Giants of Science Fiction

In my mind a good fiction book is entertaining and engaging. There is a subset of this that I term "literature." To me, real literature is about ideas. It may be couched in fanciful worlds and futuristic technology, but a good piece of literature is rife with allusion, social commentary, and/or unique presentation of important ideas.

This is not to say that I don't read and enjoy trashy sci-fi and fantasy novels whose only value is entertainment and possibly the occasional addition to your vocabulary, but the books I really enjoy and that really stick with me are those that I feel have taught me something about the world, or about people, or have given me a new perspective on things.

I will share here science fiction authors and selected works that I have really enjoyed, that are masters of the language, who tell captivating stories, and from whom you can learn a great deal. Many may be familiar faces - and for good reason!

Roger Zelazny is far and away my favorite author. Some of his longer work near the end of his career, where he relied heavily on collaboration, is a little less impressive, but his short stories and his early work leave me in awe of his talents.

For someone new to Zelazny I recommend Nine Princes in Amber or Lord of Light, which are his two most highly-acclaimed works, or any anthology of his shorter work. I would steer clear, in the beginning anyway, of Coils, Flare, The Black Throne or Eye of Cat. It's not that they aren't good, but I think you need some exposure to his style before you can fully appreciate them.

Zelazny blends wit, legitimate science (and in some places outrageous fantasy), compelling characters, and subtle allusion. I would go so far as to use the term wordsmith. He doesn't explore ideas in the same depth as some other authors I'll discuss, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

It's part of his general flavor, and part of the reason I love him so much. Zelazny doesn't explain anything to the reader; he seizes you by the neck and throws you into the middle of an alien world full of rich and fully-developed characters. The reader scrambles to catch up, figuring it out from the plot and context.

Many of his stories draw heavily on mythology. He doesn't limit himself to the mainstream, however; in addition to the Greek there is Norse (The Mask of Loki), Christian (Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming trilogy), Babylonian (Donnerjack), Oriental (Lord Demon), Hindu and Buddhist (Lord of Light), and Egyptian (Creatures of Light and Darkness). In other places he builds a full mythology from scratch. There are plenty of stories that do not fit this pattern, however.

Other common themes in Zelazny works are Death as a character, and the idea that all things become probable given an infinite space to draw from. He fleshes out this latter idea pretty convincingly, which may be why it sticks with me. It's central to the Amber series and Donnerjack.

I could write for hours on how much I love Zelazny, but I reckon there aren't many interested in reading about it, so I'll just conclude by saying that if you know a Sci-Fi fan who hasn't encountered Roger Zelazny, I would recommend no author more highly.

Robert Heinlein is a very different author than Zelazny. He's quite famous. You may have heard of Stranger in a Strange Land or Starship Troopers. Stranger in a Strange Land is probably the book that brought him the most acclaim, but frankly, it's not very good.

Heinlein's plots are good enough to keep the reader turning the pages, but they aren't extraordinary. Many of his characters, maybe even most, are place holders or two dimensional. They're interchangeable with the role they play, and when they leave, you don't feel any loss.

There are exceptions. The sentient computer in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land are both great characters. The latter is one of my favorite characters ever. The exceptions are few, however.

I hope this doesn't come off as overly critical, because Heinlein is a terrific writer. In the introduction I outlined what I thought distinguished literature from entertainment. There is no doubt that what Heinlein writes is literature. His novels are steeped in deep, detailed social commentary and political thought. Reading Heinlein makes you a better-educated person, even though it's fiction.

As I said, Stranger in a Strange Land is weak in ways that I can't really go into without spoiling the plot. If any Heinlein fans would like to argue the point I'd be happy to explain myself privately. If you're new to Heinlein though, I would very much advise skipping the famous book and starting with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

A word of warning though: it's a little hard to get into in the beginning because the narrator is a native to the moon and his dialect is not quite the same as ours. It's not as bad as A Clockwork Orange (also an excellent book), but it can be annoying at the start.

Orson Scott Card is a prolific author whose work covers a wide variety of topics and styles. His best two works in my experience have been the Ender's Game series and The Alvin Maker series.

Ender's Game is a future world where we are at war with an alien species that threatens our own and Earth is desperately recruiting their brightest children to manage their war. It's an engaging story that subtly deals with a variety of real issues, including prejudices, war, utilization of human resources, and family.

The Alvin Maker series contrasts sharply with the Ender series. It paints an early America, still trying to expand west. Many famous figures make appearances. There is ubiquitous minor magic that permeates the series and overall it would probably be better termed fantasy than science fiction. Nonetheless I claim Card as a sci-fi writer and recommend his work generally to fans of the genre.

Card's work is diverse, covering a wide range of topics, styles, and time periods. Homebody and Lost Boys verge on being horror (especially the former), while Enchantment is a delightful mishmash of time periods, technology, and magic.

Because his work covers such a wide range it's likely that any one reader wouldn't like some of his work and would like others. If you've tried him and didn't like what you encountered I venture that it would be worth giving him another look.

Michael Crichton stands out among the authors I review here - second perhaps only to Asimov, and even there I'm not sure it's a fair comparison - as someone who is meticulous about writing and presenting believable science.

The things he writes are deeply interesting and I learned a fair amount of science from him when I was younger - either because he explained it well or because he otherwise piqued my interest to learn more about something. For example, Jurassic Park and The Lost World both contain fascinating discussions of evolutionary warfare. I would not judge either book based on the movies they spawned; I think that The Lost World may have been a better book even than Jurassic Park, even though the films didn't bear that out.

Of all the books by Crichton that I've read the only one that I wouldn't read again if I had the chance to redo my personal bibliography is Eaters of the Dead. Sphere, Congo, Disclosure, and to a lesser degree, Timeline, are all terrific mixtures of solid science (with the exception of Disclosure, which is a legal thriller, and Sphere, which ventures a bit into the unexplained), gripping plots, and well-developed characters.

Isaac Asimov is a bland author. It's rare that his stories send adrenaline through your veins or keep you up late. His virtues are many, however; he is careful with his science and thorough with his explanations. If you read an Asimov story you end up satisfied - you don't sit and wonder what just happened.

Asimov did a lot for the field of science fiction, and reading some of his work you can see how others built from there to make it the mature genre it is today. Compared to some more modern work, as a result, it may seem less flashy or compelling at times, but he is still able to hold his own.

If you are the sort who leans towards the science end more than the fiction end, Asimov's non-fiction is stellar. I have never seen a writer who lays out ideas so clearly and completely. Asimov has the delightful habit of never presupposing reader knowledge, which I still appreciate even after the better part of a decade studying science. I maintain that Asimov's Understanding Physics is the best $7.00 I ever spent. Checking now, I see that Amazon currently offers it used for $0.80, but I don't imagine for a second that I overpaid.

The Left Hand of the Electron is another non-fiction book of his that I got a lot out of. Its topics are slightly more advanced, but again Asimov's patient and complete explanations make them accessible to any reasonably-educated person.

Ray Bradbury is a hit-or-miss author. His short fiction frequently ends before the denouement and leaves me frustrated. I don't mind an author making me figure things out on my own - I in fact very much enjoy that - but I do expect that he give me enough information to figure it out. Bradbury has the bad habit in many occasions of ending the story before he's given enough information, in effect forcing the reader to speculate about what happened rather than allowing them to figure it out.

I can see how this might appeal to some readers, but to me this is cheating. I'm reading because I want to be taken to foreign places by an imaginative tour guide. If I wanted to exercise my own ingenuity I'd write my own piece.

That said, Bradbury does write many very good stories and is in fact the author of some of the most classic pieces of science fiction that exist. I would recommend his longer work over his shorter work, although I think everyone should read his short story One for His Lordship, and One for the Road!

Fahrenheit 451 is a classic that is ingrained in American culture and is a good reading choice for anyone, regardless of whether they enjoy science fiction. For those more interested in sci-fi, The Martian Chronicles is perhaps the most widely-known series in the whole genre.

Bradbury is something of a black sheep among science fiction writers; while most authors in this area try to imagine how the world might be in the future or far away, spinning tales to inspire innovation and eagerness to see things to come, he is more introspective. Bradbury makes you feel nostalgic as he explores timeless ideas of childhood, aging, and human interaction. Something Wicked This Way Comes is as fine of a piece as I've ever read for an examination of the human psyche, even though it's placed in a genre that many would not take seriously.