looking for suggestions of bleak science fiction about space

[tumbling]

hi there, I would appreciate recommendations if you have any to give

basically, I'm looking for some recommendations of eerie science fiction novels
not eerie as in BOO here comes an alien!

eerie as in, the vastness and oppressive loneliness of space suffocating your mind, driving one to paranoia etc.

anything come to mind?
thanks

 

[j d worthington]

The Black Corridor, by Michael Moorcock, is one such (though there are a lot of flashbacks to a crumbling earth society, as well).

The Men Inside, by Barry N. Malzberg is another, though my mind's coming up blank on others right now. Yet another by Malzberg: Beyond Apollo.

Actually, this was quite a common theme in the New Wave of the 1960s, so you might want to find a copy of Colin Greenland's The Entropy Exhibition, which is an examination of that movement (highly entertaining and informative, also quirkily opinionated ... I love his line about Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius: "The Global Village breeds the Global Village Idiot." This book has a pretty good overview of much of what was going on then, and should give you several ideas to pursue. There are also several stories of the type in Judith Merrill's anthology England Swings SF. And, of course, J.G. Ballard, when he deals with space at all, takes a very dim view of the entire space venture and its effects on people....

 

[iansales]

Titan by Stephen Baxter I remember as being pretty bleak.

 

[Werthead]

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space Trilogy covers this theme pretty well, along with many others.

 

[Thadlerian]

I can only recommend Michael Flynn's The Wreck of The River of Stars. It tells a story about an old solar sail space cruise ship, rebuilt to cargoship with refitted engines, in which the new engine fails. Part of the crew wants to repair it, the other part wants to use the old solar sail. I don't know how much it is about space, but there's certainly lots about living in a space ship.

As a science fiction, it is rather rare, because it is almost entirely character-driven. Everything that happens after the engine failure (very early on) happens as a result of the ambitions and hopes, and the stubbornness of the relatively large (for a space ship) very well thought out crew.

 

[j d worthington]

As a science fiction, it is rather rare, because it is almost entirely character-driven....

More recent sf, perhaps. But there are huge numbers of sf books from the 1940s on to at least the 90s which are chiefly character driven. As D.C. Fontana (among others) has said, sf isn't about the technology; it's about the effects of that technology on people and on societies. Otherwise it's "engineering fiction".

 

[Thadlerian]

OK, put that modern, brick-size SF.

Engineering fiction... I've never heard of that one before, but it sounds valid. May I use it as a derogatory for SF that I don't like? Pleeease?

 

[j d worthington]

OK, put that modern, brick-size SF.

Engineering fiction... I've never heard of that one before, but it sounds valid. May I use it as a derogatory for SF that I don't like? Pleeease?

Check with Dorothy Fontana. But I don't think she'd mind....

 

[Milk]

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space Trilogy covers this theme pretty well, along with many others.

That was the first series that came to mind.

Stephen Baxter wrote a scary one too. Im not sure which Stephen Baxter book it was, but the main antagonist was the heat death of the Universe. I've read many of his books and I forgot which one that was.

 

[iansales]

Stephen Baxter wrote a scary one too. Im not sure which Stephen Baxter book it was, but the main antagonist was the heat death of the Universe. I've read many of his books and I forgot which one that was.

Ring?

 

[Thunderchild]

It smigh be a bit obvious but...

2001 a space odessey by A.C. Clarke

 

[j d worthington]

It smigh be a bit obvious but...

2001 a space odessey by A.C. Clarke

Hmmmm. Hadn't thought of this one in that connection.... Interesting. Nice choice.

 

[Tau Zero]

You might want to try Tau Zero by Poul Anderson. A bit dated, but the concept is timeless.

 

[FelineEyes]

For a short read try "Cold Equations"--though the author escapes me. Classic depressing sci-fi, I read it once 6 years ago and still remember the story perfectly...and I still shudder.

 

[j d worthington]

For a short read try "Cold Equations"--though the author escapes me. Classic depressing sci-fi, I read it once 6 years ago and still remember the story perfectly...and I still shudder.

Tom Godwin. Wonderful story, and a very hard look at the subject. Doesn't have the protagonist suffering the sort of thing the original poster asked about, but closely allied.

 

[WadeK]

For bleak science fiction I'd reccomend C. J. Cherryh's Downbelow Station. Don't know about the vast openness of space, but it's certainly full of paranoia, bleakness, and grim, somber subplots.

Wade