Conference noted::sf

    I recommend David Brin.
    
    I like Zelazny, but he might not be "hard" enough.
    
    If you haven't read Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories
    and the ones about Flandry, you have a rich vein to mine there.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    I'd recomend all of C.J. Cherryh's books.  (Did I spell that right?
    I know there's an extra h in there somewhere.)  "Downbelow Station"
    is one of the best.  You might try it to see how you like it.  Her
    stories don't discuss technology and "how things work" as much as
    the writers you mentioned, but they tend not to stray too far from
    a universe with coherent physics.  Her strength is her development
    of aliens with fairly non-human characteristics.
    
    James Hogan is often mentioned as one of the best current writers
    of "hard" SF.  I'm not in love with his work (I like it), but I don't
    claim to be a "hard" SF devotee.

    Re .0:
    
    You cannot beat doctors of physics for hard science fiction.  I like
    Charles Sheffield and Robert Forward.  One reviewer said they did not
    think Sheffield's simple solution to an orbital mechanics problem was
    possible -- even though Sheffield provided equations describing the
    orbit in the appendix!
    
    
    				-- edp

    My vote for "hard" science fiction goes to James Hogan also.
    

    Don't forget 'Battlefield Earth" by L.Ron Hubbard.
    
    Also by Poul Anderson :
    
    Tau Zero
    The Avatar
    Orion Shall Rise

    re:.2
    
    As for the extra "h" in C.J.'s name, you're both right and not
    right. Her actual name is "Cherry", but Don Wollheim (head
    honcho of DAW Books) convinced her to add the "h" to make the
    name more "exotic".
    
    Frankly, I thought DOWNBELOW STATION was a tremendous bore. I
    couldn't get past the first 100 pages. I haven't read anything
    of hers since (more out of indifference than anything else).
    I thought her BROTHERS OF EARTH was terrific, but everything
    else of hers I read I thought was OK at best.
    
    --- jerry

    
    	Try Joe Haldeman (Forever War, Worlds Trilogy) or Gregory Benford
    (Against Infinity, Across the Sea of Suns). Not the best but stll
    good stuff.
    			Doug Chisholm. 

    Gee, I must be weird.  I liked THE PRIDE OF CHANUR enough to read
    the following 2.
                                  
    As for good old days, I just completed my set of the 3 Starwolf
    books by Hamilton.  I've been looking for #2 for a long time, as I 
    liked the stories.  Published as THE WEAPON FROM BEYOND, THE CLOSED
    WORLDS, and WORLD OF THE STARWOLVES, and later collected as STARWOLF,
    they are about a human raised on a heavy G planet of interstellar
    pirates (the Starwolves) who wound up an outcast from that group. 
    3 from 'the good old days'.
    
    							Don

    re .5
    
    Please, I've been trying very hard to forget 'Battlefield Earth".
    Anybody want a copy, cheap?  I never sell science fiction stories
    (Annie's hates me for that), but in this case I'll make an exception.
    
    No, I take that back.  I don't hate anyone enough to waste their
    time that way.
    
    re .8
    
    I don't think you're weird.  I liked PRIDE OF CHANUR quite a bit.
    It's just the REST of the series that's a "gods rotting" bore.
    
    re .0
    
    Hard science fiction from new authors is a real toughie.  I can
    re-recommend Forward and Brin, as well as the "old masters", Asimov,
    Heinlein, Clarke and Niven.  (My pardons to any old masters that
    I've left out.)
    
    You might also try some of the stuff by Fred and/or Geoffrey Hoyle.
    Some of their stuff is rather dreadful, but they always get the science
    right, and sometimes the story is halfway interesting. 
    
    - Chris

    re .9
    
    I like Cherryth but in the middle of what I think was "the Kif
    Strikes back" but could have been "chanurs revenge" I said to 
    myself, if she says "gods rot" one more time I am going to put
    this book down and not finish it....she did and I didn't. I did
    want to know what happened...but her style really put me off
    
    Bonnie

    Thanks for the suggestions folks.I now have some ideas.How much
    has Forward published?,Ive only seen Dragon's Egg(great book)
    published here in the U.K.
    
    			Cheers
    				Dennis

    I enjoyed downbelow Station by Cherryh.  It is considered one of her
    best (didn't it win a Hugo?) and, FWIW, warranted inclusion in Eaton
    Press' Science Fiction bookclub.  I haven't read anything else by her
    that I recall.