Can You Remember Your First Science Fiction Novel?

[The Wanderer]

Spaceship Medic by Harry Harrison (Puffin Books)

1981

and Galactic Warlord by Douglas Hill

both about the same time

 

[mightymem]

my first science fiction book was World war in the balance by Harry Turtledove in 2000 one first classic was Dune by Frank Herbert

 

[Pyan]

So long ago...............
Possibly The Caves Of Steel, by Asimov - about 1966ish....

 

[scalem X]

Must have been a part of Dune, around 2002.

 

[j d worthington]

My first sf novel (as opposed to collection-cum-novel) would probably have been John Brunner's Meeting at Infinity (1961), closely followed by his The Dreaming Earth (1963)... though I may have read Wells' The War of the Worlds just slightly earlier... as Pyan said, it's a loooong time ago (about 1964-65 for me....)

 

[Pyan]

(about 1964-65 for me....)

Ah yes, but I was a late developer........

 

[chrispenycate]

Earthlight - Arthur C Clarke
About '57, summer, anyway.

 

[Theleb K]

Dune (F.Herbert) - Loved it!

It was summer 1977. Camping holiday in the Brecon Beacons. I "borrowed" it from my old man. I was a bit too young to take it all in but I read it all anyway. I suppose that family holidays in Wales can drive you to almost anything...

 

[littlemissattitude]

Red Planet, by Robert Heinlein. I must have been in about third grade. That would have been, let's see, around 1964 or so.

 

[Dave]

I'm not sure. I know a teacher got me reading Ray Bradbury, but I don't know if I was already reading John Wyndham by then. If you count 'The Hobbit' then I read that in junior school. I think I also read John Christopher's 'The White Mountains' about that time too.

 

[gully_foyle]

No idea, but likely to be either Asimov or Clarke. Also the John Christopher series were hugely popular with me and my mates back then (around 75, 76). I'm with Dave, if you count The Hobbit then that was definitely my first one.

 

[kcs_hiker]

Revolt on Alpha C by Robert Silverberg maybe, or...
Red Planet by Heinlein... or it could have been
Witch World or Beast Master by Andre Norton

hmmm

makes me want to go back and reread them all...

my mother is an avid (and I mean rabidly avid ) science fiction and fantasy reader, her second passion was mysteries.

we went to the library once every 2 weeks as far back as I can remember. I had my own box for my books.

my father is a history reader. He doesn't collect books like my mother, but he loves to talk about them.

I was and am extremely fortunate.

 

[murphy]

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, in 1948. I was 13. It ended on a cliff hanger and it took me 11 or 12 years to find the next book in the series.

 

[manephelien]

Probably something in my dad's collection, Asimov, Heinlein or Clarke. The first sci-fi short I read and fell in love with is Nightfall by Asimov, sometime in 1985.

 

[tangaloomababe]

Yes I can. The very first Sci Fi book I read was John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids. Loved it then and still love it now.

 

[Quokka]

It was almost certainly a book I posted in the search thread a little while ago. As far as I have been able to find out it was Earth 2 (1955) by Vargo Statten, which is a pen name for John Russell Fearn. Although I haven't been able to find any description of the story or cover so if anyone knows of a site that might be helpful (I've tried fantasticfiction and all their links) it'd be much appreciated.

John Cristopher's Tripod series would also have been amongst the first.

 

[iansales]

My parents bought me a Doctor Who novelisation one Christmas - I think I was about 8 or 9. It was Doctor Who and the Zarbi. But I didn't read my first "real" sf book until a year or two later.

Unfortunately, I can't say categorically which was the first. It may have been one lent me by a friend at school - either Robert Heinlein's Starman Jones, or something by EE Doc Smith, possibly Subspace Explorers. I also remember reading Arthur C Clarke's Of Time and Stars, and Clifford Simak's Time and Again around that time.

 

[Ragnar]

War of the Worlds around 1978, aged 11 (after hearing the awesome Jeff Wayne musical) .....


....unless Charlie & the Chocolate Factory counts?

 

[steve12553]

It was either Revolt on Alpha C by Robert Silverberg, Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein or The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek by Evelyn Sibley Lampman. I read all three of those in the early sixties/ late fifties and remember them distinctly. The Heinlein book I borrowed from the library and the other two I bought from a school book club for probably $.35 each and had to scrape for that.

 

[Connavar]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


A huge omnibus with the hole series which i read in the two hour trip to school everyday in 2002.


It was the funniest week i have had with a book. I kept laughing out loud that people looked at me like i was crazy