Well, following up the fascinating discussion in this thread, I come to you, my fellow denizens of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy forum, with a question.
I have two friends who are interested in going to "second base" with science fiction. One of them has read a few sci-fi books, but would like to explore the genre a bit more. Most of her experience that I'm aware of is with stuff that's a bit lighter on the science end, but really good classics--C.S. Lewis and Ray Bradbury in particular. The other has read a lot of sci-fi books, but very limited in scope--mostly military/hard SF and some pulp, and she has only recently discovered that there's more out there to the genre, and wants to go exploring. She's also read a lot of Bradbury, and I know they've both read Childhood's End.
As I myself am not particularly deeply versed in sci-fi, I'd like to ask if anyone here would like to make any good suggestions, and perhaps make a sci-fi equivalent to the "seven essential fantasy reads for people wanting to take the next step into the genre" list.
Thanks!
(As an interesting side note, the original New Yorker article posits that the list provided is "second base," with "first base" being famous best-sellers like LotR and Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia--titles well-known enough that they've crossed into mainstream awareness. If "second base" is then books that are more well-known to fantasy readers, and considered good lead-ins to the various possibilities of the genre [basing this definition on how the "better list" was formed in the original thread], then what constitutes "third base" and "going all the way" with a genre?)
I have two friends who are interested in going to "second base" with science fiction. One of them has read a few sci-fi books, but would like to explore the genre a bit more. Most of her experience that I'm aware of is with stuff that's a bit lighter on the science end, but really good classics--C.S. Lewis and Ray Bradbury in particular. The other has read a lot of sci-fi books, but very limited in scope--mostly military/hard SF and some pulp, and she has only recently discovered that there's more out there to the genre, and wants to go exploring. She's also read a lot of Bradbury, and I know they've both read Childhood's End.
As I myself am not particularly deeply versed in sci-fi, I'd like to ask if anyone here would like to make any good suggestions, and perhaps make a sci-fi equivalent to the "seven essential fantasy reads for people wanting to take the next step into the genre" list.
Thanks!
(As an interesting side note, the original New Yorker article posits that the list provided is "second base," with "first base" being famous best-sellers like LotR and Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia--titles well-known enough that they've crossed into mainstream awareness. If "second base" is then books that are more well-known to fantasy readers, and considered good lead-ins to the various possibilities of the genre [basing this definition on how the "better list" was formed in the original thread], then what constitutes "third base" and "going all the way" with a genre?)
