[Hereford Eye]

I discovered that I'd prefer to look at the question of top X books in a slightly different light. Suppose a friend asks you for a book that would show them what science fiction has to offer. So, you got into your library to grab a book that you think will turn this person on to scifi. Which book you gonna grab?

I stood and looked at my library for a long time and thought seriously about Resnick's Ivory, Scalzi's The Old Man's War, Tepper's Grass, Cherryh's Faded Sun before I settled on Simmon's Hyperion. If the person could not get into and enjoy Hyperion, then I don't think sf is for them.

Which book you gonna grab?

[ArthurFrayn]

The only book I've recommended in recent years, to people who don't read SF on a regular basis if at all, is Old Man's War, and this is not with an eye to making converts. I just think it has a broad appeal.
I don't think you can make converts to SF of people who are not predisposed.

I know a lot of people who dabble in SF, and I couldn't concieve of giving them The Hyperion Saga to read. I think those books are for committed fans. Way,way too much - too rich of a concoction for the dabbler, and out of bounds for the uninitiated, IMO. They're perfect to give to fantasy fans who want to try out SF, though.

[odo]

...I settled on Simmon's Hyperion. If the person could not get into and enjoy Hyperion, then I don't think sf is for them.


I agree completely. However, I think it depends on the person you are lending the book to. For most people I think "Ender's game" by Orson Scott Card is much more straightforward. My mother read it recently and loved it. She also read "Martian chronicles" and found it "very funny", but didn't like "Do androids dream of electric sheeps?" at all...

Anyway, "Old man's war", "Hyperion", "Ender's game" and, maybe, "Pandora's star" are sensible choices.

[Goony]

Sci-Fi is such a diverse field of themes and types and genres that it appeals to almost everybody, although to different degrees. However, for somebody to get to the habbit of going to the bookstore or library, or purchasing the SF product online, or reading reviews about a book or movie requires a personal niche.

I think a more personal approach would be more effective than just recommending a book. Maybe attending a sci-fi literature class at a local college that includes discussions and analysis would be the most effective approach. Sometimes I enjoy reading "about" a book or movie more than reading or seeing it myself!

[KatG]

I also probably wouldn't sick someone new on Hyperion. For fantasy fans who want to try sf, I'd start them slow on the books that a lot of fantasy fans like to claim are fantasy because they have the low tech aspect -- Dune, Pern and McCaffrey's others, C.S. Friedman's "In Conquest Born," Gene Wolfe's Sun trilogies, C.J. Cherryh's "Rider at the Gate" series.

Other than that, I'd find out what sort of story they like. Usually, if I'm asked about it, the person has heard of some author and is wondering about that person. For some people, I'd recommend Ursula Le Guin's "Left Hand of Darkness, or Card's "Ender's Game." For others, depending on their reading interests, I might send them to Greg Bear, Kim Stanley Robinson, David Weber, or David Brin.

I tend to stay away from most of the really classic sf as recommendations, not because I don't love them, but because the 1950, 1960 guesses about the future may turn newcomers off. If they read sf and like it, then I might start recommending a lot of the folk on Yobmod's list of favorites.

[Mugwump]

I wouldn't bother with Hyperion, either. It's an enjoyable piece of work that's pretty well written, but I don't think it, in any way, expresses the full potential of SF, which is a genre concerned with the representation of difference – technological, temporospatial, biological etc. - and reaction/interaction to/with such difference.

With this in mind I'd be torn between two books. Well ... one book and a collection. The first is Neuromancer. In my opinion this is the most important SF book of the last 40 years. Perhaps longer. It's beautifully written in evocative (if albeit confusing) prose, and has a distinct and unforgettable texture. The social, moral and ethical questions it raises with respect to our increasingly asymmetrical relationship with technology are both taxing and terrifying.

My second choice is The H.G. Wells Collection. Wells is, without any doubt in my mind, the most important science fiction writier - ever. He may always be so. The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, When The Sleeper Wakes and The Invisible Man just about kicked off ever single sub-genre in SF barring Cyberpunk and a couple of others (sadly those following in his footsteps weren't nearly as good, but this is for another debate) . Moreau is the most astonishing piece of speculative fiction. In just over 100 pages Wells tackles some of the deepest and most divisive philosophical and ethical questions of this and any other time. If your brain isn't functioning at 100% capacity when Moreau gives his little speech to Prendick on his struggles to transform beasts into men you should give up reading and try basket weaving or something.

[Hereford Eye]

Now for a corollary: devise a test to prove one or the other of us is on the right track.:D If your brain isn't functioning at 100% capacity...you should give up and try basket weaving or something.:eek:

[ArthurFrayn]

I'll agree with Neuromancer(and I did recommend this when it came out), not because:

SF...is a genre concerned with the representation of difference – technological, temporospatial, biological etc. - and reaction/interaction to/with such difference.


which is a sure way to scare off everyone including the family dog, but because you wont have to work hard to sell it to kids ("this is the first cyberpunk novel, dude"), and old fogies will read it to be hip.
I couldn't sell HGWells to anyone except people who are interested in the grandpa list. On that list is other writers like Poe, Verne and Lovecraft.
I luhhv these authors, but there are kids (13-29) who wont read this stuff de facto, so, fegeddaboutit. We're lucky they're reading at all.

[Evil Agent]

I don't know... turning folks on with Sci Fi sounds a little kinky.


Sorry.

[ArthurFrayn]

Don't tell me you haven't done any RAH or PKD, Evil Agent.
Free yourself.
Open yourself to new possiblities. Maybe a little light A& L (Asimov & Le Guin)... let your inhibitions go. That's how you grow. Oh. ;)