Natural Science 310 Science and Science Fiction Spring 2006

Approved books for term papers

Anderson, Poul, Tau Zero. (1970) Relativistic effects allow a starship to travel to end of universe.

Asimov, Isaac, The Caves of Steel. (1953) Detective story with robots.

Asimov, Isaac, Foundation. (1951) Secret foundation set up by “psycho-historians” to guide galactic civilization through dark ages.

Baxter, Stephen, Voyage.(1997) Alternate history: U.S. goes to Mars in 1980s.

Baxter, Stephen, Flux (1993). Life in the crust of a neutron star.

Bear, Greg, Darwin’s Radio. (2000) The next step in hominid evolution.

Brin, David, Startide Rising. (1983) A starship crewed by humans, superchimps, and intelligent dolphins crash-lands on ocean world.

Budrys, Algis, Rogue Moon. (1960) A deadly maze is found on the Moon.

Clarke, Arthur C., Rendezvous with Rama. (1973) Astronauts investigate huge, apparently abandoned spaceship that enters the solar system.

Clement, Hal, Mission of Gravity. (1954) Aliens living on planet with bone-crushing gravity.

Cramer, John, Einstein’s Bridge. (1997) The Supercolliding Supercollider allows aliens from another dimension to come and destroy all life, followed by political satire.

Delaney, Samuel R, Babel-17. (1966) Beautiful linguist deciphers inscrutable enemy.

Dick, Philip K., Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) Existential angst among humans and androids following nuclear war. Nothing like the movie (“Bladerunner”).

Gibson, William, Neuromancer. (1984) The original “cyberpunk” novel: a computer attains consciousness, manipulates cyber criminal to gain freedom.

Gibson, William and Sterling, Bruce, The Difference Engine. (1990) Mechanical computers in alternate-history Victorian London.

Halderman, Joe, The Forever War. (1975) Relativistic effects stretch out a war against “bugs” to centuries. A response to Starship Troopers by a Vietnam Vet.

Heinlein, Robert, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. (1966) Revolution in lunar colonies.

Heinlein, Robert, Starship Troopers. (1951) Space infantry fight nasty alien bugs. Argues a military junta is the best form of government.

Jones, D. F. Colossus (1966). Missile-wielding supercomputer takes over the world.

Knight, Damon, A for Anything. Machines that can duplicate anything cause chaos in society.

LeGuin, Ursula K, The Left Hand of Darkness. (1969) Hermaphrodites and political tension on ice world.

McHugh, Maureen F., China Mountain Zhang. (1992) Gay man in near-future America economically dominated by China.

Mieville, China, Perdido Street Station. (2000) Hallucinatory world where science, alchemy, and magic blur together.

Miller, Walter M, A Canticle for Liebowitz. (1959) After nuclear war, monks preserve scientific knowledge.

Niven, Larry, and Pournell, Jerry, The Mote in God’s Eye. (1975) Humans meet strange aliens species who hide a terrible secret.

Pohl, Frederik, Gateway. (1977) Aliens hide in black holes from other, scarier aliens.

Pohl, Frederik, Man Plus. (1976) Cyborg created to explore Mars.

Robinson, Kim Stanley, Icehenge. (1985) Archaeologist investigates mysterious monument on Pluto, struggles against scientific inertia.

Schroder, Karl, Permanance. (2003) Stratified human society discovers intelligence is not a stable long-term evolutionary strategy.

Stephenson, Neal, Snow Crash. (1992) Delivery boy for Mafia-owned pizza chain is samurai in virtual reality. And that’s just the beginning.

Stephenson, Neal, The Diamond Age. (1995) Society with nanotechnology recreate Victorian era.

Varley, John, The Ophiuchi Hotline. (1977) Humans expelled from Earth by alien invaders, receive message from other aliens.

Vinge, Vernor (former SDSU computer science professor), A Fire Upon the Deep. (1991) Unspeakable menace threatens the galaxy; the only defense crashes on planet populated by intelligent group-mind dog creatures.

Vonnegut, Kurt, Cat’s Cradle. (1963) Scientist creates “ice-nine” that could freeze Earth.

Willis, Connie, The Doomsday Book. (1993) Time travel to Middle Ages, Black Death.

Zamyatin, Yevgeny, We. (1924) Russian dystopia: numbers replace names, sexual partners assigned by the government, imagination outlawed.