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Essential reading for Science Fiction class
- Cranberries
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How many books should I assign?
Which essential books should I assign?
I was totally flamed by one student for my book selection the last time i taught this. It was pretty standard stuff: Ender's Game, Snow Crash, Philip K. Dick.
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- Cranberries
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Da Bid Dabid wrote: What level of education?
College, introductory level course
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craniac wrote:
I was totally flamed by one student for my book selection the last time i taught this. It was pretty standard stuff: Ender's Game, Snow Crash, Philip K. Dick.
Why, 'cause he'd read them all already?
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Hell, I read that one as a kid. So maybe too intro - but dude did a lot for Sci Fi.
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- Cranberries
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Columbob wrote:
craniac wrote:
I was totally flamed by one student for my book selection the last time i taught this. It was pretty standard stuff: Ender's Game, Snow Crash, Philip K. Dick.
Why, 'cause he'd read them all already?
It was some nerd rage thing. I couldn't remember his name so I dropped his picture into some online facial recognition thing, and it tagged him as "contemptful" and "insincere smile" which was kind of hilarious.
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- metalface13
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Neuromancer by William Gibson
Dune by Frank Herbert
1984 by George Orwell
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
Shadow and Claw (first half of the The Book of the New Sun series) by Gene Wolfe
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Graphic Novels
V for Vendetta
Akira
Y: The Last Man
Heavy Liquid
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- metalface13
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Also, Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.
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Some "Hard Science" fiction like Niven used to do.
Space Opera-ish like The Foundation by Asimov
Humor like Hitch Hikers Guide
And maybe something from the dawn of sci-fi like Journey to the Center of the Earth or The Time Machine
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- Sagrilarus
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Science Fiction's history is really about the short story. There have been significant novels, but if you're looking at the industry from a historic perspective it's completely tied to periodicals.
The course was taught by Philip Klass by the way, the author William Tenn, not the UFO weirdo. He was neck deep in the genre in the fifties and had a thousand stories to tell. He tell us about "Bobby Heinlein" or "Phil Dick". Pretty remarkable class.
Edit -- This is it -- www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Hall-Fame...1K7C9XA08HHPGB4HZ7HR
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Sagrilarus wrote: My college course in 1983 included Frankenstein, The Dispossessed, Brave New World, and essentially this entire book -- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1 -- which is a series of short stories (from Astounding magazine and the like) from the who's who of 20th century SF writing. I still think about The Cold Equations now and again, one of the stories that hit me quite hard at the time. You'd need to be able to find out if it is still in print and available.
Science Fiction's history is really about the short story. There have been significant novels, but if you're looking at the industry from a historic perspective it's completely tied to periodicals.
The course was taught by Philip Klass by the way, the author William Tenn, not the UFO weirdo. He was neck deep in the genre in the fifties and had a thousand stories to tell. He tell us about "Bobby Heinlein" or "Phil Dick". Pretty remarkable class.
Edit -- This is it -- www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Hall-Fame...1K7C9XA08HHPGB4HZ7HR
I *LOVE* that book.
Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions is another great collection.
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Asimov for sure, Foundation Trilogy is a very important, if pulpy, series. I guess you may as well consider all of the big three, Arthur C Clark and Heinlein as well.
Niven is a good choice, Ringworld was an interesting read back in the day.
Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is a good time.
Philip José Farmer has some good stuff, Riverworld obviously but there's others worth looking into.
Margret Atwood has been dabbling in this genre lately (although she calls it speculative fiction instead in a kind of pretentious manner) and her Oryx and Crake trilogy is worth looking into.
What about really early stuff like Gulliver's Travels or Frankenstein... some proto sci-fi?
Then there's the literary choices like 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange etc...
Some of these I haven't read in over 20 years so I'm not sure how well the all hold up.
Sag is right about the short story though... at least for 20th century sci-fi which is when the genre was really solidified, despite existing in various forms for maybe 2-3 hundred years before that.
There's a ton of potential stuff in comics too, I loved Transmetropolitan for example, but there is a lot to choose from there.
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1984 (my favourite book)
2001
Neuromancer
Something by Jules Verne
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- metalface13
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metalface13 wrote: Anybody have any recently published recommendations? I'm curious as I haven't read any new science fiction in quite a while.
Those Margaret Atwood books I mentioned are new. She also has a new one coming out called 'The Heart Goes Last' that sounds really interesting. I also read a new humour sci-fi book a couple of years ago called 'The Sheriff of Yrnameer' and it was quite a bit of fun.
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