Recommend a good sci fi book ?

[JessasMilkMama]

I joined a Sci-Fi book club and a friend and I get to pick the selection for July. We've already done Childhoods End and 1984 and we are doing "We" next and then Dune... and they have already done A Brave New World and Handmaids Tale. They are pretty liberal with the term "Sci Fi" so horror, fantasy, dystopia is all ok. Preferably I would love one with a female heroine. I dont want another alien book... I've already read The Road.... so what are some good Sci Fi books??

[Pinoikoi]

I am planning on teaching a scifi/fantasy course this summer, so I am reading up on the curriculum list.. let me go get it for you!

*I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
*Foundation by Isaac Asimov
*Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov
*2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
*2010: Odyssey II by Arthur C. Clark *
*Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke *
*Brave New World by Aldous Huxley*
*Dune by Frank Herbert*
*Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
*The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
*Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
*1984 by George Orwell
*The Giver by Lois Lowry
*A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Leguin
*Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
*Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
*Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
*Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
*Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
*Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
*Alas Babylon by Pat Frank
Gold by Isaac Asimov
Bellwether by Connie Willis
Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley*
House of Stairs by William Sleator
Sphere by Michael Crichton
Children of Men by PD James
Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Leguin
DragonFlight by Anne McCaffre
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
The Transaal Saga by Gary Paulsen
Suggested for Approval: The Diary of Pelly D by Lucy J Adlington
I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Z for Zachariah
Also for approval: Anvil of the Sun

If you are looking for a female heroine, I would recommend something from Anne McCaffrey's Dragon's of Pern series- I especially liked the one with Lessa- was that Dragonflight? (If you are unfamiliar with the series- it is one of my all time favorites. I started reading the dragon and hall books, and later went back and read the one about the planet getting settled "First Fall" I think- so the series as a whole has some very fantasy books and some very scifi books. McCaffrey also did a really interesting series on mental telepathy, kinetics, etc. Damia's Children is part of that series- I can't remember the first one, though. That series starts out with a male hero, but then as the series develops there are a lot of female heroines. The latter books in the series do have aliens. Another shorter series for her with female heroines is Crystal Singer- Crystals are developed in a modern world as a power source, and a brave few volunteer their LIVES to live on the planet that they are harvested from- at the expense of their minds.. kind of..)

Z for Zachariah does not have aliens, it is post apocalyptic Earth- but it is a VERY quick read- nice female heroine.

Blue Sword by Robin McKinley is very famous has a desert location and I don't REMEMBER any aliens.. female heroine

[yentroc]

DH is reading:

Hyperion by Dan Simmons and LOOOOOVES it.

He is also a huge Orson Scott Card lover.

HTH.

[SAHDS]

Two words:

Ray Bradbury.

I hate sci-fi, or at least I though so, but Ray Bradbury is my favorite author of all-time. I own about 2 dozen of his books and have read them multiple times. A few of my favs:

The Illustrated Man (the first Bradbury book I read. GREAT!)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (loved the movie as a child, the book was even better)

Fahrenheit 451 (probably my favorite Bradbury book. Just awesome social commentary to really scare the crap out of you. Where is this world heading?)

*on edit*

I've never thought of it, but I suppose A Wrinkle in Time is sci-fi... odd. It was my most beloved book when I was smaller. Man, I can't tell you how much I cherished that book.

[Aubergine68]

I've taught science fiction courses as well, though it has been a while.


Any of the books listed above would be good reads. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was bar none my favorite book to teach.

Some of my fave SF by women/ with female heroines include the following:

Sherri S. Tepper The Gate to Women's Country (about the responsibility of women to put an end to war)
Family Tree (indescribable, but so fun!)
Beauty (a powerful re-telling of numerous fairy tales -- can Sleeping Beauty save our world from ecological disaster
Gibbon's Decline and Fall

Octavia Butler's Wild Seed or Parable of the Sower

C. J. Cherryh's Cyteen books and Rim Runners

Ursula Leguin's The Dispossessed is my fave of her books

Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch has strong female characters, an amazing book

Connie Willis' Doomsday Book or Bellweather

S M Stirling's Island on the Sea of Time has one of the strongest female characters ever, a black lesbian ship's captain who gets transported back in time to the bronze age with her crew and the entire population of Nantuckett -- also a lot of fun.

[crittersmum]

Wow! Some great suggestions already.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga (it starts with Warrior's Apprentice. I'd never heard of her until a few years ago but she's won as many Hugos and Nebulas as Heinlein! This action-packed, fun space opera has one of the most engaging protaganists in science fiction. If you don't fall half in love with him by the end of the series I urge you to have your head examined. The main character's mother is a strong, amazing woman who stars in what I consider the "prequels" to this series, Cordelia's Honor

If you're looking for hard sf with a capital "H," I'd recommend Kim Stanley Robinson. The man is a polymath -- science, economics, social and cultural -- he explores them all. His Red Mars series is epic and his 30 Degrees Below is very topical with flashes of humour. All of his characters -- man or woman -- are strong!

You did say your group was open to fantasy, but, still I hesitate with my final recommendation...if you read him and don't like him I'd have to block all further communications from you as you obviously have worrying personality flaws . Terry Pratchett. Anything by Terry Pratchett. Thought-provoking and investigating large themes, like racism, militarism, feminism and all the other popular -isms but funnyfunnyfunny! My all-time favourite, a massive seller in the UK, an OBE and AS Byatt's favourite authour. My favourite book of his changes daily, but for your purposes you might want one of the Witches books. Get it. Read it. Love it.

[sadie_sabot]

Originally Posted by Aubergine68

Octavia Butler's The Dispossessed is my fave of her books

anything by Octavia Butler is great, but Ursula Leguin wrote the Dispossessed, also an amazing book that I love. I'm also a big fan of Sherri Tepper, the Family Tree is a good one given the current focus on ecological destruction.

[sadie_sabot]

Originally Posted by crittersmum

If you're looking for hard sf with a capital "H," I'd recommend Kim Stanley Robinson. The man is a polymath -- science, economics, social and cultural -- he explores them all. His Red Mars series is epic and his 30 Degrees Below is very topical with flashes of humour. All of his characters -- man or woman -- are strong!

oh yeah, I adore Kim Stanley Robinson. The Forty Days of Rain/50 Degrees Below/60 Days and counting trilogy is great and very timely as well, given catastrophic climate change.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by JessasMilkMama

I joined a Sci-Fi book club and a friend and I get to pick the selection for July. We've already done Childhoods End and 1984 and we are doing "We" next and then Dune... and they have already done A Brave New World and Handmaids Tale. They are pretty liberal with the term "Sci Fi" so horror, fantasy, dystopia is all ok. Preferably I would love one with a female heroine.

"On Basilisk Station" is the first in David Weber's excellent series about Honor Harrington. From that you could go to the Miles Vorkosigan stuff by Lois McMaster Bujold, the 1632 series by Eric Flint, and Elizabeth Moon's Heris Serrano books that start with "Hunting Party".

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by crittersmum

You did say your group was open to fantasy, but, still I hesitate with my final recommendation...if you read him and don't like him I'd have to block all further communications from you as you obviously have worrying personality flaws . Terry Pratchett. Anything by Terry Pratchett. Thought-provoking and investigating large themes, like racism, militarism, feminism and all the other popular -isms but funnyfunnyfunny! My all-time favourite, a massive seller in the UK, an OBE and AS Byatt's favourite authour. My favourite book of his changes daily, but for your purposes you might want one of the Witches books. Get it. Read it. Love it.

: : : :
And then read them all again because the ones you read first get even better when you can catch more of the nuances (you can understand pretty much any of the books without reading the others, there are just more things to see when you've read the others.)

[Norabella]

Originally Posted by alaskanteach

If you are looking for a female heroine, I would recommend something from Anne McCaffrey's Dragon's of Pern series- I especially liked the one with Lessa- was that Dragonflight? (If you are unfamiliar with the series- it is one of my all time favorites. I started reading the dragon and hall books, and later went back and read the one about the planet getting settled "First Fall" I think- so the series as a whole has some very fantasy books and some very scifi books

I second the recommendation for Anne McCafrey. Dragonflight has a strong female lead, (yes, that is the one with Lessa, alaskanteach) and is a great place to start if you are new to the "Pern" books.

Originally Posted by alaskanteach

McCaffrey also did a really interesting series on mental telepathy, kinetics, etc. Damia's Children is part of that series- I can't remember the first one, though. That series starts out with a male hero, but then as the series develops there are a lot of female heroines. The latter books in the series do have aliens.

The first book in this series is The Rowan, and I disagree with the PP's statement that it has a male hero, I think of the title character (female) as the main heroine.

Originally Posted by alaskanteach

Another shorter series for her with female heroines is Crystal Singer- Crystals are developed in a modern world as a power source, and a brave few volunteer their LIVES to live on the planet that they are harvested from- at the expense of their minds.. kind of..)

Another excellent recommendation.

In fact, the three series mentioned by alaskanteach are some of my favorite McCaffery books, and the Pern series ranks pretty high on my list of favorite books over all.

Originally Posted by alaskanteach

Blue Sword by Robin McKinley is very famous has a desert location and I don't REMEMBER any aliens.. female heroine

The Blue Sword is one of my (and my sisters') all time favorite books. It does have "non-human" characters, but not aliens. More of an earth setting, w/ magical/fantasy elements.

[philomom]

My current favorite, no monsters, aliens or spaceships just an alternate earth kind of thing....

http://www.wenspencer.com/abrothersprice.html


Awesome story!

[Channelle]

I love the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, great books-written really well, and fun and adventurous. It's absolutely main character is a man, but it really has like 10 main characters, half of which are women, and in it, women are like the rulers.

My other fav. is Terry Pratchett's series. It's about a girl named Tiffany-a trainee witch whose growth into her job forms one of the many arcs in the Discworld series.

[karen ann]

Originally Posted by Channelle

My other fav. is Terry Pratchett's series. It's about a girl named Tiffany-a trainee witch whose growth into her job forms one of the many arcs in the Discworld series.

The Tiffany Aching books? (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, and Wintersmith) Great series, good strong female characters, very funny. They'll be in the young adult section though. And I think you can appreciate some of the peripheral characters more if you've read some of his adult Discworld books featuring the witches.


For straight sci fi I really enjoy Philip K Dick. The man was a mess, but his writing was fantastic (and a lot of his books were made into films). I personally would recommend Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which was made into the film Blade Runner) -- not very long and raises a lot of interesting questions about artificial intelligence -- or The Man in the High Castle -- an alternate history novel taking place in 1962 after the Axis powers win WWII.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Channelle

I love the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, great books-written really well, and fun and adventurous. It's absolutely main character is a man, but it really has like 10 main characters, half of which are women, and in it, women are like the rulers.

My other fav. is Terry Pratchett's series. It's about a girl named Tiffany-a trainee witch whose growth into her job forms one of the many arcs in the Discworld series.

Don't real Wheel of Time until they resolve the plot endings.

The Tiffany Aching series is awesome, it starts with "Wee Free Men".

[SAHDS]

Originally Posted by Aubergine68

Beauty (a powerful re-telling of numerous fairy tales -- can Sleeping Beauty save our world from ecological disaster

That sounds very intriguing. Could you tell me a bit more about this? Is it appropriate for children (DD is nearly 9)?

[sadie_sabot]

Originally Posted by SAHDS

That sounds very intriguing. Could you tell me a bit more about this? Is it appropriate for children (DD is nearly 9)?

NOT appropriate for children; it has a pretty horrific rape scene. I mean, not super graphic or anything, but...not something I'd think would be good for a 9 year old.

[MeepyCat]

Is your book club sticking to the depressing parts of the genre on purpose? Would they object to some more optimistic material?

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Don't real Wheel of Time until they resolve the plot endings.

They never will. Robert Jordan died late last year.

I loved McCaffrey when I was a teenager, but I feel like I outgrew her pretty fast.

Bujold's Vorkosigan series is great (except for "Diplomatic Immunity", which is kind of eh). "Paladin of Souls" is even better - an amazing, incredible, awe-inspiring book.

Connie Willis's "Doomsday Book" meets the criteria for hard sci-fi in that it's bleak as all get out. "To Say Nothing of the Dog" is related to it and quite funny. The first chapter or two will make you feel jet-lagged, in much the same way that "1984" makes readers think of oily gin and boiled cabbage.

[MeepyCat]

Originally Posted by SAHDS

That sounds very intriguing. Could you tell me a bit more about this? Is it appropriate for children (DD is nearly 9)?

Sheri S. Tepper's "Beauty" is not appropriate for children. By contrast, your daughter might really enjoy Robin McKinley's "Beauty", a retelling of Beauty & the Beast with a strong, smart heroine, a loving family, and without the creepy abusive relationship vibe that so often emanates from that fairy tale.

I forgot to mention these earlier:
Ellen Kushner's books - "Swordspoint", "The Fall of the Kings" and "The Privilege of the Sword" are REALLY good. I wouldn't hand them to your nine year-old. I read Swordspoint when I was thirteen or so, and dealt with it fine, but read it yourself before handing it to your kid.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by MeepyCat

They never will. Robert Jordan died late last year.

They've claimed he left notes. (*whisper* I've never read the series myself and I'm never going to after people who have read it told me that there are still plot hangers left from book ONE.)

: MeepyCat is one of the cuter usernames I've ever seen on here. *meep*!