Peter F Hamilton, he does tend to throw in (in one case literally) a Deus Ex Machina device but the rest of the books up till that point (in each series) has pretty thoughtful stuff about technology. moreover, he's unusual in being one of the few authors to think hard about longevity technology.
LE Modesitt does reasonably (though I wouldn't say extra) hard SF. His strong point is paying attention to ecological questions. The man is fairly conservative and definitely an unabashed elitist (and the only sci fi author I know of from a high status socioeconomic background)...but he's extremely honest and analytical.
(In particular, he really likes to kill irresponsible or corrupt leaders in his books all the time. (He very much doesn't like ANY of the _current_ elites in RL, either.) One book he had his hero say "If we [the elite] are all we're cracked up to be, then we don't need to rig society to keep us on top. And if we're not all we're cracked up to be, we don't deserve to be on top". (and in case you think that's an innately disingenuous position, the key to ALL the reformed elitist systems in his books is magic or technology that allows : infallibly accurate lie detection, undetectability, and ways of killing someone very very dead in an eyeblink. (and yes, he acknowledges this could make for a tense society. But he thinks most people are not innately reasonable so tense is better than leaving them to pursue their preferences unchecked.) He also acknowledges the struggles to inspire and maintain excellence are not casual or rote and require unremitting struggle. Lots of good sociology mixed in with the science.))
For Peter F Hamilton, start with book one of the Reality Dysfunction, for LE Modesitt, Archform: Beauty or Flash are good starting points.
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zvi and
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Date: 2010-12-30 07:18 pm (UTC)LE Modesitt does reasonably (though I wouldn't say extra) hard SF. His strong point is paying attention to ecological questions. The man is fairly conservative and definitely an unabashed elitist (and the only sci fi author I know of from a high status socioeconomic background)...but he's extremely honest and analytical.
(In particular, he really likes to kill irresponsible or corrupt leaders in his books all the time. (He very much doesn't like ANY of the _current_ elites in RL, either.) One book he had his hero say "If we [the elite] are all we're cracked up to be, then we don't need to rig society to keep us on top. And if we're not all we're cracked up to be, we don't deserve to be on top". (and in case you think that's an innately disingenuous position, the key to ALL the reformed elitist systems in his books is magic or technology that allows : infallibly accurate lie detection, undetectability, and ways of killing someone very very dead in an eyeblink. (and yes, he acknowledges this could make for a tense society. But he thinks most people are not innately reasonable so tense is better than leaving them to pursue their preferences unchecked.) He also acknowledges the struggles to inspire and maintain excellence are not casual or rote and require unremitting struggle. Lots of good sociology mixed in with the science.))
For Peter F Hamilton, start with book one of the Reality Dysfunction, for LE Modesitt, Archform: Beauty or Flash are good starting points.