I started another project today — like I needed any others! After reading The Sister, I started wondering about other novels that included quite a bit of science in them. I have an engineering degree, so although I don’t read about it often, I do enjoy a book when science or math plays a major role. I thought about hosting a Science in Fiction Challenge, but there are so many challenges right now that I’m participating in, and I knew I didn’t have room for one more. So, the only solution was to make my idea a long term project. I know there might not be many takers, but that’s okay. We science geeks are usually introverts and off by ourselves anyway!
You might be asking yourself where you would even start with finding out about novels that are science-oriented. I didn’t know where to start either, so I googled “science in fiction” and found a great resource called lablit.com. At their site they talk about the very idea I had, and many of the books on their list are ones I had planned on reading at some point anyway. Some of these include Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, and Intuition by Allegra Goodman. It’s a great list to start from.
If you’re interested in this project and aren’t afraid to admit that you enjoy science, sign up by going to the project blog. Hope to see at least a few fellow science geeks there!
Hey, what a great idea. I am also a geek – I studied Maths and Physics – and I love science, although I don’t do Science. I was too bad at it. LabLit is great site, they published one of my short stories last year. Half of the stories that are in my forthcoming collection are what I call “science-inspired” – they take quotes from science articles as their starting point. There is science in some of them, but not all.
Einstein’s Dreams is one of my all-time favourite books. Read that first. I am off to sign up for your project.
Tania
I LOVE science in books but I’ve never thought of it as an actual genre. Thanks for the link to lablit.com; I will definitely be using their list to add to my TBR stack.
What a cool idea! Once I get things in order again, I will be joining in!
Lezlie
Neat idea, Michelle. I signed up because I actually have some books that fit on my shelves. The Zookeeper’s Wife I think would work here – I listened to the author talk about this book last night on Book TV and I happen to have the book on my shelf! I also posted this to A Novel Challenge blog
For science and literature, you can’t do better that Richard Powers, novelist with a degree in physics, has worked as a programmer.
The Gold Bug Variations. Bach… and the discovery of DNA.
Galatea 2.2: Language acquisition and AI.
Plowing the Dark: Virtual Reality
The Echo Maker. Brain disorder, perception and identiy
I do love science in fiction (see my blog link), and this sounds like a cool project. Some of the books you mention are on my “to read” list, so this is a good excuse to actually start reading them.
Oh, and is it OK if I publicize the Science in Fiction project on my blog?
Sure, Peggy! That would be great.
I have a Biology degree and I am working on my masters right now. One of my favorite books is The Canopy by Angela Hunt. She has a great blog
http://www.alifeinpages.blogspot.com
She also has a few other books with science in them including Unspoken.
An interesting idea, I’m a biologist, although not ‘practicing’ now, I worked in forensics for five years and I do like reading about ‘my kind’.
The last ‘science’ book I read, ‘The End of Mr.Y’, I don’t think it’d meet LabLit’s criteria as a science book as it goes beyond actual science and into the idea of alternative realities and goes into some very heavy physics, it is however absolutely excellent.