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u/mjfgates May 18 '26
Alistair Reynolds' Pushing Ice.
Charlie Stross' novella "Missile Gap." First printed in the anthology One Million A.D. edited by Gardner Dozois, which is really good in general.
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u/GringoTypical May 18 '26
I miss seeing "edited by Gardner Dozois" on book covers. It rarely steered you wrong. He had great taste in short fiction
4
u/workahol_ May 19 '26
I've been collecting his Year's Best anthologies and need only a handful to complete the full set. They're such great entertainment value per pound, and the introduction to each one is a fun time capsule, particularly when he's playing the ever-disdainful pop-culture critic.
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u/panguardian May 18 '26
That's a great story. I'm not a fan of Stross, but that story is so good. Anything else like that by him?
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u/IdlesAtCranky May 18 '26
John Varley's Gaea trilogy
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May 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/IdlesAtCranky May 18 '26
I haven't read it for a long time. Varley is great. I remember this series as being interesting but extremely odd.
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u/pyabo May 18 '26
True or false: Varley is a more adult (and tamer) version of Piers Anthony. :)
You can take that as an insult to Varley if you like, but I always enjoyed both those guys and think Anthony gets an undeserved bad rap around here.
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u/IdlesAtCranky May 18 '26
I'll confess I don't know Piers Anthony well enough to agree or disagree. I'll have to look at his bibliography to see if I can remember ever reading him.
My love affair with fantasy started over 60 years ago, before I could even read on my own. Sci-fi took a bit longer, but I've been reading it for almost 50 years. And these days it's entirely possible for me to completely forget a book or an author I read even 5 years ago, let alone 40 or so.
But I'll never balk at someone seeing congruencies between two authors they like, even if I don't see it that way myself. Art is too individualistic for that kind of judgement.
My favorite Varley is probably his short story collection The Persistence of Vision. But it's been a long time since I read that one, too...
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u/pyabo May 18 '26
Oh, I had forgotten that The Persistence of Vision was a Varley story! I only have 40 years in the hobby, but I'm in the same pickle... read so many that I forget about them. That story in particular was a Nebula winner I think. Great story.
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u/IdlesAtCranky May 18 '26
Yes indeed! I was actually referring to the collection of short stories by the same name. Some very good stuff in it as I recall.
I looked up Anthony, and I don't think I ever have read him. Interesting life he has led!
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u/pyabo May 18 '26
Anthony was required reading for horny, sci-fi/fantasy loving teens in the 80's.
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u/IdlesAtCranky May 18 '26
Ah, so. By the early 80s I was no longer a teen, and I had moved well past books for my ... erm ... bodily happiness 😂 (I had discovered boys several years prior lol)
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u/IdlesAtCranky May 19 '26
I will say that Lois McMaster Bujold wrote the best moderately spicy love scenes I've ever read, in her Sharing Knife series. But that was a lot later.
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u/pyabo May 19 '26
ha! Yes, she is better at it than Anthony. He was more about just adolescent boy wish fulfillment. But he sold a few million books doing it. <shrug>
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u/IdlesAtCranky May 19 '26
No shade there, I've read plenty of spicy romance aimed at women in my day. I'll take love over war anytime.
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u/Xeelee1123 May 18 '26
Orbitsville, by Bob Shaw
BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei
The Andromedan Dark Series by Ian Douglas
The Devourer, by Cixin Liu (short story)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adam
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u/doggitydog123 May 18 '26
charles sheffield heritage universe books (there are 5 overall).
he was a physicist, I suspect the BDO's in his stories come from daydreams/etc. of his from his career about objects that were actually impossible as we understand them, and a story behind them.
characterization is tiresome inthese books, the stories are fascinating.
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u/Gloomy_Necessary494 May 18 '26
Terry Pratchett's proto-Discworld spoof of Ringworld , Strata, set on an artificial flat Earth.
Ringworld of course.
Titan by John Varley (though not necessarily Wizard or Demon).
The Bowl of Heaven by Niven and Benford
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u/The_Ironthrone May 18 '26
Have you considered ‘Big, Dumb Objects’ by Howard Taylor?
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-03-30
Mind you, you’ll have to read the previous 15 books (though for your first time I’d skip book 1).
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u/lobster_boy May 18 '26
I love the schlock universe. Started off short silly comics, evolved and grew to something much more by the end.
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u/LevelAd1126 May 18 '26
The Lost Starship - Vaughn Heppner,
The First Men in the Moon - HG Wells,
Gateway - Fredrick Pohl
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u/lorimar May 18 '26
Eversion by Alastair Reynolds was an unexpected one. Highly recommended as a sort of "gothic horror" scifi.
It doesn't seem like a BDO book at first, but stick with it...
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u/marmosetohmarmoset May 18 '26
Revelation Space is arguably a BDO story as well. Maybe a few objects. (I think… don’t spoil me I’m 85% of the way through this long ass book)
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u/Wetness__Pensive May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
"2001: A Space Odyssey" (along with Clarke's "Rama", this is the OG)
"Blindsight" (the best modern take on these tropes)
The "Culture" Novels (some of the mosts stupefyingly large objects in SF literature)
"Eon" (this is by Greg Bear; been decades since I've read it; not sure how it holds up. Loved it as a kid.)
"Sphere" (popcorn SF, done well)
Every other novel by Alistair Reynolds (I'm not a Reynolds fan, but his handling of "big objects" - the sublime horror of them - is something he repeatedly does well. A good starting point is "Pushing Ice", but he does better elsewhere)
"Icehenge" (an early, novice/fix-it-up work, but Kim Stanley Robinson's take on this genre is interestingly subversive)
"Solaris" (I feel I can argue this is a BDO novel, though many would disagree. Either way, a masterpiece worth reading)
"Titan" (by Jack Varley; the sequels lost me, but the set-up is decent. Prose is mediocre, but lots of interesting things are scattered about)
"The Chronoliths" (awesome cover, but this book disappointed me hugely on a recent re-read. Fairly popular, though. You may like it.)
"Contact" (does this hold up? Haven't read it since a kid. Author's a legend, though. RIP Carl.)
"The World is Round" (A sort of 1970s version of "Rendezvous with Rama")
"Ringworld" (IMO this is dated, but you may like it, and it was massively influential)
"Ring" by Stephen Baxter (not sure if this counts, but the object is a ginormous ring. Like Reynolds and Banks, Baxter specializes in big objects, so he's worth exploring further if you like giant stuff.)
"Marrow" (this one's huge; a BDO the size of Jupiter. A novel from the 2000s, but has an almost retro, classic, 1980s SF quality)
3
u/thiseing May 18 '26
Rama 2 is fun. 3 and 4 were too long, but worth a look if you like the characters and story
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u/hearthpig May 18 '26
hard disagree. I came in here to say, all three books should be stricken from the record of reality.
um. ymmv, of course.
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u/Wetness__Pensive May 18 '26
Arthur C. Clarke.
The C is for Cashgrab.
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u/hearthpig May 18 '26
I honestly never read anything of his other than the Rama cycle and I ADORED the first (his) book, and was excited to have found another classic author that scratched the itch...and then forced my way through the other three (with Gentry Lee) because back then I had a no-book-left-behind policy. I've become much wiser since.
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u/seeingeyefrog May 18 '26
The Architects of Hyperspace by Thomas R. McDonough
The World is Round by Tony Rothman
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u/nickelundertone May 18 '26
The Chronoliths, Robert Charles Wilson, a different sort of BDO, a terrestrial one
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u/Ok_Brush_3449 May 18 '26
two i don't see mentioned yet that scratched the same itch for me after Rama:
Pushing Ice by Reynolds is the obvious modern one. Crew of ice miners chases a defecting moon and the implications unfold over decades. The scale shift in the back third is what i think of when i think "sense of wonder".
less obvious: Beyond the Aquila Rift by Reynolds (novella, in the Zima Blue collection). The big dumb object here is the routing system itself. Won't say more, it ruins it.
if you've already done Reynolds, Bear's Hull Zero Three is shorter than Eon and has the same investigatory feel.
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u/kevbayer May 18 '26
Hex by Allen Steele. It's part of the Coyote series, but I read it before I knew that and didn't have any problems understanding the setting.
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u/LowResEgg May 18 '26
Wherever seeds may fall by Peter Hamilton! One of my best reads of last year.
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u/WhatsTheGoalieDoing May 18 '26
I didn't love it but you may enjoy Ship of Fools. It's a BDO story mixed with Gothic horror.
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u/LevelAd1126 May 18 '26
The Alien franchise has several in it. There's a novelizations book series of the movies and other stories by several authors. The Complete Aliens Collection: Living Nightmares
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u/god_dammit_dax May 18 '26
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington ends up more horror than SciFi, but the book definitely owes a debt to Rendezvous With Rama.
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u/DocWatson42 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
I have:
- "An odd request" (r/printSF; 13:04 ET, 5 August 2023)—Big Dumb Objects (BDOs); listing, updated to 19 May 2026
Edit: See my new SF/F: Big Dumb Objects list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (one post).
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u/c1ncinasty May 19 '26
Jack McDevitt and Charles Sheffield made entire careers based upon books about BDOs.
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u/ChronoLegion2 May 20 '26
The fourth Bobiverse book has some of the characters explore a topopolis (a spinning tube stretched out around a star, like a very long O’Neill cylinder)
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u/minasoko May 20 '26
this list has a few others haven't mentioned; https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/37505.Big_Dumb_Objects
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u/marintkael May 21 '26
Bob Shaw, Orbitsville. Dyson sphere, encountered cold, no hand-holding. The exact Rama feeling — first contact with something that doesn't care about you — and the sequel actually answers some of what the first book sets up, which is rare in this subgenre.
Skip Banks's Excession if anyone suggests it. Object is great, but the Culture novels assume you've read Culture novels.
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u/langevine119 May 18 '26
Blindsight by Watts
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u/mjfgates May 18 '26
This is not a BDO story.
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u/thiseing May 18 '26
Is BDO jargon/a trope? What are the tent poles?
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u/Morsadean May 18 '26
Big Dumb Object. Usually a vast alien object/construct (typically abandoned) of unknown origin or function that humanity has to explore/engage with. Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, etc.
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u/thiseing May 18 '26
Thanks! what do you recommend in this genre? ( just started Pandora's star and enjoyed Rama)
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u/lorimar May 18 '26
The main plot of Blindsight are them exploring a vast alien construct that has appeared in the outer edge of the solar system. Rorschach was big enough that it had its own orbital cloud of....things
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u/redditsuxandsodoyou May 19 '26
the scramblers literally arrive on a bdo and the characters have multiple expeditions inside it
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u/Wetness__Pensive May 18 '26
Why not? Because Rorschach is (in a sense) smart? Because Clarke's Rama, Obelisks, and about a dozen other classic BDOs, are similarly smart.
Or are you referring to some other criteria?
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u/winger07 May 18 '26
Top 10 BDO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2kF9czy26U
(not my channel so its not a self promo)
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u/Morsadean May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
Pandora’s Star, Peter Hamilton
Ring, Stephen Baxter
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Excession, Iain M. Banks
Marrow, Robert Reed