Narrowing down a Sci-Fi list...

[lisabees]

Ds wants to do a Sci-Fi lit Study.  I have a long list collected from the board's suggestions through the years (I haven't included my short story options).  Any suggestions to narrow it down to well-rounded list for a mature, 14 year old?

 

Thanks so much!

 

 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Frankenstein

Portrait of Dorian Gray

The Invisible Man

Farenheit 451 (?)

Hitchhiker’s Guide

Ender’s Game

1984 (?)

Canticle for Leibowitz

Anathem (Stephenson)

I, Robot

2001, A Space Odyssey

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Slaughterhouse Five/Cat’s Cradle

Tripod series

Alas Babylon

Childhood’s End

Starship Troopers

Dune

Flowers for Algernon

Foundation trilogy by Asimov

Martian Chronicles by Bradbury

The Island of Dr. Moreau

House of Stairs

On the Beach

A Wrinkle in Time

Flatland

Enchantress from the Stars

LeGuin titles - Eye of Heron and Lathe of Heaven

Jules Verne

HG Wells

Crichton

Stephenson

Heinlein - Citizens of the Galaxy; Have Spacesuit, Will Travel

[AK_Mom4]

How many books do you want to cover?  Some of these like Dune and the Foundation series are pretty slow reads.

 

I think I would look over the list with an eye for mixing up old and new.   Not much help as I look over your list and think "Yeah!  Do all of those!"

[bobbeym]

Give him the list and tell him to pick 8-10-whatever number you decide to read.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

What about thinking of them in categories?  Something like:

Classics that set the stage (Works that precede the end of WWI or manned flight)

Frankenstein

Verne

Wells

 

Pre-Space Flight or Golden Age (I'm thinking this would be 1918-around 1959)

Early Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Orwell, Flatland

 

Modern Era (1960-era of ubiquitous computers.  Maybe something like 2000 as an end date)

More Asimov, LeGuin, Tripods, Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sleep (that might be earlier)

 

Contemporary or Computer Era (2000-present, to cover works that might be too recent to really categorize)

Chrighton, Stephenson, Gibson

 

 

This might help you see where you are putting emphasis (and where you might have to much).  You will need to decide how much this is an effort to read works that are important that your kid might not otherwise read and how much is an attempt to analyze favorites and how much is an attempt to survey the whole genre.

 

Or you could categorize by theme: Altering humanity, change in society, post apocalypse, space exploration, modification of computing, other worlds/alien cultures

 

If you haven't already read it, I'd add World War Z, just because I think it is one of the better books in recent years.  It isn't really a horror book, but uses the ruleless and ruthless zombies to explore the edges of what society and mankind are capable of.  I actually think it is as good as something like Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 for probing the limits of society.  [Haven't seen the movie, but I really, really like the book.  I think Max Brooks was asked to speak at the Naval War College for a very good reason.]

 

ETA: the authors/books in the categories above are just examples, not indications of what I think your end list ought look like.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Modern Scholars has a course on science fiction by Michael Drout on science fiction.  We've listened to a lot of Drout, borrowed from the library.  He's pretty good, though of course a series of lectures this short will have to make some pretty brutal cuts and simplify a lot.

[lisabees]

I would combine the two. Categorize, then have him pick x number from each category. 

 

Thank you so much!  I think this is what I will do. 

 

Now to decide whether to categorize by time period or theme...

[lisabees]

 

You will need to decide how much this is an effort to read works that are important that your kid might not otherwise read and how much is an attempt to analyze favorites and how much is an attempt to survey the whole genre.

 

Yup.  I'd like a good balance.

 

 

 

Or you could categorize by theme: Altering humanity, change in society, post apocalypse, space exploration, modification of computing, other worlds/alien cultures

 

Love this idea.  How do I do this without having read many of these books?

 

If you haven't already read it, I'd add World War Z, just because I think it is one of the better books in recent years.  It isn't really a horror book, but uses the ruleless and ruthless zombies to explore the edges of what society and mankind are capable of.  I actually think it is as good as something like Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 for probing the limits of society.  [Haven't seen the movie, but I really, really like the book.  I think Max Brooks was asked to speak at the Naval War College for a very good reason.]

 

Added.  Thank you.

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I would scan Wikipedia or Sparknotes for a plot synopsis and then realize that there will be some overlap between categories.

[prairiewindmomma]

What are you hoping to achieve from the course? A lot of sci fi books have broad themes that lead to great discussions or are suited to rhetoric level essays.

 

Personally, I also found Dune and Foundation dry. I think, however, he should at least read synopses of the books as they are key books in the sci fi genre.

[Twigs]

Are you interested in short stories? Science Fiction Hall of Fame  (1929-1964) is a good place to start. It includes the short story Flowers for Algernon, among many others.

Best wishes

[Candid]

I actually took a college level course in science fiction. The one thing I don't see on your list is any short stories. The golden age of science fiction was all short stories. 

 

I also see books that aren't ever categorized as science fiction even though they seem to be in the genre. I see a hodge podge of other works. 

 

To help you sort through books I've color coded them. The red ones are never shelved with science fiction, I'd remove them for a pure science fiction course. The green ones are the old classics that were written before the genre existed. Purple are from writers of that golden age. Most of the novel length books in this category began as short stories. Honestly, you might be better off returning to the short stories. The rest are a mixed bag of books that I either am not familiar with or are from later periods of science fiction. One thing that you might consider is you need a few more fill in from these later authors. Plus do you want to play around with fantasy at all? The proto fantasy works by folks like Andre Norton the CJ Cherryth might be of interest, but Norton had a long writing time so you might want to make sure you get an early work (the first Witch World for instance). 

 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Frankenstein

Portrait of Dorian Gray

The Invisible Man

Farenheit 451 (?)

Hitchhiker’s Guide

Ender’s Game

1984 (?)

Canticle for Leibowitz

Anathem (Stephenson)

I, Robot

2001, A Space Odyssey

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Slaughterhouse Five/Cat’s Cradle

Tripod series

Alas Babylon

Childhood’s End

Starship Troopers

Dune

Flowers for Algernon

Foundation trilogy by Asimov

Martian Chronicles by Bradbury

The Island of Dr. Moreau

House of Stairs

On the Beach

A Wrinkle in Time

Flatland

Enchantress from the Stars

LeGuin titles - Eye of Heron and Lathe of Heaven

Jules Verne

HG Wells

Crichton

Stephenson

Heinlein - Citizens of the Galaxy; Have Spacesuit, Will Travel

[AK_Mom4]

DS17 is doing a semester for SciFi/Fantasy literature now for his English course. Here is what we are doing over the next 18 weeks.

 

We are starting with short stories and going on from there.  Farenheit 451, Brave New World, Frankenstein, Once and Future King, 2001 Space Odyssey, Out of the Silent Planet, and Student's Choice (he gets to pick one from my shelves - I have a huge collection).

 

For example, this week, DS17 has 3 stories to read - Asimov's Nightfall, Niven's Inconstant Moon and Kowal's For Want of a Nail.  I grouped these together because they are three different takes on the destruction of the human mind thru the destruction of something fundamental and come from three different eras.  DS17 will get to produce a paper after reading - he thinks a compare-contrast essay, but may decide to dive into something else - I just requirement him to produce something coherent and well-planned that shows he has an understanding of the material.

 

We are pacing it for one book + a paper every two weeks.   It seems like such a small amount of material, but it really does take up time to read and discuss some of these books.

 

Hope This Helps!

 

ETA - we are also watching a bunch of SciFi and Fantasy movies - some for the books we are reading, some just because DS17 wants to watch them......(Me Too!)

[kiana]

I second what the others have said about short stories. Another good anthology for short stories would be Before the Golden Age, collected by Isaac Asimov. I read them many years ago, found them fascinating and got into a bunch of new authors because of these short stories.

[shawthorne44]

Keep in mind that my knee jerk answer/reaction was "Why?"

 

Evil_mommy would probably assign the first book in some of those series and then have the next in the series sitting around innocently. 

 

Also, you have I, Robot and the Foundation trilogy on two different lines.  The robot series and the foundation series actually became one long series.  At the end of his life, Asimov wrote a suggested reading order list that was basically chrological for the stories not as they were written.  I regret reading the foundation series before the robot series.

 

Also, Audible's Ender's Game series is my absolute favorite audio book.  The narrator changes according to whose perspective in the story. 

 

[wingedradical]

xx

[wingedradical]

xx

Ds wants to do a Sci-Fi lit Study.  I have a long list collected from the board's suggestions through the years (I haven't included my short story options).  Any suggestions to narrow it down to well-rounded list for a mature, 14 year old?

 

Thanks so much!

 

 

 

If you are looking to trim the list, there's a bunch that are more Youth/YA-ish than the rest.  These include:

 

Ender's Game

Tripod series

A wrinkle in Time

Flatland

Hitchhiker's Guide

The last two Heinleins

 

And if he's mature enough, and you could only read on Ursula LeGuin, I'd recommend "The Left hand of darkness"

[wingedradical]

Personally, I would never leave Asimov off of a sci fi reading list, short or not. (-:

 

Although -- I would not introduce someone to Asimov via the Foundation series. I've read every sci-fi story Asimov has written, and most of his other stuff, too. I have been a fan since my nerdy brother read sci fi when I was growing up and I borrowed some of his magazines and books. But most, if not all, of the Foundation books get rather long toward the middle (he doesn't keep a good pace). And the series itself is so long that I would not use it as an intro (although i did like the premise and story). I would start with a book of his short stories (there are several collections from stories he published in magazines in the 30s-50s). Then I'd go to something like Pebble in the Sky or The Stars Like Dust. Then Caves of Steel or the robot series. Only after the robot series and if my child wanted, would I go to Foundation.

 

If you are a Christian, the wonderful thing about Asimov is that although he was not a Christian, I can only think of one sci-fi story of his that had anything sexually suggestive (It's calledWith Hilda in Marsport, and it is more amusing than suggestive since the main character ishoping for sex in a different gravity and it doesn't happen).  

 

I also love Heinlein and his youth stuff is okay but his adult stuff often has odd sexual arrangements. I do love The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, though. (-;

 

BTW, if anyone has a copy of Asimov's short stories of Professor Urth, please, I will buy it and pay well. The condition doesn't matter. I lost mine in a move.

 

 

 

[wingedradical]

If you want to hear some sci-fi with really corny and dated acting, go to http://archive.org/details/XMinus1_A These are old radio plays of a show called X-1. Some of the stories were originally good ones, written by people like Asimov, Bradbury, maybe Heinlein, etc. On the same site, I believe there is another series called Dimension X. Actually, it is the same series, renamed.  

 

Audible also sells them for about $1 but why pay.

 

[wingedradical]

xx

 

[ElizabethB]

Ender's game and Enchantress from the Stars are good ease in books given his reading history. Both are good easy reads that have deep issues to discuss.

[Kareni]

Try also to listen to Orson Welles' radio production of H G Wells' War of the Worlds during your science fiction year study.   Here is a Wikipedia link.

 

War of the Worlds-Original Radio Broadcast

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Julie Smith]

I personally would include something by Robert sawyer.

 

If personally think the book, "inherit the stars" is a must read science fiction book. It was my first and still favorite hard core science (emphasis on science) fiction book. The mystery of a 50,000 year old astronaunt skeleton found on the moon is solved using science. As in taking science/math as earth rotation, far side vs. near side of the moon, calendar system, ... To solve the mystery.

 

Sorry if I'm not making since. It's late and I'm on my iPad.

[EmilyK]

This isn't helping you narrow, but Lord of Light is one of my favorites. Especially good if you like mythology.

[GailV]

Ender's game and Enchantress from the Stars are good ease in books given his reading history. Both are good easy reads that have deep issues to discuss.

 

I know lots of kids who've read those for fun.  I was toting around Enchantress a while back, and a teen I saw in passing was excited to see it in my stack and talk about it with me.

 

Also, the movie of Ender's Game is coming out Nov. 1st, I think.  It would be nice to have read that one, plus possibly Ender's Shadow, by then.  Then you can hit the theater together.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I actually took a college level course in science fiction. The one thing I don't see on your list is any short stories. The golden age of science fiction was all short stories. 

 

I also see books that aren't ever categorized as science fiction even though they seem to be in the genre. I see a hodge podge of other works. 

 

To help you sort through books I've color coded them. The red ones are never shelved with science fiction, I'd remove them for a pure science fiction course. The green ones are the old classics that were written before the genre existed. Purple are from writers of that golden age. Most of the novel length books in this category began as short stories. Honestly, you might be better off returning to the short stories. The rest are a mixed bag of books that I either am not familiar with or are from later periods of science fiction. One thing that you might consider is you need a few more fill in from these later authors. Plus do you want to play around with fantasy at all? The proto fantasy works by folks like Andre Norton the CJ Cherryth might be of interest, but Norton had a long writing time so you might want to make sure you get an early work (the first Witch World for instance). 

 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Frankenstein

Portrait of Dorian Gray

The Invisible Man

Farenheit 451 (?)

Hitchhiker’s Guide

Ender’s Game

1984 (?)

Canticle for Leibowitz

Anathem (Stephenson)

I, Robot

2001, A Space Odyssey

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Slaughterhouse Five/Cat’s Cradle

Tripod series

Alas Babylon

Childhood’s End

Starship Troopers

Dune

Flowers for Algernon

Foundation trilogy by Asimov

Martian Chronicles by Bradbury

The Island of Dr. Moreau

House of Stairs

On the Beach

A Wrinkle in Time

Flatland

Enchantress from the Stars

LeGuin titles - Eye of Heron and Lathe of Heaven

Jules Verne

HG Wells

Crichton

Stephenson

Heinlein - Citizens of the Galaxy; Have Spacesuit, Will Travel

 

I like the color coded list.  But I think Crichton is modern.  And I assumed that Stephenson was Neal, not Robert Louis; so also modern.

[Candid]

I like the color coded list.  But I think Crichton is modern.  And I assumed that Stephenson was Neal, not Robert Louis; so also modern.

 

Crichton got caught up in a group high light. Presuming Jurassic Park, I changed him to red, never shelved with science fiction which is what I meant to do the first time. 

 

Stephenson I thought old but could be new. 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

So why wouldn't you class Crighton as science fiction? I realize he's not lasers and aliens and space ships. And that bookstores put him with popular fiction not the sci fi category.

 

But many of his books revolve around a scientific development and the subsequent consequences. I would argue that Jurrassic Park, Sphere, Prey, Next and Micro (completed and published posthumously from his notes) fit sci fi in the same way that Verne or Frankenstein do.

Though books like Rising Sun or Disclosure would not be science fiction.

[lisabees]

I personally would include something by Robert sawyer.

 

If personally think the book, "inherit the stars" is a must read science fiction book. It was my first and still favorite hard core science (emphasis on science) fiction book. The mystery of a 50,000 year old astronaunt skeleton found on the moon is solved using science. As in taking science/math as earth rotation, far side vs. near side of the moon, calendar system, ... To solve the mystery.

 

Sorry if I'm not making since. It's late and I'm on my iPad.

 

 

This isn't helping you narrow, but Lord of Light is one of my favorites. Especially good if you like mythology.

 

Thank you for these suggestions.  I will be sure to check them out!

[lisabees]

I like the color coded list.  But I think Crichton is modern.  And I assumed that Stephenson was Neal, not Robert Louis; so also modern.

 

 

Crichton got caught up in a group high light. Presuming Jurassic Park, I changed him to red, never shelved with science fiction which is what I meant to do the first time. 

 

Stephenson I thought old but could be new. 

 

Yes, I was talking about Neal Stephenson.  New.  :)