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Star
Clusters
Anderson,
P. "Starfog" in Beyond the Beyond. 1969, Signet. What
life might be like in the middle of dense star cluster.
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Stars
Asimov,
Isaac "Nightfall" in Nightfall & Other Stories.
1969, Fawcett. On a planet in a multiple star system, night
comes only once every 2000 years.
Benford,
Gregory "Dance to Strange Musics" in Year’s Best Science
Fiction 4, ed. David Hartwell. 1999, Eos/HarperCollins. First
expedition to Alpha Centauri finds a planet-wide, collective life
form that takes energy from electric effects caused by the nature
of the star system.
Hoyle,
Fred Ossian’s Ride. 1959, Harper. Aliens come to Earth
fleeing the disaster of their star having become a red giant.
Niven,
Larry "Flare Time" in Limits. 1984, Ballantine. Life on
a planet in a binary star system with a flare star.
Niven,
Larry Ringworld. 1970, Ballantine. In this complex novel
featuring an adaptation of a Dyson sphere, one element of the
plot hinges on the motivations of a race of cowardly aliens whose
star had earlier become a red giant.
Sawyer,
Robert Illegal Alien. 1997, Ace. An alien race on a planet
around Alpha Centauri A has to deal with a gravitational interaction
among the three stars in the system that hands their planet off
to a dimmer star.
See
also: "Star Clusters", "Supernovae",
"Neutron Stars", "Black
Holes"
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Sun,
The
Benford,
Gregory & Eklund, Gordon If the Stars Are Gods. 1977,
Berkley. Proposes that the Sun might have an intelligence within.
Brin,
David Sundiver. 1980, Bantam. Involves a trip into the
Sun. Brin has a PhD in astrophysics.
Clarke,
Arthur "The Wind from the Sun" in The Wind from the Sun.
1973, Signet. About the effect of a solar flare on a solar
wind "sailing race" of the future.
Clayton,
Donald The Joshua Factor. 1986, Texas Monthly Press. A
novel by an astronomer involving intrigue and neutrinos from the
Sun.
Clement,
Hal "Proof" in Asimov, Isaac, ed. Where Do We Go from Here?
1971, Fawcett. About possible life-forms within the Sun.
Niven,
Larry "Inconstant Moon" in All The Myriad Ways. 1971, Ballantine.
A giant flare on the Sun wreaks havoc with civilization.
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Supernovae
(Exploding Stars)
Allen,
Roger & Kotani, Eric Supernova. 1991, Avon. An exploding
star threatens the Earth. (Kotani is the pen-name of a NASA astrophysicist;
this book is the only science fiction story I have seen which
actually features an H-R diagram.)
Anderson,
Poul "Day of Burning" in Beyond the Beyond. 1969,
Signet. An advanced race tries to mobilize the still feudal
inhabitants of a planet whose star is about to go supernova.
Clarke,
Arthur "The Star" in The Nine Billion Names of God. 1967,
Signet. Classic story about a supernova that becomes the star
of Bethlehem.
Cowper,
Richard The Twilight of Briarius. 1974, John Day. An alien
intelligence rides the shock wave of a supernova explosion to
Earth.
Sawyer,
Robert Calculating God. 2000, Tor. The star Betelgeuse
goes supernova, apparently through the actions of an advanced
race of beings, and threatens the Earth.
Sheffield,
Charles Aftermath. 1998, Bantam. Alpha Centauri A goes
supernova, even though that kind of star is not supposed to. But
the book has a good description of how the electro-magnetic pulse
from the explosion wreaks havoc with modern civilization, especially
computer chips. Written by a scientist. (A sequel, called Starfire,
was published by Bantam in 1999.)
Silverberg,
Robert "The Iron Star" in Preiss, Byron & Fraknoi, Andrew,
eds. The Universe. 1987, Bantam. Involves two supernova
explosions, a neutron star, and a black hole.
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Time
(The Nature of and Travel Through)
Benford,
Gregory Timescape. 1981, Pocket Books. A superbly
crafted book about time communication using tachyons (faster-than-light
particles).
Chiang,
Ted "Story of Your Life" in The Year’s Best Science Fiction
4, ed. David Hartwell. 1999, Eos/HarperCollins. Describes
an alien approach to linguistics and thought which can alter one’s
perception of time, and see all of one’s life at the same
time. Interesting allegorical story.
Heinlein,
Robert "All You Zombies" in 6 x H. 1961, Pyramid. Not realistic
science, but this famous story is perhaps the most outrageous
exploration of what might happen if we could travel backward
in time: a man becomes his own father and mother.
Lightman,
Alan Einstein’s Dreams. 1993, Random House. A fugue
and meditation on the many different interpretations of time;
portrayed as dreams a young Einstein is having.
Niven,
Larry World Out of Time. 1976, Ballantine. Using
the gravitational time dilation near a supermassive black hole
to travel into the distant future.
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Telescopes
Landis,
Geoffrey "Impact Parameter" in Impact Parameter. 2001,
Golden Gryphon. Orbiting telescopes in the near future discover
that a group of stars are out of place. Nice descriptions of
how astronomy is done.
Sagan,
Carl Cosmos. 1985, Simon & Schuster. Realistic portrayal
of radio telescopes is one highlight of this novel written by
an astronomer.
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Uranus
(and its Satellites)
Landis,
Geoffrey "Into the Blue Abyss" in Dozois, Gardner & Williams,
Sheila, eds. Isaac Asimov’s Solar System. 1999, Ace.
An expedition descends into the deep atmosphere and ocean of Uranus
and discovers life there. Written by a NASA scientist.
Nordley,
G. David "Into the Miranda Rift" in Dozois, Gardner, ed. The
Year’s Best Science Fiction, 11th Annual. 1994,
St. Martin’s. Harrowing chronicle of trapped explorers on
and in the jigsaw-puzzle satellite Miranda.
Sheffield,
Charles "Dies Irae" in Preiss, Byron, ed. The Planets.
1985, Bantam. About adapting life to survive in Uranus’ atmosphere.
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Venus
Niven,
Larry "Becalmed in Hell" in All the Myriad Ways. 1971,
Ballantine. An astronaut gets stranded in the Venus atmosphere.
Sheffield,
Charles "Dinsdale Dissents" in Vectors. 1979, Ace. Story
involving the terraforming of Venus using algae. Sheffield is
a scientist.
Varley,
John "In the Bowl" in The Persistence of Vision. 1978,
Dell. The discovery of a form of crystalline life that can survive
on Venus.
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***
A
Few Collections of Stories with Good Science in Many Areas:
Asimov,
Isaac, et al, eds. Great Science Fiction by the World's
Great Scientists. 1985, Primus. Twenty-one stories by writers
with advanced degrees in science or engineering.
Conklin,
Groff Great Science Fiction by Scientists. 1962, Crowell
Collier. Stories by scientists in many fields, not just astronomy.
Dozois,
Gardner & Williams, Sheila Isaac Asimov’s Solar System.
1999, Ace. Stories about different worlds in our planetary system.
Preiss,
Byron & Fraknoi, Andrew, eds. The Planets. 1985, Bantam.
Collection of science essays on each planet, followed by a science
fiction story based on current science.
Preiss,
Byron & Fraknoi, Andrew, eds. The Universe. 1987, Bantam.
Collection of essays by leading astronomers and science fiction
stories inspired by the science they describe.
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