Five Sci-fi Novels for People Who Don’t Like Sci-fi
Filed under General • 26-04-2009 •
If you’re a sci-fi writer or reader, it can be extremely frustrating and difficult to explain the genre’s appeal to colleagues, friends and loved ones who just “don’t get it”. Take my wife and my mother, for example. While they’ve both been incredibly supportive of my writing career to date, neither can honestly see the appeal of science fiction and I get the feeling both secretly wish I’d write something more “mainstream”.
So, if you have people in your life like this, what can you do to convert them?
The temptation is to shower them with the books you enjoyed when you first started reading sci-fi, way back when – books by writers such as Asimov, Clarke, Niven and Dick – in the hope they’ll see whatever it was you saw first time you read it, and become hooked on the genre the same way you did.
This is not a good idea.
Don’t use the classics. In most cases, the technology, sociology and sexual politics have dated so badly you’ll end up totally alienating your potential convert, despite your fond memories of the book. Better, I think, to start with something modern, something with which they can feel a connection. To this end, I’ve knocked together the list below - a list of books which manage to combine science fiction tropes and themes with modern storytelling techniques and sensibilities.
In much the same way as Life on Mars and the new Battlestar Galactica attracted non-sci-fi audiences through their gritty storylines and examination of contemporary issues of terrorism and freedom, so these books may be capable of drawing in readers who wouldn’t normally expect to enjoy a sci-fi novel:
- 9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. For viewers of Life on Mars and The Wire, this is an intriguing blend of crime drama and medical speculation, in which Sergeant Bobby Zha of the SFPD has to work out not only who murdered him, but also why he’s woken up in the body of a coma patient from New York.
- Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Written as an educational young adult novel, Little Brother shows a group of computer-savvy school children caught up in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on San Francisco, and tells how they fight to regain their civil liberties following a government crack-down.
- Nova Swing by M John Harrison. A generation ago, part of the mysterious Kefahuchi Tract fell to earth in the coastal city of Saudade. Now, years later, Vic Serotonin makes his living guiding tourists into the event site – a place where the laws of geometry and causality have assumed a dream-like elasticity. To Vic, the event site is a puzzle and an obsession – one that literally spills over into the external world when he illegally smuggles an unstable artefact out of the zone.
- Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. Morgan takes Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and projects it several hundred years into the future, delivering a violent and absorbing mystery set on the streets of Bay City.
- Jennifer Government by Max Barry. A no-holds-barred satire on multinational big business, Jennifer Government starts with marketing executives shooting teenagers in order to give their new line of trainers some “street cred”.
This isn’t an exhaustive list. There are other “gateway” books out there that could lure the unsuspecting into an appreciation of science fiction – books like The Time Traveller’s Wife or The Road, which use the tools of sci-fi to add spice to apparently “mainstream” novels.
But what do you think? Which books have I missed? Drop your suggestions in the comments below…
Tags: Cory Doctorow • Jon Courtenay Grimwood • Novels • sci-fi • science fiction • SF
Jennifer Government is a bit too “out there”, IMO. I’d replace it with Geoff Ryman’s Air, which blends politics, sci-fi, domestic drama and magical realism.
My wife was convinced that ‘Flowers for Algernon’ isn’t SF when we watched the film version.
Thanks for the list. I love SF, but have a friend who just can’t get into it. I read all her Fantasy stuff and love that too, but she can never give my stuff a chance. Hopefully some of these will help ease her into it!
Interesting list! I’d like to read those myself.
Just ran into your story ‘Distant Galaxies Colliding’ on Infinity Plus. I really enjoyed it, although it came across as straight-up fiction rather than fiction with a distinct SF bent. I wonder how you’d respond to this?
Looking forward to reading your books in the future!
N.B. I’m a student of Keith Brooke, whom I guess you’ve probably met, SF being such a close-knit world and all…
Justin and Gareth – thank for your suggestions, chaps.
Sabine – I hope it works for you!
David – I’ve left a long reply on your blog.
I’ll have to look into these. Unfortunately when I try to read some “modern sci fi” novels recommended by a friend it tends not to do much for me. I’ve read two Iain M. Banks novels recently and his short story collection… The writing was great but I just wasn’t engaged in the way I am by the classics. Mind you I’ve never been the biggest fan of space operas.
Of course I’ve read many awful books from previous eras, I guess I’ve just picked up the wrong ones for me.
I’ve just finished reading ‘Jennifer Government’, which I really enjoyed and found hilarious, and I’m now about 60 pages into ‘Altered Carbon’. Thanks for the recommendations.
All books courtesy my local library, open three days a week!
Thanks David, I’m glad you’re enjoying them.
‘Altered Carbon’ is not the best of that series — the books improve markedly though, with ‘Woken Furies’ the very best — but as it is likely to trigger an instant association with ‘Blade Runner’ in the way it establishes its gritty noir world, it might do the trick. (Though the protagonist’s penchant for uncontrolled violence might put some people off.)
I’d think another good book for the uninitiated might also be John Scalzi’s ‘The Last Colony’. It’s space opera, but highly accessible, with a relatable cast and a story that’s all about reg’lar folks being deceived by their government to further a war agenda — a theme that might resonate these days.
books like The Time Traveller’s Wife or The Road, which use the tools of sci-fi to add spice to apparently “mainstream” novels.
I don’t think that is an accurate description. There is nothing apparently mainstream about either novels, the science fictional elements are central to their whole existence. You can argue about how successful they are but they certainly aren’t add ons.
Hi Martin,
When I described them as “apparently mainstream”, I was referring the the fact that the books are *marketed* as mainstream novels, even though they are built on science fictional concepts. Perhaps I could have phrased it better.
Ah, right. Yes, they are definitely SF sleeper cells in the bookshop! I’d still quibble about “add spice” though, it seems to me to minimise the strength of the authors’ engagement.
Great list, by the way. I’m not sure how well non-SF readers would get on with Nova Swing – and Harrison has said that Light was explicitly designed to lure them in – but, then again, quite a lot of SF readers didn’t get on too well with it.
Although a voracious reader of Sci-Fi, I have only read Richard Morgan on your list. Yes he is a bit violent but I like the violence as well the Techno-noir feel of this books.
To my shame I’ve not read a single one on that list!