Not all sci-fi is schlock: Poster for the James Bond movie Moonraker (1979).
For 10 years, between my early teens and early twenties, I didn't read a single piece of science fiction. I enjoyed reading, voraciously so, and despite my keen interest in science, I looked down upon the world of science fiction.
During these years, there was not a single sci-fi recommendation from my friends, and not once did it appear on my list of compulsory texts for English during high school. (Though, somehow, the 1995 blockbuster Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone did).
It's not as though I'd never read science fiction. I first discovered it during that strange period many must experience, when children's books are too childish but young adult books too adult.
But after only a few entertaining years, I moved on. I discovered an enjoyment for the lively worlds of history, mystery and sex, where I comfortably remained until I was finally forced out of my cocoon a couple of years ago.
For, in 2008, I became the reviews editor at Cosmos. Books for review suddenly filled my bookshelves. They piled up on my desk, overflowed onto the office chairs around me and, much to the annoyance of some of my work colleagues, eventually covered the floor in a kind of bizarre mosaic. But, to my distress, I couldn't just review books on popular science. The editor-in-chief told me I had to review science fiction as well.
I rolled my eyes, imagining that I had better things to do than evaluate stories involving jet packs and gun-touting space cowboys. But I wanted to do it well, so I reluctantly decided to re-acquaint myself with the genre, beginning with a friend's stained, dog-eared copy of Hominids by Robert Sawyer. It was my first foray into science fiction in a decade.
I was transported. I read the book from cover to cover in less than two days, forgoing sleep and distractedly trying to complete my real-life tasks while I secretly waited for the moment I could resume the story. And when I'd finished the book, I started the sequel.
Since then, I've taken joy in discovering the rich, literary world of science fiction. It's a far cry from the comically childish genre I imagined it to be, and I feel cheated for all the times I walked quickly past the sci-fi section of a bookshop without a second glance.
Unfortunately, my ignorant view of science fiction tends to be the dominant one. Even within the genre itself, the authors are not without derision for each other: Margaret Atwood - whose 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale creates a future of labour camps to clean up radioactive waste in California and a sharp drop in the fertility levels of women, while her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake involves xenotransplantation and genetic engineering in a collapsed civilisation - spectacularly refused to define her works as science fiction in a BBC interview because, she said, science fiction contains "talking squids in outer space".
After coming under some heat for her comment, Atwood reviewed her position in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian, defining her work as 'speculative fiction': "The science fiction label belongs on books with things in them that we can't yet do, such as going through a wormhole in space to another universe; and speculative fiction means a work that employs the means already to hand."
(It shouldn't be the delineating factor of a genre, but Atwood was not entirely wrong the first time round. There is a somewhat lengthy list of science fiction/fantasy works that contain talking squids in outer space - or TSiOS. You can peruse the list here: talkingsquidsinouterspace.com)
Refreshing
So refreshing to hear. And eye-opening. I haven't picked up a sci-fi book in years yet in my (nerdy) teen years I read many. Only recently I was handed Asimov's Foundation series. A series I'm embarrassed to say I'd missed but I'm loving every minute of it.
It is also nice to be reminded of how far reaching the genre is. Something lost on many. Might have to go find a few more now!
Michael
Science Fiction
May I recommend the Vorkosigan series by the divine Lois McMaster Bujold. They combine all the best elements of space operas, historicals, moral dilemmas and romances in rattling good yarns about fascinating, well-developed characters. Best read in sequence, but can be enjoyed in any order.
Al
4 wasted pages
i'm with the 18% who think it's page-wasting.
i try to try beyond literature my high school teachers would approve - i've read and liked everything from fantasy, shakespeare (modern high school teachers seem to consider Dickens et al very passe), children's/young adult fiction, and even crime novels. But i've never found any sci fi that makes a good novel, and i'm not sure why. i've read lots of Margaret Atwood, but didn't like Handmaid's Tale (maybe you lose the novel in trying to be clever with concept? plus it was so 1984-feeling).
You're Just a Beginner
I also found Handmaid's Tale rather plodding, but you have to remember that first, she's Canadian, and second, mainly a social activist, not normally a novelist.
My tastes run more to Niven and Clarke, and some of Zelazny, though he tends to end stories rather abruptly. Nothing bad about Asimov (the only author to ever have at least one book in every category under the Dewey decimal system), if you have a couple of years to kill.
Vonda McIntyre. I liked "Superluminal" better than "Dreamsnake," but the latter won more awards. McCaffrey is a good story-teller, but I'd classify most of the Dragon novels as young-adult. LeGuin is for the more experienced reader.
Along the lines of fantasy, there's Emma Bull's "War for the Oaks." Don't expect to find it at the library. It's on a reserve waiting list a year long.
Sturgeon's Law: "90% of EVERYTHING is crap." Of course, that's a statistical average: 80% of science fiction is excellent, and 100% of Murdoch's rightwingnut media is complete garbage.
Atwood is "mainly a social
Atwood is "mainly a social activist, not normally a novelist" ... ???
talking squids in outer space
Dear Jacqui, the very fact that you used the term "science fiction/fantasy" as if there was some connection between the genres, immediately labeled you as one of the tunnel-visioned you deplored. Science fiction more properly has been called 'prophetic fiction' and always has a theme based upon creative speculation about the many possible scientific developments and futures that could effect the human race.Like the Star Trek opening, science fiction attempts to take us where no-one has gone before - but in a plausible manner.Fantasy, on the other hand is just, well, fantasy.It is more a combination of magic, monsters, romance and fairy tales than anything else, and seems to especially appeal to those readers who enjoyed the Brothers Grimm as children.
elmohu
Brisbane
TSiOS
I have to disagree with elmohu.
There are 3 genres that are reflections of pure storytelling.
First of all is fantasy for it gives you pure freedom to express whatever you want no matter how fantastical.
If you add actual hard science and plausibility it becomes science fiction. (Until it becomes science fact.)
If you push it to the dark side of human nature it becomes horror.
For first example you have Homer's, Illiad. (fantasy)
Followed by Dan Simmons, Ilium. (sci-fi)
Both variation of the same story but one is infused with scientific theory.
If your a member of the 18% I suggest you try, Greg Bear or Dan Simmons.
Both multiple Nebula and Hugo Award winners.
Their stories are as complex and mind boggling as any of the greats in classic literature.
But not Michael Crichton.
Only book I ever read all the way to the end, expecting there to be SOME reason for publishing it. Then ripped it in half.
For fantasy / horror, you can't beat Dean Koontz. Don't read him late at night.
Genre
Yep, genres will do that to you! They can give you a grossly generalised expectation of what's inside the covers.
A good story often transcends the genre that the book shops tend to place books on the shelves by. A good story could often have been written in a completely different time line or setting and the themes would hold true. Sometimes the setting is "Sci-fi" and this can give an author certain plot devices to make their story work in a certain way. Sometimes sci-fi is total drivel... and sometimes mindless drivel is just what you need after a serious day :)
Brian