Classic F/SF Ideas: Extreme Environmental Tales

These are stories in which physical conditions are so difficult or bizarre that they become characters in and of themselves. Once a staple of hard science fiction, they have decreased as our knowledge of other planets has increased.

However, with all the astounding exo-planet data we've been developing in the last five years, we might just be set for an EET renaissance. That would be kind of cool, I think.

Photo by Sunafterrain under Creative Commons

Dune, Frank Herbert
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
Dragon's Egg, Robert Forward
"Surface Tension," James Blish

"A Pail of Air," Fritz Leiber

The Integral Trees, Larry Niven