The idea is to assemble a list of books which one might recommend to someone who's not an SF reader, but is interested in reading some SF. The primary criteria are that the book should be easily available in paperback in the UK, that it should be accessible to someone who hasn't read SF before, and that it should be good.
Ideas so far:
Title | Author | Suggester | Strategy | Reasoning |
---|---|---|---|---|
Air | Geoff Ryman | everybody ever | direct | everybody loves Air, and agrees it's wonderful, beautifully written, sensitive, well-characterised, etc (except deviant refuseniks) |
Cloud Atlas? | David Mitchell? | Tom Anderson | indirect | generally thought to be very good, and suckers the reader in by a gradual progression into SF |
The Prestige?, The Separation | Christopher Priest | Tom Anderson | indirect | writing as good as most mainstream stuff, not overtly SF (no rayguns), but with a thoroughly weird basis |
Earth Abides? | George R Stewart? | Graham Sleight | ? | |
A Canticle For Leibowitz? | Walter M Miller Jr? | Graham Sleight | direct | one of the classics, deals with big themes, pretty well-written |
The Sparrow | Mary Doria Russell | Graham Sleight, Liz Batty? | direct | see under 'Air' |
Fahrenheit Four Five One | Ray Bradbury | lj:secritcrush, Zara Baxter? | direct | benefits from The Set Text Effect |
The Diamond Age | Neal Stephenson | Liz Batty? | direct | |
The Time Travellers Wife? | Audrey Niffenegger? | Liz Batty? | indirect | not clearly SF, i believe |
Flowers For Algernon? | Daniel Keyes? | lj:secritcrush | direct | |
Gun With Occasional Music? | Jonathan Lethem? | lj:secritcrush | ? | |
Slaughterhouse Five? | Kurt Vonnegut | lj:communicator | indirect | not clearly SF |
Girl In Landscape? | Jonathan Lethem? | lj:ninebelow | ? | |
Player Of Games | Iain M Banks | lj:fba, lj:giantbedsprings | direct | one of Banksy's most accessible novels about The Culture |
The Dispossessed | Ursula K Le Guin | lj:electricant, lj:ninebelow | direct | a classic, and lj:electricant has had success with it in this context before |
Nineteen Eighty Four | George Orwell? | lj:communicator | indirect | whilst not undeniably SF, more or less has the SF mindset, benefits from The Set Text Effect |
Brave New World | Aldous Huxley? | Niall Harrison | direct | decent enough, has The Set Text Effect |
China Mountain Zhang? | Maureen Mc Hugh? | Abigail Nussbaum? | ? | |
Kiln People? | David Brin | Abigail Nussbaum? | direct | |
Under The Skin? | Michael Faber? | Abigail Nussbaum? | indirect | |
Lord Of Light? | Roger Zelazny? | lj:talvalin | direct | |
The Handmaids Tale | Margaret Atwood | lj:white_hart | direct | The Set Text Effect strikes again |
Never Let Me Go? | Kazuo Ishiguro? | lj:veggiesu | indirect | Like Michael Marshall Smith but can't accept the fact? Then this book is for you! NB: widely panned |
any SF Masterwork? | various authors | Niall Harrison | direct | well, they're masterworks |
Two Thousand And One? | Arthur C Clarke | lj:ajr | direct | "a big-name, balls on the table, proper SF classic" |
Hyperion | Dan Simmons | lj:ajr | traditional SF, with allusions of grandeur | |
The Left Hand Of Darkness | Ursula K Le Guin | lj:brixtonbrood | direct | worked on their mother |
To Say Nothing Of The Dog? | Connie Willis? | lj:brixtonbrood | direct | worked on their mother; comedy |
hardcore early works | Philip K Dick | lj:brixtonbrood | direct | "perennially zeitgeisty and really short" |
The books are classified by the strategy they take; following Sun Tzu?, i say 'direct' for books which are obviously and unapologetically SF, and try to win over the non-SF reader by sheer brilliance, and 'indirect' for books which look to some extent like non-SF, and thus defeat the reader by guile and stealth.
Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:20:39 GMT | Front Page | Recent Changes | Message Of The Day |