Not for the first time, I'm really getting into an audiobook... and then they do it. "Delta Five". Seriously, why would you do that? Just to screw with me?
Many of us like hard sci-fi, including myself. For the most part, I can't stand FTL, wormholes, inertia dampeners and/or artificial gravity, except maybe when used to help us learn more about the real world through investigating how things would be different if physics (as we know it) were different. But recently I ran into a fascinating exception in A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge. He plays with the rules in a way that is going to have me re-reading that one more than once I suspect.
If anyone wants to, you can check out what he came up with w/o any real (IMO) spoilers in the Summary section here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_DeepOr just read it. But do so when you are able to really pay attention.