Science fiction: what do you recommend?

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:19 am

Dune, definitely; Dune Messiah, okay; for me it lost a lot of steam after that, but other people's mileage varies!

Post by **Alatar** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:46 am

I'm not sure that I'd recommend Earthsea for an eight year old. The language and concepts are quite adult. Looking back, I suppose the obvious "beginners" books for Fantasy are "The Hobbit" and "Chronicles of Narnia". I wouldn't have a problem with the Dragonlance type books as they are an introduction to the Genre and are reasonably well written, particularly for an eight year old. I look on books for that age as gateway books. I recently bought my nephew the first few books of the "Young Jedi" series because he loves Star Wars and it's a way of hooking him into sci-fi novels. That's why I also like game and film tie-in books. Anything that encourages reading is "a good thing". There are also many older books that have an element of the fantastic, like E. Nesbitts books, which I think are suitable for kids of any age.

My 7 year old is currently reading Secret Seven, but I'm looking forward to initiating her into my world....

Post by **vison** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:53 pm

When I think back on the books I read as a kid, an awful lot of them were away over my head but I loved them anyway. I guess I think if a kid can read it and enjoy it, it's not too old for him.

I've read so much sci-fi and have read hardly ANY of the ones you guys are talking about. I feel like, hey, I missed all this?

Well, that can be fixed. Printing out these lists.

Post by **Impenitent** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:25 am

Alatar, this morning I was browsing the shelves of a second hand book store (my favourite place to browse! I can walk out heaving a huge armful of books and spend under $10) and found a Dragonlance game book and another Dungeons and Dragons book - the kind where you have to throw dice to make decisions and one decision takes you to X page and another decision takes you to Y page. I figure he'll enjoy that a lot! Plus...it cunningly leads to RPG.

Baby steps; as long as he's reading and having fun, the habit will build.

My boy read all the Famous Five, but lost interest in that genre and didn't want to go on to the Secret Seven. Ah well. He's on the SciFi/Fantasy track now.

Vison, I feel much like you! How did I miss these, when I read so much in the genre as a young 'un? I guess I just went with what my local library had on the shelves - and perhaps I did read some of them but have forgotten the names (very likely).

I enjoyed Dune very much! The first trilogy was very satisfying and created a very comprehensive and believable universe. The ones written after that were not so good. He ran out of steam, I think, and the plots were all over the place; no tension, the characters became flat.

And the "prequels" turned out by his son and a collaborator after Herbert's death are not good at all. My brother in law is a Herbert fanatic and he lent me one of them, "House Harkonnen" I believe it was; I tried repeatedly to read it and couldn't get past the first chapter. So loooong, and to no purpose at all.

Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:47 am

Primula_Baggins wrote:Dune, definitely; Dune Messiah, okay; for me it lost a lot of steam after that, but other people's mileage varies!

You know, Prim, most people that I speak to share your opinion. I one of those few I loves the whole series that Herbert wrote. Strangely, though, I have had little interest in checking out the "prequels" that his son has written with Kevin Anderson; I just can't imagine that they would stand up. I suppose I should check them out someday, though.

Post by **Impenitent** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:49 am

Not worth your while, Voronwë; a turgid mish-mash, plotless, riding on the tail of his father's reputation.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:56 am

I should try at least CHILDREN OF DUNE again. I think my problem with the sequels was that they aren't DUNE.

DUNE is one of those books I reread every few years, and I still remember the impact of the first time I read it. The world he creates is so huge, so old, and so filled with eerie detail. . . .

Post by **Impenitent** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:59 am

I read the trilogy as one; I received all three in one hardback volume as a birthday present so to me it was one long chronicle. Enjoyed them very much indeed! And yes, that universe is so complete, so deep, so old, so vast. An inspired creation, and there are so few of those.

Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:15 am

Thanks, Imp. Just as I suspected.

Post by **Ethel** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:39 am

Alatar wrote:I'm not sure that I'd recommend Earthsea for an eight year old. The language and concepts are quite adult. Looking back, I suppose the obvious "beginners" books for Fantasy are "The Hobbit" and "Chronicles of Narnia".

I would also recommend Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles. They are kind of recombinant Celtic mythology, but very well done and definitely designed for a younger reader. The titles are:

The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King

I read them to my son when he was 7 or 8 and he loved them. I enjoyed them as well, which was by no means true of all the books he enjoyed. Lloyd Alexander wrote another fantasy book that my son loved too: The Amazing Journey of Prince Jen. In fact that's one of the few books I read to him in childhood that he has reread as an adult.

Post by **Impenitent** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:44 am

Thank you Ethel; printing out this list too.

Post by **Alatar** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 11:24 am

Imp:

I used to adore those Gamebooks. I played most of the "Fighting Fantasy" series by Steve Jackson and also the "Lone Wolf" series. I even have 3 Tolkien based ones, which are probably extremely rare as they were recalled soon after publication due to licensing issues. Apparently ICE had the "gaming" license but Tolkien Enterprises classed them as books, so they were pulled from the shelves. They were called "Treason at Helms Deep", "A Spy at Isengard" and "The Mines of Moria". They were fun, but nothing special. More interesting as a curiosity than anything else!

Ethel:

Ah yes, I forgot about those! Make sure he doesn't pick up the dreadful Disney version of Black Cauldron though...

Voronwë:

I also loved the original Dune Trilogy. I think that the recent SciFi Miniseries did a very good job of adapting and compressing Dune Messiah and Children of Dune into one compelling narrative. The first Miniseries was good also, but the CG effects were not really very good. That said, the increased prominence of Irulan was a nice idea and the adaptation was pretty good.

Thank God they didn't attempt to make "God Emperor".

Post by **Rowanberry** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:33 pm

Hasn't anybody mentioned a couple of classics that you absolutely should read: War of the Worlds and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells?

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:41 pm

I must've read War of the Worlds sixteen times before I was 11. I still remember the hot pink cover of the copy in our school library. I have no idea how I forgot that one. I must have been about 8 the first time I read it. It still scares me.

The Time Machine I didn't find until I was an adult—it wasn't in the school library. But I read the "Classic Comics" version.

Post by **Alatar** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 9:17 pm

My first introduction to War of the Worlds was Jeff Wayne. Now that I'm older and wiser I know that most of it is sad early techno, but I can't help but love it

Besides Richard Burtons monologue in "Forever Autumn" is still wonderful.

Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together.
This was no disciplined march - it was a stampede - without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong.
It was the beginning of the rout of civilization, of the massacre of mankind.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 9:26 pm

We have that, too, Alatar!

I don't know why it gets bashed so much. I think it's evocative and fun to listen to. But then, what do I know about rock? At least post-1975.

Post by **Alatar** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:42 am

I find listening to it now that there is a very strong disco beat in "Eve of the War" which dates it quite badly. I'd be interested to see if a re-orchestration would improve it or rather destroy its charm.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 1:19 am

Did I hear that someone was preparing a stage version?

I'm almost sure I did, back around the time the new WoW movie came out. It wasn't going to be a fully staged musical, just oratorio style, if one can apply that term to rock.

On the other hand, I may well have been deluded.

Post by **Alatar** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:13 am

No, I remember hearing something similar. There's a performance in Dublin this year, but I don't know if it's staged in any way.

There's also an animated film being made which will simply put the Album on screen. I hope they have the rights to use Burton and Lynotts voices.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:32 pm

I saw an unstaged performance of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR when I was 12 or 13, and it was very powerful. This could work.

As for the animated film, do you mean they're just illustrating the recorded album? I've never heard of that being done before. It seems like asking for problems! It's much easier to tweak the score than to tweak animated visuals, as far as I know. . . .