Ten S-F Books for Complete Beginners...

Cafe Society
21

I’d agree with you there. I read those in middle school and would suggest them to anyone, just starting to read sf or not.

A few others, mostly aimed at precocious younger readers. Because that’s what I was (helpful, eh?):

  • Green Hills of Earth, Heinlein’s '51 short story collection. A good example of classic space-and-atomic-power sf.
  • Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem (translated from Polish). Humorous in a slightly less… silly? way than Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat or Bill, the Galactic Hero series. Lots of interaction between man and machine, but in a more human way than a lot of hard sf.
  • Devil on my Back by Monica Hughes isn’t the best book in the world, but as a kid it was my favorite of the brain control/societal control sorts of works. More young adult than the rest of this list.
  • Hitchhiker’s, of course, I agree with that.
  • Martian Chronicles, because everyone should be exposed to the way Bradbury uses language and creates worlds.

Okay, so that’s a few off the top of my head.

22

Yes, but were they products of SCIENCE(!), strictly speaking?

23

You might want to find collections of short stories. Used book stores sometimes and online sources may have collections of SF magazines. Many of the noted novels were derived from short story work.
There are an awful lot of SF themes. Some SF is rooted very strongly in science, while other forms are just fantasy with a scientific veneer. The quality of writing varies, and sometimes good SF works are written with no more style than the Helvetica fonts they are printed in, but still are still enjoyable based on the plot and background of the story. There are endless variations of common tropes, time-travel, aliens, post-apocalypse, parallel universe, AI. Some address real life topics of love and death, while others posit the problems of future societies. SF runs across media also. Some of it has been presented in comicbook form, television, movies, or all combined.
So if SF doesn’t grab you from the start, stick to short stories, or at least short novels, until you’ve tried some variety. And as with all forms of literature, sometimes there’s a book you just don’t like, but that probably won’t cause you to stop reading altogether.

24

I think this is a very good list (though personally, The Stars My Destination just didn’t appeal to me). Since the OP didn’t specify novels, I’d lean toward including one anthology of short stories, since shorter works were so much a part of SF, especially during its “Golden Age.” And there probably isn’t a better collection than The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One.

25

Well when it comes to SF short story collections, you can’t do much better than Brian Aldiss’ “Billion Year Spree” and “Galactic Empires” collections. And if you run across any of the old Groff Conklin Sf short story collections, grab them … he had great taste.

26

It seems many of the recommendations are mostly classics of the genre. I’m not sure I think a complete beginner should start there. I’d recommend signing up for a subscription to Asimov’s or Analog and start there. You probably won’t find any classics, but you will find SF that is more contemporary.

27

If you’re not sure what they might like, you might want to serve a sample platter.

28

As far as I’m concerned, the best science fiction books for beginners are the same as the best for anyone else. To that end, I would list:

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
The Face, by Jack Vance
Araminta Station, by Jack Vance
Wyst, by Jack Vance
The Annals of Klepsis. by R. A. Lafferty
The Prophecy Machine, by Neal Barrett, Jr.
Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
The Inverted World – I can’t remeber the author’s name at this moment.
The Menace from Earth, by Robert Heinlein

With the exception of the last one, by list doesn’t have anything by the widely known and accepted masters of science fiction. Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov are not good authors. Robert Heinlein had his ups and downs. Alfred Bester and Frank Herbert are decent but hardly worthy of a top ten list.

Among the authors on my list, I would suggest starting with Jack Vance. His books are unique to science fiction and perfect in almost every way: outstanding writing, exciting story-telling, incredible imaginations, and lots of humor, something that is sorely lacking in most science fiction. Moreover, most of his books are short and sweet, in 100-200 page range. Araminta Station is the exceptions; it’s roughly 600 pages. Lafferty and Barrett are extremely talented authors but their styles take some getting used to. Nonetheless their books are extremely rewarding for those willing to make the effort. Lastly I’ll give a shout-out to The Inverted World. I have never met any other person who’s read this book and I only know it because I selected it from a library shelf at random, but it’s a simply marvelous book that mixes a coming-of-age story, an adventure novel, and a truly unique science fiction background.

29

“Billion Year Spree” and its successor, “Trillion Year Spree” are histories and critiques of science fiction, not short story collections.

I don’t know about the “Galactic Empires” books though.

Groff Conklin seconded.

30

Definitely agree about the Conklin - I have 25 or 30 of his anthologies, but I haven’t noticed one in a used book store in ages.

However, in addition to the SF Hall of Fame, I’d recommend Adventures in Time and Space which was the first great sf anthology. It defines the Golden Age, and shows the roots of most of what has come since. I think the classics are good for a beginner, because modern books assume a lot.

Definitely agree that most Heinlein juveniles would be fine for adults, and I also recommend Clarke’s The City and the Stars as being very readable and a great leap of imagination. It is sf from over 50 years ago which we haven’t caught up to yet.

31

I would peruse this Wikipedia page: History of Science Fiction. Six periods are discussed and important works mentioned – pick a few titles from each.

Following that prescription I would recommend the following as being introductory to the genre and its themes and tropes, and as being, in most cases, damn fun to read:

Early Science Fiction:

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells

Looking Backward – Edward Bellamy
Early 20th Century:

Odd John – Olaf Stapledon

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
The Golden Age (has its own page):

Have Space Suit, Will Travel – Robert A. Heinlein

The Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov

Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
The New Wave (has its own page):

The Dune Trilogy – Frank Herbert

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – Robert Heinlein

Ringworld – Larry Niven
Science Fiction in the 1980s (Cyberpunk has its own page):

The Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive) – William Gibson

Islands in the Net – Bruce Sterling

Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
Contemporary Science Fiction ( see also Postcyberpunk):

The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
I would also highly recommend perusing David Szondy’s Tales of Future Past website. Lots of SF tropes and early SF explored here.

32

I’d recommend Clarke’s earlier take on the same story, Against the Fall of Night. Clarke didn’t like it and rewrote it with somewhat more standard science fiction elements, but the earlier book is far better literature.

Thirding the Conklin recommend.

33

If you can find it the first volume of “The Hugo Winners” edited by Isaac Asimov is a brilliant anthology of SF short stories and novellas.

34

Only if you want the person to be so mind-numbingly bored, he’ll never pick up another SF book.

35

No kidding. Dune is a snore. I would also steer clear of just about every book on ITR champion’s list except the first and last. If someone is a complete beginner, give them books that were there at the beginning. Hell, I’d recommend First Lensman as well. Doesn’t get any more basic than Galactic War.

36

I intentionally avoided listing more than one by any particular author otherwise there’d be more Heinlein on there, trust me.

I also avoided the Lensmen books because, frankly, I think the culture of writing and reading has change enough to make them a challenge. For that matter I feel the same about Burroughs Barsoom books (and Huck Finn!).

But Clarke as a terrible writer? That’s simply crazy. IMHO he’s a master. Making small strokes with small chapters that make a large work worth reading. His ‘Complete Stories’ is a masterpiece.

37

But, that might give one the false impression that all (rather than most) SF writers are geniuses in imagination and idiots in prose style.

38

I would recommend Rollback by Robert Sawyer. Some forty years previous to the opening of the story, a transmission was received from extraterrestrial beings, a transmission the experts could not decode. It was posted on the Web so the world could work on it and a Canadian (natch) astronomer, Sarah Halifax, managed to do so. A reply is sent off and the aliens’ second message has just been received – encrypted. The world’s richest man wants Sarah, now in her eighties, to head up the effort to crack the encryption, craft the response, and await the reply to that. The only way this is feasible is for her to undergo a rollback, an expensive (like billions) procedure that will restore her physically to her early twenties. Fine, she says but not without Don, my husband of sixty years. Grudgingly, the patron agrees and they both undergo the procedure.

His works; hers doesn’t.

39

And idiots in characterization also. I read the Lensmen books at 15 or 16, which is just about right. I’m not sure an adult would react favorably - especially since we now have a lot of that stuff in movies.

40

The Man In The High Castle, Philip K. Dick. Or anything else by Dick. He wrote a lot of the best short stories in sci-fi history.