Foundation series is perhaps the first hard sci-fi series I have ever read. I basically dig it up at random from a Barnes and Nobles. Then I start to read it up. That was perhaps the first time I feel probability theory and random process is probably the most important mathematical field in the world.
There are three essential hard sci-fi authors : Asimov, Clark and Heinlein. All of their books, provided that it is penned by them, worth a read. The Foundation series crossover with the Robot series and the Empire Series. Clark's Space Odyssey is always a classic. If you hadn't read Starship Trooper, Stranger in a Strange land and The Moon is the Harsh Mistress, then you probably miss a piece of your understanding in American politics.
Of course, it is quite boring to follow just one of them. Even if you follow just the essential three. You will find that some of the ideas were recycled quickly in their novels. Heinlein has built a world which requires the reading to read several previous work to understand what's going on. (That's annoying.) And as I just mentioned, the Foundation series crossover with the Robot series. So at the very least, you will need to know the three laws of Robotics.
The good thing about science fiction though is that the effect of a series is rather small. Writers are very hard to get a living. And sci-fi writers probably have even more difficult lives. The good ones consider this effect and write to make sure the reader understand what's going on.
Still, the best concept of sci-fis seems to me always come at the first book. So in a nutshell, if you read sci-fi, try just to read a book as one book. If you fall into the trap of buying multiple books and read them as series, you might waste a lot of cognitive load.
I move along to Greg Bear to "diversify" my reading. Greg Bear is another name which you will hear all the time from sci-fi fans, purportedly because he is another good hard sci-fi authors and in these days hard sci-fi authors are hard to get. They are either too technical (Gentry Lee) or they don't really understand the science.
The premise of Moving Mars is that in an alternative future, human would be able to move to Mars and there are constant political conflicts between Mars and the Earth. At the juncture of the conflict, a scientist of Mars discovered that they can treat the universe as a computer. Time, distance doesn't matter any more. Dilemma in quantum theory is gone and Mars would be able to use it as a leverage against Earth.
Quite dramatic, though it is not as believable as one can see from our evidence. So I don't consider this as a strength. Though Bear shows his authorship by building up a great story which interleaved political conflicts and other believable scientific inventions. For the political conflict parts, I will keep the spoilers. For the scientific inventions, here are couple of things I think it's quite believable.
1, Enhancement: a kind of human improvement either on physical or mental ability. The change are based altering the neuro pathway of human brains.
2, Travel on Mars: this is again another believable ideas.
The setup of the novels are quite sophisticated and craft well. So even though the book is a bit long (500 pages on a paperback), you still have a feeling that you want to read it on.
It took me a while to finish the book since I am more focused on algorithmic studies and languages these days but I think this book worth the while. I will also start to read books from Bear again because I think he is a good author.
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