Scientist Fiction

Cosma Shalizi term: novels by non-scientists about the research life and the creative travails of scientists

• On re-consideration, decades later, I'm not sure the restriction to "by non-scientists" was wise

Recommended (examples):

• Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever*
• Alan Lightman, Einstein's Dreams [This violates my "by non-scientists" criterion, but...]
• Richard Powers, The Gold-Bug Variations [Prose almost as dense and slow-reading as pure math; it took me months to read a few hundred pages, and I enjoyed every word.]
• Kim Stanley Robinson, Forty Signs of Rain
• Joanna Scott, Various Antidotes
• Francis Spufford, Red Plenty [Historical scientist fiction about the history of optimization in the USSR.]

To read:

• John Banville, The Revolutions Trilogy:
  • Doctor Copernicus
  • Kepler
  • The Newton Letter
• Andrea Barrett
  • Voyage of the Narwahl
  • Servants of the Map*
• Alan Lightman, Good Benito
• Richard Powers
  • Galatea 2.2
  • Operation Wandering Soul
  • Plowing the Dark
  • Prisoner's Dilemma
  • Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance