Science Fiction is “the branch of literature that deals with the responses of human beings to changes in science and technology,” according to Isaac Asimov. Alvin Toffler recommended reading science fiction as the only preventive medicine for future shock.
According to a Slate.com article by Robert J. Sawyer, the job of science fiction is “not to predict the future. Rather, it’s to suggest all the possible futures—so that society can make informed decisions about where we want to go. George Orwell’s science-fiction classic Nineteen Eighty-Four wasn’t a failure because the future it predicted failed to come to pass. Rather, it was a resounding success because it helped us prevent that future.”
In celebration of the power (and necessity) of science fiction, here are some of my favorites:
Isaac Asimov: the Foundation trilogy (I did a science fair project on psychohistory)
Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Harlan Ellison: Deathbird Stories (he *hates* calling his work ”science fiction”)
Joe Haldeman: The Forever War
Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger In A Strange Land
C.L. Moore: Robots Have No Tails (under the pseudonym “Lewis Padgett”)
Spider Robinson: God Is An Iron (“because God commits irony”)
Norman Spinrad: Child of Fortune
Roger Zelazny: A Rose for Ecclesiastes
and, finally, most of Neal Stephenson’s works: Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon and Anathem (I haven’t tried the Baroque Cycle yet)
…I am acutely aware of the overwhelming preponderance of white males on this list. Suggestions to help restore balance? I did consider Andre Norton, Ursula K. Leguin, and Anne McCaffrey, but they are mostly speculative or fantasy fiction. I need to read some Octavia Butler. Who else?
Yes, you need to read Octavia Butler. Kindred is probably best known, but not her best (imo). I think Fledgling gets at the previous book’s themes in a better way. Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago are also good.
Sheri S. Tepper has written wonderful stories, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall looks at the future of humanity; The Fresco is a first contact novel by turns hilarious and chilling; Grass and Raising the Stones deal with some form of planetary or divine intelligence. She’s one of my favorite writers…
Elizabeth A. Lynn’s A Different Light and The Sardonyx Net both may be a bit dated, but still deal with interesting sociological issues.
Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow and Children of God – First contact, space exploration, the consequences of misunderstanding language.
Don’t discount Anne McCaffrey, who has always maintained that her dragon books are science fiction, not fantasy. Dragons were genetically engineered, created by the humans who colonized Pern.
Finally, another white male: James Morrow – Only Begotten Daughter about God’s second child, Julie Katz; Towing Jehovah and its sequel, Blameless in Abaddon. A philosophy prof I know uses Blameless to teach about theodicy.