Hard Science Fiction Like Blindsight by Peter Watts

Arthur C. Clarke is widely regarded as one of the most influential science fiction writers of all time. He co-wrote the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey, considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, and was described as the "prophet of the Space Age" by Readers Digest. Rendezvous with Rama, published in 1973, is seen as his magnum opus, and is set to be adapted into a film by Dune director Denis Villeneuve.

In 2131, a vast celestial object enters the Solar System. It's 50km long and weighs more than ten trillions tons. The Spaceguard system nicknames it Rama. A mission is sent to study Rama, exploring what could be the first-ever instance of communication with alien species. Nobody knows precisely what Rama is, what it wants, or who made it. The answers could lead to a new age for humanity ... or its total destruction.

Mammoth by John Varley 

A woolly mammoth is discovered in the Canadian wilderness, perfectly preserved amid the layers of ice and snow. Once Howard Christian, a billionaire visionary, hears about it, he decides that he wants to clone it for future experimentation. But there's also another find amid the tundra: the mummified body of a 12,000 year old man wearing a wrist-watch, and a strange metal box. A top physicist and an elephant veterinarian are brought on-board by Christian to clone the mammoth and uncover the mysteries of the box. What they find sends them soaring through humanity's past and back again, and all with a baby mammoth as their sidekick.

Hal Clement was considered one of the leaders of hard science fiction in the 1950s. He received a 50-year Retro Hugo Award in 1996 as a celebration of his influence on the genre. Heavy Planet compiles several of Clement's short stories, originally serialized in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction, set on the planet of Mesklin. The days on Mesklin are only 18 minutes long, the force of gravity on the surface makes even tiny heights dangerous, and the locals are centipede-like creatures. A human rocket has become stranded on one of Mesklin's poles, and it's up to Barlennan, a native sailor of the raft Bree, to lead the rescue mission.

David Brin is a beloved figure in sci-fi fiction who has won the Hugo, Locus, Campbell, and Nebula Award. Set in the year 2038, Earth is a cautionary tale about how the damage humans are causing to their only planet. Scientist Alex Lustig has created a tiny black hole, barely the size of a pinhead, but with the power to destroy mankind. After accidentally dropping it into the Earth's core, Alex must race to reclaim it before it consumes the entire planet. But the world is a cruel place full of war, corruption, and overpopulation. Would it be so bad if things came to an end after all?

Neal Stephenson is known for writing sense doorstoppers of speculative fiction that blend together sci-fi, history, cyberpunk, and dystopia. His books often explore ideas like cryptography, philosophy, and the ancient roots of modern science.

In his Hugo Award-nominated 2015 novel Seveneves, a catastrophic event leads to the inexplicable disintegration of the Moon, which renders the Earth a ticking time bomb. Soon, the planet will be unliveable, with experts predicting it will only take two years for Earth’s atmosphere to become inhospitable. Humanity must band together to figure out how to save the fate of humanity by finding a home beyond the stars. But the challenges are many and things quickly go awry. Five thousand years after this, the survivors of the cataclysm's descendants have become seven distinct races. Now, they have a new mission: to return to the alien world once known as Earth.

Ann Leckie's debut novel, the first in the Imperial Radch trilogy, was an instant smash success in the sci-fi community and became the only novel to have won the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke awards. Ancillary Justice is worthy of its immense hype, blending space opera and military drama with themes of identity, power, and artificial intelligence. 

The Radch empre uses AI-controlled ships to colonise outer space, with the ships controlling human bodies known as ancillaries to fight on the ground. The Radch starship, the Justice of Toren, has disappeared and left behnd one ancillary, and a fragment of the ship's consciousness. She is known as Breq, and she is eager to complete her mission. Stuck on an ice planet, she encounters Seivarden, a former lieutenant on the Justice of Toren from a 1,000 years before. Together, they must find answers about what happened to the ship and the Radch’s plans for total control of the universe.

C. J. Cherryh has written more than 80 books over the course of 50 years and has won three Hugo Awards for her efforts. She's celebrated in the sci-fi community for her dense worldbuilding, which is on display in incredible detail in her popular Alliance-Union saga. Spanning the third and fourth millennia, this series is centered on humanity's exploration and colonization of space, which has led to the birth of new scions of power among humanity. There are three key economic leaders across the universe: Earth Company, operating from Earth, the Alliance, a confederation of trade merchants directing interstellar freighters between the planets, and the Union, a breakaway government based on the planet Cyteen.

Downbelow Station, which was named by Locus magazine as one of the top 50 science fiction novels of all time in 1987, kicks off the series. Set in 2352, the book follows a space station that orbits Pell's World, acting as a stopgap for interstellar ships. Control of this planet is much sought after by all three powers, despite its long-enduring neutrality, but now, things are about to change …

The Vorkosigan Saga is a long running sci-fi saga by multi-award-winning writer Lois McMaster Bujold. First published in 1986, the series is ongoing and covers generations of the Vorkosigan family in a future where humanity has colonized a galaxy and developed vast numbers of differing cultures. The books, which jump around in chronology, are a blend of hard sci-fi, dynastic drama, military intrigue, and even a little bit of romance. 

The Vor Game, which won the Hugo Award in 1991, follows the newly-minted ensign Miles Vorkosigan as he is sent to replace the weather officer at the Empire's remote and merciless winter training base. He needs to stay out of trouble to truly begin his military career, but when he faces off against his military commander, who is issuing criminal orders, obedience is no longer an option. Now, he must lead a mutiny, rescue the Emperor, and save the day.