The first sci-fi book I ever read was Madeline L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” and it got me hooked on the genre throughout my teens. I happen to love Ray Bradbury and I still own a huge anthology of his short stories that I go back and read from time to time. “The Small Assassin” and “The Veldt” are two standouts that still give me the shivers after all these years. For older teens, I’d recommend Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake”. The three original Dune books are also very good. And for YA readers, John Christopher’s Tripod series. And what about “Brave New World” or “A Clockwork Orange”? Or “Ender’s Game”? Those are great!
Not sci-fi, but I read “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White when I was about 14 or 15 and it still in my top favorite novels list all these years later. And if you prefer a female POV on Arthurian legend, “The Mists of Avalon” is also wonderful.
THE MISTS OF AVALON's author, Marion Zimmer Bradley, was very much involved in a long-running campaign of pedophilia. No matter what one thinks of her prose, her life and attitudes are disturbing, and some have found reflections of this in her choices about plot and character.
As with JKR, MZB's body of work looks different in a larger context, like motel bedding under a UV lamp.
the Wikipedia page for MZB notes the marriage to Walter Breen, child molester and pedophilia promoter (who also has a Wikipedia page), but i doubt that either of them had enough reputation outside SFF fandom an numismatics for this to become a well-known set of crimes and scandal. i was in SFF fandom when the news broke widely.
in fact, sexual abuse of children, sometimes with the complicity of parent fans who stanned the abusers, was a known secret in those groups for decades. i suspect that the potential for others to be outed was part of the reason that the Breen-Bradley horridness did not end Bradley's career permanently and quickly, but instead was reduced to "we don't KNOW that she was knowing and complicit."
Agreed! A Wrinkle in Time was also one of my sci-fi favorites as a child. I also was in love with Bradbury. The Martian Chronicles brought me to tears. My kids introduced me to new fantasy and sci fiction. My daughter loves MT Anderson who wrote Feed and Landscape With Invisible Hand, both extremely precient for our time and place in history. He also wrote The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge which is supposed to be for Middle School readers but I would argue should be read by anyone who wants to see some great social commentary about dealing with those with different ideas.
I'm 73, out of high school in 1970, but in high school an enlightened librarian steered me to 3 books I'll never forget, all involving prejudice in one manner or another. I was in Florida, our high school had been integrated only since 1967, and I was steered to Asimov's "Pebble in the Sky", which taught me that the middle galaxy people were not better than those from the outskirts. She also "forced" me to read Pat Frank's "Alas, Babylon", dealing with racism and the Cold War which became hot in that book. Black and white had to live together because there weren't enough of either left to form a society. I also remember Clifford Simak's "Way Station" which dealt with prejudice against those with one form of mental illness. I will say that all three shaped my worldview. Yes, they were written back in the dark ages, but they all have a valuable lesson to teach us today.
Thanks so much for posting this, Noah. I was addicted to sci-fi growing up. I loved Bradbury and Asimov. The Martian Chronicles brought me to tears. However Madeleine L'Engle is the one who got me started with A Wrinkle in Time. My kids later introduced me to new fantasy and sci fiction. My daughter loves MT Anderson who wrote Feed and Landscape With Invisible Hand, both extremely precient for our time and place in history. He also wrote The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge which is supposed to be for Middle School readers but I would argue should be read by anyone who wants to see some great social commentary about dealing with those with different ideas. I'm on vacation right now watching the Murderbot Diaries with them, now that they are young adults. It's great fun.
Sorry, one more comment: Two of the best sci-fi short stories I ever read were “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin, and “The Father Thing” by Philip K. Dick. These are great “starter” sci-fi options.
I dunno. As someone who took a lot of Red Cross water safety classes when I was a teenager, they pretty much drilled it into us that sacrificing your own life for the person you’re attempting to save is dumb. A double drowning is worse than a single one. I thought the dilemma presented here was similar. I didn’t read this story as a sexist one; just an unfortunate series of events that led to a difficult, but necessary decision. I suspecr the Netflix adaptation is not as good as the original story.
My daughter inhaled all of Octavia Butler last year, and there are many similarities to be found in some of the most popular YA dystopian sci-fi series. She tried to get me to read the Unwind series which she really liked. For some reason (and I've discovered I'm not alone in this) I just could NOT. The parents are essentially monsters in the books from the series I tried, allowed to return imperfect teenagers back to some central government in exchange for a new one? I can see myself liking the series when I was her age, but as a parent it kind of outraged me. I'd never return my daughter, are there enough kids with parents who would? For too many kids it seems the answer is ambiguous. The YA was much darker than the adult sci-fi. We both loved Cat Pictures Please and the follow-ups, even though I don't truly believe in this sort of benevolent AI technology offered by the story. Still nice to read. In general I steer her toward older work by specific authors (Butler, Le Guin) but leave her free to read what she likes. As long as she's reading. Which many kids aren't, so I'd say if they love Heinlein don't take it away perhaps, just throw some Russ in with it?
I’m a middle school librarian, so I get to recommend a lot of books. If someone is looking for sci fi, I have them try the Murderbot Diaries- I have gotten a lot of kids hooked on that. If they don’t like it, that tells me a lot about what to recommend next. There’s plenty of great sci fi for everyone, and every other genre as well. Also, I love your pieces about literature. Thank you so much for making them available.
Everyone seems to forget Cordwainer Smith, whose works were largely about achieving rights for the underpeople derived from dogs and cats. D’Joan, a dog woman is the Joan of Arc figure, of course. In The Game of Rat and Dragon, the only way to pass the monsters lurking in deep space are for humans and cats to do a mind meld. (I named my tortie Persian long ago after one of them, Captain Wow. Great name for a cat.)
When I was a kid, Heinlein's juveniles introduced me to SF in the early 50s. I loved them, but the love didn't carry over to his adult books. When I had to teach Stranger in a Strange Land in college freshman English, it was all I could do to keep from throwing up in my mouth for a whole week. Luckily, I also got to teach The Left Hand of Darkness.
But there are still some short stories from the other old white males you list that are worth introducing kid to. (NOT Campbell, and I limit Heinlein to All You Zombies. But The Nine Billion Names of God and The Star by Clarke, There will Come Soft Rains and The Veldt by Bradbury--there are still moving things out there that aren't really mere awful writings and politics. What these stories show is a stye of short story that isn't that common anymore--the sudden, zinger ending that shifts your whole perspective.
I loved this style in my teens. Groff Conklin had a couple of big, very fat, anthologies that were full of them. I could be immersed for hours and hours. In fact, in an age of shorter attention spans deflected by Tik Tok and such, that style of story may be a better introduction to SF as a genre than some of the more complex and sophisticated work now on offer.
I agree now about the "new crop" of writers, whether or not they are white males. I love Alastair Reynolds, Vernor Vinge for the Zones of Thought books, a lot of Peter Hamilton, and of course, John Scalzi. Also Neal Stephenson, Robert Charles Wilson, Jack McDevitt, a lot of Stephen Baxter, Robert Jackson Bennett, and above all Dave Hutchinson. So don't just dump on White Males.
If you are in a cat loving family, I suspect that Scalzi's Starter Villain is a tremendous place for a kid to start. A lot of people seem to think it is "light weight" in comparison to Old Man's War, but for me it is pure joy. There are of course a lot of books by women, both lesbian and straight, that are fantastic, though I haven't been tempted to return to the Murder Bot series, although I keep telling myself I should. I love Annalee Newitz, Liz Williams, Emily Devenport. And above all, Anne Bishop's series (two of them) on the world of the Others. I've hooked several non-SF fans on her books, though I can't deal with her other more traditional fantasies.
And I can't let this go by without the touting of Ben Aaronovitch and the Cities of London series. He is the very MODEL of Urban Fantasy and extremely funny, to boot.
To put in a partial defense of Heinlein, his "Juveniles" are among his best work, and the work I have no problem recommending to young readers, because he had to tone down the uglier aspects of his sexism and racism. That was the result of his being edited by Alice Dalgliesh at Scribner's, who he HATED! for always pulling him away from "being himself" in all his bigotry, rape fantasies, kink, and attraction to much younger women.
I have no idea how much of that was the result of his second wife Virginia, who was significantly younger than he was, and who apparently was also into rape fantasies and kink—as well as being an extremely smart and capable redhead, which became his stock female character.
I was one of those weird young Heinlein fans, a choice I will not try to defend except I still think the formal experiment of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - written in a compressed form of speech based on the narrator living in a limited-oxygen environment - is a pretty cool idea. Also, he gave us the short novel on which the movie Starship Troopers is based. I guess Paul Verhoeven should get the credit (or blame) for that though.
When my son was a voracious middle/high school science fiction and fantasy reader, I did insist that he read a couple of classics that I still think stand out from the bulk of mid-20th century SF, Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" and Clarke's "Childhood's End." But beyond that, I was happy to have him read what he wanted.
Now I read things he recommends to me, for example the "Schooled in Magic," series by Christopher G. Nuttall. Far better world building than Harry Potter.
The first sci-fi book I ever read was Madeline L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” and it got me hooked on the genre throughout my teens. I happen to love Ray Bradbury and I still own a huge anthology of his short stories that I go back and read from time to time. “The Small Assassin” and “The Veldt” are two standouts that still give me the shivers after all these years. For older teens, I’d recommend Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake”. The three original Dune books are also very good. And for YA readers, John Christopher’s Tripod series. And what about “Brave New World” or “A Clockwork Orange”? Or “Ender’s Game”? Those are great!
Not sci-fi, but I read “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White when I was about 14 or 15 and it still in my top favorite novels list all these years later. And if you prefer a female POV on Arthurian legend, “The Mists of Avalon” is also wonderful.
THE MISTS OF AVALON's author, Marion Zimmer Bradley, was very much involved in a long-running campaign of pedophilia. No matter what one thinks of her prose, her life and attitudes are disturbing, and some have found reflections of this in her choices about plot and character.
As with JKR, MZB's body of work looks different in a larger context, like motel bedding under a UV lamp.
Had no idea! I read that book probably 35 or 40 years ago.
the Wikipedia page for MZB notes the marriage to Walter Breen, child molester and pedophilia promoter (who also has a Wikipedia page), but i doubt that either of them had enough reputation outside SFF fandom an numismatics for this to become a well-known set of crimes and scandal. i was in SFF fandom when the news broke widely.
in fact, sexual abuse of children, sometimes with the complicity of parent fans who stanned the abusers, was a known secret in those groups for decades. i suspect that the potential for others to be outed was part of the reason that the Breen-Bradley horridness did not end Bradley's career permanently and quickly, but instead was reduced to "we don't KNOW that she was knowing and complicit."
Agreed! A Wrinkle in Time was also one of my sci-fi favorites as a child. I also was in love with Bradbury. The Martian Chronicles brought me to tears. My kids introduced me to new fantasy and sci fiction. My daughter loves MT Anderson who wrote Feed and Landscape With Invisible Hand, both extremely precient for our time and place in history. He also wrote The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge which is supposed to be for Middle School readers but I would argue should be read by anyone who wants to see some great social commentary about dealing with those with different ideas.
I'm 73, out of high school in 1970, but in high school an enlightened librarian steered me to 3 books I'll never forget, all involving prejudice in one manner or another. I was in Florida, our high school had been integrated only since 1967, and I was steered to Asimov's "Pebble in the Sky", which taught me that the middle galaxy people were not better than those from the outskirts. She also "forced" me to read Pat Frank's "Alas, Babylon", dealing with racism and the Cold War which became hot in that book. Black and white had to live together because there weren't enough of either left to form a society. I also remember Clifford Simak's "Way Station" which dealt with prejudice against those with one form of mental illness. I will say that all three shaped my worldview. Yes, they were written back in the dark ages, but they all have a valuable lesson to teach us today.
Thanks so much for posting this, Noah. I was addicted to sci-fi growing up. I loved Bradbury and Asimov. The Martian Chronicles brought me to tears. However Madeleine L'Engle is the one who got me started with A Wrinkle in Time. My kids later introduced me to new fantasy and sci fiction. My daughter loves MT Anderson who wrote Feed and Landscape With Invisible Hand, both extremely precient for our time and place in history. He also wrote The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge which is supposed to be for Middle School readers but I would argue should be read by anyone who wants to see some great social commentary about dealing with those with different ideas. I'm on vacation right now watching the Murderbot Diaries with them, now that they are young adults. It's great fun.
Sorry, one more comment: Two of the best sci-fi short stories I ever read were “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin, and “The Father Thing” by Philip K. Dick. These are great “starter” sci-fi options.
Yes. The Cold Equations has stuck with me for some 50 odd years.
I love PKD. the cold equations is...sexist in ways that really put me off. There's been a lot of responses to it, some of which are fun. (I talk about one here https://observer.com/2021/04/stowaway-netflix-review-the-cold-equations/
I dunno. As someone who took a lot of Red Cross water safety classes when I was a teenager, they pretty much drilled it into us that sacrificing your own life for the person you’re attempting to save is dumb. A double drowning is worse than a single one. I thought the dilemma presented here was similar. I didn’t read this story as a sexist one; just an unfortunate series of events that led to a difficult, but necessary decision. I suspecr the Netflix adaptation is not as good as the original story.
My daughter inhaled all of Octavia Butler last year, and there are many similarities to be found in some of the most popular YA dystopian sci-fi series. She tried to get me to read the Unwind series which she really liked. For some reason (and I've discovered I'm not alone in this) I just could NOT. The parents are essentially monsters in the books from the series I tried, allowed to return imperfect teenagers back to some central government in exchange for a new one? I can see myself liking the series when I was her age, but as a parent it kind of outraged me. I'd never return my daughter, are there enough kids with parents who would? For too many kids it seems the answer is ambiguous. The YA was much darker than the adult sci-fi. We both loved Cat Pictures Please and the follow-ups, even though I don't truly believe in this sort of benevolent AI technology offered by the story. Still nice to read. In general I steer her toward older work by specific authors (Butler, Le Guin) but leave her free to read what she likes. As long as she's reading. Which many kids aren't, so I'd say if they love Heinlein don't take it away perhaps, just throw some Russ in with it?
I’m a middle school librarian, so I get to recommend a lot of books. If someone is looking for sci fi, I have them try the Murderbot Diaries- I have gotten a lot of kids hooked on that. If they don’t like it, that tells me a lot about what to recommend next. There’s plenty of great sci fi for everyone, and every other genre as well. Also, I love your pieces about literature. Thank you so much for making them available.
Everyone seems to forget Cordwainer Smith, whose works were largely about achieving rights for the underpeople derived from dogs and cats. D’Joan, a dog woman is the Joan of Arc figure, of course. In The Game of Rat and Dragon, the only way to pass the monsters lurking in deep space are for humans and cats to do a mind meld. (I named my tortie Persian long ago after one of them, Captain Wow. Great name for a cat.)
When I was a kid, Heinlein's juveniles introduced me to SF in the early 50s. I loved them, but the love didn't carry over to his adult books. When I had to teach Stranger in a Strange Land in college freshman English, it was all I could do to keep from throwing up in my mouth for a whole week. Luckily, I also got to teach The Left Hand of Darkness.
But there are still some short stories from the other old white males you list that are worth introducing kid to. (NOT Campbell, and I limit Heinlein to All You Zombies. But The Nine Billion Names of God and The Star by Clarke, There will Come Soft Rains and The Veldt by Bradbury--there are still moving things out there that aren't really mere awful writings and politics. What these stories show is a stye of short story that isn't that common anymore--the sudden, zinger ending that shifts your whole perspective.
I loved this style in my teens. Groff Conklin had a couple of big, very fat, anthologies that were full of them. I could be immersed for hours and hours. In fact, in an age of shorter attention spans deflected by Tik Tok and such, that style of story may be a better introduction to SF as a genre than some of the more complex and sophisticated work now on offer.
I agree now about the "new crop" of writers, whether or not they are white males. I love Alastair Reynolds, Vernor Vinge for the Zones of Thought books, a lot of Peter Hamilton, and of course, John Scalzi. Also Neal Stephenson, Robert Charles Wilson, Jack McDevitt, a lot of Stephen Baxter, Robert Jackson Bennett, and above all Dave Hutchinson. So don't just dump on White Males.
If you are in a cat loving family, I suspect that Scalzi's Starter Villain is a tremendous place for a kid to start. A lot of people seem to think it is "light weight" in comparison to Old Man's War, but for me it is pure joy. There are of course a lot of books by women, both lesbian and straight, that are fantastic, though I haven't been tempted to return to the Murder Bot series, although I keep telling myself I should. I love Annalee Newitz, Liz Williams, Emily Devenport. And above all, Anne Bishop's series (two of them) on the world of the Others. I've hooked several non-SF fans on her books, though I can't deal with her other more traditional fantasies.
And I can't let this go by without the touting of Ben Aaronovitch and the Cities of London series. He is the very MODEL of Urban Fantasy and extremely funny, to boot.
To put in a partial defense of Heinlein, his "Juveniles" are among his best work, and the work I have no problem recommending to young readers, because he had to tone down the uglier aspects of his sexism and racism. That was the result of his being edited by Alice Dalgliesh at Scribner's, who he HATED! for always pulling him away from "being himself" in all his bigotry, rape fantasies, kink, and attraction to much younger women.
I have no idea how much of that was the result of his second wife Virginia, who was significantly younger than he was, and who apparently was also into rape fantasies and kink—as well as being an extremely smart and capable redhead, which became his stock female character.
I was one of those weird young Heinlein fans, a choice I will not try to defend except I still think the formal experiment of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - written in a compressed form of speech based on the narrator living in a limited-oxygen environment - is a pretty cool idea. Also, he gave us the short novel on which the movie Starship Troopers is based. I guess Paul Verhoeven should get the credit (or blame) for that though.
When my son was a voracious middle/high school science fiction and fantasy reader, I did insist that he read a couple of classics that I still think stand out from the bulk of mid-20th century SF, Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" and Clarke's "Childhood's End." But beyond that, I was happy to have him read what he wanted.
Now I read things he recommends to me, for example the "Schooled in Magic," series by Christopher G. Nuttall. Far better world building than Harry Potter.