Sci Fi Literature 101?

ohlaadee asks: "My niece (she's 13) wants to start reading science fiction. I do too. I gave us both Asimov's _The Foundation_ for Christmas. We'll read it together. I suppose we could spend the rest of our lives just reading Asimov, but I'm wondering what books and movies you folks would come up with? What does the /. recommended Science Fiction 101 list include?"

Comments

I'm surprised

[reptilian]

No one's mentioned Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, yet. I can't remember being a kid, so I'm not sure if a 13 year old could stomach british humor, but all the hitchhikers books are extremely entertaining, and, I would say, a must read.

Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.

SF 101

[Tal Cohen]

Mainly classics; by date of publication. Not all are fit for 13-years old people.

The links are to detailed reviews of the linked books.

• Frankenstein / Shelley
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea / Verne
• The War of the Worlds / Wells
• Brave New World / Huxley
• 1984 / Orwell
• I, Robot / Asimov
• The Martian Chronicles / Bradbury
• Foundation trilogy / Asimov
• The Illustrated Man / Bradbury
• City / Simak
• Fahrenheit 451 / Bradbury
• Childhood's End / Clarke
• The Caves of Steel / Asimov
• The Stars My Destination / Bester
• Have Space Suit - Will Travel / Heinlein
• A Canticle of Leibowitz / Miller
• Stranger in a Strange Land / Heinlein
• Dune / Herbert
• Dangerous Visions / Ellison
• Stand on Zanzibar / Brunner
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep / Dick
• 2001 / Clarke
• The Left Hand of Darkness / Le Guin
• Solaris / Lem
• Ringworld / Niven
• The Gods Themselves / Asimov
• The Dispossesed / Le Guin
• The Mote in God's Eye / Neven & Pournelle
• The Cyberiad / Lem
• The Best of Henry Kuttner / Kuttner
• Neuromancer / Gibson
• Ender's Game / Card

some for now, some for later

[jdz]

I've read many of the lists that others have posted, and while some of the books named are not books that I enjoyed, I have few quibbles with their inclusion in an overview of the genre (with the caveat that many of the works mentioned are more fantasy than SF). I have a more reservations about the idea of recommending an arbitrary set of those books to a thirteen-year-old. Some of the books contain material that may not be appropriate (torture, rape, violence, etc). Others may simply prove difficult for a thirteen year old.

With that in mind, I'll mention a few that I think may be appropriate for a younger reader, and then mention a few that she may want to investigate as she gets older, or if she proves to be a precocious reader. I should note that some of these books have serious literary value, while others are genre "fluff" that I would include in any (more) complete overview of "science fiction".

Books for now:
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis
Crystal Singer - Anne McCaffrey
To Ride Pegasus - Anne McCaffrey
Shockwave Rider - John Brunner
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle
His Master's Voice - Stanislaw Lem
Engine Summer - John Crowley
Impossible Things - Connie Willis (short story collection)
The Bloody Sun - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
Battlefield Earth - L. Ron Hubbard
Moonflash - Patricia McKillip
1984 - George Orwell
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Tiger, Tiger - Alfred Bester
The Trial - Franz Kafka
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Doorways in the Sand - Roger Zelazny
The Postman - David Brin
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson

Books for later:
Replay - Ken Grimwood (explicit sex)
The Gap series - Stephen Donaldson (rape, torture, violence)
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis (plot complexity)
Split Infinity - Piers Anthony (explicit sex)
Glimmering - Elizabeth Hand (complexity)
The Books of the New Sun - Gene Wolf (complexity)
Beauty - Sheri Tepper (rape)
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner (complexity)
The Sheep Look Up - John Brunner (complexity)
A Fire in the Sun - George Alec Effinger (sex, drugs)
Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand - Delaney (sex, complexity)
Hyperion - Dan Simmons (sex, violence, complexity)

Both lists are woefully incomplete, but I'm sure that within a few hours there will be hundreds more messages naming books it would have taken me hours to recall. Besides, after you and your daugher read a dozen or so books off the many lists that have been posted here, you'll have a better idea of what you like and what you don't, as well as a better idea of where to look.

Good luck!