Imagine I could only choose 5 sci fi books for a brand new sci fi reader – what would they be?
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
