Geek babies rule!
My first night home from the hospital with the first Tiny Girl, I was watching repeats of Doctor Who with her. When we wanted to send her to sleep in the afternoon, we stuck her in a darkened computer room with the background music to Starcraft playing softly (it’s really quite ambient. And it just keeps on going!)
These days she’s no longer tiny, at 6, and has been playing World of Warcraft on and off for about the last year and a half…
Guess she’s doomed!
Without for them on wildcat island
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I was going to recommend Ender’s Game, but it looks like someone already has. It’s a great story that has some integral SF, but the substance and theme work outside of it. There are starships and faraway worlds, but they fade into the background.
Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke. This is a book of intrigue and subterfuge on a moon base! Its eerily poetic and has a touching ending. There is some interesting technology, but it doesn’t drown out the human story.
A memorial is depicted at the end listing the names of those who perished in a major battle. The names are in alphabetical order, with no indication of what side they fought for.
I like this book, but apparently some disagree. Several years ago, I was told by someone that this book was boring, and that the entire thing was
just exploring an alien spaceship. Nothing major happens.
While this is true, I thought it was well done and really imaginative.
Girl SF reader here, weighing in…
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is pretty fun, but if she wants a heroine, she isn’t going to get one there. (I never cared, but some girls do.)
If she is ok with blatant analogy, then the Ships of Earth series (which is also by Orson Scott Card) are very SF-lite with a relatively interesting plotline, with the tech never getting overwhelming.
David Brin is fantastic. Startide Rising is one of the first SF books I ever read, and I loved it. Hard to go wrong with dolphins.
Some of Crichton’s stuff is better than others. *Sphere *was really cool and creepy, with a fun twist that most girls will appreciate. Jurassic Park is silly, but still manages to be a little more interesting than the movie. * The Lost World *may have an edge in that the kids (especially the girl) are a little less horrid there than in Jurassic Park. It’s a little thing, but it still means that I pick up The Lost World more often when I’m going for a brainless re-read.
If she’s really gearing up for the whole SF thing, and doesn’t mind a heavy military angle, then Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series is good.
Likewise David Weber’s Honor Harrington series. There’s about a million of them to read if she ends up liking them. Honor is a very likeable heroine, and there are telapathic 6-limbed furry catlike creatures. Instant win points. Lots of references and sly nods at political conventions which is also fun to read. Fair warning tho, as the series goes on, the politics get heavier (but you get more 'cats also, which balances things out).
Not precisely SF, but I enjoyed Alas Babylon (yes, mock all you want, but I was young and it was a fun read.) That might be a good starter for something more fun (and more SF) like Fahrenheit or Brave New World or The Handmaid’s Tale.
Finally, I can’t go without commenting on Zelazny. Lord of Light is FANTASTIC, but to be honest, there’s a lot there with the mythology and the layers of tech/magic/miracles and the story peeling back like a mystery. I would recommend starting with the Books of Amber first, and if she likes those, THEN go for Lord of Light and/or Creatures of Light and Darkness.
The best recommendation I have is to find out what she likes to read and find something in the SF field that is similar to that. Finally, she should realize that reading and NOT liking any one SF book doesn’t mean she doesn’t like SF at all - there’s so many different areas and styles that she should try a few out and see if she can find a niche she likes before giving up on the genre as a whole.
I’d also suggest Niven, particularly the short story collections and ‘Ringworld’. It’s approachable, relatively interesting writing with some cool concepts. You can read ‘Ringworld’ and still like it even if you’re not familiar with his ‘Known Space’ universe.
Please, not Heinlein. I like Heinlein, but he’s not the first writer you want to introduce a female reader to.
Maybe some Clarke. If she’s seen things like ‘V’, she might find ‘Childhood’s End’ interesting. And ‘Rama’.
I have mixed feelings about LeGuin. Her stuff is very heavy reading at times. I wouldn’t give it to a novice. Maybe some of her short stories at first.
Gah, how did I miss this was an old thread? Apologies.
Oh good grief.
And I’d been so good about realizing threads were zombies until now.
Sheesh. :rolleyes:
Well, did she ever read anything? Did she like it?
The year of our war - steph swainston
third the Bujold.
I also love Moon is a Harsh Mistress
For fun Hokas Pokas or Little Fuzzy [Hokas Pokas is a broad parody and absolutely hysterical, Little Fuzzy is about the discovery of a tiny teddy bearlike sentient species totally by accident. Very charming book.]
What’s wrong with sheep is what’s wrong with Dick. And I for one am willing to say it:
Dick SUCKS!!!
I gotta second (or fifth or sixth by now) don’t start with Heinlein. He has a way of dealing with female characters that… might be an immediate turn-off.
QFT. Over-rated claptrap.
I know this is a zombie thread, but I’ll chime in on Tepper’s message. I found her writing reasonably engaging, but the one book I read by her essentially had Stephen King in hell because Tepper finds his style of writing immoral or something. It was so small-minded and petty that I instantly took a dislike to Tepper and have been uninterested in reading anything else by her.
I’m always wondering what people think of the recommendations after they’ve read/listened/watched them. I wish there were follow up threads.
Personally, I love dick. Though maybe not in conjunction with sheep.
I know it’s a zombie thread, but just in case. I would recommend Carl Sagan’s Contact – might not open the floodgates for her being a major SF reader, but it’s a darn good book that might appeal to an Avatar and Star Trek fan.
And that’s all you got from Beauty?
I don’t remember the rest of it–it was, apparently, pretty forgettable. But other than Dante I can’t think of another writer who so pettily resolved a personal disagreement in the public court of writing, and I really don’t find it an attractive feature in a novel.
I don’t think that Tepper was picking a bone with King in particular as she was with ALL of the horror fiction that has females whose only role is to be savaged and then killed. After all, that could be descriptive of a lot of movies, too, and not necessarily movies based on King’s novels. That book had “horrorporn” in the future, which was apparently depictions of rape and torture.
The book was mostly centered on how some humans seem to consider ONLY humans to be worthy of living, and how some humans wouldn’t tolerate any other life forms that are not directly useful to humans. This is a common theme in her books.
Disposable Hero: Since she likes historical fiction, I would recommend Poul Anderson’s The Dancer From Atlantis. It has strong characters, especially the female lead, presents an Atlantis and Theseus that could have actually occured in real history, provides information and insight about and into 10th Century Novgorod, the Huns, the Greeks, and the Minoans, and has a great time-travel plot.
Superhal: I think you did John Carter an injustice. I don’t recall him lusting after any female but Dejah Thoris.
I’m coming in late, but I’ll give me ideas:
I agree about Ursula K. LeGuin books – my personal first choice. **Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, Lathe of Heaven, ** etc.
I strongly advise against Heinlein. I love his stuff, myself. Despite defenses like the one Spider Robinson has offered, though, Heinlein’s women don’t strike me as at all realistic – they’re more like a generally pro-female guy SF fan’s wet dream of a woman is. Ann, Miriam, and Dorcas in Stranger in a Strange Land? That strikes you as real? All those comic Heinlein matrons? And too many of Heinlein’s heroines seem ready to get pregnant in a hurry. My wife doesn’t care for Heinlein. There are a few female characters I’d recommend by him, but in general, I think his books are going to turn off the average female reader.
A lot of SF is written by males and mainly for males, without enough strong female roles. That’s true of even the best of them – Clarke, Asimov, de Camp, and so on.
Going with female writers might be the best way to get books with a female-sympathetic slant, although stories from the old days are still awfully male-centric. Catherine l. Moore, Leigh Brackett, the aforementioned Sherri Tepper and Zenna Henderson Lois McMaster Bujold, Suzy Mackee Charnas,