Subject: The Culture books (Iain M. Banks) maybe?
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Posted on: 2022-10-04 13:15:59 UTC
They're, I think, reasonably canonical high-tech nearly-Utopia. I'd give the starting reading order as Player of Games into Excession (which has some fantastic AI spaceship banter and is, IMO, best in the series, but generally needs some context).
More to follow when I haven't just woken up and so I stand a chance of remembering half the stuff I read in middle school.
When I was younger, I remember reading swathes of sci-fi that took place in ultra-high-technology environments. Death was basically abolished, scarcity didn't exist, there's usually strong AI floating around the place - you know the sort. Unfortunately, none of it seems to have made its way onto my bookshelves - most of my collection is more Grumpy Sci-Fi, where half the population lives in squalour, there's governments and corporations ruining everything, and in the case of the two large collections, There Is Only War. (The other one is the chunks of the old Star Wars EU that I've felt worth keeping out.)
I now have a 12-year-old who is into reading, but not when it comes to... y'know... actually picking up a book. We keep recommending things, and he reads for one evening before abandoning them on a random surface. So it goes; but for other reasons I think what he really needs & would enjoy is that sort of sci-fi I started out talking about. But... I can't remember any books. ^_^ I'm drawing a total blank. Halp?
(I do have a few things that kind of fit - some Clarke, and James Blish's Cities in Flight - but he's only just pulling away from the short-chapter books that slam you straight into wacky action and never let up, I don't think the older stuff will work yet.)
Any recommendations are welcome, though it's most useful if our library system would probably have it in stock.
hS
Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman is a brilliant Australian novel for young adults about an alien bonding with a human over shared feelings of loss.
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson is a fantastic novel about the early colonisation of mars, with a high degree of technical accuracy.
The Martian by Andy Weir is amazing, and it should be read by everyone and anyone.
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein is the original military sci-fi novel with a very fleshed out political dissertation embedded within the pages.
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov is an anthology of short stories that tells the tale of human-robot relations.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein is a really weird and awesome story about a human raised on Mars by aliens coming to Earth and discovering religion.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a weird case, because the movie came first, but Arthur C. Clarke wrote both the movie and the novelisation of the same name. Watch the movie, then read the book.
Rendezvous with Rama, also by Arthur C. Clarke, is a fantastic story about an expedition to an alien megastructure that has entered the solar system that’s getting a film adaptation very soon.
The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell is a very gritty military sci-fi series with a hopeful outlook on the future and very, very good space combat tactics.
The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey are very, very good sci-fi novels with a TV adaptation.
Beyond the Aquila Rift is an anthology of short stories by Alister Reynolds that has some fantastic stories inside it.
Artemis by Andy Weir is a heist story set on a near future lunar colony, and is excellent.
Blade Runner
The Fifth Element
2001: A Space Odyssey
Red Dwarf
Star Trek (TOS through Enterprise)
Galaxy Quest
Firefly
Interstellar
Stargate
Stargate: SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Battlestar Galactica (2004)
Gattaca
Starship Troopers
Robocop
Alien
Aliens
Dredd
Total Recall (the original, not the awful one from the early 2000s)
The Matrix
Short Circuit
The Orville
Futurama
The Last Starfighter
Silent Running
The Martian
Doctor Who
Star Wars (4-6, 1-3, then the sequels if you like electric ball torture)
Steamboy
Akira
Ghost in the Shell
Psycho Pass Season 1
Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song
Granted it's been almost a decade since I read it, but PTerry's Strata might fit the bill.
I recommend Doraemon – a children's series about a robot cat who goes back in time from Generic Sci-fi Future to live with a book-dumb boy and ultimately help him avoid a horrible future fate. One of the main draw of the series is the vast array of cool and funny futuristic gadgets the titular character has a habit of using – a door that opens to literally anywhere and flashlights that grow and shrink the body all Alice in Wonderland like, to name two examples.
I'm afraid I don't have much sci-fi on my bookshelves, and what I do have is probably a bit old for a 12-year-old. Like, Asimov is awesome, and Greg Bear is awesome, but even when there are robots, the focus isn't really the shiny toys? And I might have started reading McCaffrey at about 12-13, but I probably shouldn't have. {= P
Hold on, I saved some Animorphs. That's got the occasional space romp. And, oh, Madeleine L'Engle! That's definitely in the demographic range, though less future-tech, more questioning the nature of reality as we know it. But it's fun, though!
~Neshomeh generally prefers to watch sci-fi and read fantasy.
We bought him his own copy of H2G2 over the summer, and he flatly refused to open it. I don't understand why, but I have to accept the empirical data.
Greg Bear is one of the writers I was thinking of! Thank you. I think the only ones I have in the house are Darwin's Radio/Children, which are not what I want, but I'll definitely keep an eye out.
I really want to give him Dragonsong, but I think it falls foul of the slow-start issue: the first three chapters are mostly grumbling about feeding toffees to the elderly. I don't think, at this stage, it would hook him well enough to get him to read it. Is there a Pern book that starts with dragons rather than squalour? (I also want to give him White Dragon, but I think some of Jaxom's activities would raise serious eyebrows.)
Animorphs might be worth a shot, though would you believe they don't have a single one in the library? It's also a bit bleak at times (I'm trying to pull him out of the 'everything dies, life is meaningless' orbit he seems to be falling into). Wrinkle in Time I... think he's read, actually? As for Asimov, I remember him as too heavy for me, so I'm not going there as yet.
hS
The Golden One by Deborah Chester, part of LucasFilm's Alien Chronicles. Nothing to do with Star Wars, as far as I can recall, which TBH isn't much. I don't know if this was a good book, but the reviews seem positive, and impressions of the two leads have stuck in my mind, and I remember using gel pens to draw the very shiny lizard-girl villain. ^_^ The themes might not be quite on point for you, but as it's 90s YA, I'm pretty sure good triumphs!
~Neshomeh
If you're looking for something with a generally positive outlook where the heroes win in the end, then maybe the Sector General series by James White? It's set in a giant medical facility in space, it has some of the best, most alien aliens I've ever seen, and it's one of the most wholesome sci-fi universes I've come across. It is an older series, though, and its progressivism shows its age. Also, it doesn't hold back on hospital jargon, so it might not be at the right reading level, which is why I didn't suggest it to begin with. Definitely recommend giving it a look for yourself, though. {= )
Unfortunately, the most space-adventure-y Greg Bear duology I can think of involves most of humanity being wiped out save for an "Ark" full of kids drifting through space on a revenge mission, soooooo yeah. ^_^;
I was actually thinking about McCaffrey's Talent series, which I'd describe in four words as "horny telepaths in space." There's also the Freedom trilogy, but again with the horniness. There's a sex scene that has stuck in my head for years—not in a bad way, but still—and I wasn't that young when I read those books. Like, up to you whether you think that's okay or not, but I would probably tell myself at 12 to wait a few years, haha.
For Pern, Moreta is adventure-y, but also involves a big plague and heroes dying? IDK if there's another good place to jump in besides DFlight or DSong. The Chronicles anthology, maybe...?
~Neshomeh
They're, I think, reasonably canonical high-tech nearly-Utopia. I'd give the starting reading order as Player of Games into Excession (which has some fantastic AI spaceship banter and is, IMO, best in the series, but generally needs some context).
More to follow when I haven't just woken up and so I stand a chance of remembering half the stuff I read in middle school.
The Culture was in the back of my mind when I typed this, but I've only read a couple of them, so wasn't sure how well they'd fit. I actually have read Player of Games, and since his current criteria for library books seems to be "does the title reference chess?", I think it might be a hit. Thanks!
hS
It might be a little much for a twelve-year-old, but the Arc of a Scythe series fits the "Death is abolished, there's no scarcity, and AI is floating around" to a T. However, the main concept is rather dark. Essentially, in order to reduce overpopulation, there's a special group of assassins called "scythes" who do all the killing.
--Ls
I've read Wikipedia's very extensive summary, and you're right that it pushes all the buttons - but it's also solidly in the YA Dystopia bracket (alongside Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent etc etc). He's already nudging at that genre - he read The Giver over summer, and is after Ready Player One (because games) - so I want to try something different. Thanks for the suggestion, though!
hS
says the nerdy bookworm who has been reading far above their grade level for years and first read Lord of the Rings when they were around 12
Maybe Lyrec by Gregory Frost? Maybe not, actually. Not really a kids book either: there's some violence (it is something of a rock 'em sock 'em adventure) and one not too graphic sex scene.
I’ll just add that I’ve read all the other books you’ve mentioned.
—Ls