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I yearn for a bit of old fashioned straight Sci-fi. What I would like to see is a story about how an exploratory team, or colony ship lands on unknown planets are has to get to grips with an alien ecosystem.
It seems to me that writing such a book would bring significant but very interesting challenges, and can't understand why more of this sort of book is not out there.
I've recently read the Coyote cycle by Steele but thought his world was a little too easy, though I really enjoyed those books a lot..
So if there is ANYONE out there with some suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.
Else I might have to write the damn book myself

Maybe try Skiathos by Boris L. Slocum. He’s a fairly new author so not many reviews but I enjoyed the story and his short story Wergild: A Heartwarming Tale of Coldblooded Vengeance, but that is fantasy.

The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss fits the bill, although it spends more time on the generation ship than the exo-planet.

Also, To be Taught, If Fortunate is about a research team that visits several planets.

I love these type of books as well. There are quite a few of them if you know where to look.

Death World by Harris Harrison. Takes place on a very deadly world.

Semiosis, colonists have to learn to live with the planets plants who are sentient to a degree, from animal to genius intelligence.


The Spatterjay series by Neil Asher takes place on a pelagic planet that's teeming with often carnivorous life. if you get bit by the planets leeches you get a virus that gives you regeneration and extreme longevity.

You may already be familiar with some of the older works of this nature, but if you aren't, try the writings of Hal Clement (Harry Clement Stubbs), which feature explorations of very strange planets (including Earth, as seen by extra-terrestrials).

ŷ������ has an extensive list, but it may not be complete. The bibliography of his Wikipedia article seems very thorough, and I haven't taken the time to compare them. Not all of them are in print, but inexpensive copies from dealers may be available if you like your first taste.

His most famous is Mission Of Gravity, which doesn't quite fit what you asked about, but almost. It concerns a world so hostile to terrestrial life that humans have to hire its natives to explore it, and recover data from a a very expensive malfunctioning probe -- and they turn out not to fully understand their environment, either. It eventually turned into a series featuring some of the same cast on still other strange planets.

If you would be interested in very different xenobiology (rather than the whole exoplanet), you might consider The Rebel Worlds by Poul Anderson. The book features an intelligent species composed of three semi-independent, symbiotic organisms. This is classic SF, first published in 1969 and is one of the Flandry series.

There was an interesting serial in Analog last year, “Kepler’s Laws�� by Jay Werkheiser. As far as I know there is no book publication.

An interesting series I read In the Days of Humans: Third Exodus. There are three books in the series and the author was an engineer at NASA.

Maybe try Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon about an abandoned colony where some colonists stayed behind and met the unusual beings who live there before a militarized group arrive for a "rescue".

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is perfect - the whole series has a lot of alien worlds that are explored.

The Engines of God and its sequels also have a lot of this, especially if you like ancient alien ruins.

Shards of Honor is about an exploratory team on an alien planet and was written by a biologist so the science checks out, too.

Midworld follows an exploration team on a deadly jungle planet.

All Systems Red is about an exploration team on a planet that may be deadlier than they had been lead to believe (but there's more focus on characters and action than the world).

Red Mars - terraforming of Mars

Falcon Fire - contains a lot about the terraforming of Venus, plus spy action mystery

More:
Sentenced to Prism
The Integral Trees
Dragonsdawn
Freedom's Landing
Cachalot
These Broken Stars
Rite of Passage

Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey. I think it would meet the 'old-fashioned' part of your brief, as it was published in 1978. As a teen some years ago I liked it, but I haven't read it since then, and now as an adult reader I can't vouch for its quality.
Here is the cover for your enjoyment. (I'm sure my old PB copy had a better cover than that one LOL).

Bumping the thread. I agree with the OP that there should be more available, and I want 'em, too.