Imagine I could only choose 5 sci fi books for a brand new sci fi reader – what would they be?
Imagine I could only choose 5 sci fi books for a brand new sci fi reader – what would they be?
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
- Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
That should be a nice cross section, though I completely ignored cyberpunk, near future apocalyptic (unless you include Hitchhiker’s Guide!), alternate history, and a few others!
Oooh, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a good choice, even though the tech now feels anachronistic (except Mike). I used to put it in my starter pack too.
The Martian is an excellent starter kit choice – extremely approachable while still being largely representative of what sci fi can be! Nice!
Tangent: I originally read The Martian while weathering a summer windstorm in the high arctic. My tent was threatening to blow away, bouncing down the tundra with me and all our supplies. It really added to the experience :)
Haven’t read Doomsday Book but did read To Say Nothing About the Dog. Interesting and well writ.
Fully support these choices! This is a good cross section of classics and contemporary works.
Foundation ❤ Foundation and Empire ❤❤❤ (The Mule 😍)
By Isaac Asimov should be in the package in my opinion 😎
Oddly enough, the Mule drove me mad. I don’t like this old notion that “we only use 10% of our brain – imagine what we could do if we unlocked the other 90%” that was prevalent in sci fi of the era. So if you gave Foundation and Empire to me in your starter kit, and I reviewed it thus, what would you recommend as a followup knowing that I enjoyed it, but didn’t like the psychic (telepathic) elements?
That’s a good question, I need to think about it more deeply 😁 Thanks for developing the topic.
Oh hi Troy, what an interesting question. Over the years I’ve had a lot of thoughts about this and think the optimal set of books should be both highly approachable, but also cover a wide varieties of genres. Such that the prospective newbie can sample a bunch of different things and tell you what they liked best. Thus forming a nice basis for additional recommendations. To that effect, here’s my current list.
(1) Ender’s Game (it’s a very approachable read with a good payoff and a lot of nice concepts)
(2) The Left Hand of Darkness (largely to show that sci fi can be beautiful and contemplative, and by placing these ideas in a sci fi setting, you can abstract from all the baggage of modern politics)
(3) Snow Crash (yes, it’s ridiculous, but it’s also super fun and somewhat pop-culturey and scratches the cyberpunk itch - it’s also the only earth-only book on the list)
(4) Hyperion and Fall of Hyperon (because it touches on so many ideas and genres, one can ask “what was your favourite part” and it’ll form the basis for so many other recommendations)
(5) The Player of Games (need something optimistic to balance some of the others - but also something where the tech level is indistinguishable from magic)
What do you think?
Hyperion was actually one of the very first scifi books I read, and I almost regret it. It’s absolutely brilliant, but because I had no frame of reference, nothing to compare it to, so I didn’t appreciate it at the time. I’m waiting until my memory fades so I can reread it :-)
Snow Crash…ok you’ve got me interested… Adding it to the list
When reading it, remind yourself that it was conceived in the late 80s, so the tech is simultaneously amazingly well predicted, but also completely off the mark at times. I re-read it last year and I think it still holds up. Enjoy!
That’s a great list. With the exception of Iain Banks. I have bounced off every book by him I’ve tried. Really should make another effort at Player of Games.
I feel the same about Banks as I’m reading them… But something about the books ages-well in my memory. It’s almost as if I prefer the after taste.
Ha! You and Troy seem to have lots in common you should consider becoming friends. Seriously though thanks for this thread I’m loving it.
I guess I’d try to give as broad a view as possible, kind of to show that sci-fi can be literary as well as purpose-built to explore specific ideas.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Sparrow
Player of Games
The Quantum Thief
I took a bit of a time off from reading so when I started again this is what I gleaned as recommendations from the other printsf:
Three body problem - Liu Cixin Bobiverse - Dennis Taylor Daemon - Daniel Suarez Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
Honorable mention: Blindsight - Peter Watts
If I were to go with a mix of old and new: Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson I, Robot - Issac Asimov Dune - Frank Herbert
Mix of old and new, short and far future.
If you’re going to include a Michael Crichton book in a sci-fi list, Sphere is a far better choice IMO.
Sphere is a wonderful choice. I read it as a teenager and it was one of my first non-StarTrek sci fi novels. Picked it up at a truck stop on a road trip and read it in the passenger seat haha
Iain Banks. All of his sci-fi books.
I recently saw an article about him on The Guardian that will be more eloquent than I can be.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/29/where-to-start-with-iain-banks
Just be aware that he wrote both fiction and sci-fi. Iain M Banks is how he signed his sci-if ones.
Hyperion
Murderbot Diaries
Children of Time
Shadow & Claw (books 1 & 2 of The New Sun)
There Body Problem
Oh wow, Gene Wolfe for a new reader – maybe if they are the type that thinks sci fi is lasers and blue babes and needs to be shown that some sci fi can be serious business, haha! What would you recommend as the followup, aside from more Gene Wolfe, if they said that was their favourite? I might select Anathem and Gnomon.
Oh yea I was kinda blanking on Stephenson. There’s a lot to choose from. Anathem is a masterpiece, I guess I’d swap Wolfe out for that. Maybe Fall as well.
And I guess I didn’t really think of “first time sci-fi reader”. I would have to throw Silo on there.
Lots of great recommendations here. I haven’t seen anyone mention John Scalzi!
Both the Old Man’s War and Interdependency series are amazing!
I second alot of these and wanted to add: octavia butlers work, especially the liliths brood series!
Ok ok, I might not get a lot of support with this list, but SciFi is actually what turned me into an avid reader…now it’s not just SciFi but also non fiction (gasp!). So the list below is somewhat the path I followed, with some mods
- Ready Player One
- Project Hail Mary
- Murderbot
- Bobiverse
- Pandora’s Star
The list starts off with some quick, punchy brain candy then graduates into big ol’ operas :-)
Project Hail Mary is so good! It’s a great example of sci fi that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but has a lot of actual science involved. I was just getting the itch to re-read it the other day!
agreed!! I’m generally a slow reader, but I hammered through that one in 3 days…with kids climbing on me…at Christmas…
My family has two people that are avid Murderbot fans. My library never has any copies, but maybe it’s time to cave and buy the first novella…
I haven’t read Pandora’s Star, but I love everything else on that list. Since we seem to have similar tastes, I’ll give it a shot next!
Pandora’s Star really is just part one of a two part book. That said, there’s a chapter in there where MLM is introduced that, if read alone without any context, might be the single best chapter ever written in sci fi. If that doesn’t hook a reader, I don’t know what will.
Agreed, that intro to MLM is pretty epic. I also found the prologue to the first book super memorable…basically an intro to the gateways. The whole series is around 7 books, but I had a tough time with the few Judas books. A friend and I were reading them at the same time, and he just skipped all Judas chapters, hehe.
Trying to diverge a bit from what’s already in here:
- Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Isaac Asimov - Caves of Steel
- Greg Bear - Blood Music
- Frank M. Robinson - The Dark Beyond the Stars
The latter is a bit of a dark horse, but I unabashedly love it. It has one of my favorite endings of any novel ever.
Honorable mentions to Ender’s Game, and Old Man’s War for sure.
I’m not the most prolific reader, and pretty new to sci-fi books in general, but I came here to mention The Book of the New Sun (mentioned in another comments as Shadow and Claw, the first half of the series), as well as Dune. Both these books really drew me in with their world building.
In that case, I recommend CJ Cherryh (maybe start with Downbelow Station) as she is one of the master worldbuilders. And given your selections, I’d specifically also recommend Hyperion (and Fall of Hyperion); Gnomon by Harkaway; and Anathem by Stephenson.
Thanks very much for the suggestions!
I haven’t seen this author mentioned and as a bonus, he’s Canadian :)
A. E. van Vogt
Check out his Null-A trilogy !
