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This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply. 1CliffBurnsWe broached young adult SF on a separate thread and I had a quick scan through the different threads and couldn't find one specifically devoted to YA science fiction. Can we assemble a roster of faves, the best of yesterday and today? Recommendations and pans... 2arthurfraynFarmer in the Sky Cycle of Fire The Runaway Robot If I think of more I'll add them -but these are definite faves. 3koalamomI've just gotten into the YA stuff (within the last 6 years - had to take a course to get into it) and there's some good stuff out there, but I read it years ago and will have to refresh my memory. Robert Heinlein had a good juvenile series and I have those in a box somewhere. Couldn't get rid of those. Think I have mentioned him as a fav inanother post. 4andylThe H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter (the title touchstone never works) The Tripods Series by John Christopher The Changes trilogy by Peter Dickinson - which is at the young end of the range. I'm not sure I could class Cycle Of Fire as YA. Although there is nothing in it that any parent would object to (I think) it was written as and marketed as an adult novel. 5arthurfrayn4>I'm not sure I could class Cycle Of Fire as YA. Although there is nothing in it that any parent would object to (I think) it was written as and marketed as an adult novel. The edition I have looks like a YA pb to me. ;) I think when you get right down to it, what with Clement being a high school teacher and how important kids are in his books, I think most of his novels are probably YA novels. 6iansalesThere's one by Ken MacLeod that's good. It's included in Giant Lizards From Another Star, but was published separately as part of the Web series of YA sf novels: Cydonia. 7genegSands of Mars was a favorite of mine. Along with several Heinlein books, Podkayne of Mars, Time for the Stars. Farmer in the Sky (I think. If it's late forties early fifties.) I read these as a juvenile, so to me they are YA, whether they were intended to be or not I don't know. Of course the Tom Swift, Jr, by Victor Appleton. Definitely YA, if not younger. I am a big fan of the Hogben family, but somehow I suspect while they made me laugh as a juvenile, they weren't "juvenile" stories. Anything by Kuttner and Moore read by this juvenile seemed like YA, not because it was but because it was so great and worked on so many levels of maturity that it spanned all readers. I thought Rod Serling was pretty juvenile, also. 8rgurskeyNot necessarily science fiction but science-based fiction, I loved the Rick Brant series by John Blaine and the Mad Scientist Club books by Bertrand R. Brinley. In the sf category: Secret Under the Sea by Gordon R. Dickson The Fallen Spaceman by Lee Harding Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke Runaway Robot by Lester del Rey has already been mentioned. Douglas Hill wrote a number of YA sf trilogies and series. Gray Magic was a pretty good YA fantasy by Andre Norton. Several of the Danny Dunn books by Jay Williams are sf as are some of the Miss Pickerel books by Ellen MacGregor. Trying to find them will be a trick. Ebay is probably your best shot. 9bobmcconnaugheyFeed MT Anderson Phillip Reeves The Hungry Cities Chronicles Peter Dickinson Eva The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm Nancy Farmer (younger end) S. Gould Jumper - nothing to do w/ the movie except the name.... Garth Nix Shade's Children Pullman His Dark Materials Sleator Singularity, Interstellar Pig (younger end) Card ender's game This is sticking more or less w/ SF and bypassing a lot of great YA fantasy (see Garth Nix and Isabelle Carmody among many others) 11CliffBurnsLoved the first Philip Reeves book in the "Hungry Cities Chronicles", MORTAL ENGINES but the second one didn't work for me and I didn't bother with anything beyond that. My sons both liked his LARKLIGHT novel too. I think young adult science fiction and the first name that comes to mind is Ray Bradbury. I've slid a few Bradbury books my sons' way and they liked SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, though they found the language too florid... 12arthurfraynI just reread Something Wicked This Way Comes recently. I don't think it's a complete sucess, but it's such an odd book, it is worth reading. It does try too hard sometimes in the prose department. The sequence in the library where Mr Dark is looking for the kids is very well done, though. 13ronincatsI remember the John Christopher series and the Peter Dickinson one. Needle and Through the Eye of the Needle by Hal Clement Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl Early Andre Norton such as Storm over Warlock, Catseye, and Night of Masks Dragonsong and Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey The Psion series by Joan Vinge Early Heinlein such as The Rolling Stones, The Star Beast, and Between Planets Sword of Orion and Balance of Trade by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. 14VisibleGhostLittle Brother by Cory Doctorow is an anthem for the current generation. In twenty years, if us old farts are still around, there will be a lot of nostalgic posts in discussion groups, or whatever takes their place, about this book. The current generation has their own YA favorites and they are not the stuff we cut our teeth on. Which is good not bad. Every generation should have their own coming of age favorites. Most all kids, no matter how polite, really don't think their parents stuff is all that cool. Sandman and other graphic novels, manga, MMRPGs,(did I forget a letter in there?) and shared online creations are some of the hits so far. For whatever reasons, and there are hundreds of theories of why out there, YA fantasy outsells YA SF by about 50 to1. There are dozens of YA fantasy series that have left their authors not having to worry about mortgage payments for the rest of their lives. Not so for the YA SF writers. 15jmgoldA Wrinkle in Time and Have Spacesuit Will Travel were my only two must reads that no one has mentioned yet. The others being Feed, Something Wicked This Way Comes His Dark Materials and Time for the Stars 16spoiledfornothingYA science fiction that has yet to be mentioned :) the alien series by Bruce Coville The Wrinkle In Time series by Madeleine L'Engle The Giver by Lois Lowry. 17ChrisRiesbeckRe Heinlein's juveniles: make sure you re-read them before passing them along. Looking for something completely different than Keye's The Born Queen, I'm reading Heinlein's Have Spacesuit Will Travel from 1958. I don't think I read it when young, when I enjoyed Farmer in the Sky and Citizen of the Galaxy. No way I'd give HSWT to anyone today -- it reads like a parody of Heinlein. In the other thread, I was wondering about more recent current authors, particularly in SF. My son quite enjoyed Philip K Dick but it was hard to finish the sentence "if you liked PKD, you'll love..." Neuromancer for sure was a grabber for many and a nice entry point to other SF. (How has it aged?) I'd like to be able to point to though what's being written now. SF is very much alive and well but saying "read this from several decades ago" suggests the glory days are past. It seems to me the new space opera, both in length and tone, isn't going to grab teens. Ken MacLeod is too political, and Alastair Reynolds and Peter Hamilton are too long winded. Little Brother has been getting good reviews by adults but how is it doing with teens? Stephen Baxter maybe, with the Xeelee series. Jack Mcdevitt most novels. I've not yet read Varley's homages to Heinlein. How are they? 19spoiledfornothingchris - how about The Host? It is by Stephenie Meyer. All her books are pretty big. But The Host is science fiction and supposed to be pretty damn good. Her Twilight series involves vampires and things. or how about the outlander series by Diana Gabaldon? it has a lot of romance though. and time travel and scottish stuff 21iansales> 17 Stephen Baxter maybe, with the Xeelee series. They're not exactly YA novels. > 19 Elizabeth Hand slammed Meyer's Breaking Dawn in The Washington Post here. They don't sound like the sort of books I'd recommend to anyone. 24CliffBurnsI'm gonna introduce my boys to the first book in Meyer's series, TWILIGHT, just to see if it appeals to them. They're already pretty critical readers so if it don't yank their chain, they'll dump it. Both my lads are huge fans of the work of Walter Moers. He's a German writer with a gift for creating imaginary, surreal worlds and comic characters. RUMO and CITY OF DREAMING BOOKS are two of his best. More fantasy-based than SF but worth seeking out if you've got a kid on your list with offbeat reading tastes... 25iansalesAt the risk of reinforcing into stereotypical gender roles, I suspect Meyer's novels will appeal more to girls than boys. 26CliffBurnsJudging from the POST review, I'd say it's a fair statement. It's more likely that my boys would dislike it for the clunky writing or unoriginal characters or because it just doesn't hold their interest. 27reading_fox#8 - I loved Douglas Hill's the Last Legionary series when I was about 12. Haven't thought of it for years, but that probably was one of my earliest introductions to SF. In a similar vein the man from PIG and ROBOT. I haven't read anything else by Harrison is ti all YA? I Robot by Asimov would have been another, and the Foundation series also. I would have though that the market for stories about spaceships / lasers and robots would have been huge in the YA sector - especially after the recent StarWars films but somehow no-one's quite captured it. 28koalamomThanks #16 for reminding me of how much I enjoyed Madeline L'Engle and not just A Wrinkle in Time, but the whole series. And I thought The Giver was wonderful. I've decided that since I joined LT that reading all the books there were (let alone are and will be) is futile, but I am going to have fun trying. 29genegI've discovered that LT is actually detrimental to book reading. I spend much more time reading the flat panel of my laptop since I discovered these groups than I do reading books. Damn you, Tim Spalding! 30koalamomMy "nemesis" is laytonwoman3rd. And I do get into this site to add a couple of books and spend an hour - and maybe I have actually added some titles that I have read in the past or maybe I just get lost in here! Linda was right that I'd like this place, but it is addictive! 31bobmcconnaugheyi'm not sure how "young" an age level the original poster was working with. As great as, say, Wrinkle in Time is, i read it ~ 10 and our son around age 7 - though it's one of those books that an adult can read too. A HS kid might see it as, i dunno, patronizing (unfairly, but...). Cliff - if you have access to a library..the 3rd "Hungry Cities" picks up nicely, again. The Giver i'd say is more Jr High and the same w/ John Christopher's older classics. For a moderately open minded household, i'd add in Night Sky Mine which combines vg space opera, AI. social constraints/changes in a far out space environment and a teenage coming of age/coming out story. But it's NOT primarily a story about sexuality - its's just an important subtheme woven nicely into a skien of other. Meilville's Un lun dun; Pat Murphey's wonderful retelling of The Hobbit in space - There and Back again. 10-12th grader would likely enjoy Snow Crash as lot - if the parental units felt comfortable w/ bringing it into the house (My mother blamed a lot on encouraging us to read Kesey at a young, impressionable age ~ 9th grade..blamed my wanting long hair and be a "hippy musician"????? on her bringing that book to the house; parents (myself included) can be weird....). Vernor Vinge's Fire upon the Deep is great fun if a kid has the patience to just handle a bit of length..I don't think there's anything objectionable and a LOT of neat world/society building. On the other hand...probably not Jack Womack, at least for a HS library (as opposed to a home library). A lot of the Clarke classics work well for Jr High - actually may work BEST at that age; i know they drew me into SF (fantasy had long been taken care of w/ E Nesbitt, E Eager and Tolkien). 32koalamomA trilogy that I particularly enjoyed recently is theHis Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, which includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and Amber Spyglass. And can we mention Harry Potter... here? 35koalamomDidn't think so. He's hard to catergorize, but the series is still a good YA one even if not appropriate for this post. 36rojse#27 No, Harry Harrison wrote a lot of adult pulp and satirical books, and then moved onto more serious science fiction. I still read some of his pulp SF books in the golden age of SF, and thoroughly enjoyed them, particularly "Stainless Steel Rat". 37tonypa2000Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl stands at the top of my all-time faves in YA SF. Followed closely by her trilogy now in a single omnibus Children of the Star. Rite of Passage was a classic that's for sure. 38HelcuraKevin O'Donnell's Journey's of McGill Feighan series - lots of interesting aliens Sherri Tepper's Jinian Footseer series - it's kind of on the dividing line between science fiction and fantasy, but I'd put it in the first category myself. 39MyopicBookwormI was totally won over at about 11 by The Happy Planet by Joan Clarke, but it's probably not easy to find. Also my Dad's copy of the vintage classic Kemlo and the Martian Ghosts. Any in the YA age group should also be capable of tackling First Men in the Moon, which was serialized in the kids mag "Look and Learn" in the 1960s. 40GandalaraBruce Coville My Teacher Fried My Brains Crispin, AC Starbridge Gerrold, David Jumping off the Planet Gerrold, David Bouncing off the Moon Gerrold, David Leaping to the Stars Gould, Steven C. Wild Side Koontz, Dean Robot Santa Kress, Nancy Yanked Nye, Jody Lynn Taylor's Ark Nye, Jody Lynn Medicine Show Palmer, David Emergence Pournelle, Jerry Starswarm Pratchett, Terry Only You Can Save Mankind Scalzi, John Zoe's Tale Sheffield and Pournelle Higher Education Sheffield, Charles Putting Up Roots Sheffield, Charles Billion Dollar Boy James Van Pelt Last of the O-Forms Varley, John Red Thunder 41spoiledfornothingThe Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts is another. rojse - is it good? bobmcconnaughey - i pretty much read them all around the same time (6th to 7th grade). lol 42rojse#41 I am slightly biased, as Harrison was one of the first adult SF authors that I first read. However... The Stainless Steel Rat stands out because it is actually fairly original - it's about a con artist who gets forced into working for a group of secret police. It's exciting, fairly funny, and great central character too. Not the most intelligent reads, but certainly quite fun. 43iansalesDo the Stainless Steel Rat books count as YA? I note also that Gandalara mentioned Varley's Red Thunder (there are two sequels, incidentally - Red Lightning and Rolling Thunder) as a YA. The protagonist is a teenager, but I don't know that the book was written, or marketed, as YA. 44genegI tried a Harrison book once, it was about a civilization dominated by intelligent dinosaurs whose greatest competition were humans. It exceeded the limits of my admittedly weak imagination and I just couldn't finish it. I cared not one whit for either the dinosaurs or the people. It did not do an effective job of bringing the two species into conflict (there was a lot of conflict, like I said, I just didn't care) in a way that I became emotionally involved. Reads that don't capture me emotionally are tedious and unless I have some external requirement to read such, don't. I have heard good things about Stainless Steel Rat and at some point may take it up. 45iansalesAh yes. West of Eden. I wasn't too impressed by that either. His earlier stuff is better. Well, more fun. 47KimberAn7Thanks so much! This is a wonderful thread! I just started a blog for YA SciFi and I need all the recommendations I can get. youngadultsciencefiction.blogspot.com 48rojse#44 I really liked West of Eden... An interesting central idea, and the depiction of a completely different society was extremely interesting. A little formulaic, though. #47 If you paste the whole URL, you can make that a link. 49Jenson_AKA_DLI recently listened to the audio book of Interworld by Neil Gaiman which certainly lands firmly in the realm of YA SF. I think it would appeal more to boys than girls but I still enjoyed it. It kind of played with a lot of cliches but I think it was told in a very engaging manner. On a totally different topic I happened to like Twilight and the other books a lot along with many, many other people. I would have to agree that it is something with more girl appeal than boy appeal, but I've seen comments from teen boys that enjoyed it so I could be wrong. I haven't read The Host yet though, but I know it is intended for adults not teens or young adults as Twilight & Co. was. 51ABVR#43 Fair point . . . I don't think they *were* marketed at YA, but (like Steven Gould's Jumper and Wildside) their teenage protagonists and relatively straightforward plots (ingenious, improbably talented teens and eccentric adults take on the mundane world and win) put them pretty squarely in that category for me. I find it hard to imagine an adult reader truly enjoying Red Thunder *except* as an homage to the YA science fiction of their youth. 52ronincats#43 and #51, the Red Thunder series is a deliberate homage to Heinlein's body of early work, of which the juveniles are a major part. Adults like to read it to find all the allusions to different books they recall from their adolescence. And some of us still like reading YA sf in general. I think I see The Telzey Toy and a lot of early Andre Norton in your library, ABVR! I haven't read the others, but I thought Red Thunder was a fun romp very much in the Heinlein vein. 53LibrisCatLots of interesting titles mentioned. I read Heinlein, L'Engle, etc. as a child. I know Clare B. Dunkle has written mostly YA fantasy, but her last book was definitely SF, IMHO. Have you read The Sky Inside? http://www.librarything.com/work/4486980 54LolaWalserAnyone planning to read Meyer's "Twilight", or give it to someone, might be interested in this: This book justifies Bad Book Month all by itself. The stats are amazing, but the quotes at the end... priceless. 56debbsmith
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