# I found the first SF novel I ever read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2012, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174 "2012-04-18T17:11:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/21 "2012-04-18T19:42:42Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [The _Tripod_ books by John Christopher.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods) Yep, that’s it. I didn’t know that it had ever been adapted to the screen. Just as well, because even though I read the three original stories (I got them all from the library at the same time) I came away fairly unimpressed. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/22 "2012-04-18T20:04:42Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Well, if Tom Swift counts, it would be one of those or a “Danny Dunn” adventure instead of Asimov. Danny Dunn came later for me, perhaps fortunately. Although one Danny Dunn about time travel was an early introduction for me to the idea of paradox. Danny Dunn traveled forward in time somehow, and his friend Joe showed up in duplicate. And the Professor guy - the nice one, not the crabby one - explained that in the future, this Joe was one of the infinite possibilities that might happen, and they called him Possible Joe for the rest of the book. He disappeared when they returned to the present, but it turned out that he really did show up later on and he was the Real Joe after all.Didn’t Danny have a submarine called the _Sea Urchin_? They had a discussion whether or not it was an appropriate name - sea urchins are round and prickly. But they decided it was OK - one professor was round and the other prickly, and Danny and Joe (wasn’t there a girl too?) were all urchins. _Tom Swift_ came later, for me, but only the Victor Appleton series. All this crap I can remember. Where I parked my car? Not so much. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/23 "2012-04-18T20:14:43Z")
My first was Verne, **From the Earth to the Moon**.After that I read a lot of Scribners books - with a rocketship on the spine - including Heinlein’s **Rocket Ship Galileo**. The first book I owned was Silverberg’s **Revolt on Alpha C** which I got from the Scholastic Book Club in 6th grade ane which I still have. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/24 "2012-04-18T20:21:55Z")
[The Ant Men](http://www.amazon.com/The-Ant-Men-Eric-North/dp/B000EMEI9I) by Eric North. Gave a book report on it in 6th grade. Was asked to repeat the report the following week. Enough of that Nancy Drew crap – we want monsters! My library’s SF section was kept in a closet – a small closet. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/25 "2012-04-18T20:37:38Z")
I believe mine were the Professor Challenger stories of Conan Doyle. I’d devoured the Sherlock Holmes corpus as a young teenager and was avid for more of Doyle. About the same time the huge one-volume edition of the complete Arabian Nights had given me a taste for the fantastic so my next destination was science fiction proper. I can’t recall exactly the first modern sf novel or story I read (it was some half-century ago) but I do remember the authors: Asimov, Clifford Simak, Damon Knight, Stanley Weinbaum (he was from the early Golden Age but I loved his Martian Odyssey), Henry Kuttner, Pohl and Kornbluth. A few years later I was discovering Bester, Vance, Sheckley, Herbert, Poul Anderson, Phil Dick. And on and gloriously on. A wonderful time for science fiction and a wonderful feeling when you discovered an author for the first time. I haven’t even mentioned Cordwainer Smith, Lloyd Biggle Jr, Keith Laumer. Authors I never really took to included Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Avram Davidson and Van Vogt. I guess you can’t like them all. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/26 "2012-04-18T20:38:00Z")
My introduction to SF came quite by accident. Must have been the 3rd or 4th grade when we took a class trip to the library where we were given a tour and applied for our first library cards. Yay! We were grown up now! Hmmm, I don’t know what I want to check out. Let me just browse through the stacks and see what looks good. Aha! Found something. This is gonna be good. It’s about Al Capone. Yeah, I’m gonna read about Al Capone. This is the book I checked out: [Lost: A Moon by Paul Capon](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/paul-capon/lost-moon.htm) Best damn mistake I ever made. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/27 "2012-04-18T21:47:42Z")
I remember that book fondly. The cover art still kicks ass! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/28 "2012-04-18T21:53:03Z")
I was one of those kids who was freakishly advanced on his reading, so my first science fiction book was _War of the Worlds_, which I tackled in the 2nd grade. Read all of Wells’s other books, but definitely skipped some dry parts (especially in _The Time Machine_). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/29 "2012-04-18T21:55:39Z")
Yeah, I read that when I was little. I still remember how the robot could announce something was wrong with him but could not say what it was – a moment later the boy says, “Oh, you’ve gone blind,” meaning his eye-bulb was burnt out and needed replacing. The robot briefly explained to the reader that this was all the trouble-indicator he was equipped for – I never bought it, this robot is a full-strength self-conscious AI, how could he not know/say he has gone blind? Og, I’m nitpicking a book I haven’t read since elementary school . . . that’s a fan for ya . . . ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/30 "2012-04-18T22:00:00Z")
_Runaway Robot_ wasn’t my first, but I did read it as a kid. > [@Pixel\_Dent](#): > > Mine was [Invaders From Rigel](http://www.amazon.com/Invaders-Rigel-Fletcher-Pratt/dp/B00005XJ9Y/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t). It was in a bargain bin near the checkout at the grocery store when I was about 7. I convinced my mother to buy it for me. Mediocre sci-fi but I still remember it 40 years later. Hah, that was my first sci-fi book too! I even still have it somewhere. My second was _Creatures of Light and Darkness_ by Roger Zelazny. Talk about a giant leap in reading difficulty for a kid…I read _Invaders From Rigel_ in a day, _Creatures of Light and Darkness_ took me forever to slog through (but it was a fun slog), and by the time I reached the end I still couldn’t figure out half of what went on. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/31 "2012-04-18T22:11:21Z")
I read Baum’s _Oz_ books in 2nd Grade, if they count. Then the Tom Swift, Jr. books, Paul French’s _Lucky Starr_ series, probably many books and series I’ve forgotten, and, much later, Asimov. It was only decades later I leaned Paul French was Asimov’s pen-name. :smack: My favorite was _Second Foundation_ which I stumbled upon after my parents bought it for their reading club. (I’m afraid I stumbled upon _The Kinsey Report_ for the same reason.) ---
**Author:** ![florez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9e5f3/32.png) [@florez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/florez)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/32 "2012-04-18T22:14:20Z")
My first was “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert Heinlein, which totally turned me on to Science Fiction. Also, I enjoyed Ray Bradbury, Asimov, and the elements of Science Fiction which I found in Kurt Vonnegut novels and stories. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/33 "2012-04-18T22:27:43Z")
You’ll never guess which author I first read. At any rate, I believe the _Foundation_ series was my first encounter with sci-fi, followed by an awful lot of short story collections (which I’m probably still more fond of than sci-fi novels). ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/34 "2012-04-19T00:30:58Z")
I started reading SF when I was eight or nine with ERB’s Martian novels. From there I found Heinlein’s juveniles ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/35 "2012-04-19T00:35:03Z")
Mine was also a Lester Del Rey–\*\*Marooned on Mars \*\*at age eight. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/36 "2012-04-19T01:07:57Z")
I don’t remember what the first SF book I read was, since there was an awful lot of it. My best guess would be that it was _Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH_, which my mom was in the process of reading when I was about six years old, when it mysteriously vanished. I also read every _Danny Dunn_ I could get my hands on, and L’Engle’s Time series, plus an awful lot of things that were probably dreck but which I didn’t recognize as such at the time. There was some Asimov in there, too, but it wasn’t until high school that I discovered Heinlein. One of the “probable dreck” was one with a boy and his robot, where a major plot point was that robots could be distinguished from real boys only by the fact that robots can’t bend their knees. Except the boy had trained the robot to be able to do so anyway, and meanwhile had practiced walking with his own legs held straight, so in the climactic scene they’re able to fool the villainous robot-nappers by impersonating each other. I really hope that that’s not the same book you all are talking about, because I’d hate to think someone like Del Rey would come up with something so cringeworthy. Oh, and before I could even read, I pretty well had _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ memorized, from how many times Mom read it to me and my sister. But that’s fantasy, not science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/37 "2012-04-19T07:18:47Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Og, I’m nitpicking a book I haven’t read since elementary school . . . that’s a fan for ya . . . Heh, I reread it this evening. That lack of a diagnostic routine was somewhat lame but I guess it was to highlight the limitation of the robot. Also interesting was when the robot had to change its own batteries and having to take care that the fresh batteries are connected first (in parallel, I presume?) before the old ones are removed less he shut himself off. What, no capacitor or secondary battery? I guess it’s supposed to serve as a technical problem that a kid could appreciate. A theme I found interesting was how apparently all the other peoples of the solar system despised and hated the earthlings despite all the ‘good’ Earth had done for the system. A little sprinkling of pro-America glurge with the system representing the other countries of the world? Ah, like you said, it’s nitpicking. It was a fast read and a pleasant trip down memory lane. Next up on my list is Andre Norton’s Daybreak 2250 A.D. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/38 "2012-04-19T07:29:01Z")
Last year I was delighted to find _Rip Foster Rides The Gray Planet_ online, which I’d enjoyed 40+ years before (as _Assignment In Space, with Rip Foster_). It was still a fun read, even though the most obviously Cold-War-inspired adventure imaginable - the bad guys are nicknamed “Connies”, please - and you could drive a kilometre-wide thorium asteroid through the science. 😃 edit: But by no means the first science fiction I’d ever read. At infant school I’d been enamoured of a series of small books about “Peter and the {rocket}”, and it came as a surprise to learn that real space flight was actually happening. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/39 "2012-04-19T07:34:34Z")
too late to edit: by Hazel W. Corson. The only title I could remember in full was one I never read, “Peter and the Big Balloon”, but I certainly did read a few of [these](https://www.google.co.uk/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Hazel+W.+Corson%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=3). ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174/40 "2012-04-19T09:09:31Z")
I don’t remember which SF story was my first. I do remember that I liked a book by Andre Norton, and encountered another book written by her, and tried it. This was my first experience in choosing a book by an author. Previously I had chosen books by the symbol on the spine of a library book…I was in grade school, and didn’t have much money to spend, so I got most of my reading material from libraries or from my parents’ or grandfather’s collection. I don’t know why the concept of choosing a book by author hadn’t occurred to me before. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-the-first-sf-novel-i-ever-read/619174.md?page=3)