Seeking Science Fiction Recommendations

[beamjockey]

Someone I know has turned to me for help. Her male cousin

"is turning 13 I think… I always buy him books. He is really smart, more geeky than dreamy and likes science fiction. Any suggestions??"

I don't know more about his reading habits than this.

I have a few clues, but haven't read extensively in recent SF. I could recommend a bunch of books that were great 20 to 60 years ago.

I'm looking for suggestions for books published recently-- let's say in the 21st century-- that are a nearly-sure bet to interest someone who fits the description above. Books that would make a suitable gift.

(At 13, he's probably ready to read some SF published for adults, but really good young-adult stories are also worth considering. And I gather there are a lot of good ones around these days.)

Comments

[planettom.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest Neal Stephenson's CRYPTONOMICON, but at 1999 it doesn't break the 21st century barrier.

If I was going to pick one Old School science fiction book for a teenager, I'd pick Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA. Just that, ignore the co-authored sequels.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Also, honestly? The 13 year old that would like that is pretty rare. Not nonexistent, but really rare.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series was a lot of fun.

Here's a review of the first novel from BoingBoing:

http://boingboing.net/2009/10/06/scott-westerfelds-le.html

All books are out now.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I recommend Westerfeld's Uglies.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

At thirteen he's probably a hair too young for Charles Stross' Halting State, but I was reading Friday at that age, so I could be wrong.

Also if he did like it, he might be tempted to pick the sequel Rule 34, which as you can guess by the title he's definitely too young for.

And of course there's always Lois Mcmaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga books, but the ones published in this century (A Civil Campaign excluded) have been pretty dire.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Why would he be too young for Rule 34? As my father always said, "If you can understand it, you're old enough to read it. If you can't, you won't want to."

[jennlk]

I'll check with the resident geeky 14 yo boy and see if he's got any suggestions -- he's in bed now, so probably won't have anything until tomorrow afternoon.

[seawasp]

All of mine? That's my target audience RIGHT THERE. I was aiming for the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

[dsrtao]

I'll vouch for that. My 8 and 6 boys enjoyed having _Boundary_ read to them as a bedtime story, especially as it combines paleontology and space travel.

Next they asked for an SF story with a dragon, so we're reading Timothy Zahn's Dragonback series (all titled Dragon And $Noun).

Stephen Gould's _Jumper_ and _Wildside_.

John Barnes' _Orbital Resonance_.

The Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust.

Holly Black's Curseworkers books -- White Cat?, Red Glove

John Hemry's JAG in Space books.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

And of course the Golden Age of Science Fiction IS thirteen...

[mihai-lado.livejournal.com]

Cory Doctorow, "Little Brother" from 2008.
Night Angel trilogy, Brent Weeks.

[vnend.livejournal.com]

Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" is aimed at him. I read "Ready Player One" (on this year's Nebula list) last year. It is probably aimed at someone a couple of years older than he is, but would probably be a good match anyway.

Neil Gaiman's 'Coraline' is a good YA book that won a Hugo, a Nebula, and a Bram Stoker award, and it has the added advantage of a good movie adaptation available. His "The Graveyard Book" won the 2009 Hugo for best book, Locus award for best YA, and Wikipedia claims it was the first novel win both the Carnegie and Newbery medals.

All of those were published since 2001. I am sure there are plenty of others, but those are the ones I have read that come to mind.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Would Ready Player One make any sense to someone who didn't live through the '80s?

[controuble.livejournal.com]

I second Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.
You might also consider any of the Alex Benedict books by Jack McDevitt. Not written as YA, but good clean fun sort-of mysteries set in space and on other planets way in the future. If he likes fantasy, not just SF, then I would also recommend Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

It's not a terribly original question, but sure, why not?

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Lots of people have mentioned Little Brother already but also:

Kids' books:
Philip Reeve: Mortal Engines
Oisin McGann: Gods and Machines; Small Minded Giants, and Ancient Appetites are all very good.


From the adult market:
Stephen Baxter writes modern old fashioned sf (ie no sex)
Karen Travis: either her copyright work, starting with City of Pearl, or one of her Clone war books for Star Wars (she is a bestseller with a huge teen boy fan base)
Greg Egan's Schild's Ladder
Bujold: Warrior's Apprentice
Ken MacLeod, Learning the World is a nice economic space opera
Justina Robson, Natural History

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with books from 20 to 60 years ago? If the book is still great (E.G. Heinlein's juvies have aged particularly poorly), it should be recommended.

If someone asked me about submarine novels, I'd be doing them a grave disservice by pointing them to the latest flavor of the month while not telling them about Ned Beach because "they're old".

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with books from 20 to 60 years ago?

I am an expert on books from 20 to 60 years ago. So I can make good recommendations about those.

What I need is to learn about more recent books.

Clear?

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

"Hunger Games" is OK-to-good. The sequels, not so much.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Unless calling it "magic" rules them out, Diane Duane's Young Wizard books. Most of them were even published this century. I've just finished a reread on them (and catch-up on new ones I hadn't read before) and I like them a whole lot. They have the Heinlein juvie nature -- kids do important stuff and have to face real issues. The feel is an interesting mix of SF and fantasy; the fantasy bit being the Powers that Be and the First Power hanging there in the background (and the frequent personal interaction with the Lone Power). But everything else is solidly stfnal. Depending on why you specified "sf", these might well fit.

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

Diane's sort-of-rewriting the early ones to make some of the tech more relevant to current teens (IIRC the second book featured an Apple II). E-book versions are due later this year. I'd have more details but the web-site's down at present.

[badgerbag.livejournal.com]

The Highest Frontier (college freshmen on Ivy League space station) (very bio-cyber-punk)
MM9 by Hiroshi Yamamoto (scientists and the science of fighting godzilla monsters; action! funny! cool!)
America Pacifica (ice age hits world, teenage hero on refugee island made of rotting seaweed particle board)
The End by Nora Olsen (post apocalypse teenagers)
Leviathan Wakes (not specifically YA but new-ish space opera and I think would be good for teenagers)

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (the sequels are not as good but probably irresistible for a fan of the first book)

Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill

I solidly recommend anything from Scott Westerfeld, but in particular Peeps, which is a vampire novel (from just before the current vampire craze) with solid science behind the vampires and lots of gross information about parasites and is just generally a really fun book.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I like all Westerfeld, but I am an especial fan of his Midnighters stuff.

I think of The Hunger Games books as really being one book that was split into three because That Is How Long YA Books Are.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series and Nogaru Tanigawa
Kieli series by Yukako Kabei
Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa
Cage of Zeus by Sayuri Ueda
The Apotheosis Trilogy by S. Andrew Swann
Dread Empire Falls Trilogy by Walter Jon Williams
The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson
Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang

Note that for the first two you have to make sure you're getting the novels instead of the manga.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I have no idea.

[kjn]

A lot depends on the kid, methinks, but here's a few thoughts:

Both Charles Stross (Laundryverse) and John Scalzi can fit into the cynical-but-lighthearted mindset that appeals to plenty of teens.

Ryk Spoor has already pimped his books. I'd probably recommend Grand Central Arena first.

Dave Freer's Rats, Bats, and Vats.

Diplomatic Immunity by Lois Bujold, of course. But you have to start earlier. I imagine Elizabeth Bear also has some books that fit, but I can't give titles. Keeping It Real by Justina Robson.

[soon_lee]

Tor.com had a thread asking for recommendations for a 13-year old girl not so long ago. There was also a follow-up discussion. There's a fair amount of overlap in recommendations between there & here.

[prettyshrub.livejournal.com]

Here are some girl protagonist books:

YA - Kelly Armstrong's Darkest Power series. It is about young werewolves and magic users that have been genetically altered and go on the run from the group that did the altering. There is a bit of teen romance.

Adult - The Honor Harrington series by David Weber. It is all about the military and spaceships and war. If the lad digs tech stuff, he can find it here in spades. There are some adult themes about relationships, but if isn't interested, he will skim over them.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

If darker books aren't a problem, these have young female protagonists:

The Way We Fall - Megan Crewe - 2012 - deadly virus sweeps through a small Eastern Canadian island community
Life as We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer - 2006 - catastrophe leads to a family quietly starving and freezing to death at home.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

David Weber -- A Beautiful Friendship. This is an Honorverse novel, but it was written as a YA book. The protagonist is Honor's many-times great-grandmother, and the first person to be adopted by a treecat.

[prettyshrub.livejournal.com]

That is a terrific story too. I also liked FROM THE HIGHLANDS about Anton Zilwicki's daughter. That is in Changer of Worlds (Worlds of Honor, Book 3).

[jennygadget.livejournal.com]

Westerfeld: Peeps, Uglies, Midnighters ( * is sad at the lack of love for Midnighters * ), and Leviathan

The Hunger Games x 1000

Haddix new series The Missing is good, if a bit uneven.

I’m am not personally a fan of Neal Shusterman’s books (Unwind was fairly good but Everlost made me want to throw things in frustration) but he is quite popular among boys that age.

also, the Firebirds anthologies are always good as gifts, because it’s less likely he has already read them and will also probably expose him to several new authors and not just one or two.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd suggest The Warrior's Apprentice but it's way older than this century.

How about Terry Pratchett's _The Nation_? I'd say it's better described as fantasy but more practical than dreamy.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I see lots of folks recommended Doctorow's Big Brother already but I'll chime in. Also, though one can certainly argue that it's really fantasy, it also has SF elements and steampunkery that might appeal to an sf-nal sensibility: Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, beginning with Mister Monday.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

I second the Garth Nix. I really enjoyed that series.