Science fiction without FTL?

[Broomstick]

While the other books in the series don't strictly qualify the book The Dispossessed by Ursula Guin does. The next novel chronologically in the series, The Word for World is Forest does occur right after the invention of purely FTL communications but does go into the implications of a expanding space bound civilization which previously didn't have this ability. (It also appears to be perhaps the mostly likely source of inspiration for Avatar's plot by the way. I would also suggest reading the book set later chronologically in the same universe in the Left Hand of Darkness just because its a good book, although I believe faster than light travel still doesn't exist in the book.)

If I recall (it's been a few decades since I read the Hainish Cycle) that universe never had FTL. Other novels/novellas in the same universe (loosely - it was not planned out as a discreet series) are:

Rocannon's World
Planet of Exile
City of Illusion
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossed
The Word for the World is Forest
The Telling

[Zwinmar]

I can not remember who wrote it or anything but there was as story about a group of Traders who went from planet to planet on relativistic ships. One of its themes was how the characters interacted with a world that aged around them. One way to retire was to just stay planet side as their friends and family went out among the stars, when they came back the retiree would either be dead or extremely aged.

Are you thinking of Ken MacLeod's Engines of Light series? It featured trading ships which teleported between star systems with what to the crews were instantaneous jumps, but to the outside world effectively travelled between destinations at the speed of light. Their visits to particular planets were often decades apart.

Possibly? I have read so many books that I can't keep track. I would only be able to tell once I read it again.

[Tychu]

Early seasons of StarGate SG-1

[Lord of the Abyss]

While the other books in the series don't strictly qualify the book The Dispossessed by Ursula Guin does. The next novel chronologically in the series, The Word for World is Forest does occur right after the invention of purely FTL communications but does go into the implications of a expanding space bound civilization which previously didn't have this ability. (It also appears to be perhaps the mostly likely source of inspiration for Avatar's plot by the way. I would also suggest reading the book set later chronologically in the same universe in the Left Hand of Darkness just because its a good book, although I believe faster than light travel still doesn't exist in the book.)

If I recall (it's been a few decades since I read the Hainish Cycle) that universe never had FTL. Other novels/novellas in the same universe (loosely - it was not planned out as a discreet series) are:

Rocannon's World

Actually they did have FTL communications, the "ansible". Rocannon's World in fact is the book that coined the word.

[Broomstick]

I meant faster than light travel. Sorry for not making that clear.

[Crazedwraith]

Early seasons of StarGate SG-1

Errr.... what? From the end of the first the season there were explicit ftl starships and communicators.

From the very beginning the titar stargate was sending people and radio waves across the universe far faster than light.

[Omega18]

I meant faster than light travel. Sorry for not making that clear.

I can confirm after checking a source online and reviewing my memories that the no FTL travel is essentially correct for the Hainish Cycle universe. The regular travel model is Nearly as Fast as Light Technology (NAFAL) where travel may seem as merely a few hours for a passenger, but travel takes slightly longer than it would take light to cross the distance in question.

I am also confident on this basic point because without it in The Left Hand of Darkness (which is the second most recent novel in the series chronologically) the reaction of the main character towards the start would have been to simply leave the planet and let another ambassador try again for an alliance in say five years or when political circumstances are more favorable if a decent FTL option was available. (And therefore it wouldn't have been much of a story.) The amount of time the ambassador committed to by making the journey was a key reason he cared so much about trying to be successful in persuading the planet to join up.

Having said this an FTL weapons technology only does in fact appear only in Rocannon's World, but its purely the weapon and certainly not people, and only plays a role in that story. There is another exception to the no FTL travel rule mentioned in two short stories which I have not read, but apparently the side effects are so severe/problematic this technology is almost never used. (Either that or the short stories occur chronologically after essentially everything else in the series.)

Incidentally The One Eyed Man by L.E. Modesitt J.R. is another science fiction novel he wrote without FTL. In this case the travel option is actually pretty similar the NAFAL tech used in the Hainish Cycle where only a couple weeks effectively elapse on ship, but it does take 73 years for the main character to reach the planet in question in actual time. In this particular novel though there is absolutely no FTL communications technology either. While the novel itself is very much focused on a planet the main character travels to, it does involve a many planet government and the complications of this existing without FTL travel or communications.

[amigocabal]

Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. ( The main character travels in a spaceship just short of the speed of light.)