# Recommend a sci-fi book for someone who has never read science-fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058 "2008-11-23T01:03:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/41 "2008-11-25T00:54:03Z")
Is _The Science Fiction Hall of Fame_ still in print? If not, a used bookstore should have copies. Volume I was a collection of short stories and novellas. If you don’t like one story, you can easily skip to another. Some of Larry Niven’s short story collections might be a good introduction. He wrote a lot of stories set in the near future, just like our world but with one bit of far-out technology. Likewise Ray Bradbury. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/42 "2008-11-25T01:09:55Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > “Nightfall” was published in 1941, twelve years before the first Hugos were awarded so it would not be included in a collection of Hugo winning stories. :smack: The collection should also include his story “The Feeling of Power”. Actually, the full text (unauthorized) can be found online. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/43 "2008-11-25T03:36:26Z")
How about Spider Robinson’s _Melancholy Elephants_? This was the short story collection that got my wife interested (at least peripherally) in SF after having been turned off by Asimov and Bradbury. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2008, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/44 "2008-11-25T07:25:46Z")
_The Fuzzy Papers_ by H. Beam Piper, if you can find it. Sure, they’re (two books in the volume) decades old, but they’ve lasted. The technology is accessible, and the story is great. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/45 "2008-11-25T08:37:21Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > My favorite science fiction book is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. It grabbed me right away and felt like a very “fast” read, but my brother had the opposite reaction so YMMV. He hated the pidgin that the characters spoke in. I agree with your brother. Man that was awful. I’d go with Hitchiker’s Guide, Ray Bradbury short stories, Sirens of Titan, Ender’s Game and Ringworld. I’m not much of a SciFi fan, so I’d say all of these books are pretty accessible. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/46 "2008-11-25T14:10:42Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I’ll third or fourth Spin, having finished it yesterday. You might just be seconding it. It looks like more because I keep talking about it! ---
**Author:** ![Tess\_of\_the\_Derbyville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Tess\_of\_the\_Derbyville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess_of_the_Derbyville)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/47 "2008-11-26T03:27:37Z")
I recommend _Changing-Planes_ by Ursula Le Guin, a collection of 16 connected short stories. The premise is a contemporary air traveler who discovers she can visit other worlds and “planes” of existence. However, Le Guin with her philosophical and anthropological bent makes each strange world somehow strangely familiar. A reviewer called it a Gulliver’s Travels for the 21st century. Funny, thought-provoking, heartbreaking and a quick read! ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/48 "2008-11-26T04:25:23Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > You like to torture people? > > People you are missing the point. This is not give me a good book, its give me a book a non science fiction reader will like. I would suggest something by Creighton. Just enough interesting science fiction concepts but not enough to get in the way of the story. Set up and then on to the action. A good foot in the door for someone not used to the genre. I just listened to [Camouflage](http://www.amazon.com/Camouflage-Joe-Haldeman/dp/0441012523) by Joe Haldeman on audio. It’s not deep or involved, but it was a good listen. It’s about a couple of shape-changers from a distant globular cluster. It made me think a little of John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, but without the horror element. I enjoyed it. If I’d read it in paper, I’d say it was a good page turner. Not sure what the equivalent in audio is – a can’t-stop listen? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058/49 "2008-11-26T11:23:10Z")
I’d like to suggest _Starship Troopers_ by Robert A. Heinlen. Nothing to do with the movie, and it’s the first “Serious Science Fiction Book” I can remember reading. (The first “Science Fiction” book I read was _The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy_, FWIW.) Some of the Michael Crichton books- _Jurassic Park_ and _Sphere_ in particular- would also be good places to start, IMHO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-sci-fi-book-for-someone-who-has-never-read-science-fiction/474058.md?page=2)