The aliens have arrived...

[Ropie]

...and it's time to get out of their way!! Outside your house/flat there is government issue lunar-bound escape vehicle waiting. You knew this would happen sooner or later but of course when the sirens sound you are not quite prepared. You have about 10 seconds to get on board otherwise it will take off without you, leaving you to fend for yourself against the marauding hordes of xenomorphs intent on transforming you into packing material for their massive intergalactic postal system.

As you turn the handle of the front door you suddenly think of the long journey in the (hopefully well lit) cabin towards the safety of the moon base and wish for something to read. As luck would have it there is one SF book that you took out of your vast collection just last night and left nonchanantly on the small table by the door. You just have time to grab it as you race out.......

What book would you want it to be and why?

Edit: no you can't come back and pick up another one later - that's your only book for the foreseeable future!

 

[Beleg]

The Instrumentality of Mankind - Cordwainer Smith's canon.*

 

[ArthurFrayn]

Hate to be a party pooper, but if aliens are picking me up, I don't think I need to be reading any Science Fiction.

I guess I'd grab Joyce's Ulysses, because it's one of the greatest novels in the English language, and there's enough in there content wise to keep me busy during the long ride.

 

[Ropie]

Oh no, the aliens aren't picking you up: I've amended the text so it reads more clearly. You just need something to read and it must be SF...

 

[ArthurFrayn]

Continuing to be a pain...

You haven't ammended the text nearly enough. There are aliens, and I'm going to the moon. I wouldn't need to read a Science Fiction novel, I'd be in one. If I were dealing with the trauma of being relocated from earth I'd want to read something as remote from the nightmare I was living as possible.
I'd read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in this context before I'd pick up an SF book.

 

[Ropie]

Well I'd go with Stand on Zanzibar partly because it's long and partly because it is so involving.

 

[ArthurFrayn]

That might be a good pick. You wouldn't have to worry about an overcrowded earth anymore.

 

[Konrad]

The Zombie Survival Guide. It's the one book that I would hold in my hand in that case. It doesn't matter if it's zombielike aliens it has some chapters that can be used in other circumstanses.
Or does it have to be pure story-sf?
Then I would choose the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Even though it's big as a brick.

 

[Archren]

I mentioned this to my husband and he looked at the coffee table where his copy of Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1 was sitting. That would probably be a good choice, even if it's fantasy. If he could pick a book that hasn't been published yet he said he'd take the *real* Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, because that would probably be most useful.

If I had to grab something convenient from my collection it would probably be The Past Through Tomorrow, my edition of Heinlein's Future History stories (although I like the Cordwainer Smith choice as well - if only I hadn't loaned my copy out!) If I could dream, I would probably grab an omnibus edition of The Book of the New Sun, including all five volumes in Gene Wolfe's series. That should keep me occupied for awhile.

 

[intensityxx]

I mentioned this to my husband and he looked at the coffee table where his copy of Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1 was sitting. That would probably be a good choice, even if it's fantasy.

Lucky husband. Lucky you. Oh, I get it... Alas, I gave that to a friend for xmas who lives out-of-town and I don't get to look at it, like you do.

I'm still thinking, Ropie. What is it with you and the "One" questions? That's so hard.

 

[Archren]

Lucky husband. Lucky you. Oh, I get it... Alas, I gave that to a friend for xmas who lives out-of-town and I don't get to look at it, like you do.

I almost felt guilty buying it for him for Christmas, knowing how much enjoyment I would get out of it. However, as is proper, I'm at least letting him have first dibs, as it were.

 

[Ropie]

I'm still thinking, Ropie. What is it with you and the "One" questions? That's so hard.

I'm a minimalist

Seriously, if you ask people for a list they rattle off the first things that come into their heads, then come back a few days later and add some more. If you ask for one then they hopefully stop and think about it until they get the best answer.

In my case I chose Zanzibar not only because of its size but also, as Mr Frayn the great complainer points out, it is familiar enough to remind me of a time at home and also not too SF to add to my problems.

But hey, the situation isn't really that important; it was just a slightly original way of asking which is the one SF book you'd take to comfort you on a long journey into the unknown...

No offence Arthur

 

[toriphile]

Dhalgren. Because I love it and it never ends .

 

[ArthurFrayn]

But hey, the situation isn't really that important; it was just a slightly original way of asking which is the one SF book you'd take to comfort you on a long journey into the unknown...

No offence Arthur

None taken. I was busting some onions there, although I do harbor a notion that SF provocative or not, is best read safely nestled in a technologically advanced civilization and that other writing might be of greater solace in a time of social collapse or destruction...


Having said that I'll pick a book apart from the scenario, because it's the SF book I seem to have reread the most( I continue to read it about every 5 years), and that would be Robert Silverberg's Son of Man. Why-because it is one of the most vividly technicolor works of SFF I've ever read, and the concept of becoming one with the different future stages of man, over unimaginable periods of time, and in other stages of being apart from anything remotely human, remains to my mind a fairly mind blowing concept.And I've read it so often I suppose it qualifies as "comfort food".It makes me feel a connection with an earlier reader self of mine.

It's also one of those early reads ( I think I was 13) that shaped my perception of what Science Fiction could be.

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue244/classic.html

 

[Libo]

Probably something warm, fuzzy and familiar. Have Space Suit Will Travel leaps to mind along with a couple of others. I read and reread it many moons ago. Why take a chance on something totally unknown, since I'm already heading into it. I'd want something I'd know I'd want to read again at least once more.