Whatever: Outreach in Action: Gateway Science Fiction
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Abigail | December 16, 2005 08:09 AM

Here's a few to start with:

The early novels of John Crowley - The Deep, Beasts, and Engine Summer - currently collected in the omnibus Otherwise

Maureen F. McHugh's China Mountain Zhang and the collection Mothers and Other Monsters

Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

Air: Or, Have Not Have by Geoff Ryman

Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (for the purposes of being a good gateway, Doomsday Book would also work, but personally I think the book is a disaster)

Signs of Life by M. John Harrison (currently available in the omnibus Anima, which also contains the fantasy-ish The Course of the Heart)

Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang (borderline, I confess, but Chiang is such a smart writer and his science is so lucid and organic to his stories that I believe any halfway willing reader would be sucked in by them)

Under the Skin by Michel Faber (this is one of those books that are obviously SF - aliens, spaceships - but that haven't been classified as such because the author is a mainstream writer. As such, I suspect it would make an excellent gateway drug.)

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (on the same shelf as Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle - feels like SF but isn't quite)

An Exaltation of Larks by Robert Reed

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

He, She and It by Marge Piercy

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

[Editor's note -- Abigail runs afoul of my "no pre-1995" stricture with many of these. The stricture is there for a reason, which is that I did want to keep people from reaching back for things that while great are decades old and should not be considered "current" science fiction any realistic sense. I want to know what is gateway and current.

Abigail, if you could resumbit this list with only the books after 1995, that would be helpful. -- JS]

Andrew Zimmerman Jones | December 16, 2005 10:04 AM

My first suggestion, as someone pointed out, would be Robert J. Sawyer's books. For those of a philosophical mind, Calculating God is the perfect book. If you've got a courtroom drama fan that you want to convert, I recommend Illegal Alien. The Terminal Experiment fits, I think, into the 1995 limit -- I believe it won the 1996 Nebula, but I might be off by a year -- and it's also a murder mystery, so fans of that genre would find it very accessible. Frameshift is a novel of genetic research, and is set entirely in the present.

Robert Charles Wilson's most recent novel, Spin, is also something that I think would appeal to non-SF readers.

Connie Willis' Passage would appeal to literary readers, though it's only tenuously SF. It would prove to them that SF writers can write stuff they like, but it wouldn't necessarily convert them to SF in general.

I also think that the Ender's Shadow series by Orson Scott Card has done a fairly good job at creating a setting which non-SF readers would appreciate, especially as it deals with the consequences of a lot of contemporary political issues. However, to really appreciate this series, it's best that one has already read Ender's Game (though not necessarily the rest), which surpasses them all, so it may not qualify.

There is the fuzzy area of people who read Michael Crichton and Robin Cook, who are already inclined toward SF but may not admit it yet.

While I love Neal Stephenson, I actually don't believe that he's terribly accessible to non-SF readers.

Andrew Wheeler | December 16, 2005 10:38 AM

Stephen Gould's Jumper is too old, but the sequel Reflex came out just about a year ago, and is not only a good SF-entry book, it doesn't require the first book. They're not officially YA books, but I think Jumper has made it onto some librarians's lists as "good books for teens." Not sure if that disqualifies them.

Robert Buettner's Orphanage is a good slam-bang military SF adventure novel about nasty aliens pelting Earth with giant rocks and the juvenile delinquent who has to go stop them.

I think Richard Morgan's first novel Altered Carbon would work fine for non-SF readers, especially fans of hardboiled mysteries.

Kage Baker's entire "Company" series (starting with The Garden of Iden) should be clear to any readers who can understand two simple concepts: time-travel and cyborgs. They'd probably appeal to female readers, too, since there's a major (and very convoluted) on-going love story.

Sawyer's been mentioned a few times, and his Mindscan would be fine for new readers; he explains all of the Weird SF Stuff and the book is about how that society deals with said Stuff (as opposed to having it in the unexplained background, which trips up new SF readers.)

I love James Alan Gardner's first novel, Expendable, and would recommend it to anyone at all. Some of the later books in that loose sequence are just as good, and all of his novels to date are new-reader-friendly.

Jack McDevitt also does old-fashioned space adventure that should be completely accessible for newbies; of the ones I've read (and are from post-1995), I'd recommend Infinity Beach and Chindi.

David | December 16, 2005 11:25 AM

The reason I think Sawyer's "Calculating God" is so perfect for this list is simply the "wow" factor, that feeling of having your mind expanded just from reading, and coming away from it knowing more than you did, while thinking carefully about things you thought you already knew. This is mosly why I started reading SF. That it also manages to be quite funny in part is just bonus.

Trouble is, I think that's just exactly what you don't get from Bujold, not that I don't think her stuff is great on its own merits. Not much "wow".

And yes, I suppose we can say it's SFnal, but it's awfully close to space opera. The definition at hand doesn't really serve to distinguish that, but it's a whole other argument which this isn't the place for.

Still, there is a whole lot of this "softer" SF out there. I figure, then that I can sneak in Steve Miller and Sharon Lee's "Plan B". It does fit under the deadline, yes it does, it was published in 1999. (So there.)

Of course, having read it, you will immediately demand to read the prequels, which wouldn't meet it. Tough. Besides, you'll absolutely love them. And even if you don't agree with the categorization, you should still read them.

I figure 98% of the battle is really getting the bookstore browser to stroll over to the section marked SF at all. (THEN they can jump into the argument about whether this is soft, or hard, or space opera, or whatever.)

Miller and Lee will do that.

michael sinclair | December 16, 2005 01:03 PM

I'm taking gateway book to mean anything published in book form, and recommending any of The Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies. All the stories are shorter than a novel, they cover a lot of contemporary subjects, so our hypothetical reader can sample and and maybe discover that they like that Sci-Fi thing. Let's let Mr. Dozois do the recommending for us!

If it's to be a novel I'd recommend works by Mr. Sawyer, or Ms. Bear, but I see they're getting good play here already. Also, I'm from Toronto, I've been to Bakka Books, and that must automatically disqualify one from recommending them.

The gateway novel I suggest is Blue Thunder by John Varley. Improbable science, but he doesn't make it technical (it's magic with batteries). He takes the new technology in his story, and makes an engaging story out of it. He pushes his point of view and the plot along at a brisk clip. It's not literature, but it's entertaining, and what other novel has an almost autistic, Cajun inventor/genius in it?

I'd like to make an honourable mention of The Guns of the South by Harry Turttledove. It is older than you want. There is very little science in it, except for time travel. The story's pace is good, the history is well researched, and his conclusion will make our friend think. Isn't getting our reader thinking about other possibilities the point?

Chad Orzel | December 16, 2005 01:27 PM

I did a booklog post about this a while back, for fantasy novels, and I'll say again something that I said there: This sort of thing is highly dependent on who you're recommending books to. Someone who normally reads romance novels won't be hooked by the same sort of book that would grab a Da Vinci Code fan. You really would need to choose your recommendations based on the individual.

I tend to be a little leery of the "gosh, wow, neat ideas!" sort of books, because many books whose main strength is in the inventiveness of the gadgets that appear in the story are seriously lacking in other literary virtues.There are some exceptions-- a couple of people mentioned Robert Charles Wilson, who's a good example. Books like Spin and Blind Lake and The Chronoliths take gigantic cosmic ideas and filter them through the day-to-day actions of ordinary people. The world may or may not be ending in some alien cataclysm, but the characters are still concerned with putting food on the table, and keeping the family together. He also has the good sense to avoid technobabble.

I am inordinately fond of John M. Ford's Growing Up Weightless, which is a little confusing (like all his books) but is a terrific family story in a Heinlein-esque independent Lunar colony.

I think either of those would work fairly well for someone who's a reader of mainstream literary fiction.

For people who aren't big readers of Literary fiction, but who read thrillers and spy novels, Greg Bear has taken to writing thriller-ish novels (Dead Lines, Vital Signs, things like that). They're sort of Michael Crichton books, only not so stupidly Luddite. I've only read one, which really wasn't my sort of thing, but he's got several, and a big back catalogue of much more SF-y books,that could draw people in.

I mentioned Jack McDevitt in the other thread, and I think he could work for that sort of reader as well. He's got a series of books about Archeologists in Spaaace (starting with The Engines of God that are solid, competent adventure SF. There are noble, hard-working archeologists who are thwarted by penny-pinching bureacrats, but uncover an ancient alien mystery shortly before some manner of disaster strikes, and some derring-do is required to save the day and solve the mystery. They're not great literature, but they're inventive, and could appeal to the Da Vinci Code set.

Steven Gould has a bunch of books (Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Reflex) that are basically Heinlein juveniles: young protagonist ends up in SF situation, and proceeds to take charge of events with almost supernatural calm, competence, and logic. I think they mostly miss your arbitrary cut-off date, but they're good entry-level books.

Karl | December 16, 2005 01:59 PM

I don't understand what the big deal is about trying to get people to read science fiction. I can understand why it is of concern to Scalzi and other SF authors because of their careers, but I don't see why the SF culture is so concerned about converting people.

I'm saying this as someone that is not interested in SF. The calculus isn't a barrier. I have a BEng and a MASc in mechanical engineering and I'm working on a PhD in electrical engineering. I hang around Whatever for the insight John gives into the creative process and the writing business because I'm a creative person myself. After reading his blog for so long and endlessly hearing about OMW, I eventually read it. I found it lively and entertaining. It was a great read -- I loved it -- but I wouldn't bother reading it if I wasn't addicted to the blog first. I also wouldn't bother to recommend it to people that don't have SF interests.

While my career is highly technical, my interests are more artistic and philosophical. I mostly read non-fiction. When it comes to fiction, I find myself most attracted to literary-type reading that sometimes gets panned in the comments around here. It's not that science fiction isn't real literature. I'm looking for something meaty in terms of insight into human nature or to find a new idea that I hadn't thought of before. I would think that that SF would have a lot to offer in this regard. (I'm planning to read Accelerando some day because it John has said a few times that it is full if mind-blowing ideas.) However, when I see the SF racks at the bookstore, I see tons of spaceships and people in space suits and it's overwhelming. How can I know whether it's just a geeky story about the coolness of spaceships or whether it has some new and profound ideas in it.

Perhaps the problem is that I want a profoundly good story first. The setting for me is not important. When I see books in the SF section, I get the impression that the SF is more important than the quality of the story. I'm sure that there are excellent SF books out there but there is no way for me to tell which books are any good. The most obvious indication for me of a good SF book would be for me to find it outside the SF part of the bookstore. (Now that some people have mentioned that Atwood's book could be classified as SF (was it the Blind Assassin?), I might pick that one up.)

The SF culture is talking about converting people to SF but I don't see the point. The key, I think, to successfully promoting SF is to blur the distinction between SF and other forms of literature rather than forging a strong identity. When I hear people talking about converting other people to SF it just reinforces the geekiness. Do you want a strong SF identity (a geeky culture) or do you want mainstream appeal? I don't think that you can have both.

Kate Nepveu | December 16, 2005 02:12 PM

Karl writes,

The most obvious indication for me of a good SF book would be for me to find it outside the SF part of the bookstore. (Now that some people have mentioned that Atwood's book could be classified as SF (was it the Blind Assassin?), I might pick that one up.)

Ah, this is sad to me. As far as I'm concerned, generally when a science fiction book is shelved in mainstream, it's by an author who's "respectable" and (usually) hasn't bothered to do any homework, and ends up re-inventing the wheel with clumsy exposition, blatant moralizing, etc.

If you like the stuff you find in the mainstream section, that's great; but I have a very different perspective on what gets a science fiction book out of the genre section of the bookstore.

(This is less true for fantasy. See _Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell_, for instance.)

The key, I think, to successfully promoting SF is to blur the distinction between SF and other forms of literature rather than forging a strong identity.

I'm not sure that this can be *done*, because of reading protocols. To crib an example from Debra Doyle, if there's a detailed description of a room in a novel, mystery readers will look for clues, mainstream readers for theme or symbols, and science fiction readers for worldbuilding. This is a hard thing to get around.

To you, by the way, I recommend _A Deepness in the Sky_ by Vernor Vinge, which has fascinating aliens, great characters (including some of those aliens), and a gripping story. It's long and is more complex than I'd recommend for a real newbie, but it's excellent.

Jetse | December 16, 2005 03:23 PM

Call me contrary, but I think that the best "Gateway SF" is, quite simply, giving people the very best SF, not something that's in between marketing category X (mainstream, literature, horror, crime, and what-have-you) and marketing category Y (in this case science fiction).

Proudly supply them with -- what you think -- is the best example of the genre that you love.

A short, and very incomplete list:

--Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling (much better than Zeitgeist and Distraction that were mentioned above;

--River of Gods by Ian McDonald (actually, almost anything by him. My favourite -- Terminal CafÃ© [or Necroville in the UK] is from before 1995, but Chaga\Evolution's Shore and Kirinya are also brilliant);

--Light by M. John Harrison: his most 'pure' SF work;

--Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang;

--Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds;

--Jack Faust by Michael Swanwick;

--The Separation by Chris Priest (possibly the best Alternate History ever written);

--Futureland by Walter Mosley (OK: he's mainly a crime fiction writer. But this just blew me away);

--Accelerando by Charlie Stross (why bother with Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise? Nothing wrong with those, but I think that if you recommend a 'Gateway SF' novel to somebody you should give them the absolute best, simply because you, most probably, will get only one chance. So that one single chance should hit home like a meteor, at least. Therefore: Accelerando: futureshock them into submission! No half measures! And when the halfway tech-savvie modern person is too overwhelmed, at least she/he will know where the bleeding edge is);

--Diaspora by Greg Egan (or Teranesia, or Distress. Schild's Ladder is the best hard SF novel ever written, but here even I will admit that it's a step too far for the uninitiated. Or to paraphrase Al Reynolds: "Jetse, I'm a scientist myself, and I fervently tried to understand this novel on a scientific level, but failed." Nevertheless, Greg Egan is essential SF reading).

A lot of you will probably think that most of the books in this (hastily compiled) list are too off-putting for possible 'new' SF readers. I say: hit them with your best shot, because it may be the only one you've got.

Abigail | December 16, 2005 03:46 PM

Karl,

I think your use of the term 'convert' is problematic and misleading. No one here is trying to get non-SF readers to read nothing but SF. I've been reading science fiction for as long as I've been reading adult fiction and I wouldn't want to read it exclusively. I mentioned in the parent thread to this discussion that I had read 13 SF novels and 19 fantasy novels this year. What I didn't say was that I've read over one hundred books this year. I enjoy my eclecticism, and I think I would be terribly diminished if I could only read one kind of book.

The purpose of this discussion, therefore, is not to kidnap unwary readers of literary fiction, but to find a way to introduce avid readers to a genre that they may end up liking if only they give it a chance. You don't care for SF, which is perfectly fine, but there's a difference between knowing that you don't care for something because you've tried it and thinking that you don't care for something because you don't really know what it is. It is for the latter type of person that we're compiling these lists.

Jetse, I would argue that there is a need for gateway SF, just as there is for almost any kind of genre. For the last three years I've been trying to get into comics, with only limited success. Some of the seminal works of the genre have left me cold, and I've discovered that I'm not entirely certain how to read comics - do I look at the pictures first or read the text first, or am I supposed to combine the two. Every genre has its rules and conventions, and there is a need, when introducing a new reader, for a gentle sort of onramp. For this reason, I wouldn't give a newbie SF reader Ian McDonald's River of Gods, excellent as it is, because it is a little bit too technical (as Chad points out, this also has to do with the specific reader).

Scott | December 16, 2005 04:38 PM

I know it's practically heretical... but I think the best way to broach SF to a non SF fan is in shorter format works.

Short stories (no I can't think of any off-hand) movies or comic-books.

Hard-SF movies have mostly stunk (Okay, so I didn't really like 2001, commence firing), but if you can get people interested in, or at least used to playing the "How does this world work" game, they'll probably fall into SF books with ease. The problem with Movie SF is that because they're so expensive to make, jackholes decide that the movie MUST pander to the imaginary idiots that buy tickets... not the real idiots, because they can and do make intuitive world-recognition leapsbut the imaginary ones... who can't interpret "it's a stealth fighter" and need a followup comment like, "You mean we won't be able to track it on radar?" much less "Yes, they have special designs which make radar useless!" (forgetting the SF novelists who will then explain how radar works, and then how stealth technology works... that stuff can be reaaaaaally interesting if you're interested (see also: How I read Neal Stephenson books and enjoy them) or reaaaaaaaly boring if you're not (see also: how I can't read a lot of low-end hard SF))

For anybody who is resistant to foul language... I'd say something like Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan is a great gateway to a certain arm of SF. (just because it's an easy format doesn't mean it's conceptually empty).

Qwerty ZXCV | December 16, 2005 05:34 PM

Imaginary wife you say? No I wouldn't dream of calling your wife imaginary. Mislead perhaps...but not imaginary.

One caveat I think should be brought up. It's possibly one you, Mr. Scalzi, left untouched with the hope someone would breach the subject and allow you a segue.

"Assume your audience is a reasonably literate human adult (25+) who is unstupid and technologically competent (i.e., can use a computer, cell phone and iPod), but whose literary SF experience is limited to whatever SF they may have been assigned in high school and college...and male"

There I said it. I regret it already and can feel those evil eyes upon me.

That's not to say SF is entirely for men or that women have no business reading it. I am simply asserting the acknowledgement that of that audience you are looking to find a recommendation for, a great deal of the looking involves finding an SF book that a woman over 25 would find interesting.

A much more attainable goal would be to find an introductory book written for an audience who is reasonably literate, human adult (25+), unstupid, and technologically competent (i.e., can use a computer, cell phone and iPod), but whose literary SF experience is limited to whatever SF they may have been assigned in high school and college...and male.

Use me as a piÃ±ata if you have to or ignore me as uncouth and "ig-nint". I think it is an important point worth mentioning.

Jim | December 16, 2005 06:39 PM

I think David Gerrod might be a good introduction (not his War with the Chtorr series, they've aged beyond ten years and I am really distressed that that many years have gone by without the long-awaited next book in the series...) with his recent Jumping off the Planet (and its two sequels)... or do you consider them to be YA? My 23 yr old daughter read my copies and enjoyed them.

Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series -- either Altered Carbon or Broken Angels -- I enjoyed both and this thread on the Whatever has just reminded me to pop over to Amazon and order the latest one.

I like a lot of S.M. Stirling's books, although they are only obliquely S.F. (i.e., okay, so something tossed Nantucket Island back into ancient history, but after that...)

How about Elizabeth Bear's stuff? I bought Hammered based on your mention of it, am currently reading Scardown and already have a copy of Worldwired sitting on my nightstand.

John Birmingham 's Axis of Time series -- I devoured Weapons of Choice (and I believe Santa Claus saw Designated Targets on my Amazon Wishlist) and think your hypothetical average non-SF reader could get into it.

Charles Stross' Accelerando is awesome but perhaps Singularity Sky might be easier for a novice SF reader...

And, you know, that Scalzi guy's Old Man's War really would be a good book to start someone into SF...

Abigail | December 17, 2005 04:46 AM

Luke, a few examples of comics classics that left me cold or at least not fully satisfied:

A lot of the early Sandman volumes were a struggle for me. I adored the story and the characters, but the art was so ugly. It's not until A Game of You that you start seeing vaguely acceptable work. I took some aesthetic pleasure from Brief Lives, and the only volume whose artwork I unreservedly loved was The Kindly Ones. It really cut into my enjoyment of an otherwise spectacular story. Endless Nights and the Death books were just pointless.

I've had nothing but failures with the noir classics of the genre. I was rolling my eyes at The Dark Knight Returns and Transmetropolitan, and I had serious problems with (sit down, comics people, take a deep breath) Watchmen. I understand how reading these books in the mid and late 80s would have felt like having the top of your head screwed off, but as someone who was never into superheroes in the first place and who had already had her fill of their deconstruction (I read Watchmen several months after watching a Disney film with a roughly analogous premise), I was left to concentrate on Moore's heavy-handed paranoia and distrust of authority. Plus, again, the artwork wasn't great.

Craig Thompson's Blankets is beautifully drawn, but the story is dull. A prose writer would have gotten this personal tale of first love and religious disillusionment out of their system in their first creative writing class in college, and it's suggestive of a potential problem with the comics medium that Thompson's version of the story took up a sizable chunk of his career thus far.

Comics I have loved include Jeff Smith's Bone (shut up), which combines Calvin and Hobbes-level artwork with a winning sweetness and a fresh twist on The Lord of the Rings, David B.'s Epileptic, Maus, of course, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, and few others that I enjoyed but didn't love (1602, Fray).

David Goldfarb | December 17, 2005 05:27 AM

Abigail: I can't help wondering what you think we're going to say about Bone that you want us to shut up about. I really liked it myself. (There was a while when my first printing Bone #2 was the most valuable comic I owned...lost it in a fire some years back, alas.)

You mentioned earlier being unsure whether to look at the picture first or read the text first. For myself, at the risk of seeming to brag, I'd say that my reading speed is quick enough that I sort of perceive each panel as a gestalt. Doing a bit of reading just now while introspecting, I'd say that I start at the upper left corner of each panel and sweep across and down till I hit the lower right. If the panel is put together by someone who knows what he's doing, that should get you the various elements in about the right order.

Based on what you say about your tastes, here are a couple of comics I think you'd enjoy:

Zot! by Scott McCloud. The adventures of a teenage super-hero from a utopian SF world...and a teenage girl from a world a lot more like our own. By turns funny, charming, and touching.

True Story Swear to God by Tom Beland. An autobiographical romance comic, funny and sweet.

Sorry for the complete off-topicness...

MattArnold | December 17, 2005 09:56 AM

To answer the question of what would make good gateway science fiction, we'd have to know why it is that the newcomer doesn't enjoy Accelerando, and then fix that. Why does a person choose science fiction at all, instead of something else? Why go to the bookshelf at all, instead of watching TV?

Science fiction has one main advantage over other kinds of fiction: thought experiments about the future you and I will live to see. I don't mean it should be a thinly disguised philosophical and political tract; it should stand on literary merit of course. But thought experiments about my nonfantasy real-world would not be served by the suspension of disbelief required by fantasy. When I read a work which satisfies me, it persuasively compels my belief and involves an act of the will to suspend belief, not to suspend disbelief. I have to make an effort to use my critical thinking skills to see the problems with it or detect if the author is, in my opinion, wrong. This is a second stage to the reading process which I also enjoy.

So how do we instill this in a newcomer? Before our newcomer embarks on science fiction, there is a non-fiction book this new person needs to read: Unbounding the Future by Eric K. Drexler. It is available in print and for free on the web. This is the work that first presented to me a realistic possibility that within our lifetimes we could see technological revolutions which could overturn all the assumptions of the present world. I love the world-view-changing, paradigm-shifting, "real-life-type-of-scary" experience called future shock. That's what I read science fiction for.

Then they're ready to read Accelerando. The shock of strangeness and unfamiliarity will be the whole point, not an obstacle. If you can't get them interested in the feeling of future shock about what's going to happen to them within our lifetimes, then you have to ask yourself why you feel such a need for them to read science fiction at all.

newscaper | December 17, 2005 10:12 AM

My first post here so a little SF bio:

I'm 40, cut my teeth on 2001: A Space Odyssey and real-life Apollo. I first got into written SF in elementary school -- an older sister and brother introduced me to Andre Norton then Robert Heinlein. Between them and Star Trek TOS and afternoon 50s scifi flicks on TV I was already indoctrinated before Star Wars hit me around 6th grade.

These last several years I have not read a lot of SF, with a first child, a career change -- plus actually having some decent SF on TV (something I didn't know was possible to my adult sensibilities).

But here's a few comments on topic:

I just read Weber's On Basilisk Station for the first time. Admittedly outside of the 1995 window, it really would be a good into for someone into Horatio Hornblower or Jack Aubrey. But Weber's characterization is a bit shallow. In a similar vein but with a much more fleshed out, darker, protagonist is David Feintuch's Midshipman's Hope. I think it was right about 1995.

For the mystery or police procedural types -- and within the time window-- there's Blue Limbo by Terence M. Green. Near future that is mostly familiar, the one real SF hook is a new technology that makes it possible to revive the brains of the recently deceased, but only for 24 hours or so. You can imagine why the police might be interested but theres some real pathos as people get one last chance to say goodbye. FWIW this was written long before Spielberg's AI.

For the romance novel types... a lot of SF women enjoy Catherine Asaro's novels. Having really enjoyed the relationship elements of Babylon 5, Farscape and Firely, I thought I'd give Asaro a whirl for written SF with a love story. Personally I couldn't get past the "romance" style of writing, but, still, they come highly recomended.

I think John is basically right, that SF is at least partly in a self-made ghetto.

PS, John, I'm with you on Speaker for the Dead actually topping Ender's Game. Spaceships are just background, there are no battles but the depth of the characters and the emotion they evoke...Wow.

or perhaps I should say that there are some battles, but more on an emotional level. But it definitely only works if one has read Ender's Game.

John H. Costello | December 17, 2005 11:26 AM

My entry into reading SF came from the old Flash Gordon daily comic in a newspaper I found in 1960. I knew what SF was -- I watched "Science Fiction Theater" -- and then I found "Strange Adventures," the DC SF comic, and other (much more badly illustrated by people other than Murphy Anderson and Infantino)comics. This led to the Winston Juveniles at my library, Dig Allen, Tom Corbett, and almost immediately to Amazing, Ace Doubles (Ray Cummings' Wandl the Invader and Brigands of the Moon [which Clark, in his autobiography, describes as HIS first SF read!] I most earnestly recommend.) Murray Leinster became accessible after I figured out what a Landing Grid was, and he hooked me for life. Poul Anderson's Orbit Unlimited put me off for about two years after I bought it, then, after The High Crusade -- wow! and I was hooked on Anderson for life, and went back to the earlier book ad found that I could understand it. Then I discovered Analog and bought lots of old Astoundings. Piper. Heinlein actually came later, around the time of Podkayne of Mars.

I never got into Tolkien. I could not figure out where Middle Earth was in relation to the world I knew. In general, I don't read much fantasy.

What I remember about my then growing sophistication was first an understanding that there was more than one future, and more than one possible present. That it was speculation. It was not TRUTH!

I would recomend a reading list high on Leiber and Sheckley short stories. Novels simply contain too much that is new and as-yet-unassimilated. You have to limit what new ideas you introduce in short stories and even novellas. Developing a taste for SF takes time.

Quilly Mammoth | December 17, 2005 01:58 PM

Ringo, Weber, Drake and Flint.

SF is being lapped by fantasy because of the absolute demand by a select few that SF be lit-er-ar-choor and if one simply must involve science that it be very heady science indeed.

Books which meet this criteria are the ones voted for by Worldcon Elect, influenced by RASFW and enabled by the agenda driven editors of the magazines and publishers. What is touted most by the cognoscenti simply isn't marketable to the vast unwashed masses. Nor is most of it light, fun reading.

What is accessible? Try much of the stuff that Baen or small presses like Yard Dog Press (Selina Rosen publishes some fun crap :))produce. If you want a new Heinlein I'd suggest John Ringo. I just finished "Into the Looking Glass" and Ringo mixes his usual mil-SF action with Higgs bosons and the often thin line between Quantum Mechanics and Theology. But just a bit. Most of it is just good escapism.

The difference between producing for a small audience and getting the average Jane to buy SF is most clearly shown by the readers of Baen's Bar. Every year the "Barflies" (members of Baen's online forum) select a few conventions to attend. The difference between the Barflies and the rest of fen is striking. The Barflies are, well, normal. And the rest simply aren't.

Also, many of us first were introduced to SF by picking up Analog or another such magazine at the local drug store. That doesn't happen anymore...and much of what is inside today's magazines isn't accessible to the mainstream. Baen and Flint have a solution to that which I'm sure more will be spoken of shortly...

Iâm not saying that there isnât a place for works by Charlie Stross;there most certainly is. But unless publishers and editors make a commitment to produce works that have broad appeal SF readership will soon be like the Shakers.

Best,

QM

Abigail | December 17, 2005 04:02 PM

As I think I mentioned in the parent thread, I'm reading my first Banks right now (The Algebraist) and although it's quite lovely and certainly more lucid than other space opera novels I've read, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't give it to a newbie. Or any other space opera or cyberpunk novel. These are the subgenres that, as John points out, don't want to attract new readers - they're written for The Tribe, and I can just imagine our hypothetical non-SF reader getting 20 pages into The Algebraist, or Light, or Neuromancer, or Snow Crash, and throwing the book across the room in disgust. When introducing a non-SF reader to the harder end of the spectrum, I'd choose books like Pattern Recognition and Cryptonomicon, which an intelligent reader can follow without an introductory class.

David:

I can't help wondering what you think we're going to say about Bone that you want us to shut up about. I really liked it myself.

Well, it is a little young for me, I suppose. At 24, I found quite a few of the jokes and plot twists more than a little immature, and as someone who adores Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket, I guess that says a lot about Bone's tone. There isn't a trace of irony in the series, which can be a good thing but is often a little exasperating.

Martin L Shoemaker | December 18, 2005 12:45 AM

I'm sorry, I know this is heresy in many SF circles, but I can't believe no one has said it already: the gateway SF author exists already, and his name is Michael Crichton.

I can hear it now: "He's anti-science! Science is the problem in his stories!" I used to say the same thing, until I read his essays, and realized that his defense there is essentially correct: the scientists are also the heroes in most of his stories. Heck, in Jurassic Park and Swarm and Timeline, it's corporate greed that pushes the science too far, and scientists who win the day. In Sphere, the problem is an overzealous military, with scientists again saving the day.

So Crichton writes cautionary tales. Asimov did that now and then. Niven certainly did. Ellison loved to. I wish Crichton's tone was more varied, too. But look at his subjects: genetic engineering, time travel, nanotechnology, alien contact... If these aren't SF subjects, I don't know what they are! And though his Midas touch has faded of late, he clearly knows how to reach a larger buying public than do most SF authors out there. Most people -- even some here -- don't even acknowledge him as SF, stuffing him into the obscure genre of techno-thriller. Well, to me, techno-thrillers involve minor advances in bleeding edge technology, ala Hunt for Red October. Reformulating dinosaurs and traveling through time are just a little farther out than that. They're SF!

So how does he grab that large audience? Well, if there were a simple formula and I knew it, I'd be cranking out my bestseller right now. But I can identify at least parts of it:

1. A lucky break. Write one good dinosaur book that gets translated into one blockbuster movie, and you've got name recognition that will sell a lot of books (and even a TV series) all by itself.

2. Persistence. His FIRST big break was when Andromeda Strain was made into a movie. That was, what, twenty years before Jurassic Park? A lot of what he did in between only got popular AFTER he became a big name.

3. A modern setting. I think this is important: his stories are always set NOW. As much of a fan as I am of star-spanning stories of tomorrow, it appears that the market likes very recognizable settings, with characters they more or less recognize from the world around them. (In a sense, I think this is true of the most popular fantasy works as well: Harry Potter and Unfortunate Events are both recognizably set in the modern world, at least to those characters who don't see the forces behind the scenes.)

4. And THEN you throw in the one fantastic element. In a way, it's Campbell's rule in action: allow ONE deviation from known science, and see where it leads you. The story is "the real world, with dinosaurs," or "the real world, with time travel," or...

5. Make sure that one fantastic element leads to lots of ACTION. Cerebral stories are fine, but they're not gateway stories.

Now I don't know anyone writing today who fits that approach, other than Crichton. Aside from Jack McDevitt and Allan Steele, I haven't read much in the genre in years. Just got too busy for fiction. But if there's someone out there writing like that, that would be a good gateway choice.

Thaddeus | November 18, 2006 05:28 PM

I am delurking after reading your commentary and surprised that no one has read any of the stuff I considered entry level sci-fi.

The White Mountains

The City of Gold and Lead

The Pool of Fire

These books were written by John Christopher and are in their 35th anniversary of publishing. Maybe they go back a bit far and I know that was part of the issue but I think that for a young person of 14 or 15 they are ideal. The protagonists are young boys who are survivors of an alien invasion that has conquered the world. Humanity survives as tiny enclaves of free people and as slaves of the invaders. At the time (14 or so) I found them compelling reading and even as an adult twenty years later, I still enjoyed their clear prose and easy to follow storyline.

If we are looking for something more recent, I would suggest Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. A near-future apocalyptic Earth in the early 2020's. Parable of the Sower.

In 1994, Parable of the Sower was nominated for a Nebula for best novel, an award she finally took home in 2000 for a sequel, Parable of the Talents. The two novels provide the origin of the fictional religion Earthseed.

Butler had originally planned to write a third Parable novel, tentatively titled Parable of the Trickster, mentioning her work on it in a number of interviews, but at some point encountered a form of writer's block, going seven years without publishing a new novel

Octavia Butler also penned another sci-fi series called Xenogenesis. Butler began her Xenogenesis trilogy in 1987. The three works which comprise the trilogy, Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago, tell the story of Lilith (modeled after the myth of Lilith, the first wife of Adam) who is abducted by extraterrestrials (the Oankali) after a nuclear war on earth, and the children she consequently has (the Oankali are notable for having a plausible third gender, known as ooloi). The entire series was released in 2000 as the single volume, Lilith's Brood.

In my mind, one of her finest works. Surprising depth despite its easy-to-read and fast moving storyline.

Returning to Lurking now....

Ralph | March 24, 2007 11:21 AM

A few people have mentioned Stephen Baxter's Manifold trilogy, and I agree, these are great stories with engaging characters. However they really are hard SF and in my opinion not what the poll is asking for.

A better choice for this purpose would be Stephen Baxter's "alternate history NASA" novels, e.g. "Voyage" and "Titan".

"Voyage" explores how things might have played out if NASA had managed to salvage a Mars mission out of their manned space program when Nixon canned Apollo. The story only goes as far as the actual landing, it's mostly a story about a female geologist who wins the mission specialist seat and becomes a rookie astronaut, set against the political commercial and engineering issues that threaten the program from start to finish. Some really good things about the book are the authentic 70s/80s period feel, especially as it pertains to the very non-PC NASA "space jock" culture of the time, and the depth with which the main characters are drawn. It's hard for me to do the book justice in any kind of thumbnail review. All I can tell you is that its a very realistic story; you will almost believe it really happened and that you were there.

The premise of "Titan" is that as we approach the millennium, western societies are turning away from science in a big way and moving toward more nebulous "New Age", quasi-spiritual concepts (ironically echoing the concerns of Norman Spinrad and the other commentators who indirectly spawned this enquiry). NASA crumbles under the opposition of conservative fundamentalists and public apathy, and the Shutttle program is cancelled with no replacement. A senior professional astronaut (a woman again BTW) pulls together just enough support to assemble a mission to Titan, out of the remains of the scrapped shuttle orbiter fleet, in an attempt to re-stimulate the public interest in space exploration. The story covers the painful process of getting the mission off the ground - while civilisation is literally falling apart around them - and then the actual mission, taking half a dozen people further than anyone has ever gone before, with very little assurance of them ever seeing home again. Once again there are great characters, great dialogue, great atmosphere, and very authentic technical cultural and political detailing. And the mission is a hell of a ride.

Are these books accessible to non-SF geeks? I read both of them to my son and daughter (then 10 and 9 years of age respectively), voicing the characters as well as I could - and man, they were RIVETED. As was I.

Dammit, I just talked myself into reading them again :-)

For the more literary inclined reader try Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars. There are elements of hard science in it but it's all near-term technology perfectly comprehensible to anybody who occasionally reads the dumbed down science articles in the newspaper. Mostly the book and its sequels are about the complex relationships between the colonists.

On that note I'd like to echo what John said about the Ender books. "Speaker for the Dead" is a very nice book mainly because of the very human characters and their relationships. Orson Scott Card is very good at this. Another favourite of mine that could serve as gateway SF (though it really originates from before 1995) is his "The Worthing Chronicle". A shipload of colonists suffers an accident that erases the minds of all on board except the telepathic pilot. He is forced to bring these drooling adult-sized babies out of the ship only 2 or 3 at a time and bring them up to self-sufficiency whereupon he retires into hibernation for several years until the next batch. It's really an exploration of how innocent humans in a garden of eden situation might behave, about human failings and the interplay between good and evil in human nature. The book is presented as a series of set pieces each focussing on just 2 or 3 characters against the background of the colony as a whole. Some of the stories are quite tragic and if you have any empathy they will leave you feeling rather disturbed. It's just great, great writing.

Chrontius | May 16, 2007 12:08 AM

I'm a sucker for one particular piece of fanfiction.

It's called Bubblegum Zone and it can be found here: http://www.bgcrisis.com/zone/

The first (of 11) chapters is 86kB, and the last is 1.018 MB of lightly-formatted HTML or plaintext.

The premise is a Twighlight Zone style transposition of J. Random Engineer into a fictional setting, but the setting was trying at being firm science fiction, and despite the setup, this improves on it. More importantly, it's fun to read.

Then, there's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, both of which I gave to my mother who absolutely demolished them and loved both.

Also in the camp of fun sci-fi, John Ringo's There Will Be Dragons and the other books in the series, Emerald Sea, Against the Tide, and East of the Sun, West of the Moon (once known as Orcs Iiin Spaaaace) are spectacular fun, even if they're playing at fantasy -- what does a bored mankind do 5,000 years in the future? Reinvent magic and its trappings using nanotechnology.

Those are my favorites (and my guilty pleasure; fanfiction isn't as bad as it's cracked up to be.)