Sci-Fi Books For Pre-Teens? 1419
o2binbuzios writes "I have two pre-teen boys who are avid readers, and I am going through my mental catalog for great sci-fi & fantasy books for them. What are some of the classics (and maybe new additions to the classics) that would be great for them to read? I am asking because some of the 'straight-up' classics I remember actually seem kind of dark & cynical for younger readers. Starship Troopers and some of the other Heinlein are definitely darker and more political than I remember... Foundation Trilogy and psycho-history maybe too dry. Road-trip reading season is upon us — what are the good reads for the kids in the back seat?"
Try these (Score:4, Informative)
I'd suggest you try Anne McCaffrery's "Decision at Doona" and James Blish's "Welcome to Mars."
Both are great SF, both are aimed at younger readers, both are upbeat and greatly enjoyable to read.
Enders Game (Score:2, Informative)
Ender's Game or just about anything from Orson Scott Card
Jules Verne (Score:5, Informative)
When I was a kid, I had a lot of fun time reading Journey to the Center of the Earth, from the Earth to the Moon, etc.
Larry Niven: A World Out of Time (Score:5, Informative)
Modesitt (Score:4, Informative)
I like the Recluse series by L. E. Modesitt. I read those books over and over.
Ender's Game (Score:5, Informative)
Ender's Game [ender.com], of course.
Re:Enders Game (Score:4, Informative)
I wouldn't say ANYTHING by him. Ender's Game is obvious, but his early sequels to it were too preachy, dull, and moved away from a preteen protagonist. His later sequels/retellings?, however, are great - the Ender's Shadow series.
Re: E.E. Doc Smith (Score:3, Informative)
Those are good. Along those lines, if the readers in question can put up with a style like Verne's (in the sense that it isn't a modern style) they might enjoy E.E. Doc Smith's Skylark and Lensman series; those were very cool to read. The styles can be a show-stopper for some, though. Personally, I just re-read the Skylarks and they were great.
Alfred Bester (Score:2, Informative)
Heinlein juveniles (Score:5, Informative)
Citizen of the Galaxy, Farmer in the Sky, Have Space Suit will Travel, Starman Jones - all by Heinlein. These are his juveniles and are all good stories, drama and action along with some moralizing about studying hard etc ... I read them as a kid and was hooked. The Larry Niven short stories.
Re:Anne McCaffrey (Score:3, Informative)
In particular, McCaffrey's Dragonsdawn even has a little bit of science in it! A smattering of biomed, genetic engineering, some light AI, space navigation and terminology (this is where I discovered Oort clouds), a tiny bit of geology and botany. It's fun, and the psionics comes in late enough that you can ignore it if you want.
Re:Try these (Score:5, Informative)
Orson Scott Card has Ender's Game (and several more in that series). These are definately classic.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, and the follow-ups are all very well written, though some of the deeper themes might be a bit above your kids depending on how sharp they are.
CS Lewis' Space Trilogy is excellent, though it gets pretty violent, and might be a bit advanced for pre-teens.
Terry Pratchett's books are funny, but they tend to spoof the politics and happenings of the US and the UK, so your kids might not grasp all the jokes. Much better would be Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the (increasingly misnamed) Hitchhiker's Trilogy (there are five books there).
If you like, you might even start them on JRR Tolkien, which is more fantasy than sci-fi, but definitely a classic. You also have the advantage of the movies once they're done with the books. (Books are better though.)
Those are my picks, and that should be enough reading for at least this summer, if not longer. You can also walk into your local Borders and ask someone. There's tons of great kids books in Sci-Fi...
Van Vogt, Russell (Score:4, Informative)
I mostly bring up old-timers because they're the ones I read when I was young. Asimov's Robot novels like "Caves Of Steel" might be more appealing than the Foundation stuff. Heinlein wrote a lot of juveniles. I've read that "Starship Troopers" was supposed to be a juvenile but it was deemed to rough by the editors and re-marketed as adult. However, "Double Star" is a good juvenile by Heinlein.
In the old days, Sci-Fi was mostly short stories, go find good anthologies! The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame anthology of the best science fiction stories is a good place to start.
Other recommendations would be "Voyage Of The Space Beagle" by Van Vogt, "Wasp" by Eric Frank Russell.
HHGTTG and Ender's Game (Score:5, Informative)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a good, easy read, and is what actually got me started reading Sci-Fi.
Ender's Game is excellent, and while a little dark in places, it's no darker than most classic fairy tales.
Also, if you're at all interested in getting them some fantasy books, two of the absolute best reads would have to be Clive Barker's The Thief of Always, and China Mieville's Un Lun Dun.
Re:I think Heinlein would be ok (Score:3, Informative)
In "Time Enough for Love" (by Heinlein), the protagonist has sex with both his mother (there is time travel) and with his X-duplicated, female clone. Lots of his stuff would be fine, but not really all of it.
Here's some that got me started, decades back. (Score:3, Informative)
Here's some that got me started, back in the late 50s. They are all quite accessible to a young reader:
Eric Frank Russel's _Wasp_ (Also good: _The Space Willies_ A.K.A. _Next of Kin_)
Murray Leinster's Med Ship series.
Hal Clemmet's _Needle_ (A.K.A _From Outer Space_)
Heinlein's _Red Planet_
George O. Smith's _Space Plague_ (A.K.A. _Highways in Hiding_) and _Venus Equilateral_ (though the latter is quite dated, using vacuum tube technology.)
Darkover! (Score:3, Informative)
rj
Re:Try these (Score:2, Informative)
Ender's Game has some elements which some pre-teens may find disturbing (animal torture) and the sequel has some graphic elements involving planting a tree. Plus, the message is a bit advanced for a pre-teen. I'm not sure most pre-teens would really grasp it.
A few very basic suggestions (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not a huge sci-fi reader, but also never really found what I read to be all that difficult.
'Dune' is a great place to start out. I was never able to get through the sequals, but the original is a classic. Possibly a bit advanced and cynical, but definitely on the 'required reading' list. The Sci-Fi channel miniseries is also excellent.
Another obvious recommendation is The Hitchhikers Guide series. They're easy, they're funny, and unfortunately not strictly sci-fi. Either way, I'd have a hard time thinking of reasons not to read something by Douglas Adams.
On the fantasy end of things (more my tastes, and still closely related to SF), I'd strongly recommend His Dark Materials, LoTR (if you can manage to get through the first 250 pages), and anything by Terry Pratchett.
If your sons have any interest in The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, I'd highly recommend starting early, as the average lifespan of the typical human is only just barely long enough to cram them all in (I jest, but seriously.... if you follow the user-submitted reviews of the books on Amazon, the readers get fewer and angrier as the series goes on with seemingly no end in sight).
For Kids Of All Ages (Score:3, Informative)
Pretty much all Hienlien's earlier stuff is what I call "boy scout" stories. I developed the term from his Sunjammer solar sail story that premiered in the boy scout magazine "Boys Life".
And every kid of any age should read everything from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Besides 36 novels, he's written some books specific to younger readers (and won awards for same) and there's been both animated and live versions of some of the Discowrld books made. The Discowrld stories are much like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons -- well done for and received by kids, but some more esoteric pieces inserted specifically for those who can find them -- mostly for adults, sometimes for specialists (like the details of the "clacks" being there for techheads).
Asimov's collections of short stories are good for kids and he puts in well explained details of the science involved. And if you can interest them in these, then you can give them his collections of science essays, which are equally entertaining but even more educational. By the time they catch on to the latter, they'll be more interested in learning more, and that's the best thing that can happen from all this.
Caves of Steel (Score:2, Informative)
Recommended Reading List (Score:5, Informative)
Heinlein (Score:4, Informative)
So many....try Danny Dunn (Score:4, Informative)
I loved sci-fi short stories as a kid.
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (get the book of short stories not the movie adaptation)
The Wind From The Sun is a good collection of Arthur C. Clarke.
If you can find 'em, the Danny Dunn series of books were great, always had hard core science. Kinda like the Hardy Boys, but with a sci-fi influence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn [wikipedia.org]
Sherlock Holmes!
Re:Piers Anthony (Score:3, Informative)
Andre Norton (Score:3, Informative)
If ERB is the Stephen King of SF/F then Anre Norton [wikipedia.org] was the Judy Blume. Like ERB, almost all of her 300 books [wikipedia.org] are suitable for younger readers.
It's been so long since I read her stuff, but don't ever remember being disappointed by any of her books.
Some titles that come to mind:
Quag Keep
Zero Stone
Android at Arms
Ice Crown
Merlin's Mirror
Voorloper
Crossroads of Time
Forerunner Foray
Exiles of the Stars
Postmarked for the Stars
The Time Traders
Galactic Derelict
Witch World
Re:Ender's Game (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Try these (Score:3, Informative)
Addams and Tolkien Great choices.
But since the topic is scifi"&"fantasy I suggest the Christopher Stacheff Books in the Warlock series. It's about a space "secret agent" who is sent to a world where magic appears to be a real phenomenon. Witches, shapeshifters, robots and rayguns. Its great stuff.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/christopher-stasheff/ [fantasticfiction.co.uk]
C.
Jules Verne books (Score:3, Informative)
The first books I've read and still remember fondly these days were The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. I think I was 9 or 10 years old at the time and the edition I read had some pencil-drawn pictures every 5 pages or so.
Amazing, engrossing story of a group of people lost on an island and how they build their own little pocket of civilization. There's an engineer in the group and they build a watermill, a telegraph, etc. They even rebuff a pirate attack! I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I absolutely loved those books (I think it's only a single book, but the ones I had were split in two). They are accessible and I don't remember anything objectionable in them. There's a little tie-in at the end with Captain Nemo, from the Twenty Leagues Under the Seas story, but the books stand on their own.
I highly recommend this book. Hmm, I wonder if I can find a good online version of it to read again...
Re:Enders Game (Score:3, Informative)
Except in the universe presented there had been concerted effort to make smarter and smarter children who would be intelligent at younger and younger ages.
Re:Dark and Cynical? (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, C.S. Lewis had been converted to Christianity by J.R.R. Tolkien and in fact wrote the Chronicles of Narnia as a sort of Christian allegory. The "overtones" (to put it mildly: I agree with others now that they are overwhelming and a bit cloying) are not really meant to be subtle.
This is in contrast with The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings which does have a very Catholic foundation in its setting. The entire nature of the origins of the Elves--firstborn of the Children of Ilvatar--and their undying nature, the idea of the Halls of Mandos and the Gift of IllÃvatar (Elves were immortal only as long as Arda existed, but the spirits of Men lingered in the Halls of Mandos and then passed beyond the circles of the World), plus the hand of God guiding the heros (Frodo actually failed his Quest--it was impossible for him to overcome the lure of the One Ring, but because he showed Sméagol mercy and did everything that he had the strength to do, by divine fate the Ring was destroyed.
All in all I far prefer the quiet, assumed Christianity of Middle-earth to the blatent allegory of Narnia. That said, I found the series delightful as a child.
Re:Dark and Cynical? (Score:5, Informative)
The "sinner" is replaced by the blameless sacrifice, who is shamed, mocked then killed, the women weep over the body which disappears, then the blameless sacrifice is resurrected.
Lion the witch and the wardrobe.
Tripod Series (Score:3, Informative)
The Tripods Series is a great Sci-Fi read for that age. It's a vaguely Orwellian world of the future, ruled by aliens with man in controlled virtual slavery. Kids try to break free of control and rescue man, etc, etc....
When the Tripods Came/White Mountains/City of Gold and Lead/Pool of Fire.
I'm pretty sure the books are labelled in sequence order
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+pool+of+fire&x=0&y=0 [amazon.com]
My Picks (Score:2, Informative)
Don't forget The Animorphs!
The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy is both hilarious and accessable.
Or maybe if they are feeling dangerous:
NEUROMANCER!!!!!!!!!!
some reading suggestions for whipper snappers (Score:1, Informative)
on the fantasy front...
- The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper
- The Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander
- The Earthsea Cycle, by Ursula K. Le Guin
- the Xanth series, by Piers Anthony
as for sci fi...
- "Superluminal", by Vonda N. McIntyre
- "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH", by Robert C. O'Brien, illustrated by Zena Bernstein
- Time Quartet, by Madeleine L'Engle ("A Wrinkle in Time", "A Wind in the Door", "Many Waters", "A Swiftly Tilting Planet"
and here is a link to a list of sci fi for kids (some of the above are on it)
http://www.colapublib.org/reading/children/sci-fi.html
another light hearted and great book that ties the magic and science together is
- "The Blood and Thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak", by Margaret Mahy
Clarke (Score:5, Informative)
Anything written by Arthur C Clarke. I was devouring everything clark when I was around 10. I started with Rendezvous with Rama, which remains my favorite book of all time. It was actualy on the pre-teen shelf at the library when I was a kid. The sequels are really good, too, imo... though many disagree. The 2001 series is good, Hammer of God, Songs of Distant Earth, Childhood's End. Too many to list. Sometimes the themes are a little advanced, but don't underestimate young readers. I think kids should pick up more advanced books early anyways... it helps development. Too many adults these days are still stuck in a Dr. Seuss world =)
Nicodemus
The complete Heinlein juvenile list: (Score:5, Informative)
Some that haven't been mentioned yet... (Score:3, Informative)
Series:
Novels:
Collections:
Re:Try these (Score:3, Informative)
There is a nice list of science-fiction stories [livejournal.com] on this LiveJournal blog.
Re:Enders Game (Score:4, Informative)
Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit Will Travel". I first read that when I was nine, and it was the first "real" sci-fi I read (L'Engle's stuff doesn't really count as sci-fi). It's not dark, it's not cynical, it's nicely anti-authoritarian and tons of fun. After that I read Dune. Quite a shift.
Re:Jules Verne (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong Martian Chronicles [wikipedia.org]. Bradbury's work was philosophical, allegorical, and in many ways surreal, and while I don't have trouble reading it I've found that even as an adult (with some graduate training in literary theory) it takes some effort to appreciate the nuances. Not a work for kids, though I think his Fahrenheit 451 should be required reading for someone who's just finding out about real literature.
Another fan's list (Score:4, Informative)
I'll try to stick to ones I didn't see on a fast pass through the topic...
As always, vet for yourself! Good luck! I envy your kids, just starting out with all the wonder out there.
Re:Try these (Score:3, Informative)
Heinlein's juveniles [wikipedia.org] aren't dark.
Niven's stuff may work, depending on your definition of dark.
I can't think of any of Frank Herbert's [wikipedia.org] work that isn't dark (or at least twisted) though the Jorj X McKie [wikipedia.org] ones may just be a bit odd (I Arthur C Clark's work? Certainly some classics, although, a bit slow in places.
And a random smattering of alternate suggestions:
Greg Bear
Peter F Hamilton [wikipedia.org]
David Weber [wikipedia.org]
Louis McMaster Bujold [wikipedia.org]
David Brin [wikipedia.org]
*not* Niven's Ringworld (Score:3, Informative)
I don't exactly want my kids reading about rishathra and it's many uses political/social/entertainment as pre-teens.
Great books, but with vampires/ghouls/sex I don't think pre-teen is quite the right time.
Re:Try these (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Little Fuzzy (Score:3, Informative)
Ah, another Piper fan. I also strongly recommend the Paratime stories and especially _Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen_.
Re:give 'em all of it (Score:3, Informative)
Snowcrash has a lot about cult prostitution, drug-use, and the odd bit of underage sex. Sword of Truth has bondage, sado-masochism, rape, and eating a child's testicles for magical power. A Game of Thrones includes rape, incest and prostitution. Cryptonomicon doesn't have anything really objectionable, but it's incredibly dense, and lacking in any sort of action that might interest preteens. Really, unless the kid is some sort of savant, they're probably not that interested in cryptography algorithms at 11.
Don't get me wrong, I love A Song of Ice and Fire, and Snowcrash (and even Sword of Truth wasn't too bad for the first few books), but this is a thread about recommendations for kids, not listing your favourite sci-fi/fantasy novels.
Speaking of Asimov (Score:3, Informative)
Prydain recommendation enthusiastically seconded (Score:1, Informative)
Don't overlook these classics by Lloyd Alexander -- they're quite magical.
Also try "The Perilous Gard" by Elizabeth Marie Pope.
Ursula Le Guin (Score:2, Informative)
I also highly recomment the Earthsea series, the 4th book, Tehanu, is actually my favourite book of all time.
There are actually 6 books:
- A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
- Tombs of Atuan (1971)
- The Farthest Shore (1972)
- Tehanu (1990)
- Tales from Earthsea (2001)
- The Other Wind (2001)
Tehanu is a revist to the world of Earthsea through female characters. Tales from Earthsea is a collection of short stories (fairly long short stories) which occur mostly outside of the plot of the other 5 books, but who give context to the world itself and the final book. The last book continues from Tehanu and brings her narrative and the whol series to a more conclusive, and beautiful, end. Highly recommended for any age of person!!
SF and Fantasy Authors for Young Readers (Score:5, Informative)
Over 50 authors sorted by chronological age of readers. Some (e.g. Heinlein) have books for younger readers, but continuing with the author leads to adult books. All (except the Acorna series) are accessible to older readers.
L. Frank Baum - classic Oz for the very young
Lloyd Alexander - Prydain
John Christopher (Samuel Youd) - Tripods series.
Susan Cooper - Dark Is Rising series
Robin McKinley
Robert Asprin - Myth Adventures and Phule series. Other series should wait until mid-teens. Just bought Dragon's Wild -- not read yet, but seems more adult.
Jody Lynn Nye - Mythology
Terry Pratchet - Discworld
Christopher Stasheff - Warlock series, earliest books will need to be reread when older; middle of series is great for children; latest are romances for late teens.
Craig Shaw Gardner
Piers Anthony - Xanth
Brian Jacques - Redwall
Lyndon Hardy - Only one fantasy trilogy.
Harry Harrison - Stainless Steel Rat series. Many other books for different age groups.
Marion Zimmer Bradley - Darkover
Katherine Kurtz - Deryni
Barbara Hambly
Anne McCaffrey - Acorna series is for young children, painful for adults. Talents, Brainships, and Crystal Singer are for any age. Dragonriders vary starting late teens.
Joel Rosenberg - Guardians of the Flame series; warning: main characters die!
Stephen R. Donaldson - Mordant's Need (fantasy), then Gap series (SF). Covenant series for late teens.
Alan Dean Foster - pulp writer great for children but too many clichés for adults.
Edgar Rice Burroughs - classic Tarzan, Mars, and Pellucidar are mandatory.
C. S. Lewis - Narnia
Gordon Dickson - Dorsai (especially appealing to boys), many others.
Terry Brooks (Magic Kingdom for Sale series)
J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter, mandatory for this decade
Fritz Leiber - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series is great for boys
John DeChancie - Castle series
Fred Saberhagen - Empire of the East and Swords series
Frederick Pohl
James P. Hogan - SF
Laura Resnick - Fantasy
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game, Shadow series, Enchantment, Songmaster, Magic Street.
Spider Robinson - Deathkiller trilogy and short stories. Callahan's Series for late teens (fun but adult-themed jokes would be missed when very young.)
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. - Ecolitan and Recluse series.
W. Michael Gear - Now writing long-winded pulp with his wife, but his Spider trilogy (and "The Artifact" prequel) is incredible (warning: main characters die!)
Philip José Farmer - World of Tiers
Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth series starts well
Roger Zelazny - Amber
David Farland (Dave Wolverton) - Runelords
Jules Verne - classic
H. G. Wells - classic
Harry Turtledove - alternate histories, often fantasy.
Douglas Adams - mandatory for potential nerds.
Arthur C. Clarke
Charles Ingrid - SF
Robert L. Forward
Isaac Asimov
Robert Heinlein - mandatory for sci-fi discussions.
Poul Anderson
Larry Niven - Ringworld, etc.
Jerry Pournelle
Greg Bear
Ray Bradbury
Mike Resnick
C. S. Friedman - often requires rereading to understand (even for adults)
Pre-teens, meaning 12 and younger? (Score:3, Informative)
It's hard to remember back that far, but the stuff I had in my elementary school library included things like the "Tom Swift Jr." series, about a young scientist/engineer. They were sort of in the vein of "The Hardy Boys" or the "Jonny Quest" cartoons but focused on some pretty far-fetched scientific concepts. I really enjoyed them though and must have read 40+ different editions. Like "The Hardy Boys" they were thoroughly formulaic but still good harmless fun for 9 - 12 year olds.
Also, the "Danny Dunn" series was pretty fun. It was more juvenile than the "Tom Swift" stories but had a better scientific foundation. One thing that stood out in these were the inclusion of a girl as a principle character, and adults who weren't shown as being totally stupid-- a failure of a lot of kid's books.
Fantasy wise, I read Anne McCaffery's "Dragonriders of Pern" short stories when I was about 11. I think the short stories preceded the first novel ("Dragonflight") but I could be wrong about that.
I also spent a lot of time reading comics. There were some great stories back then, but many comics today aren't as innocent as those 70's stories were. Or as subversive, as I think the old "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" comics subtly shaped some of my political views. Some comics could provide a nice break if you decide to let them read some of the more serious works others have suggested.
Happy hunting, and good on you for encouraging your kids to read a wide range of things.
Re:Or give them what they want to read (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Sex is a boogeyman, but not sexism? (Score:3, Informative)
This is a no-brainer choice to give to freethinking kids. It does advocate judicious use of hallucinogens for spiritual purposes, but I read and admired it as a preteen and was never tempted to test that particular idea. (Twenty years later, I still haven't.)
You're missing out. Take some mushrooms with someone you love.
Re:Or give them what they want to read (Score:3, Informative)
I have a very hazy memory of reading Andre Norton's
out of my grade school library.
I was 6 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and had hi-res, 9x12 photos from Apollo 11 on my bedroom wall. I loved my books on rockets and space flight.
I found Asimov, Heinlein, and Bradbury later, and subscribed to Analog for High School and college. But The Zero Stone certainly kindled my fascination with sci-fi... I have no idea how well it holds up today.