# Please recommend good sci-fi books for a 12 year old **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387 "2015-11-23T21:48:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/41 "2015-11-24T12:04:16Z")
My stepson enjoyed the Artemis Fowl books. My nephew really liked _My Name is Legion_. I think I read _A Wrinkle in Time_ around that age and enjoyed it. I can also second _Old Man’s War_, a kid might like it a lot. Of the Heinlein juvies, my favorite is _Tunnel in the Sky_. I think I read the John Carter (plus some of the Tarzan, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar) stories around that age, but I probably wouldn’t recommend them to anybody. Same thing with Sheckley. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/42 "2015-11-24T16:13:50Z")
Don’t kids go to the library any more? Just about every book listed so far I discovered at that age on my own by just wandering through the sci-fi section of the library and grabbing stuff that looked interesting. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/43 "2015-11-24T16:50:32Z")
Gotta go with this list, which I post every time this question comes up: [ul] [li]_[Rocket Ship Galileo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Ship_Galileo)_[/li][li]_[Space Cadet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cadet)_[/li][li]_[Red Planet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Planet_%28novel%29)_[/li][li]_[Between Planets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_Planets)_[/li][li]_[The Rolling Stones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Stones_%28novel%29)_[/li][li]_[Farmer in the Sky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer_in_the_Sky)_[/li][li]_[Starman Jones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starman_Jones)_[/li][li]_[The Star Beast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Beast)_[/li][li]_[Tunnel in the Sky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_in_the_Sky)_[/li][li]_[Time for the Stars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_for_the_Stars)_[/li][li]_[Citizen of the Galaxy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_of_the_Galaxy)_[/li][li]_[Have Space Suit—Will Travel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Space_Suit%E2%80%94Will_Travel)_[/li][/ul] Also agree about Brandbury, Asimov, and would suggest a bit of Clarke. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/44 "2015-11-24T17:33:50Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > [Danny Dunn]([http://www.amazon.com/The](http://www.amazon.com/The) adventures of [URL="[Danny Dunn - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn)) are a bit dated and may be out of print, but they’re fun. I always wonder if someone will come out with an updated series – _Danny Dunn and the Nanobots, Danny Dunn and the Genetic Engineers,_ etc. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/45 "2015-11-24T17:45:53Z")
Let me bring things into the current century by offering the Union Station series by E.M. Foner, starting with [Date Night On Union Station](http://www.amazon.com/Night-Union-Station-EarthCent-Ambassador-ebook/dp/B00K4I391A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448386650&sr=8-1&keywords=Date+Night+On+Union+Station). It’s a wonderful series, with an interesting and well thought out universe and characters to match. It’s set on a distant station owned by powerful but benevolent AIs and is told from the viewpoint of the ambassador from Earth, a resourceful woman struggilng to get by on a meagre salary in a very different kind of environment. Contains no blood and gore, no explicit sex, or sex of any kind if I recall, and generally is a fun read from start to finish. The catch is, it’s only available for the Kindle, or for a device equipped with a Kindle app (most computers and Android products, I think the Mac too, can run the Kindle app). The nice thing is, the book is free. There are seven books in the series, and the rest cost, I believe, $2.99 each unless you have Kindle Unlimited, in which case they are free, of course. So, do check it out. I thoroughly enjoyed the books myself, and am well past adolescence. Have read all seven in the series and am eagerly awaiting the eighth, which is due out this December. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/46 "2015-11-24T17:55:41Z")
S.M. Stirling is good when he keeps his word count under control. I’d recommend _[Conquistador](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451459334)_ as a great single book. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/47 "2015-11-24T18:12:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > S.M. Stirling is good when he keeps his word count under control. I’d recommend _[Conquistador](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451459334)_ as a great single book. Yeah, but you might want to stay away from Stirling’s Drakka series. Not really for 12 year olds. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/48 "2015-11-24T18:27:40Z")
Start him out with some short stories. Even an anthology. I was reading Stephen King by the time I was 12, but for more kid-friendly stuff, I’d start him off with a few classics to get a bead on his tastes: **A Sound of Thunder** by Ray Bradbury. **All You Zombies** by Heinlein. **The Jaunt** by Stephen King. **There Will Come Soft Rains** by Bradbury. **The Last Question** by Isaac Asimov. **A Pail of Air** by Fritz Leiber. **The Cold Equations** by Tom Godwin. Those were my favorites when I was kid/teen. And that’ll give you a good sense on what he leans towards, I think. As far as recommending a classic novel: **War of the Worlds.** ---
**Author:** ![Nefario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/59ef9b/32.png) [@Nefario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefario)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/49 "2015-11-24T18:44:10Z")
When I was 12 I read everything I could find from Andre Norton. Kinda dated now but many were written as juvenile fiction in the '50s and ‘60s. I also still remember \*Galactic Derelict \*and \*The Mad Scientists’ Club \*series of four books written for children by Bertrand R. Brinley ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/50 "2015-11-24T18:53:46Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Well, sex is no problem, I could handle that myself at age twelve OW! tmi, dude. The OP can probably get a few dozen issues of _Analog_ or other sci-fi anthologies at garage sales or used bookstores. The stories may be a tad dated, but any one issue will have a fair amount of variety. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/51 "2015-11-24T19:57:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Trinopus** : > > “Paris in the Twentieth Century” is a masterpiece of “futurism.” Verne tried to look ahead, and it is astonishing how much he got right. (Ah…but it is a very depressing book, nevertheless, and might not be appropriate for a younger reader.) Well, it’s futurism, all right, and it’s certainly a piece of some sort. But let’s just say that there’s a very good reason that it was rejected by all the publishers who saw it: It’s horribly written. Nor is the lens of history any kinder to it: There are a few things Verne got right in it, but less than usual for him, and there’s a heck of a lot more that he got howlingly wrong. If you’re going to give the kid Verne, start him off with either _Around the World in Eighty Days_ or _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/52 "2015-11-24T20:11:38Z")
Harry Harrison’s \*Stainless Steel Rat \*series. > **[The Stainless Steel Rat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)** > > James Bolivar diGriz, alias "Slippery Jim" and "The Stainless Steel Rat", is a fictional character and a series of comic science fiction novels written by Harry Harrison. > James Bolivar diGriz goes by many aliases, including "Slippery Jim" and "The Stainless Steel Rat". He is a futuristic con man, thief, and all-round rascal. He is charming and quick-witted. He is also a master of disguise and martial arts, an accomplished bank robber, a criminal mastermind, an expert on breaking and entering, an... And _The Technicolor Time Machine_ > **[The Technicolor Time Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Technicolor_Time_Machine)** > > The Technicolor Time Machine is a 1967 science fiction novel by American writer Harry Harrison. It is a time travel story with comedic elements, which satirizes Hollywood. The story first appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine, where it was serialized in three parts in the March–May 1967 issues, under the title "The Time-Machined Saga." > The narrative revolves around the efforts of a mediocre film director to save his job, his livelihood and, incidentally, the studio he works for. T... ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/53 "2015-11-24T20:19:38Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > OW! tmi, dude. Oh my, I guess you misunderstood, I meant that I could handle sex _in books_ at that age. I was reading my parents’ library by then and often, sex happened in one of their books, but I already knew the basic facts from sex ed in school and it never was an issue for me. As an adolescent in the early eighties in Germany, you were just regularly confronted with sex in mainstream media, the typical American prudery just wasn’t a thing, and isn’t until today, though there was a little backlash in mainstream largess since then, but now all the kids have internet access, so there’s that. And I think it’s way better to learn about sex from good literature than from online porn. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/54 "2015-11-24T20:25:24Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Oh my, I guess you misunderstood No, he was trying to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/55 "2015-11-24T20:27:38Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Don’t kids go to the library any more? Just about every book listed so far I discovered at that age on my own by just wandering through the sci-fi section of the library and grabbing stuff that looked interesting. My nephew lives in a small village in rural Germany, and public libraries aren’t anywhere as ubiquitous here as in America, so he doesn’t really have access. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/56 "2015-11-24T20:29:04Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > No, he was trying to be funny. So, whooshed again :smack::). Nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/57 "2015-11-24T20:30:01Z")
Poul Anderson. Any and every Poul Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/58 "2015-11-24T20:35:53Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Yeah, but you might want to stay away from Stirling’s Drakka series. Not really for 12 year olds. I wouldn’t recommend the Shadowspawn trilogy for a twelve-year-old either. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/59 "2015-11-24T22:08:47Z")
The \*Tales of the Ketty Jay \*series starting with [Retribution Falls](http://www.amazon.com/Retribution-Falls-Chris-Wooding/dp/0345522516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448402752&sr=8-1&keywords=ketty+jay) are all good. Very like **Firefly** in feel. More of a steampunk/alternative history sort of thing but Scott Westerfeld’s [Leviathan Trilogy](http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Trilogy-Scott-Westerfeld/dp/1416971742/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448402860&sr=8-1&keywords=leviathan) is a solid read. Or just try [Hard Luck Hank](http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Luck-Hank-Screw-Galaxy/dp/1492974900/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1448402967&sr=8-2&keywords=hard+luck+hank). ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387/60 "2015-11-24T23:14:54Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Well, sex is no problem, I could handle that myself at age twelve “Handling it myself” is pretty much all most of us were dong at age twelve. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-good-sci-fi-books-for-a-12-year-old/738387.md?page=4)