What Classic writer(s) Do The Best Job of Portraying Space Travel ?

[Bick]

So, which writer best portrays something completely made up? Bit hard to say isn't it? If you want 'realism' then it has to be sub-c, so then I would say Clarke in The Songs of Distant Earth.

 

[Tom Hering]

Clifford D. Simak, who wrote about mind travel. Obviously, he got space travel absolutely right, because traveling by means of the mind (or imagination) to other worlds (beyond our moon) is the only way readers and writers have ever done it.

 

[Classysturgeon]

I seem to recall quasi-realistic space travel technology in Journey to the Mushroom Planet. I haven't read the series in awhile, but I remember a character being stuck in a time loop after trying to leave the planet. Interesting stuff.

 

[Galactic Journey]

Now I think of it (neurons moving very slowly), Murray Leinster's Med Service tales seemed to try to make sense of space travel technology. They were enjoyable, one way or another.

Murray Leinster Series

That's exactly what I was going to say. Leinster inspired my epic space roleplaying game.

 

[tinkerdan]

• I have these books
  

  I seem to recall quasi-realistic space travel technology in Journey to the Mushroom Planet. I haven't read the series in awhile, but I remember a character being stuck in a time loop after trying to leave the planet. Interesting stuff.

  
  
• Not sure I'd say they do the best job portraying space travel now days; however at the time....
• Eleanor Cameron - Wikipedia
  
• The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954)
• Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (1956)

 

[Extollager]

I'm going to assume that "Classic" is loosely defined. If so, I'd add Alastair Reynolds' space operas. His insistence on slower than light speed travel adds some interesting astrophysics wrinkles into his tales.

Could you elaborate? Thanks.

 

[Vertigo]

Could you elaborate? Thanks.

If you take House of Suns for example he has a group of itinerant people travelling the galaxy. They can't go faster than the speed of light (though Reynolds does even address FTL in an interesting manner in this book) but they do travel at relativistic speeds. Consequently this group might travel for a decade of their subjective time whilst centuries pass for the rest of the world. In this way these itinerant folk get to see civilisations rise and fall. Excellent book!

 

[Extollager]

I honor that -- sticking to the physics to that degree, at least.

 

[BAYLOR]

Ben Bova

 

[dask]

This was (and still is) one of my favorite time travel stories:

Clifford D. Simak does time travel extremely well also.

 

[dask]

Boy, did I get that mixed up. Thought for sure it said time travel. Guess not. Too late to edit too. Gonna crawl back into my hole now.

 

[Vince W]

Well, depending on how you look at it Dask, time travel is a type of space travel, so don't feel bad.

 

[EJ Heijnis]

"Best job" can mean many things, but for me, it's to what extent the writer manages to convince me that this is really happening, which often comes down to the details. Then again, as mentioned, a truly realistic description of space travel would probably be tedious to most. I thought C.J. Cherryh struck a nice balance between storytelling and showing how the demands of space travel shaped daily life in the Alliance/Union novels I've read so far.

 

[chrispenycate]

I love Robert L. Forward in 'The Flight of the Dragonfly' (Rocheworld) where they handle life extension, light pressure drive and (frequently ignored in hard SF) how to slow down. On the other hand, if you're allergic to technical info dumps, steer clear.

 

[J Riff]

Cosmic Engineers by Simak. Can't remember much, but it was impressive at the time, at describing vast distances.

 

[Kylara]

I'll throw in Pohl and Gateway they have no idea how the ships work, but they do and they are cramped and horrible and people die a lot.

Also second The Forever War - really very good.

And a not classic but interesting in passing as not really part of the main plot, but the last couple of the Ender Quartet have a good grasp of time dilation and have space traveller's (Ender) living centuries - really quite fun, but as I said not a classic and not what the novels are about!

 

[BAYLOR]

Larry Niven

 

[Vertigo]

I see this one has been revived and I've remembered another definitely classic author who handled space travel realistically (at least in one book) and that is Poul Anderson and his classic Tau Zero. Brilliant hard SF.

 

[BAYLOR]

Ringworld by Larry Niven

 

[Vince W]

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Niven doesn't dwell on the space travel too much, but the Lying ******* is an interesting ship. I think the Man-Kzin Wars goes into the mechanics of space travel in the Known Universe more deeply, however, that was mainly other authors and not Niven.