Novels That Will Change Your Mind

2002 October 14

tags: Connie Willis, laser, Phillip Pullman, time travel, United Kingdom

by thudfactor

I’m a fan of science fiction/fantasy/horror novels, which are, combined, often called “Speculative Fiction.” The primary problem with Speculative Fiction is that most of it is crap. But there are some genuine literary gems out there.

When people tell me why they don’t read SF (please try to read that as “Speculative Fiction”, at least for this post) it’s generally because they feel the brave-man-rescues-princess formula or the spaceman-laserblasts-robot-amidst-boops-and-bleeps formula have become pretty tired. Many people think fantasy novels are about swordsmen, magicians, and princesses, sci-fi novels are about technobabble and laser guns, and horror novels are about vampires.

I want to suggest some novels that can Change Your Mind about the genre of Speculative Fiction. So here we go…

Harry Potter (the Series) by J.K. Rowling: Don’t let the hype fool you. I put off reading these books for several years just because the hype was so overwhelming. But with complex story lines and realistic adult and children characters, these books are quite possibly some of the best SF ever written. They make my childhood favorite, A Wrinkle In Time, seem dull and patronizing by comparison. In 2001, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won Science Fiction’s most prestigious award, the Hugo.

The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis: Many science fiction books use technology for technology’s sake: “hey, wouldn’t a book about time travel be cool?” That is sci-fi’s greatest failing. In these two books, Connie Willis uses time travel as a plot element: they are not the focus of the book.

The Doomsday Book, winner of the 1993 Hugo and 1992 Nebula awards, is one of the most tragic, tense, and sad speculative fiction books I have ever read: an academic travels back in time to observe middle-ages England and ends up trapped in a village during the Black Death. Meanwhile, back at home, a brand new plague threatens Cambridge. To Say Nothing of the Dog (1999 Hugo) uses the same setting as The Doomsday Book but is a comedy of errors. To Say Nothing of the Dog is as funny as The Doomsday Book is sad.

The Lord of the Rings (series), J.R.R. Tolkien: The high-epic language and relative lack of female characters might turn a few people off, but this very dramatic epic fantasy by an Oxford Don essentially created the genre of Fantasy fiction. Many have tried to use is formula, but they don’t have the writing skills, the mythological knowledge, or the vision that Tolkien had. Darker and more difficult to read than The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings can be easily read as Tolkien’s epic fantasy based on the rise of Hitler and World War II.

His Dark Materials (series), Phillip Pullman: The first book, The Golden Compass, starts out with a lot of jargon but it settles into a phenomenal story from there. A small girl is destined to save the entire universe — but she has to do it by accident. Pullman blends elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror so seamlessly that this is genuinely a work of Speculative Fiction and nothing else. On the surface a book about alternate universes and quantum mechanics, The Golden Compass primarily focuses on how noble ideals can be twisted into something horrifying and evil.

Do you have others to suggest? Soon I will be breaking this out into a seperate page — not just a weblog entry. And I would love to know what your favorite Speculative Fiction books are. (Frankly, I’m sick of trying to wade through all the crap to find the occasional diamond.)

Comments leave one →

2002 October 14

Morgan permalink

May I tentatively recommend:

Susan Cooper’s “The Dark Is Rising” series. a

David Eddings’ “The Belgariad” and “The Mallorian” (Blatant Tolkien rip-offs, but entertaining non-the-less)

Terry Prattchet’s Discworld series - You could call it ‘Speculative Comedy’

2002 October 14

Nicole permalink

I have to admit that I’m a huge fan of Orson Scott Card’s Alvin the Maker series. He’s got a nice writing style and the plot is interesting. I’m not a big reader of sci-fi or whatever we’re calling it now, but I totally agree with you re: Lord of the Rings series. I also can’t say enough about books by James Morrow, who is a religious satirist. Blameless in Abaddon is thought-provoking and hilarious.

2002 October 14

Kadath permalink

“UBIK” and “Flow, My Tears, The Policeman Said,” by Phillip K. Dick (or anything by Dick, for that matter) - Dick is one of the few SF writers whom I believe can also be termed as a futurist. His plots involve outrageous SF situations, but always focus on people reacting the way people would - with paranoia, panic, and occasional (alright, frequent) stupidity.

The “So You Want to Be a Wizard?” series by Diane Duane, another series for young readers that builds off of the old “So You Want to Be a…” educational books. Urban fantasy for younger readers, but with a more mature storyline.

And “Jack of Kinrowan” and “Someplace to be Flying” by Charles deLint (or, again, anything by deLint). DeLint started his career copying Tolkien, but quickly moved into his own style. He is now considered the father of urban fantasy, and his only competition in the genre as far as I can tell is Neil Gaiman with “American Gods” and “Neverwhere.” “Kinrowan” focuses on a modern-day artist who discovers that she is the modern-day equivalent of Jack - the human trickster figure - and that she is one of few humans who can see and interact with the creatures of myth who still live all about us. Which also means that she’s vulnerable to attack from the more wicked of them, as well. The Kinrowan books build primarily off of Celtic folklore.

“Someplace to be Flying” builds more off of Native American folklore and is a book about the animal people - people who are not people and not truly animals, but who were the animals before the animals became mortal. The title and the plot build off of one of the many creation myths of early America - that Raven created the world so that he would have someplace to fly.

Gee, maybe I should have posted this as a separate entry….

2002 October 16

Jickup permalink

* Philip K. Dick, definitely, but you’ve already been there. I love his short stories best.

* Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars), which is so good at exploring Martian issues that you’ll be disoriented when you finish and realize nobody’s up there yet.

* Asimov’s Foundation series, for its wild house-of-cards style vision with appropriate surprises.

* The first seven books of Dune by Frank Herbert. An ecological, political, and spiritual epic. One neat thing about Dune is that the strangest aliens in these stories are other humans.

* Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card the Increasingly Grouchy. His short stories published in “Maps in a Mirror” are fun too, especially if you like morality plays. Beware later books in the “Ender’s” series; Card’s characters become stooges to his own politics and patronizingly lecture the reader. However, the first two books remain my primary counterexample to those who say SF is action, sex, and oh, a spaceship.

* Anything by Neal Stephenson, but especially Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon. His style is so loaded with rigorously witty characterization that you’ll be grabbing people you don’t know to share some clever bit with them.

2002 October 17

Marc permalink

Some more recommendations:

Steven Brust: The Taltos novels (Jhereg, Yendi, etc.)

Greg Bear: Moving Mars, Eon, Eternity

C.J. Cherryh: The Chanur novels (The Pride of Chanur, etc.)

All far, far above the norm.

2003 July 8

Erin permalink

My recommendation is George R. R. Martin’s series “A Song of Fire and Ice.” I’ve gotten several who aren’t into SF with this series.

2005 March 16

Vinay permalink

I STRONGLY recommend the Harry Potter series along with Eragon. None to say here except READ THEM!

Move aside, and let the man go through.

Novels That Will Change Your Mind

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