Recommend some sci-fi?

[Cthulhudrew]

It seems that one of the staples of much science fiction is that planets are always defined by one characteristic- water planet, jungle planet, etc.- and that is all she wrote.

I would really like to read some science fiction that takes a more realistic approach to planetary bodies, and fleshes them out along the lines of our own real earth- with many different societies, climates, etc.

Can anyone recommend some good sci-fi with this sort of development in mind?

 

[Umbran]

Well, sci-fi does that a lot because, to be honest, you can't fully describe a planet and its various societies in a novel-sized book, much less fit in plot. And if the planet has several different biomes and climates, it starts sounding a lot like Earth, and who wants to read about the same old boring deserts and plains and swamps?

If you want some works by sci-fi authors who do a really good job of developing really stange worlds, try Robert L Forward or Larry Niven.

 

[Rackhir]

Jack Vance's - Tschai (Aka Planet of Adventure) would seem to fit the bill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_Adventure

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312854889/104-2897715-0451901?v=glance&n=283155

 

[Ed_Laprade]

John Ringo and David Weber's series (Up Country, I think) does this. I've only read snippits of the first book, but it's a basic Trek Across the Planet story, military style.

 

[Meowzebub]

Dan Simmon's Hyperion series has close to a dozen planets (or more) as his settings that he fleshes out in great detail. One or two are all water or all forest, but he does a good job at descibing what that means in the relationship with other planets. Plus they are a great read.

 

[Huw]

Brian Aldiss' Helliconia. Planet undergoes huge seasonal changes over a long period of time.

C.S.Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet. Three intelligent species occupying different social and ecological niches on a dying planet.

 

[John Cooper]

I'd also recommend Gene Wolfe's "New Sun" series. It starts out with Shadow of the Torturer, and goes on for four more novels after that. However, Gene specifically wrote it because he, too, was tired of every sci-fi planet having one climate, one culture, etc. It takes place on the planet Earth, but since it also takes place something like a million years in the future (or some other, way-out-there span of time), it's not the planet you remember.

 

[Ibram]

David Drake and S.M. Sterling did a good job making a planet into more then just "forest world" in their series "The General" (which I believe is now in an omnibus edition), as well as with the follow up book "The Chosen".

As mentioned above, Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantons series has a wide variety of planets.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I'd also recommend Gene Wolfe's "New Sun" series. It starts out with Shadow of the Torturer, and goes on for four more novels after that. However, Gene specifically wrote it because he, too, was tired of every sci-fi planet having one climate, one culture, etc. It takes place on the planet Earth, but since it also takes place something like a million years in the future (or some other, way-out-there span of time), it's not the planet you remember.

This sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. I'll definitely check it out.

Some great recommendations, btw guys. Despite wanting to give him a look see, I've still never gotten around to reading any Vance stuff; now I'll have to stop putting it off.

I've read the Hyperion series- some really great sci-fi, and it's been a long while (long before I tired of the "one climate, one culture" concept), so I think I hadn't really paid attention to the variation of his planets all that much at the time. Now that it's been brought up, though, I do recall Simmons having done so. Been meaning to reread those books anyway (especially Hyperion).

 

[John Cooper]

In that case, here's the list of the whole "New Sun" series, in order:

• Shadow of the Torturer
  [*]Claw of the Concilliator
  [*]Sword of the Lictor
  [*]Citadel of the Autarch
  [*]Urth of the New Sun

There's also a short behind-the-scenes book about the series called Castle of the Otter, in which the author explains why he wrote the series, the naming conventions he used, and so on.