My Godson has asked for SF books for his 14th birthday and I'm struggling to think of anything as my daughter of the same age isn't really into that sort of stuff. Anybody got any suggestions please?
Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy
earlyAsimov compilations
Marvel/DC Graphic Novels, Guardians of the Galaxy or similar?
Harry Harrison - Stainless Steel Rat series - also Deathworld trilogy, plus maybe Bill The Galactic Hero. Loved them as a teenager, still love them now. Not kids books but if he’s an avid reader he’ll be fine.
Mortal Engines?
I found Asimov soooooo dull to be honest. Couple of his books are ok but the foundation series I just couldn’t get on with.
Are comics and/or fantasy allowed?
FANTASY IS NOT SF.
Sorry. Pet hate of mine is SF being mixed in with fantasy. Nowhere near the same. I can’t stabd fantasy books (can you tell??)
No, I wouldn't recommend the Foundation series either, it's pretty heavy going. I see my attempt to write "early" was typo'd as easily.... :/
He's all about the SF not fantasy. Thanks for the suggestions, I'd forgotten about reading the Stainless Rat stuff when I was younger, that's now on the list. Please keep them coming, I'm looking at getting him about 4.
FANTASY IS NOT SF.
Has he started on the discworld set? 🙂
They should keep him going for some time.
Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy
... is the right answer. I read it at about that age, it changed my life.
FANTASY IS NOT SF.
I know. I didn't know if the boy's mother knew it though, which is why I asked.
I think I read the first Dune book at about that age. Watchmen might be another good one.
Early Heinlein. Fall of moondust Have spacesuit will travel, Rocketship Galileo
Stainless steel rat by harry Harrison and bill the galactic hero (only the first one)
Echoing mogrim - Dune (maybe skip the sequels though . . .)
Any of the Asimov short story collections (e.g. I, Robot) - I devoured them at that age.
Yes it isn't SF but an avid reader should be exposed to Discworld at this point if they haven't been yet.
Speaking of discworld, Terry Pratchett wrote 2 or 3 teenage friendly Sci fi books. I remember them being good reads.
Edit: Dark Side of the Sun and Strata
Niven tales of know space short stories collection
John Wyndham?
FANTASY IS NOT SF.
Sorry. Pet hate of mine is SF being mixed in with fantasy. Nowhere near the same. I can’t stabd fantasy books (can you tell??)
There’s nothing wrong with fantasy if it’s well written, and isn’t a ‘paint-by-numbers’ pot-boiler with magicians, iron-thewed warriors, dragons...
Kind of like Game Of Thrones, really...
There’s plenty of SF which is poorly written and just as tedious.
Roger Zelazney is a superb SF writer, but he also writes fantasy, some of which crosses into SF - his Amber series is fantastic, and dead easy to read, because, in common with the majority of SF and Fantasy from the 60’s and 70’s, the individual books are pretty slim, the first volume, ‘Nine Princes In Amber’, is 190 pages! That’s barely a chapter in some modern fantasy books, running to several hundred pages, if not more.
I’m pretty sure the OP’s son would love them, and paperbacks can be picked up for a couple of quid.
I reckon he might like Larry Niven, too, his ‘Known Space’ books have police procedural stories , great aliens like the Kzin, and Piersens Puppeteers, indestructible spaceships, Ring Worlds, neutron stars, loads of great stuff.
Never mind my godson, I fancy reading a few of these myself. Thanks all.
Some of the Michael Moorcock books are good.
As are some of the Frank Herbet books.
At 14 I was massively into Iain M Banks. Now, I was a nerdy kid so you could say maybe that's not the best recommendation, but then again, he's also a 14 year old that likes sci fi.
Peter F Hamilton's Nights Dawn maybe? The books are enormous which could be a turnoff but they're extremely readable (which is why they're such a success; I'm still not convinced that they're much good but I enjoy them anyway)
Enders Game
I was about to say Enders Game, I see somebody has done that. I read a lot of Robert Heinlein at that age. Starship troopers a good place to start.
Forgot to say Enders Game was the first one I thought of, definitely on the list.
I remember enjoying Antigrav by Nicholas Fisk around that sort of age.
Peter F Hamilton’s Nights Dawn maybe?
I was just about to add that as a suggestion, or maybe Fallen Dragon. (Which even has a teenage boy as the main character...) I'd echo the fact that they're not exactly quality, but they're great entertainment with lots of huge starships, explosions and a touch of humour.
Hyperion's another good choice.
Absolute top choice would be the novels by Nicholas Fisk. There are 2 that spring to mind. One called Grinny about an alien who comes to live with a family posing as an elderly Aunt, she bewitches the adults..it sounds a bit twee but it's proper menacing. The other is 'a rag a bone and a hank of hair' about a futuristic world when a teenage boy has to live with clone children taken from the 40s, it's really good and there's an awesome twist. If only one get the latter... My other suggestion would be for 'Chocky' can't remember the author but you might remember the TV series. There's the Tripods as well which the BBC made the first book of.
I would say no to nights dawn. A very complex set of interlocking tales that really needed a good editor. I had to red it twice to make sense of it. Unless he has a high reading age then stick to the simpler stuff
John Wyndham?
Good shout!
Rendezvous With Rama, Arthur C Clark.
It's what got me into SF books. Well, reading books generally actually. It's a good read, gets going pretty fast. He won't have to read a hundred pages before anything actually happens.
If he likes it, it is the first book in a whole series. All of which are absolutely great.
My 14 year old rarely reads but has just lapped up Fahrenheit 451
What about the Star Wars expanded universe stuff? The Rogue Squadron series is pretty good and 'Dark Disciple' is ace.
Fisk and Wyndham, +1
Another vote for Nights Dawn. I wouldn't say it's anything more than superficial, it reads like a TV series to be honest (not necessarily a bad thing, it is very readable).
Also a vote for The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata.
Iain M may be pushing it, even in my mid 20s it took me a few goes to finally read Player of Games. Glad I did though.
My suggestions would be the Wool trilogy. Not sci-fi as opposed to dystopian but fairly light going. See also Extinction Game and Survival Game by Gary Gibson (the latter is better written) and the Metro trilogy by Dmitry Glukhovsky if you want something darker.
I would second the Mortal Engines series. Nice and easy to read but with some pretty complex themes, relationships and characters.
Also Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett I remember as being brilliant, but it's a while since I read it.
Depends how advanced of a reader he is as well really. Maybe Dune (the first one) might be a good shout too, I read that around his age and loved it.
Dark Materials trilogy? You can argue if it's fantasy or science fiction, but the plot features the physics of alternative universes and the death of God, so perfect for kids.
How about an anthology of sci-fi short stories? The ones edited by Gardner Dozois were very good (think they stopped publishing them last year, though may still be going in the US) and pretty varied - so there's bound to be something in each edition that he likes.
I demolished the local libraries SF section as a child, the ones that stayed with me are the Asimov The Complete Robot (short story collection), Dune from Frank Herbert (tell him to ignore the rest) & all of the Pratchett disc world series 😀
Oh and modern stuff, John Scalzi's old man's war series and his stand alones, funny & poignant
Another vote for John Wyndham. Especially Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids, my favourite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chrysalids I must have read this half a dozen times.
Ray Bradbury
John Wyndham?
Yeah, Chocky maybe for starters...
Cougar
Subscriber
Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy
… is the right answer. I read it at about that age, it changed my life.
In what ways? Do you always carry a towel? Feel depressed that nothing's going to work out right and we're all insignificant specks?! 😀
squirrelking
Iain M may be pushing it, even in my mid 20s it took me a few goes to finally read Player of Games. Glad I did though.
Oh yeah, you start with Phlebeas, explosions and weirdness and the biggest train crash evar. Could do with some more tits though.
In what ways? Do you always carry a towel? Feel depressed that nothing’s going to work out right and we’re all insignificant specks?!
It sparked a love of words and language, and was a direct influence on my sense of humour. I mean, just take this (paraphrasing from memory):
"The spaceships hung in the air, in much the same way that bricks don't."
That's just glorious. Has a finer sentence ever been committed to paper? I THINK NOT!
Oh yeah, you start with Phlebeas,
Or at least consider it.
How about some Larry Niven - Ringworld for starters.
Warhammer 40k? Gaunt's Ghosts is excellent series of military SF (start with this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Founding-Gaunts-Ghosts-Omnibus/dp/1784966177/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1547234401&sr=8-1&keywords=gaunt+ghosts+omnibus)
But I agree that Hitchhikers is the best suggestion so far 🙂
I have just read this book:
Aspects of Science Fiction The Albemarle Library for Schools: Amazon.co.uk: Geoffrey D. Doherty
Even though the book is old, Panel Game [short story] by Brian Aldiss is right now 🙂
Black Jack 😉
Wow, I've just come back to this thread, lots of good stuff, he's in for a treat.
The White Mountains trilogy by John Christopher. There's sci-fi fantasy, lord of the rings and anti-establishment rebellion too.
Clarke is too dry and devoid of humanity, not many will get Banks's satire at that age and TBH when I was 14, Asimov's prose came over as pulp-clunky. Niven & Pournelle's Footfall & Lucifer's Hammer were gritty, but are now pretty dated.
@Northwind I'd probably start with anything other than the player if I was doing it again (except maybe Excession or Inversions).
Oh, speaking of players, Ready Player One?
Another vote for John Wyndham. Day of the Triffids obvs but I also LOVED The Chrysalids as a kid, might still be my favourite book ever and definitely kicked off a life-long addiction to post-apocalypitica. Iain M Banks also a good recommendation. Dune as noted above definitely. You might want to see how he gets on with some of the more accessible Philip K Dick stuff, maybe one of the short story compilations as a starter.Try Olaf Stapledon's First and Last Men for some mind blowing epoch-spanning early SF. And obviously Brave New World too.
The passage by Justin Cronin, it runs a fine line between SF and fantasy but works really well. It's also about to be shown on TV so he can be the " it's not as good as the book geek".
Cronin on tv? Do tell, please! Is it Netflix or sonething?
Starts on Monday on Fox apparently, saw it advertised when I was at my folks over Christmas. Almost makes me consider getting sky.
Starship troopers by Robert e Henlein.
The forever war by joe haldaman
I'd suggest Iain M Banks too. Player of Games is brilliant.
Edit: though it might be a bit fruity for some parents pf 14 year olds. Glancing to change gender and such like
How about some Larry Niven – Ringworld for starters.
See the previous page. Re: Player of Games - that’s the one Banks novel that, having read once, I can never go back to, I find the main protagonist to be so irredeemably unpleasant that I just don’t enjoy the story. I know that many/most of the characters in Banks’ books are morally dubious, but they do, mostly, have redeeming qualities.
Niven & Pournelle’s Footfall & Lucifer’s Hammer were gritty, but are now pretty dated.
And that’s going to be a concern to a fourteen year old just getting into SF?
Niven wrote a whole bunch of books that are hugely enjoyable just because any science in them is assumed to be so far advanced that there’s no point in getting nitpicky about any perceived flaws. Even Niven admits there are aspects of Ringworld that he got wrong, but really, who gives a shit, when you’ve got aliens like the Kzin and Puppeteers!
That’s just glorious. Has a finer sentence ever been committed to paper? I THINK NOT!
She fitted into my biggest arm-chair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing arm-chairs tight about the hips that season
Carry on Jeeves, PG Wodehouse
Another shout for Mortal Engines. Don’t let the recent dire movie put you off, the books are brilliant.
Short story collections are always a good choice too. Peter F Hamilton - Second Chance At Eden is a great toe hold into his work.
Player of Games – that’s the one Banks novel that, having read once, I can never go back to, I find the main protagonist to be so irredeemably unpleasant that I just don’t enjoy the story.
Really?
Struggling to counter that without going into plot but I'd heartily disagree. Is Morat the player or just a piece in the game?
Ernest Cline... Ready Player One and Armada. I enjoyed both.