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Thread: Good YA Science Fiction for Boys
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02-10-2019, 08:59 PM #1
Good YA Science Fiction for Boys
My 11 year old son is starting to chew through "soft" science fiction books and I was wondering if folks had any recommendations.
He started out with Have Spacesuit Will Travel, and moved on from there. What I am noticing with a lot of YA science fiction is that the main protagonist is usually a plucky female heroine (the chosen one) and I would like to find a few books that are a little less "mushy" but still enjoyable without the science fiction totally befuddling him.
Thanks.Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well.
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02-10-2019, 09:13 PM #2
You wanna describe what you mean by "mushy"?
Good luck with the Heinlein, I always had the good sense not to mention to my Mom that the books she was getting me as gifts regularly espoused polygamy and incest.
Ender's Game is a great story for a younger child, the later Ender stories starting with Speaker for the Dead were a bit too much the first time I read them. The Bean spinoffs would also be suitable for a younger child, starting with Ender's Shadow.
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02-10-2019, 09:14 PM #3
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02-10-2019, 09:37 PM #4
My friend reently asked the same question. I believe she found Ender's Game a bit violent for her 12 y/o.
If you wanna go Old School, The White Mountains Trilogy by John Christopher is great (at least my memories of it from my childhood still hold it in high esteem).
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02-10-2019, 09:39 PM #5
PS
Lottsa interesting lists when you Google "Best Young Adult Science Fiction Books"...
http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
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02-10-2019, 09:44 PM #6
Many thanks for this.
Maybe "mushy" is a bad term. But it seems as if most of the YA science fiction (and just most YA books) are written with young plucky female protagonists ("the chosen one") and I am trying to find a few with a male lead. He did read Ender's game and enjoyed it, but I thought the follow-ups would be for an older reader.
Series that he has read. And enjoyed. (It seems that everything is a trilogy these days.)
Claudia Grey's Defy the World and A Thousand Pieces of You Trilogies
Ember in the Ashes series by Sahaa Tahir
The Legend series by Megan Lu
Chuck Wendig's Aftermath Trilogy
Any recommendations are welcome.Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well.
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02-10-2019, 09:45 PM #7
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02-10-2019, 10:14 PM #8
Trying to recall what I read in 5th/6th grade, but all that's coming to mind is more fantasy oriented than sci-fi.
Such as: The Hobbit; The Taran Wanderer series by Lloyd Alexander; Chronicles of Narnia; The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin; The Wind at the Door series by Madeline L'engle; The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper...
I do recall reading a series of books about Matthew Looney by Gerome Beatty, but I fear they are severely out-of-print.
Would Ray Bradbury be too "heavy"? Martian Chronicles and Illustrated Man come to mind (though I just read the former this summer!).
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02-10-2019, 10:20 PM #9
I was big into Michael Crichton at that age. Maybe not totally young adult and a little bit dated now, but his books are easy to read and real page turners. My favorites at that age were Timeline and Sphere. I think I read Sphere in one sitting because I was too scared to put it down.
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02-10-2019, 10:38 PM #10Registered User
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From memory when I was a kid, all pretty classic so maybe not helpful:
A Wrinkle In Time
Fahrenheit 451
The War of the Worlds
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Hobbit / LOTR
Animal Farm
Dune
I spent 30 min trying to find the name of a trilogy I liked, but it’s not coming to me. If I find it, I’ll post again.
I seem to remember people being into the Eragon novels and my mom tried to get me into them a few times but I never liked them.
I also remember being really into animal adventure books at some point: Watership Down, Redwall series by Brian Jacques, Chronicles of Narnia, etc"Alpine rock and steep, deep powder are what I seek, and I will always find solace there." - Bean Bowers
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02-10-2019, 10:42 PM #11
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02-10-2019, 10:43 PM #12
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02-10-2019, 10:44 PM #13
More fantasy, but I loved it as a kid: “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever” (two trilogies)
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02-10-2019, 11:23 PM #14
If your kid is a Star Wars fan, specifically the original trilogy (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) and has seen those films, the Han Solo Trilogy by Brian Daley is really fun. I first read these when I was 12 and then re-read them this summer and they were still super entertaining (not sure why they never made them into films):
Han Solo at Star's End
Han Solo's Revenge
Han Solo and the Lost Legacy
Likewise, Brian Daley's Hobart Floyt/Alacrity Fitzhugh trilogy is incredibly entertaining :
Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds
Jinx on a Terran Inheritance
Fall of the White Ship Avatar
Daley, imho, was a great, underappreciated sci-fi writer who had an easy way with words and created great characters...all six of the aforementioned novels are teeming with vintage, pulp-styled sci-fi adventure and outer space swashbuckling.
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02-10-2019, 11:29 PM #15
A lot of Aurthur C Clark is totally appropriate for the YA set. I’d recommend the Rama books.
But Ellen kicks ass - if she had a beard it would be much more haggard. -Jer
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02-11-2019, 01:38 AM #16
Lots of good recommends. Also another vote for alternate genres. James Clavell and the Bond novels were fun when I was that age.
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02-11-2019, 08:21 AM #17
this and cant recommend he Wind at the Door series by Madeline L'engle enough.
Plucky female protagonist is likely what many others are copying but its soo much more. I basically started stealing books off my dads shelf at this age, Asimov, Niven, etc. Dune is a bit heavy as of yet but must read in adolescence.
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02-11-2019, 08:30 AM #18
That stuff is way too heavy for a kid. Very adult content, with an early scene of the lead character raping a girl.
I concur on Arthur C Clark. I also recommend Isaac Asimov. The old classic sci-fi is a good place to get started in. I think David Niven - Ring World - is also a possibility.
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02-11-2019, 08:40 AM #19
Many thanks for all the suggestions.
Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well.
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02-11-2019, 08:43 AM #20
Dune. Well, maybe in a couple years.
Redwall by Brian Jaques if you wanna go the fantasy route.
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02-11-2019, 08:44 AM #21
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02-11-2019, 09:37 AM #22
I distinctly remember reading and loving The Integral Trees from Niven when I lived in TN so I couldnt have been more than 12
Nivens various laws are just good to live by...
1 Never throw shit at an armed man.
1.a)Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.
Never fire a laser at a mirror.
Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun.
F × S = k. The product of Freedom and Security is a constant. To gain more freedom of thought and/or action, you must give up some security, and vice versa.
It is easier to destroy than create.
Any damn fool can predict the past.
History never repeats itself.
Ethics change with technology.
There Ain't No Justice. (often abbreviated to TANJ)
Anarchy is the least stable of social structures. It falls apart at a touch.
There is a time and place for tact. And there are times when tact is entirely misplaced.
The ways of being human are bounded but infinite.
his most famous:
There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.
Also
No technique works if it isn't used.
Not responsible for advice not taken.
Old age is not for sissies.
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02-11-2019, 10:10 AM #23Registered User
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Gosh, that's such a fun age for reading! I remember reading so much pivotal stuff (for me) between 11 and 15.
Not sci fi, but don't forget the adventure classics, too: Twain (Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer), London (White Fang, Call of the Wild, Sea Wolf -- I recall that being my favorite book in 6th grade), Dumas (3 Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo), Stevenson (Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll Mr Hide), Louis L'Amour (his 6-volume "collected short stories" are super fun), Sherlock Holmes, etc."Alpine rock and steep, deep powder are what I seek, and I will always find solace there." - Bean Bowers
photos
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02-11-2019, 10:30 AM #24"fuck off you asshat gaper shit for brains fucktard wanker." - Jesus Christ
"She was tossing her bean salad with the vigor of a Drunken Pop princess so I walked out of the corner and said.... "need a hand?"" - Odin
"everybody's got their hooks into you, fuck em....forge on motherfuckers, drag all those bitches across the goal line with you." - (not so) ill-advised strategy
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02-11-2019, 10:34 AM #25
There are some great recommendations in this thread, but I can't recall enough details of any of them to know if the content is too adult.
Among my favorites mentioned (that I know I read as a kid) are Watership Down, Earthsea series, Jack London books, Ringworld, Narnia, Foundation series (and actually, most Asimov is good, his laws of robotics are really easy to understand and think about), Lord of the Rings."fuck off you asshat gaper shit for brains fucktard wanker." - Jesus Christ
"She was tossing her bean salad with the vigor of a Drunken Pop princess so I walked out of the corner and said.... "need a hand?"" - Odin
"everybody's got their hooks into you, fuck em....forge on motherfuckers, drag all those bitches across the goal line with you." - (not so) ill-advised strategy
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