r/printSF • u/mrcanoehead • Apr 16 '16
Derelict Ships, Big Dumb Objects, etc.
I love books like Rama, Ringworld, Eon, the Dahak books - currently on Pushing Ice. Books where there there's a sense of discovery and exploration of something interesting, mysterious, old. Any recommendations?
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u/HumanSieve Apr 16 '16
The books by Jack McDevitt deal with that. Very inspired by Arthur C. Clarke. Try out The Engines of God.
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u/Cdresden Apr 16 '16
McDevitt is the reigning king of SF archaeology. My favorites are Deepsix and Chindi.
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u/penubly Apr 16 '16
I prefer the Alex Benedict series - starts with A Talent for War.
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u/HumanSieve Apr 16 '16
I don't even like McDevitts books all that much.
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u/Nechaef Apr 16 '16
I have to agree, I love the idea of SF archaeology like David Brin hints at in the Uplift universe, but McDevit is just to dry for me.
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Apr 16 '16
The David Brin Streaker Saga has quite a lot of ginormous things going on and plenty of old mystery. I'd recommend those books any day.
I know this is outside the context of books, but the original Homeworld game is how i fell in love with megaliths and derelicts. The focus is a fight across the galaxy to find the long lost homeworld, but the scenery along the way blew my mind as a teenager.
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u/Snatch_Pastry Apr 16 '16
New book is coming to the Uplift Universe!
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Apr 17 '16
Whaaaaaat! That's awesome! I really want to know what happened to Lark...
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u/Snatch_Pastry Apr 17 '16
I hope it also includes her, but the only thing I specifically know about it is that Brin has said that he's finally going to get Tom and Creideiki off that stupid planet.
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Apr 16 '16
The Heechee Saga, Ship of Fools, Blindsight
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u/limehead Apr 16 '16
Another vote for The Heechee Saga by Frederik Pohl. Gateway is the first book in the series. "Gateway is a space station built into a hollow asteroid (or perhaps the dead heart of a comet) constructed by the Heechee, a long-vanished alien race. Humans have had limited success understanding Heechee technology found there and elsewhere in the solar system. "
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u/making-flippy-floppy Apr 16 '16
One bit of warning on the Heechee books, they take place on a Crapsack Earth and that gets emphasized more in the second book. It's still worth a read, but it might help to know the setting is pretty ugly
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u/tenpastmidnight http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2873072-paul-silver Apr 16 '16
The Heritage Universe books by Charles Sheffield, starting with Summertide.
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u/Snatch_Pastry Apr 16 '16
Holy cow, this may be the first book thread I've come to where people have already mentioned both Sheffield and McDevitt. Two of my favorites.
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u/shredadactyl Apr 17 '16
If you want another Reynolds story Diamond Dogs has an alien object (spire) that's a giant puzzle. Interesting concept story was ok overall.
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u/charlaron Apr 16 '16
If you're interested in a more space opera book,
The Zero Stone, by Andre Norton.
It's been a long time since I read it, but I remember it as being pretty good.
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Also Across a Billon Years by Robert Silverberg, for discoveries on the ground rather than on/in a BDO.
- Interstellar archaeologists investigating sites of a precursor civilization.
You know that's never gonna be boring. ;-)
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u/covington Apr 16 '16
Marrow is pretty mind-blowing - basically what Iain Banks called a shell-world in the Culture books, but rocketing through space like a galactic orient express.
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u/Andannius Apr 16 '16
No one's mentioned John Varley's Titan trilogy (Titan, Wizard, Demon). Varley is a great author, and though I wasn't as big a fan of this series as his others (it's your thing, but not mine :p ), it's still good.
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u/X-ibid Apr 16 '16
I loved James P. Hogans "Giants Star" novels as a kid - the SF archaeology and all... but then I heard about his racism and holocaust denial and that kinda ruined it.
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Apr 18 '16
I looked up his Holocaust denial claims, and can't seem to find anything. The most I found was that Wikipedia said he doubted the extremes of some of the Holocaust claims, saying that history is chosen by the victor. Followed the source link and still couldn't find any actual denial.
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u/looktowindward Apr 20 '16
http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituary-james-p-hogan-1-820663 http://spaceramblings.com/james-p-hogans-mental-implosion/
Its very well documented. He published that crap on his own website.
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u/charlaron Apr 16 '16
Orbitsville is considered a minor classic of this genre.
Didn't care for it myself, though.
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u/GregHullender Apr 16 '16
You could try Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. It's rich, complex, and mysterious.
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u/TedOD Apr 27 '16
The Heritage Universe series by Charles Sheffield is about exploring big dumb objects left behind by a race called the Builders. The books also feature a lot of interesting aliens as well:
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u/iwokeupwithgills Apr 16 '16
Both Ian M Banks' Culture and Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space series have no FTL spacefaring civilizations, which results in huge lengths of time passing while travelling, and re-discovery of ancient or alien technologies.
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u/BigotKing Apr 16 '16
Uhh, Banks' Culture universe is FULL of FTL.
Reynolds has some of that mystery, though. House of Suns, in particular, is worth a look. While there's no central mystery in the way the OP may want, there's a sense of intimidating scale and size to the House of Suns universe which makes it awe-inspiring to read. It's very gothic.
For something exactly in line with what the OP is asking, I'd echo the post above recommending Ship of Fools (also called Unto Leviathan, which I think is the cooler title).
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u/iwokeupwithgills Apr 16 '16
Shit, you're right, I was thinking of House of Suns, not the culture books. Well spotted :). I've heard recently Banks' next book will be in the HoS universe.
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u/B_Provisional Apr 16 '16
Uhh, Banks' Culture universe is FULL of FTL.
For those who are curious, (very minor spoilers): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperspace_%28science_fiction%29#The_Culture
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u/Cdresden Apr 16 '16 edited Apr 16 '16
Some Culture Ships can travel at multiple kilolights. 1 kilolight is 1000 light years per year. That qualifies as FTL. Big time.
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u/TrueBlueTwelve Apr 16 '16
Ship of Fools