What was your first SF read?

lol.

Cougs - I wasn't being critical of your read - we all have to start somewhere. I was just using the mention to point out MC's own feelings about 'sf'; they are thrillers, but I don't see how you can't classify them as SF: alien virus invades earth; computers control humans through electronic interface; alien space ship; computer tech used to alter reality; DNA tech used to bring back the dinosaurs; time travel with a paradox.

MY problem with Crichton is his anti-science stance; yes, new tech will alter the future in unimaginable, unpredictable ways. yes, we will probably screw things up tremendously before we get a handle on them; yes, the tech will be perverted and used for bad things but - what's the alternative? Stop? Don't investigate further, kill all the eggheads, burn all the libraries and go back to the caves? Ummm, Djinni No Fit Back In Bottle...
 
I remember seeing in a copy of 'The Writers & Artists Handbook' a fast-seller list in which the genre label for Jurassic Park was 'Dinosaur'. It annoyed me very much at the time.
 
alien virus invades earth; computers control humans through electronic interface; alien space ship; computer tech used to alter reality; DNA tech used to bring back the dinosaurs; time travel with a paradox.
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It's funny (maybe the wrong word?) how with all those glaringly SF esque ideas staring me right in the face, I still automatically think of thriller/mainstream when I see a Crichton book. I feel silly now. Maybe Crichton (with the help of the media?) has succeeded a bit in his attempt to distance himself from SF. I'm curious what his books are shelved under in stores these days, not that it really means much, but I'm still curious.

MY problem with Crichton is his anti-science stance; yes, new tech will alter the future in unimaginable, unpredictable ways. yes, we will probably screw things up tremendously before we get a handle on them; yes, the tech will be perverted and used for bad things but - what's the alternative? Stop? Don't investigate further, kill all the eggheads, burn all the libraries and go back to the caves? Ummm, Djinni No Fit Back In Bottle...
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Wow, I had no idea that he felt that way, that puts his books in a new light for me. It seems as if he wrote them with the intent to warn us all of our self-inflicted impending doom.

ehhh, science and engineering better now stop, or else I'm out of a job. Something tells me it's here to stay though. I mean, who doesn't want a bigger, brighter, clearer, and cheaper TV? I do :).

I remember seeing in a copy of 'The Writers & Artists Handbook' a fast-seller list in which the genre label for Jurassic Park was 'Dinosaur'. It annoyed me very much at the time.
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HAHA, I laughed out loud when I read that. Thats priceless, and yes, that would annoy me quite a bit. Following that convention I could label 2001 as a Spaceship book, damn I love spaceships.
 
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That reminds me of another one where there was a program to find out the book people most like in Britain. LOTR won it, much to the chagrin of many. Whilst they were conducting this survey they interviewed various 'celebrities'. One was a comic woman called Jo Brand. She said she hates SF and that her favourite book is 1984. Go figure.
 
I tried to remember when I read my first SF, but the only images that come to mind ate that of a library I only went to from age 12. I cannot imagine that it was that late. Titles that come to mind are mostly by Dutch authors. But I am at least sure I read Mona Lisa Overdrive and The Difference Engine (both by Gibson) relatively soon after they were first published (probably in Dutch translations) which would still put them in my early teens.

But I have been reading SF ever since, switching between classics and new publications depending on availability and mood.
 
I believe the first sf I read was, Fahrenheit 451, which I hated.

The first sf I read that I recall liking was Asimov's short story, "Nightfall," which was in an otherwise forgetable collection of his short stories aptly titled, Nightfall and Other Stories.


Randy M.
 
The very first SF novel I read was The Stars, Like Dust by Asimov. I don't remember my age but I was young. I liked it but it took years before I stumbled on and developed an interest in SF.
 
well, the results so far are:

3 x Jules Verne
Del Rey/Fairman
Alan Nourse
Robert Heinlein
Ec Tubb
Cameron
Madeleine L’Engle
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Larry Niven
Gerry Davis
William Gibson
Ray Bradbury
Ben Bova
Isaac Asimov

In looking this over, I don't think naming a single author really conveys all that much information. Maybe your first five or ten might provide a better look at the nature of your exposure. I also think separating young adult/juvenile works from adult will help clarify things.

I'm pretty sure my sequence went:

Del Rey, L'Engle, Wells, Verne, Heinlein, Heinlein, Chandler, Bradley, Tolkein, Campbell anthologies.

Del Rey, L'Engle and the first batch of Heinlein were YA.
 
hmmmm first SF book...
I remember when i was really young i read A journey to the centre of the earth which i guess can be classified as F, I read the hobbit when i was older, maybe about 9 or 10. The Lion the witch and the wardrobe i read over xmas holidays when i was maybe 7 or 8.

The first real SF book i read was Ender's Game when i was 10 and Artemis Fowl at around maybe the same age or a little older
 
RimWorlder said:
Maybe your first five or ten might provide a better look at the nature of your exposure. I also think separating young adult/juvenile works from adult will help clarify things.
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I really wish I could tell you that. It's peculiar how the very first book sticks in my mind but everything after that is a blur. The only other book that really sticks out is A Fall of Moodust by Clarke but I don't know when I read it in relation to the first, by age 12 I'm pretty sure. I know I read stuff by Heinlein and Asimov and Bradbury and others but I'm not sure about titles, much less sequence.

psik
 
adamc said:
I have no idea what was my first; I lived in a house full of SF.
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Ditto to this. My brother was about 10 years older than I and had a huge collection of science fiction books as well as monthly subscriptions/back issues to Assimov, Analog, Galaxy, and Fantasy and Science Fiction. I think the magazines were my first real introduction.

BTW: Sandkings, which I originally read in Omni is my favorite SF story of all time.

Anyone know it? I have it in a collection now.
 
Yes. In fact, Sandkings was one of the few stories published in Omni that I actually liked. I basically stopped reading Analog and got Omni out of 'loyalty'. Despite the fact that I like much of what Ben Bova has written, his editorial tastes and mine do not generally agree.

They made Sandkings into an 'new' Outer Limits episode, I believe. Not a bad episode either.

In my opinion, Omni 'failed' for the same reasons that the Paizo Pub. version of Amazing did; trying to please too many different audiences with one magazine; Omni had some nice science articles, but much of it was 'out there' (many SF readers do not like 'ufology' mixed in with their SF). Amazing tried to do the 'media biz' thing...
 
my first sf read was dune by frank herbert saw the film and thought i'd read the book. the book puts shame over the film.
 
The first science fiction book i read was "Lucky Starr And The Pirates Of The Asteroids" by Paul French. Can anybody guess Mr. French's real name?:D .That was in 1959 when I was 8 years old.
 
I know that, Raggedy: I have a set upstairs!

Issac Asimov!

Wonder if anyone else knows? Not his finest moment, but fun. And there was some sensawunda. Quickly outdated by the real stuff, though, if I remember right.

Mark / Hobbit
 
Correct , Hobbit! You get the pat on the back, the hearty handshake and the warm glow of victory! My local library at that time only had three Lucky Starr books so it was many years before I read the rest . But in the mean time I had Andre Norton , Heinlein , the Winston science fiction series and the Dig Allen books.There was an explosion of juvi sf in the 1950's!:D
 
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There was an explosion of juvi sf in the 1950's!
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From what little I know about the 50's here in the UK, not really. There were a few pulp type novels, but the market wasn't really there. it was difficult enough getting adult SF, never mind the stuff for younger readers.

However I will accept Eagle's Dan Dare. Not a book as such, but fairly easy to get hold of at that time.

Dan_Dare_-_Operation_Moss_comic_panel.png


OK: back to topic. After an initiation of Doctor Who, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet in the 1960's,

tv21_02.jpg


(evidently I learned to read at 3 or 4 by this comic!)

the 1970's and 80's I was onto Wyndham, Asimov, Heinlein & Clarke: or at least what you could get here then. ;)

Mark / Hobbit
 
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