Near future science fiction.

[Requia]

So the well grounded anime thread got me thinking that I really liked PlanetES[footnote]This is about garbage collectors IN SPACE[/footnote], and I'd like to watch/read some more near future hard science fiction. What are your recommends for recent[footnote]the stuff doesn't age well in my opinion, no not even Stand on Zanzibar, it becomes spectacle at this point[/footnote] near future scifi?

Some other stuff I recently enjoyed were the novels Halting State[footnote]somewhat cryptogeek focused future of international crime novel, that opens with the VR equivalent of WoW having its bank robbed[/footnote] and Rule 34[footnote]Another future of crime novel, this time focused on well, its in the title[/footnote] by Charles Stross.

 

[shrekfan246]

Er... I guess the relative "hard"ness is questionable, but I'd most certainly recommend Steins;Gate if you haven't watched/read it. It's a visual novel, and there's an anime show based on it. The VN focuses slightly more on the actual science, but it's also harder to track down because there's no official English version. If you do go for the anime, then while the English dub isn't terrible, the Japanese dub is quite superior.

I don't know if games are out of the question, but if not and you haven't yet, I'd say play Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's got a little bit of the Back to the Future syndrome of overestimating where we'll be during the time it takes place, in my opinion, but it's still absolutely fantastic and one of my favorite games from 2011.

And neither of them are particularly recent (in when they released and when they're based), nor would I necessarily say they're explicitly hard sci-fi, but Firefly and Cowboy Bebop are two shows that any fan of sci-fi should watch. They may both be over a decade old, but they still hold up pretty fantastically today.

I don't know much about recent sci-fi, especially when it comes to the serious stuff, so preemptive sorry if I couldn't be any help.

 

[senordesol]

I recommend this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BVG1394

I wouldn't call it *hard* SciFi, but it's a complex story, interesting worlds and characters.

Oh...and I wrote it.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The Killzone series is rather decent Hard Sci Fi, especially if you look up the background material.

 

[Requia]

Er... I guess the relative "hard"ness is questionable, but I'd most certainly recommend Steins;Gate if you haven't watched/read it. It's a visual novel, and there's an anime show based on it. The VN focuses slightly more on the actual science, but it's also harder to track down because there's no official English version. If you do go for the anime, then while the English dub isn't terrible, the Japanese dub is quite superior.

I don't know if games are out of the question, but if not and you haven't yet, I'd say play Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's got a little bit of the Back to the Future syndrome of overestimating where we'll be during the time it takes place, in my opinion, but it's still absolutely fantastic and one of my favorite games from 2011.

And neither of them are particularly recent (in when they released and when they're based), nor would I necessarily say they're explicitly hard sci-fi, but Firefly and Cowboy Bebop are two shows that any fan of sci-fi should watch. They may both be over a decade old, but they still hold up pretty fantastically today.

I don't know much about recent sci-fi, especially when it comes to the serious stuff, so preemptive sorry if I couldn't be any help.

Huh, I hadn't realized Deus Ex was near future at all, 2027 does seem radically overoptimistic for that kind of tech (even the most die hard transhumanist would put it at 2040 at the earliest). But the game really felt like they were dealing with tech that had been around fucking up society for 20 or 30 years and the political scene was finally getting around to noticing. It does work well as a 2057 piece though.

As for Firefly and Bebop, they are both very excellent, but not the right subgenre.

 

[ultrachicken]

Er... I guess the relative "hard"ness is questionable, but I'd most certainly recommend Steins;Gate if you haven't watched/read it. It's a visual novel, and there's an anime show based on it. The VN focuses slightly more on the actual science, but it's also harder to track down because there's no official English version. If you do go for the anime, then while the English dub isn't terrible, the Japanese dub is quite superior.

I don't know if games are out of the question, but if not and you haven't yet, I'd say play Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's got a little bit of the Back to the Future syndrome of overestimating where we'll be during the time it takes place, in my opinion, but it's still absolutely fantastic and one of my favorite games from 2011.

And neither of them are particularly recent (in when they released and when they're based), nor would I necessarily say they're explicitly hard sci-fi, but Firefly and Cowboy Bebop are two shows that any fan of sci-fi should watch. They may both be over a decade old, but they still hold up pretty fantastically today.

I don't know much about recent sci-fi, especially when it comes to the serious stuff, so preemptive sorry if I couldn't be any help.

Huh, I hadn't realized Deus Ex was near future at all, 2027 does seem radically overoptimistic for that kind of tech (even the most die hard transhumanist would put it at 2040 at the earliest). But the game really felt like they were dealing with tech that had been around fucking up society for 20 or 30 years and the political scene was finally getting around to noticing. It does work well as a 2057 piece though.

As for Firefly and Bebop, they are both very excellent, but not the right subgenre.

Deus Ex actually has a bit of alternative history woven into the narrative. A certain man is born in about the 60's or 70's (I believe) who causes immense advances in the realm of prosthetics that we haven't had yet. So real life 2013 is behind Deus Ex's 2013 in certain fields.

Anyways, I second that recommendation.

 

[Little2Raph]

If you're after novels, I'd recommend anything by Alastair Reynolds. They're mostly set a little further into the future, but the science is pretty grounded - the guy is a physicist who worked for the European Space Agency.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, the 2001 series starts off fairly near future, but goes on from there.

 

[Requia]

The Killzone series is rather decent Hard Sci Fi, especially if you look up the background material.

I both agree and disagree, the ISA is bland, like, really bland. The Helghast however, have weapons that are mostly plausible, yet futuristic. The ISA, by contrast, have a bullpup LR-300 (with), called the M82, not exactly the most creative weapon in gaming history. It should also be noted that Killzone is hard Sci-Fi, but not near future sci-fi.

Bland weapons actually make for good hard scifi in my experience, because that's exactly what the future of rifles has turned out to be.

This seems like an interesting game, may have to find a copy if the PS2 still works.

 

[Mangod]

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri!

And, of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey, as the owl above me stated.

 

[Esotera]

Have an anthology [http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/] for your troubles good sir.

There are some really good stories in there, they're all near-future, and they actually have very optimistic endings, which is quite a welcome change for sci-fi. And posting here has really made me want to write again...

 

[Samudra]

If you're after novels, I'd recommend anything by Alastair Reynolds. They're mostly set a little further into the future, but the science is pretty grounded - the guy is a physicist who worked for the European Space Agency.

Agreed, his book closest to the present is probably "Blue Remembered Earth", great future society speculation. His books generally have lots of splintering human groups each founded on different tech. focus and society norms that occur with that tech. choice. I have read every book he has written and enjoyed all of them.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Does Black Ops 2 count? Minor sci-fi elements (that laser gun you unlock) loads of robots and set more than 10 years in the future.
Probably not.
Brave New World is good. It's more dystopia than future-topia but it's still very good. A watered down version of 1984, and not a play.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Yeah, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I read it as sort of a gag, and instead I got a masterfully paced and dedicated to logic sci-fi book with a great layer of mystery. Highly suggest reading it.

And Ender's Game, which I think is a lot slower paced, but it's still good. It was written during the end of the Cold War, so it still has some talk about the Warsaw Pact and the Internet hasn't been invented, but it's still really close to the science and pretty close to the present. The sequels, however, aren't so much like the first.

 

[LollzRoyce42]

I'm going to bend the rules a little bit since this isn't near future, but I'll just leave this here...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Quiet-War-Paul-McAuley/dp/1591027810/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Seriously, this entire series is a blast to read, a fantastic space opera, and one of the best literary examples of hard sci-fi ever, imo.

 

[soren7550]

Well, there's the Perfect Dark series. It starts in 2020, and if you can get your hands on it, get the books, they're a must read.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Fringe! Definitely fringe... all the way! That is essentially current day with stuff that makes it slightly futuristic!