (reducing a star's mass to prolong its life), and discussion of starship design.
couple of recommendations:
Bill Bryson's A Brief History of Nearly Everything
Neil Degrasse Tyson reading his own book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space - By Carl Sagan
Chaos by James Gleick
The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson. I think it paints the most realistic idea of space travel, interplanetary society and Mars colonization....just about the most exciting stuff ever. Also, it's pretty hard sci fi and so the reader learns a lot about Martian geology and such along the way.
RiderOfGiraffes also suggested Snow Crash; both would be excellent choices. I'd add to this Cryptonomicon, which is an interesting story, interesting thematic matter (relevant to software folks, and presented intelligently), and just full of different ways of looking at things (the scene that describes the Hindenburg disaster, or eating Captain Crunch cereal, were both perfectly clear, yet told in ways that took me some time to sync with what they were actually referring to.
Also consider most anything from Vernor Vinge. Some of my favorites from him are A Deepness in the Sky, Rainbows End, and A Fire Upon the Deep. Since he's a Comp Sci professor, he handles technology issues (and especially computer-related stuff) very realistically.
And if you're looking back into the classics, consider Larry Niven's "Known Space" books, particularly Ringworld.
There are many different genres of sci fi. Seveneves is pretty much hard science fiction, in that it deals with plausible physics, which is also one of my favourite genres.
I particularly recommend the Xeelee Sequence (a series of novels) by Stephen Baxter if you like mind bending sci fi over cosmological time).
More classically, The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov is a great (and shorter) read.
First contact novels can also be interesting (meeting aliens for the first time). Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke is great. Also, Blindsight by Peter Watts.
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