Your first SciFi/fantasy book

[CoriSCapnSkip]

The works of E. Nesbit, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Story of the Amulet, by the time I was five. The first two are magic and the third is time travel by means of a magic charm. All highly recommended. C. S. Lewis particularly admired The Amulet.

 

[BAYLOR]

The works of E. Nesbit, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Story of the Amulet, by the time I was five. The first two are magic and the third is time travel by means of a magic charm. All highly recommended. C. S. Lewis particularly admired The Amulet.

You might want check out The Never Ending Story by Michael End. Its a terrific book Also The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

 

[Extollager]

I can't say. Early sf books that I read would probably include Wells's War of the Worlds in the Whitman Classics series and James Blish's first gathering of stories written from the TV series, simply called Star Trek, a Bantam paperback.

 

[Mike Donoghue]

Tau Zero.

 

[CoriSCapnSkip]

You might want check out The Never Ending Story by Michael End. Its a terrific book Also The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

I have an ex-library copy of The Never Ending Story which must have been popular as it's falling apart. Haven't read it. Have read The Phantom Tollbooth and saw the movie.

 

[pokemama 1]

A children's book called "You Will Go to the Moon." It wasn't quite sf in the traditional sense, but it was written in 1959 and "predicted" that such a trip would one day become routine, showing a family taking a rocket up to a wheel-shaped rotating space station, etc.

Trouble is, I read it when I was five years old. I knew that *everyone* couldn't go to the moon on a routine basis as shown in the story, but didn't grasp that it was entirely fiction. My dad had previously worked on the Mercury and Gemini programs but left Houston for another job. He was all excited the summer of 1969, setting up a movie camera to film the actual moon landing broadcast on tv. I couldn't understand why he was all hyped about it since I thought we'd already been to the moon.

 

[Parson]

A children's book called "You Will Go to the Moon." It wasn't quite sf in the traditional sense, but it was written in 1959 and "predicted" that such a trip would one day become routine, showing a family taking a rocket up to a wheel-shaped rotating space station, etc.

Trouble is, I read it when I was five years old. I knew that *everyone* couldn't go to the moon on a routine basis as shown in the story, but didn't grasp that it was entirely fiction. My dad had previously worked on the Mercury and Gemini programs but left Houston for another job. He was all excited the summer of 1969, setting up a movie camera to film the actual moon landing broadcast on tv. I couldn't understand why he was all hyped about it since I thought we'd already been to the moon.

Great personal story! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Orcadian]

My first science fiction book was a library book, Return to Mars by Capt. W.E. Johns. Read this aged 7 and loved it. Over the next year or two the library managed to find most of his science fiction books for me. Went on to read what must be many hundreds of science fiction novels (and have a good many on my shelf today). Had a hiatus between approx 2004 and 2018 but I'm Back, as Arnie would say.

 

[Zach777]

My first fantasy book was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I can't remember what my first sci-fi book was. I read Harry Potter when I was around seven, so after that, my first fantasy book was probably Eragon.

 

[Orcadian]

This was my first SF book read in 4th grade:
Star Surgeon (1959) by Alan E. Nourse

I too read this one very early (maybe 9 or 10?) and loved it. Also another Nourse book, equally good, called 'Rocket to Limbo'. Been looking for that as an audiobook for years.

 

[THX1138]

One of the old Star Trek novels. Was back in the late 70's so...
First Fantasy type was Wizard of Earthsea. Still read it from time to time.

 

[Quokka]

I have a very vague memory of reading a series of thin books called Earth Two, I can't find them now and so maybe I am misremembering the name of the series. This was early 80s and so not related to the later TV/book series.

And I am sure the SF Choose your own adventures were my favourite.

 

[Zach777]

I have a very vague memory of reading a series of thin books called Earth Two, I can't find them now and so maybe I am misremembering the name of the series. This was early 80s and so not related to the later TV/book series.

And I am sure the SF Choose your own adventures were my favourite.

Ooh, what sci-fi chose your own adventures have you read? The only chose your adventure story I remember reading were some of the Goosebumps books.

 

[tobl]

You know i just read a comment on tiktok and the guy, apparently a writer, as a point. Why is it that in fantasy the writer just as to write magic and people go yay but in syfy we have to describe how the hiper drive works or it's trash? Nobody asked Rowling how the wands worked

 

[hitmouse]

You know i just read a comment on tiktok and the guy, apparently a writer, as a point. Why is it that in fantasy the writer just as to write magic and people go yay but in syfy we have to describe how the hiper drive works or it's trash? Nobody asked Rowling how the wands worked

See a hundred threads passim on Chrons on “what is sf”.

 

[psikeyhackr]

You know i just read a comment on tiktok and the guy, apparently a writer, as a point. Why is it that in fantasy the writer just as to write magic and people go yay but in syfy we have to describe how the hiper drive works or it's trash? Nobody asked Rowling how the wands worked

Science fiction snobs like myself must justify their superiority by demanding that writers meet minimum standards while Lucas and Rowling can prostitute themselves for filthy lucre.

LOL

 

[magpie Asylum]

First sci fi book???? Should have had to of been the invisible man by HG Wells. I was probably ten years old. I picked it up at the school library. I loved the dark and maddening POV. Immediately after that I tried to read Dune.....I finished Dune at 15.

 

[KGeo777]

The Chrysalids we read in high school.


I am embarrassed to say the earliest novels I may have read were Raiders of the Lost Ark or the Howling. I was 11.
The latter yielded many a laugh over the porn book dialogue when I showed it to kids at school.

 

[pokemama 1]

Science fiction snobs like myself must justify their superiority by demanding that writers meet minimum standards while Lucas and Rowling can prostitute themselves for filthy lucre.

LOL

(This post is not an emotional diatribe, just a discussion of my thoughts on the topic as I see it. I'm grateful to you for bringing it up.)

I'm old ... back in the day we differentiated SF like that as "hard" science fiction (vs "soft" I guess.) Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, John Cambell; people with engineering degrees who knew their science. Coming up with the "next level" of technology by extrapolating from what we have now. Heinlein came up with the intimate details of nuclear reactors in 1942. Tom Clancy came up with "silent" submarine the Red October based on reading documents available to the public at Annapolis and so on. There were some pretty upset government officials when that book came out, because they HAD come up with such a concept but it was CLASSIFIED. He was asked a LOT of questions about where he got his information!!

But the best adjective for me is not "science" fiction; it's "speculative" fiction, and most of SF is like this. Even the "hard" sf guys. If we had thus-and-so technology, what would life be like? How would it affect society and individuals? The "science" behind it is all artificial anyways. Like when someone asks "where does the mass from this person's body go when they transform from a human to a mouse?" How about "It goes temporarily Into another universe/dimension where I can get it back." I mean, where do they think the transformation "science" came from? If we can invent that, we can invent where it goes, without confining ourselves to the rules of physics as we currently understand them. That's the whole point of SF - it's something we don't have now.

There's a segment of the Star Trek fan base that is avidly interested in the various physical details of the USS Enterprise, like mapping out where everything is and how big it is and such. At a con panel some delusional fan unable to distinguish fiction from reality asked the official Star Trek rep "How does the warp engine work?" The reps's answer: "It works very well, thank you."

I might as well say the excess heat produced by my fictional space drive goes Into my f-ing Bag of Holding, which I invented along with the engine, lol.

 

[smellincoffee]

Either a juvenile version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, or ST TNG's Capture the Flag, a Trek novel for middle-schoolers following TNG crew when they were teens.