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Sci-Fi Books For Pre-Teens?
o2binbuzios writes "I have two pre-teen boys who are avid readers, and I am going through my mental catalog for great sci-fi & fantasy books for them. What are some of the classics (and maybe new additions to the classics) that would be great for them to read? I am asking because some of the 'straight-up' classics I remember actually seem kind of dark & cynical for younger readers. Starship Troopers and some of the other Heinlein are definitely darker and more political than I remember... Foundation Trilogy and psycho-history maybe too dry. Road-trip reading season is upon us — what are the good reads for the kids in the back seat?"
When I was a kid, I had a lot of fun time reading Journey to the Center of the Earth, from the Earth to the Moon, etc.
Always at the top of my list. It's one of those books that when you finish, you think "how the hell did he fit all that in so few pages?" I can't remember if there's any sax or violins, but that's good for kids too.
.nosig
Ender's Game, of course.
Citizen of the Galaxy, Farmer in the Sky, Have Space Suit will Travel, Starman Jones - all by Heinlein. These are his juveniles and are all good stories, drama and action along with some moralizing about studying hard etc ... I read them as a kid and was hooked. The Larry Niven short stories.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Anne McCaffery has some good ones, but they are generally dragon & space oriented. Pretty good reads, and there's quite a few in the series.
Orson Scott Card has Ender's Game (and several more in that series). These are definately classic.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, and the follow-ups are all very well written, though some of the deeper themes might be a bit above your kids depending on how sharp they are.
CS Lewis' Space Trilogy is excellent, though it gets pretty violent, and might be a bit advanced for pre-teens.
Terry Pratchett's books are funny, but they tend to spoof the politics and happenings of the US and the UK, so your kids might not grasp all the jokes. Much better would be Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the (increasingly misnamed) Hitchhiker's Trilogy (there are five books there).
If you like, you might even start them on JRR Tolkien, which is more fantasy than sci-fi, but definitely a classic. You also have the advantage of the movies once they're done with the books. (Books are better though.)
Those are my picks, and that should be enough reading for at least this summer, if not longer. You can also walk into your local Borders and ask someone. There's tons of great kids books in Sci-Fi...
I mostly bring up old-timers because they're the ones I read when I was young. Asimov's Robot novels like "Caves Of Steel" might be more appealing than the Foundation stuff. Heinlein wrote a lot of juveniles. I've read that "Starship Troopers" was supposed to be a juvenile but it was deemed to rough by the editors and re-marketed as adult. However, "Double Star" is a good juvenile by Heinlein.
In the old days, Sci-Fi was mostly short stories, go find good anthologies! The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame anthology of the best science fiction stories is a good place to start.
Other recommendations would be "Voyage Of The Space Beagle" by Van Vogt, "Wasp" by Eric Frank Russell.
In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a good, easy read, and is what actually got me started reading Sci-Fi.
Ender's Game is excellent, and while a little dark in places, it's no darker than most classic fairy tales.
Also, if you're at all interested in getting them some fantasy books, two of the absolute best reads would have to be Clive Barker's The Thief of Always, and China Mieville's Un Lun Dun.
I'm not a huge sci-fi reader, but also never really found what I read to be all that difficult.
'Dune' is a great place to start out. I was never able to get through the sequals, but the original is a classic. Possibly a bit advanced and cynical, but definitely on the 'required reading' list. The Sci-Fi channel miniseries is also excellent.
Another obvious recommendation is The Hitchhikers Guide series. They're easy, they're funny, and unfortunately not strictly sci-fi. Either way, I'd have a hard time thinking of reasons not to read something by Douglas Adams.
On the fantasy end of things (more my tastes, and still closely related to SF), I'd strongly recommend His Dark Materials, LoTR (if you can manage to get through the first 250 pages), and anything by Terry Pratchett.
If your sons have any interest in The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, I'd highly recommend starting early, as the average lifespan of the typical human is only just barely long enough to cram them all in (I jest, but seriously.... if you follow the user-submitted reviews of the books on Amazon, the readers get fewer and angrier as the series goes on with seemingly no end in sight).
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
My wife is the current librarian of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, and there's a Children's Recommended Reading List that the club has been keeping up for some time. There's a lot of stuff on there, and it should offer some guidance.
The "sinner" is replaced by the blameless sacrifice, who is shamed, mocked then killed, the women weep over the body which disappears, then the blameless sacrifice is resurrected.
Lion the witch and the wardrobe.
You mad
Anything written by Arthur C Clarke. I was devouring everything clark when I was around 10. I started with Rendezvous with Rama, which remains my favorite book of all time. It was actualy on the pre-teen shelf at the library when I was a kid. The sequels are really good, too, imo... though many disagree. The 2001 series is good, Hammer of God, Songs of Distant Earth, Childhood's End. Too many to list. Sometimes the themes are a little advanced, but don't underestimate young readers. I think kids should pick up more advanced books early anyways... it helps development. Too many adults these days are still stuck in a Dr. Seuss world =)
Nicodemus
Karma
H Beam Piper The Fuzzy series are great books Most can be found on the gutenburg project
As John W. Campbell, the science fiction editor and writer noted years ago, "It ain't the things that you don't know tha
Over 50 authors sorted by chronological age of readers. Some (e.g. Heinlein) have books for younger readers, but continuing with the author leads to adult books. All (except the Acorna series) are accessible to older readers.
L. Frank Baum - classic Oz for the very young
Lloyd Alexander - Prydain
John Christopher (Samuel Youd) - Tripods series.
Susan Cooper - Dark Is Rising series
Robin McKinley
Robert Asprin - Myth Adventures and Phule series. Other series should wait until mid-teens. Just bought Dragon's Wild -- not read yet, but seems more adult.
Jody Lynn Nye - Mythology
Terry Pratchet - Discworld
Christopher Stasheff - Warlock series, earliest books will need to be reread when older; middle of series is great for children; latest are romances for late teens.
Craig Shaw Gardner
Piers Anthony - Xanth
Brian Jacques - Redwall
Lyndon Hardy - Only one fantasy trilogy.
Harry Harrison - Stainless Steel Rat series. Many other books for different age groups.
Marion Zimmer Bradley - Darkover
Katherine Kurtz - Deryni
Barbara Hambly
Anne McCaffrey - Acorna series is for young children, painful for adults. Talents, Brainships, and Crystal Singer are for any age. Dragonriders vary starting late teens.
Joel Rosenberg - Guardians of the Flame series; warning: main characters die!
Stephen R. Donaldson - Mordant's Need (fantasy), then Gap series (SF). Covenant series for late teens.
Alan Dean Foster - pulp writer great for children but too many clichés for adults.
Edgar Rice Burroughs - classic Tarzan, Mars, and Pellucidar are mandatory.
C. S. Lewis - Narnia
Gordon Dickson - Dorsai (especially appealing to boys), many others.
Terry Brooks (Magic Kingdom for Sale series)
J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter, mandatory for this decade
Fritz Leiber - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series is great for boys
John DeChancie - Castle series
Fred Saberhagen - Empire of the East and Swords series
Frederick Pohl
James P. Hogan - SF
Laura Resnick - Fantasy
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game, Shadow series, Enchantment, Songmaster, Magic Street.
Spider Robinson - Deathkiller trilogy and short stories. Callahan's Series for late teens (fun but adult-themed jokes would be missed when very young.)
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. - Ecolitan and Recluse series.
W. Michael Gear - Now writing long-winded pulp with his wife, but his Spider trilogy (and "The Artifact" prequel) is incredible (warning: main characters die!)
Philip José Farmer - World of Tiers
Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth series starts well
Roger Zelazny - Amber
David Farland (Dave Wolverton) - Runelords
Jules Verne - classic
H. G. Wells - classic
Harry Turtledove - alternate histories, often fantasy.
Douglas Adams - mandatory for potential nerds.
Arthur C. Clarke
Charles Ingrid - SF
Robert L. Forward
Isaac Asimov
Robert Heinlein - mandatory for sci-fi discussions.
Poul Anderson
Larry Niven - Ringworld, etc.
Jerry Pournelle
Greg Bear
Ray Bradbury
Mike Resnick
C. S. Friedman - often requires rereading to understand (even for adults)
I spend my life entertaining my brain.