What are some clean science fiction books?

[Omphalos]

Somebody asked for "clean" science fiction, meaning without sex. Clearly, that person has a problem with sex in literature, or at least in science fiction.

I thought they might have wanted something sophisticated, but suitable for a young'un.

 

[Chekhov]

That's possible, but I would assume then they'd have specified it was for children.

 

[pox]

I think regardless of the reasons we can surely knock up a list without jumping at throats like board weasels

 

[Hobbit]

Yes, thanks all.


Service announcement, just for clarification:

Chekov: it's not up to us to decide whether the OP has 'a problem with sex', as you put it.

There are many reasons for not wanting books with sex in: or books with sex in, for that matter!

However what we don't do at SFFWorld is judge people on their reasoning. Whatever the reason, its not relevant in that we treat them with respect, regardless of their reasons.

We're strange like that: but it's in the Forum guidelines.

Mark

 

[Mostlyharmless]

Firstly, I would like to apologise if my previous post seemed aggresively unhelpful. I must admit that I found the request rather frustrating because it revealed that I cannot in general remember whether sex occurred even in my favourite stories.

However, I have just skipped through Greg Egan's Quarantine and checked that no sex occurs. There remains the question of whether the story is dark. It is certainly not gory. However, it is also not a celebration of heroic success and some might believe that the central character requires therapy. I suspect that there is little or no explicit sex in most of Egan's stories although again there is perhaps some lack of facile optimism (but I haven't checked).

Another of my favourites is Brian Stableford's Asgard Trilogy. I am fairly sure that no sex occurs and the books are no darker than expected when almost all of the action takes place underground. I don't think that sex occurs in the Hooded Swan stories either. I note that Owlcroft had already recommended Stableford.

 

[pox]

I'm having the same problem.

Terry Pratchetts Dark Side of The Sun and Strata are safe.

It's finding the fine line where I'd be prepared to recommend something that I thought was a bit 'shy'

 

[psikeyhackr]

THE YEAR WHEN STARDUST FELL by Raymond F. Jones
http://winstonscifi.blogspot.com/2010/04/synopsis-for-year-when-stardust-fell-by.html

It's from 1958, it's gotta be clean.

I read it, it's a decent sci-fi story of that era. People that like the style of today may not think much of it. No computers. Possibly too much realism in the science though the basic premise is difficult to imagine. It does say something about technology and society.

psik

 

[Chekhov]

Chekov: it's not up to us to decide whether the OP has 'a problem with sex', as you put it.

There are many reasons for not wanting books with sex in: or books with sex in, for that matter!

However what we don't do at SFFWorld is judge people on their reasoning. Whatever the reason, its not relevant in that we treat them with respect, regardless of their reasons.

I did not make a value judgment either way. I simply inferred that this person has a dislike of sex in novels. Perhaps I was overly hasty in doing so. If so, I apologize.

Possibly too much realism in the science

Nonsense! I expect your dissertation on the physics of intersteller travel in Aliens on my desk tomorrow morning.

 

[Hobbit]

Chekhov: If it helps, it can be the wording: if it were face to face, these things would sometimes be clearer. A lot of our issues are caused by that simple fact.

Appreciate you clearing it up, and the apology, if one were needed, though.


Mark

 

[LGN5]

I really enjoy reading science fiction, but it's often difficult to find good science fiction that isn't too dark and that doesn't contain sex. What are some good science fiction authors/books that aren't dark and gloomy and that don't have sexual content?

The old stuff. Golden Age. It's great stuff, but I also like my Sci-fi dark, gloomy and full of sex.

 

[LGN5]

Tim Zahn's Night Train to Rigel books are pretty clean and quite good. I don't even miss the lack of bad language and sex....

 

[offog]

I really enjoy reading science fiction, but it's often difficult to find good science fiction that isn't too dark and that doesn't contain sex. What are some good science fiction authors/books that aren't dark and gloomy and that don't have sexual content?

What are examples of the books with a lot of sex? There are exceptions but overall I haven't found sex to be all that common in SF, maybe I've just been reading the wrong books.

 

[Loerwyn]

What are examples of the books with a lot of sex? There are exceptions but overall I haven't found sex to be all that common in SF, maybe I've just been reading the wrong books.

Haldeman's The Forever War (Chapter 1: Sex. Chapter 2: Training and Sex. Chapter 3: Lots more Sex), anything by Heinlein will likely have a sexual theme to it, or at least his more 'adult' reads. Not sure what else does.

 

[JimF]

Haldeman's The Forever War (Chapter 1: Sex. Chapter 2: Training and Sex. Chapter 3: Lots more Sex), anything by Heinlein will likely have a sexual theme to it, or at least his more 'adult' reads. Not sure what else does.

Niven's later ringworld has lots of interspieces sex. plenty of sex in Peter hamilton's work too.

 

[offog]

Yeah, I remember that. Haldeman will never shy away from it. There's sex in Old Twentieth, Camouflage as well as "More Than the Sum of His Parts" and I'd guess many others. There's also some in Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I don't doubt Heinlein but I'd bet it's pretty tame by today's standards. It's probably more prevalent than I think it is, just more common to read SF without.

Novels that come to mind:

The World Inside - Robert Silverberg
West of Eden - Harry Harrison
Takeshi Kovacs series - Richard Morgan

 

[Nicolas]

Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany has a plethora of very explicit sex scenes.

 

[The Void]

I think this thread mentioned more of "not so clean" books, kinda what to avoid if you want to introduce little kids to sf.

I myself don't seem to be able to remember any scifi i've read without sex scene and dark theme in it, maybe it's just my taste.

 

[DDCOrange]

Maybe it's because I just finished it but one good candidate would be Connie Willis' two novels about time-traveller's caught in England during the Blitz Blackout and All Clear. Both novels are pretty clean aside from the occasional kiss or hug and I found them to be hugely entertaining. Also they are very recent novels so not everything chaste necessarily comes from the 50's and 60's!

 

[RBeatrice]

An author I've found and haven't seen mentioned in this thread is Timothy Zahn, he's known for his Star Wars books but his other books are really well done. The only exception to the no sex is his book Triplet, and another book Angelmass has an explicit scene but no sex.

 

[mylinar]

Man do I have you beat! When my daughter was still eating baby food she would put two fingers back in her mouth between bites [SIC]. The excess multi-colored food would run down her arm to the elbow etc. We of course taped this to show to any prospective suitors in the future (parents can be cruel). So now sex doesn't seem so dirty LOL.