Looking for a book about new planet discovery

[Chairman7w]

Any good Sci-Fi books about mankind reaching out and finding new planets to colonize?

Like - them arriving and exploring the planet, setting up settlements, etc.

I think I would dig a book like that.

 

[Danny McG]

I would think @BAYLOR could give you a list
Watch this space

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Have you already read any books like that? If so, it might help listing them so that duplicates don't get recommended.
For example, my first thought was Asimov's Robot/Empire/Foundation which has a fair bit of colonisation going on, but I'd be surprised if you haven't read these.

 

[AllanR]

My first thought is the Mars series by KS Robinson.

 

[PaulMmn]

Some of the early Heinlein "juveniles" have a bit of colonizing-- starting with planets in our own solar system.
"Farmer in the Sky" - colonizing Ganymede
"Red Planet" - colonizing Mars, but the Martians had been there first and were hard to find
"Between Planets" - lots of action on Venus (back when we thought it was just a warmer version of Earth). Meet the 'dragons' of Venus

Here are links through Wikipedia to Heinlein's first juveniles... You have to forgive the science; these are OLD!! But these were some of the first sci-fi I encountered.

• Rocket Ship Galileo (1947)
• Space Cadet (1948)
• Red Planet (1949)
• Farmer in the Sky (1950)
• Between Planets (1951)
• The Rolling Stones (also known as Space Family Stone, 1952)
• Starman Jones (1953)
• The Star Beast (1954)
• Tunnel in the Sky (1955)
• Time for the Stars (1956)
• Citizen of the Galaxy (1957)
• Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958)
• Starship Troopers (1959) (rejected by Scribner's, published by Putnam's)

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

"Coyote" by Allen Steele is the first one that springs to mind. "Planetfall" by Emma Newman for a much odder take. It doesn't seem to be a popular subject these days: you get generation ship stories, and you get long-established human colonies, but little in between.

 

[BAYLOR]

"Coyote" by Allen Steele is the first one that springs to mind. "Planetfall" by Emma Newman for a much odder take. It doesn't seem to be a popular subject these days: you get generation ship stories, and you get long-established human colonies, but little in between.

He's wonderful writer . I just finished his novel Avengers of the Moon.

 

[Chairman7w]

Thanks everybody! You came through with flying colors!!

Gonna start checking some of those out.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of Time is very good

 

[Rodders]

Coyote was excellent.

Issac Asimov's Nemesis and Edmund Cooper's a Far Sunset should also fit the bill.

What about Ben Bova's Moon War and Mars books? I enjoyed them very much and if you like them, Chairman7w they form part of a larger "Grand Tour" series which was also very enjoyable.

 

[Ravensquawk]

"Surface Tension"
is the only story I have read in the four-story collection, all four by James Blish,
"The Seedling Stars" by James Blish

but you will never, ever, not ever, forget it.

In contrast to terraforming, all four stories use Pantropy, adapting human forms to the environments of the planets they colonize.

So I discovered -- or perhaps rediscovered (you know how that goes) -- that James Blish himself coined the word.

From Greek tropos "a turning", it would imply "all forms" -- or more closely, a "turning toward" all forms, specifically whatever form was best adapted to a planetary environment.

So it isn't in the etymological dictionary yet, but just you watch. I may have to correspond to to request getting it in there.

 

[Tony Blaidd]

Has anyone tried "The Legacy of Heorot" by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes? Colonists on a planet seriously mis manage the ecosystem with spectacularly unexpected results.

 

[Bick]

Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of Time is very good

It fits the brief (sort of) but it was a disappointing DNF finish for me, and mostly doesn't describe actual planetary settlement, so opinions vary.

Legacy of Heorot and Coyote and are exactly what you're after I think, and both are recommended.
For a solo exploration and survival story of one man on a new alien planet, you might also try Shipwreck by Charles Logan.

 

[asp3]

Although the planet is essentially Earth, it's generally new because very few humans have visited them yet. Also there are sometimes variations due to the universe this Earth is in. You might consider checking out The Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.