I've read Asimov when I was a teenager and I liked it, I've also read Verne in middle school. Besides that I've never read any science fiction book. I'm currently more interested in reading "older" science fiction classics from the 20th century, but I'm open to contemporary. Something that you think has literary/social/political relevance that goes beyond one's interest in the genre itself.
by Erodiade
8 Comments
Depends what kinds of stories you’re into, sci-fi or not.
I’ve always enjoyed sci-fi, but only recently read The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury) and thought it was really excellent, and felt as relevant now as I bet it was when it was written. It’s basically a collection of short stories that tell an overarching narrative about humans colonizing Mars.
It depends on how far back you consider things to be “classic”.
Here’s some of the mid to late century novels I consider to be classics because of the influence they had on more modern works.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Ringworld – Larry Niven
Dragonflight – Anne McCaffrey (This series starts off like a fantasy world, then shifts into Sci-Fi later)
Enemy Mine – Barry Longyear
Dune – Frank Herbert
Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
2001: A space odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke.
The Ship who Sang – Anne McCaffrey
Dorsai! – Gordon R. Dickson
More recent, but worthy of a read as well
On Basilisk Station – David Weber
The price of the stars – Deborah Doyle & James D. Macdonald
Hunting Party – Elizabeth Moon
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s a masterpiece
The Chessmen of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Mote in Gods Eye – Larry Niven Jerry Pournelle, best first contact novel
Dune. You don’t have to read the follow-on books, Dune stands alone.
Robert Heinlein’s Friday.
If you’re looking for classic Sci-fi I would say Ray Bradbury, read either The Martian Chronicles or Fahrenheit 451.
If you’re interested in reading the beginnings of more weirder and experimental sci-fi at that time I suggest Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination. Keep in mind some of the writing hasn’t aged well in his writing about race and gender but I defend that it allows for some of the weirdness to the book.
Dune is a classic Sci-fi series that is worth reading because of what it says about politics, religion, and environmental issues.
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick is another classic from the 60s that feels relevant today. Especially due to it being set in an alternate history where the Nazis won WW2.
If you’re looking for some of the most important sci-fi books of the latter 20th century I would recommend Neuromancer by William Gibson and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson as they are books that really looked at how society would interact with technology that’s really closer to how we do today.
If you’re willing to take a literary challenge I love Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun series. Not only does he take inspiration for his epic saga from Greek mythology and also Catholic philosophy, but the writing is very multilayered and complex. I have read it multiple times to try to understand it and each time there’s something new that I missed. Academics have written extensively on the series and there’s a podcast called Alzabo Soup dedicated to the author’s bibliography.
If you’re looking for more contemporary books, I recommend The Expanse in its look at politics and how things can still be the same even in the future and Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky for its look at how nature is linked to a society.