I'm looking for suggestions for science fiction books dealing with the Colonization of Worlds or Planets.  Books that discuss the nuts and bolts of dealing with a strange environment and setting up a new civilization or way of life. 

Creating a new way of life with limited resources is what I'm looking for, preferably science fiction in nature.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!  :)

Rocheworld by Robert L. Forward is the start of a series. 2. Return to Rocheworld 3.Ocean Under Ice 4.Marooned On Eden 5.Rescued From Paradise

Freedom's Landing by Anne McCaffrey is another series. 2.Freedom's Choice 3.Freedom's Challenge 4. Freedom's Ransom

Both series are about people stranded on another planet and  and how they survive and progress.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy - Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars.  I think Ben Bova did a Mars colonization novel too, just called Mars.  Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Legacy of Heorot and its sequels. Allen Steele, the Coyote novels. Robert Heinlein must have a couple, although I can only think of Farmer in the Sky. Maybe - Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population, or Marta Randall's Journey and its sequel Dangerous Games. Really stretching it - City of Pearl by Karen Traviss (lots of sequels, but they head far afield of what you want).

it is part of a series he is writing. something about the Tour of the Universe or something. He wrote one book at least about most of the planets and is still going as far as I know. The Mars one was a 2 parter and very good! I also read Jupier.,Saturn and 2 parts about the moon.

deborah

Thanks everyone!  There are some great suggestions here, and I'd love to hear more!  :)

This one's already been mentioned, but i just finished it, and it fits your request so well...

Coyote, by Allen Steele, 2002

I had read this fix-up novel previously in the form of individual stories published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, during 2001 and 2002. On this re-read, things are pretty much exactly the way I remember them from my first reads, except that I was able to move quickly from one story to the next.

I think of this as a "juvenile", because while there are adult characters and plots in some of the stories, the strongest story-lines involve the maturation of teenagers. I was most engaged by "Across The Eastern Divide, from the Memoirs of Wendy Gunther", in which the teenagers set out a rebellious voyage of discovery. I began reading this book while camped at 10,000 feet in the Rockies, supervising a group of teenagers in the construction of a footbridge on the Colorado Trail, and so it is possible that my setting in the real world influenced my reactions to the book. But I think the characterization and description most comes to life in that story. It also has more narrative complexity than the rest of the book, being re-told from the point of view of a more aged Wendy, rather than just scene-by-scene. 

There are sequels.

-Tom Hl.

There are a ton, I guess. Farmer in the Sky and Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein and Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey come to mind.  There is also an excellent short story called "Too Soon to Die" but I can't remember the author.  I believe I read it in a huge collection called Science Fiction A-Z.   

There are some very good books here!  I just read Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon and it was awesome, thanks Cyndi!  :) 

The more suggestions the merrier  :)

I am not much of a YA reader at all, but Heinlein's books for young adults, which I started reading as a preteen, are still some of my favorites.   

As previously mentioned, Ben Bova's "Grand Tour" novels are about the exploration and colonization of our solar system.  He has a chonological list of the books on his website, benbova.com.  There are about 11 or 12 books now, with more to come.  I've only read the two Mars books, two Moonbase books, and Venus so far.  Many more on my reading table, just haven't gotten to them yet.

Another book you might like is Isaac Asmiov's Nemesis.  It's a stand alone novel seperate from his Robots/ Galactic Empire/ Foundation series, although he left a few openings in the story to weave it into the rest later on, if he lived longer to do so.  It's about a group of renegade colonists who have discovered a rogue star with an orbiting planet and they leave the solar system against Earth's wishes.

So far I've read and enjoyed:

Coyote series, several Heinlein books, DragonsDawn & Freedom series and Remnant Population, with more on my TBR list.  Thanks again everyone!  It's so hard to tell if a book will be a good one just from a quick summary.  I really appreciate the time everyone took to suggest all these great books, I haven't been disappointed yet!  :)

Also:

Penterra (Judith Moffett) is Quakers settling a planet, about half a generation in.  A lot about dealing with aliens. 

40,000 in Gehenna (C.J. Cherryh) is a standalone in her alliance/Union series, watching how a colony changes over a couple of generations.  Again with aliens.

If you liked the McCaffery - Dragonsdawn about the settlement of Pern (her most famous series), and sets up the rest of the series.  I think there are newer ones that followup right after Dragonsdawn. 

Darkover Landfall (Marion Zimmer Bradley) - like Dragonsdawn, is the colonization story for a longer series.  Spaceship crashes on barely habitable planet, people learn to cope. 

Venus of Shadows/Venus of Dreams/Child of Venus (Pamela Sargent) settlement of Venus

Quiet Invasion (Sarah Zettel) different settling of Venus, plus aliens.