[UberDarkLord]

Are there good SF books dealing with people being stranded on otherwise uninhabited planets? Sort of Robinson Crusoe/Lord of the Flies in space, basically?

And I don't mean merry bands of colonists who go somewhere else (like KRS's Mars stuff), but stories about survivors in isolation.

I think Heinlein went a bit on this road in Tunnel in the Sky, but that was juvenile fiction. I would like to see a more adult (darker) take on it.

The reason is ask is because I think that whereas survivors-on-deserted islands make generally for great stories, how much cooler would it be if played on a much larger scale --> planets. Especially with better technology and the great mystery of a new planet, the pyschological and suspence aspects (or the human condition in general) of the survivor story could be almost certainly be better explored in SF setting that in a contemporary setting.

So, any rec's?

PS - I used the search, but it is more luck than wisdom in reaching for the right keywords.

[nealasher]

Robert Silverberg's Hawksbill Station might fit the bill, though it's about prisoners of the future being thumped back in time to a remote point in Earth's past where they survived Crusoe-like.

[Michael B]

The short story Genesis by H Beam Piper is on the theme you are interested in. It is in Worlds of H Beam Piper.

[Archren]

There's a novella that's actually called "Robinson Crusoe 1,000,000 A.D." by Terry Sunboard that you might enjoy if you can find it. (It's available online from fictionwise.com for $7 if you don't mind reading things on a computer screen, but I'm not sure where else you'd find it.)

[Kilroy]

Isn't that exactly what Lost in Space was... did they make and books for that?

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[ArthurFrayn]

John Brunner's Polymath is a short,modest one about a couple of colony ships that have to land short of their target destination, and their struggles to survive on a much less hospitable world.

[Mr.O'Toole]

Francis Carsac (F. Bordes) "Les robinsons du cosmos" ("The Robinson Of Space") is exactly what you are looking for.

http://www.noosfere.com/heberg/fbeurg/carsac.htm

I read it a lot of times and it is my favorite sf book.
Habitants of small town one day found oneselves on the other planet. They had factory and several engeneers and they started to explore the new world and built civilization.

Unfortunately, I don't know if you can find it in english. It seems what Amazon has only french copy

[phil_geo]

The Legacy of Heorot by Pounelle and Niven is about a group of explorers quite isolated on a planet when they find out the fauna isn't as friendly as they thought. Awesome book, a favorite of mine.

[JJ_99uk]

Many many moons ago I read Douglas Hill's YA novel Exiles of Colsec about a bunch of people dumped on a planet - can't really remember any details....

Anne McCaffrey wrote a trilogy that sort of deals with a group of people abandoned on a supposedly deserted planet - I think the first book was Freedon's Landing but it wasn't that great.

It's a great idea, but I've never seen it done well...

JJ

[marqueelf]

Barry Longyear's Enemy Mine was about a human and an alien who are stranded on a planet in the midst of a war between the 2 species. The alien is pregnant, they reproduce asexually, and his human enemy is forced to raise the child when the alien dies. This was a great book made into a mediocre movie starring Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett. Though not a space family Robinson situation, the 2 fighter pilots certainly qualify as castaways.