The Killing Star

This book is fantastic. The fact that it was written & published in 1995 makes it even more prescient.

The Killing Star starts with a bang - literally - with distant outposts of humanity making first witness of aliens entering the solar system by lighting their deceleration thrusters simultaneously in the outer region of the solar system. Shortly thereafter, multiple precision strikes by relativistic bomb strike all of the obvious human settlements on various solar system bodies. After this, any sign of communication by stragglers is attacked ruthlessly, leaving only a few straggling and isolated groups of humans.

The rest of the story centers various storylines on these groups as they fight for survival.

This is a super example of hard SF. There are so many topics that are touched on to influence the plotlines. Discussion of genetic engineering. Antimatter drives. Relativistic bombs. Interstellar travel. Artificial intelligence. Nanobots. So much, and all pretty well used, though not super deep.

There is first contact and interaction.

Then there are some principles of alien contact that really explore the “Dark Forest” theory of the Fermi Paradox. And honestly, it is an extremely persuasive argument.

If you enjoyed the 3 Body Problem, this is a must read. Finished it in a day (which is a real rarity for me these days)