I remember reading on a thread somewhere once that the person wished they could have their memory wiped of a book that they loved so that they can read it again for the first time. It was many years ago that I read this and I couldn’t tell you where (though probably on reddit), but it popped into my head recently and I thought how wonderful it would be to have the opportunity to dive into Sci-Fi novels again afresh. Imagining my mind clear of all memories to do with the books I have read and how they made me feel and think, I would love to have a new guide for myself. It took me years to move on to certain authors that I wish I’d picked up sooner. And if I had started with other books I would have perhaps been drawn in a different direction and discovered books that I still have not today. I suspect very much that my life would be unchanged, but I would cherish being able to have that first feeling again with these books.
As ever with a list, especially a short one, I will miss off books that I think are fantastic. Oh well – I’ll have to make another one to include those.
If you’d like, you can follow in my footsteps (that I’d have liked to take, rather than those I have) by buying the books in this post using the links below to support Cow Island and your local bookshops by buying through Bookshop.org. This list can be found here.
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
I originally started with Consider Phelbas as recommended in some subreddit, but this non-culture novel is one of my favorite Banks and a great introduction to his very interesting imagination. His creation of a world within a gas giant is fantastical sci-fi at its best. As in a few of his books, some descriptions of sci-fi enhanced torture give me a bit of a stomach churn. I guess that’s either a testament to how well he writes these scenes or my squeamishness when it comes to the very idea of torture.
The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin
It took me far too long to discover Ursula le Guin. When I did, it was the Earthsea books, which are, frankly, sublime (but we’re talking about Sci-Fi here). I bounded on to the Word for World is Forest and then only after that read The Dispossessed. Having not read all of her books, this recommendation may be premature (I have the Left Hand of Darkness by my bedside at the moment, for example) and yet it was such a different Sci-Fi book to many that I had read up to the point I picked this up. All I can say is that is different and I loved it for that.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
This one taps into something in everyone I know who has read it. Unlike the space operas and interesting takes on what the future might hold, how time travel might look or what artificial life might do to our own, this book is profoundly poetic. I can’t say much more about it than it sucks you in and takes you on a canter.
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
I’m not sure if it’s the English slant to it or simply that it is quite beautifully written. Perhaps it’s again the simple concept executed so well. No invading, oppressive alien species, just something seemingly benign that takes over when humans lose something we take for granted – our sight. Post-apocalyptic, just not quite what we’re used to these days on TV and film. I have only read two of Wyndham’s books and some consider this on the lesser, though more well known. Both this and the Chrysalids are great books – I just think Triffids is the one to start with.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
I couldn’t leave this off. I picked it up in university and only wish I had been introduced to it even earlier. A space opera for sure. When read together with the many other novels in the series and then stretched together with the Robot series, they are individually and collectively wonderful. Asimov was prolific and I’m so glad as it’s given me years of reading.