Author Topic: What's the first science fiction story you remember reading?  (Read 28706 times)

SonofSpermcube

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My dad had me read "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" by Heinlein when I was 7.  I read all the Heinlein I could get my hands on (mostly what my dad or the library had, and the occasional used book) until I was in my teens, and some of the other big authors of the era, and a lot of others whose names I forget, though I'd probably recognize them if I found them now.  Almost always novels, rarely short stories. 

It wasn't until about 2009 that I developed a taste for short stories, and I didn't find Escape Pod until 2011. 



lowky

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Reply #1 on: October 14, 2013, 06:23:12 AM
probably a tom swift novel, think johnny quest if unfamiliar.   Frankenstein was also early, probably third grade


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Reply #2 on: October 14, 2013, 07:59:40 AM
That's a tough one.  There was probably something before it, but as for something I remember reading, it would be Animorphs.  Read the whole series, devoured it.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
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Reply #3 on: October 14, 2013, 08:38:18 AM
When I was about 9, my father had a research assistant who had taken a liking to me. She would often talk to me about what I was reading, and eventually gave me a book of Asimov short stories to read. I'm pretty sure that was my first SF.



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Reply #4 on: October 14, 2013, 12:41:04 PM
I'm gonna have to go with either Tom Swift or Asimov's Robby the Robot stories. Fantasy lit me up more at an early age, so I'd have a much longer list of what the first of those could be, but still nothing definite.

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Reply #5 on: October 14, 2013, 01:01:49 PM

It's really, really hard to remember.  I know I was fan of "Astro Boy" before I could read, so I know my interest in SF stories goes way, way back.  The first science fiction book I can remember is "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."  I can picture the cover -- one of those Scholastic paperback books that could be ordered through the school when I was growing up.  So I think that might have been the first, though that seems like an awfully difficult read to be the first one.

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matweller

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Reply #6 on: October 14, 2013, 05:56:32 PM
When I was a kid, I watched a lot of sic-fi on tv [I specifically remember Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, V and this one episode of Ray Bradbury Theater called Mars is Heaven (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6YcI5UzumA)], but mostly read fantasy like CS Lewis and the standard kid books from Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary. There were probably one or two before, but the first I recall reading was Crighton's Terminal Man. Fahrenheit 451 would have been about that time too.



Devoted135

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Reply #7 on: October 14, 2013, 06:57:50 PM
I read a lot more fantasy than sci fi as a kid (actually, that trend continued into my mid-twenties). So, I'm going to slightly stretch the genre and say that The Giver was probably the first sci fi that I ever read. Actually, I'm surprising myself in that I can't really think of much other sci fi that I read prior to late high school/college.



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Reply #8 on: October 14, 2013, 08:54:17 PM
I watched a lot of Star Trek and Twilight Zone as a kid.  My older brother (and to a lesser degree my father) had a large collection of SF books, and I was pretty fascinated by them.  I remember making a conscious decision to start investigating SF when I was about in 3rd grade.  I decided the best way to do that was to start with the oldest books they had, and thus get the foundations of the genre.  Ya, I was that kind of kid.  Anyway, I started with 2,000 Leagues Under the Sea, then War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine.  I then worked my way up to Asimov, Heinlein, and Bradbury. 



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Reply #9 on: October 15, 2013, 12:12:17 AM
I remember having to read The Martian Chronicles in 7th grade for an English class.  The first book I read that I chose was Rendezvous with Rama, probably later in 7th grade. 

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Reply #10 on: October 15, 2013, 02:01:38 AM
The first one I remember re-reading obsessively is 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was pretty big on Clarke over just about everyone else (then).


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Reply #11 on: October 23, 2013, 07:43:43 PM
The first I remember reading is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. I'm sure I'd read some SF prior, but that one made the impression; I can't remember anything beforehand.

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matweller

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Reply #12 on: October 23, 2013, 08:13:38 PM
OOh, good call. That puts my sic-fi roots earlier...about 8 or 9 years old.

As an aside, I first heard of A Wrinkle in Time on an old PBS show called Storybound where this guy John Robbins would narrate a book and draw pictures of the story in pastels or chalk as the narration played. I seem to remember he drew 2 or 3 pictures for this and at least one -- the man with the red eyes -- was quite stirring. It's a sin these aren't available on YouTube.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/wrinkle-in-time/oclc/6698640



SonofSpermcube

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Reply #13 on: October 24, 2013, 04:08:02 PM
I remember THAT I read that book (~6th grade), but I don't remember much about it. 



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Reply #14 on: October 24, 2013, 04:50:11 PM
I was raised by Trekkie parents, so sci-fi has been a staple for my entire life. I can't pinpoint the exact first sci-fi I read, I recall my mom reading the Start Wars trilogy to us during evening meals. Like SonofSpermcube, I owned a copy of Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, but I can't say for certain when I read that. I can say without a doubt the first sci-fi book I couldn't put down, reading well into the wee hours of the morning every night, was Jurassic Park. This began my love affair of Crichton, I've read it all and loved it all, with the exception of Pirate Latitudes, which I think I've mentioned before most likely has Crichton turning over in his grave.  :-\

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matweller

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Reply #15 on: October 24, 2013, 06:31:33 PM
Oh, wait, I can go back to age 4! I totally had The Black Hole book & tape!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi1uUHPZB_c

For the record, the book & tape was the biggest casualty in the media changeover from cassette to CD, IMO. Kids live lesser lives for them not being around anymore.



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Reply #16 on: October 24, 2013, 07:32:41 PM
The very first one, I'm pretty sure, was Bradbury's 'A Sound of Thunder' (that's the dinosaurs/butterfly one. I had to look up the title). reprinted in one of my Dad's 'Playboy' magazines which I was paging through for some reason (I'm not into ladies. Perhaps it was for the cartoons!).



bounceswoosh

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Reply #17 on: October 25, 2013, 02:17:57 AM
Split Infinity by Piers Anthony. At least half of it was sci fi, right?  Pretty steamy series for a fifth grader.



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Reply #18 on: October 25, 2013, 01:09:37 PM

Split Infinity by Piers Anthony. At least half of it was sci fi, right?  Pretty steamy series for a fifth grader.


And to be fair, the science fiction half is the more compelling part. I think this one was seventh or eighth grade for me.

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Reply #19 on: October 25, 2013, 01:19:13 PM
Oh man, I LOVED that series! At least the first three. There were more after that, but they weren't as good.

Say what you will about the writing overall, but I loved the description of the "games" in the future/sci-fi side of the universe.



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Reply #20 on: October 25, 2013, 01:46:06 PM
The more I think about it, the first sci-fi book I actually read by myself might have been The Forgotten Door, by Alexander Key.

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Reply #21 on: October 25, 2013, 04:13:42 PM
Wow. I don't really remember what I first read - Star Wars was my first exposure, as well as Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rodgers. I do totally remember my dad reading A Wrinkle in Time to me, along with The Time Machine and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

There were a couple of books that I can't remember now that I did book reports on in elementary. One really confused me, because it was about some high school kids who were time traveling, and at one point that traveled into the future (early 70s). And I was reading this in the 80s and was TOTALLY confused. There was also one about a boy who lived in an underwater base with his family and somehow Martians were involved, even though (I think) it took place on Earth.

As far as books go, I remember reading 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Frankenstein, and Something Wicked This Way Comes (Fantasy/Horror, I know, but still) all in my sophomore HS English class. That was a very good year.


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Reply #22 on: October 25, 2013, 08:06:01 PM
It had to be something by Louise Lawrence... a junior sci-fi author from my youth. The first novels I ever read were Nancy Drew. And I remember that as I ended that series, I found these books in the library with the little planet symbol on them.... and I read one... and I was hooked.

I remember reading Calling B for Butterfly by Louise Lawrence which I think was about a girl who survives some sort of catastrophic failure of a mission or ship near Jupiter? I remember liking it, but not the plot so much. I also loved Children of the Dust, by the same author, which was about several characters surviving a post-nuclear war apocalypse. I own that book.

I also read a lot of D. M. Hoover. She wrote a ton of sci-fi and I must have read every book. I own The Delikon which I found in a used book store a few years ago.



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Reply #23 on: October 25, 2013, 08:48:37 PM
If we're talking first books of any genre that you chose to read on your own, not selected by your parents, the earliest books I remember reading, checked out from the elementary school library are the Boxcar Children series, the Hardy Boys, and a while lotta Choose Your Own Adventures. I couldn't get enough of those as a kid   :)

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Reply #24 on: October 25, 2013, 09:26:01 PM
Oh, yeah. I read a TON of the Hardy Boys and Choose Your Own Adventures. The Choose Your Own Adventures were great.

My daughter is very into Nancy Drew right now, which is pretty fun. They're not the best written books by a long shot, and Nancy (much like Frank and Joe Hard, I suspect) is a very flat character without any flaws. But she lurves them, and is having a blast reading them.


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Reply #25 on: October 25, 2013, 10:48:19 PM
I loved Nancy when I was a kid too, though my favorite favorites were always the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys crossover books. They, Christopher Pike books and non-Goosebump R.L. Stine books were what I read in abundance in middle school.



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Reply #26 on: October 25, 2013, 10:52:31 PM
Yeah, Boxcar children, Nancy Drew, and (I'm slightly ashamed) Babysitter's Club and Saddle Club were my all-time favorites in 2nd-4th grade. The Accelerated Reader program got me to branch out widely in 5th grade, for which I'm forever grateful. That's also when I discovered the Redwall series, a deep and lasting love of mine. :)



lowky

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Reply #27 on: October 26, 2013, 12:01:37 AM
first "genre" and loose at that was probably the Encyclopedia brown Mysteries.  I was reading those in first and second grade off the "third grader shelf.  I think by late 4th I hade exhausted most of the elem. library and would read hot rod mags during library time, as it was about the only "new" materials.


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Reply #28 on: October 26, 2013, 01:00:29 AM
Children's books are kind of weird, genre-wise.  They're all kind of magical realism, if you think about it.



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Reply #29 on: October 26, 2013, 05:25:40 AM
The Three Investigators were more fun that Nancy or the Hardys. I spent a lot of time in the 3rd tier with Trixie Belden, who was at least mildly flawed.

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Reply #30 on: October 26, 2013, 05:54:37 AM
God, yes, the Three Investigators.  I gave away my collection when I was a teenager because I did not yet know about nostalgia, and man do I miss them.  (If anyone knows where I can get ahold of the books again, give me a ring.)



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Reply #31 on: October 26, 2013, 05:59:45 AM
THE THREE INVESTIGATORS were my favorite books as a kid (I have almost all of the original run in hardcover) - and my love for this series, initially written by Robert A. Arthur, has led to a special upcoming episode of PSEUDOPOD!



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Reply #32 on: October 27, 2013, 12:13:05 AM
Like, I read a few Hardy Boys books, but the Hardy brothers were all outdoorsy and athletic and generally gross.  I couldn't empathize with them at all.  (For some reason, I had decided that their friend Chet was a fat nerdy loser like me, and there was one book that featured large segments of Chet being helpful, so I kept that one around for a long time.)  The Three Investigators were led by an uber-nerd who also had the hands-down coolest goddamn clubhouse of all time.  Not even a contest.

I think technically I read some twenty-page chapter book about an alien that came to Earth in a cereal box when I was in kindergarten or the first grade or so, and I know I read Bruce Coville's "My Teacher is an Alien" in first grade (because our class had to wait for the second run of buses in Ms. Erwin's room, and she taught second grade and had a bookshelf full of actual books instead of picture book crap, so I snuck in a chapter or two every day during that 10-15 minute wait.  For some reason I was convinced that what I was doing wasn't allowed and it never occurred to me to just ask to borrow the book.)



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Reply #33 on: October 27, 2013, 03:43:37 AM
the Hardy brothers were all outdoorsy and athletic and generally gross.  I couldn't empathize with them at all.

I read a few Hardy Boys books, and didn't like them, but didn't really realize why.  I just knew they weren't as awesome as Encyclopedia Brown, despite my appreciating the longer form stories.  Nancy Drew was okay though.  In retrospect, you've clearly put your paw on exactly why the Hardy Boys never resonated with me.

I never heard of the Three Investigators though.  Not sure why that is.



bounceswoosh

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Reply #34 on: October 27, 2013, 05:25:42 AM

Split Infinity by Piers Anthony. At least half of it was sci fi, right?  Pretty steamy series for a fifth grader.


And to be fair, the science fiction half is the more compelling part. I think this one was seventh or eighth grade for me.

I blame this series for the fact that I often say "green" when I mean orange, and "orange" when I mean green.  The plant magic one was orange and the fire magic one was green - it permanently crossed my wires.

To be honest, I think I liked the fantasy side better.  The sci fi side seemed just too dystopian and anti-egalitarian.



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Reply #35 on: October 27, 2013, 05:28:15 AM
Oh man, I LOVED that series! At least the first three. There were more after that, but they weren't as good.

Say what you will about the writing overall, but I loved the description of the "games" in the future/sci-fi side of the universe.

I read them all. I definitely agree they got worse - and weird. I mostly remember a large chunk of a book devoted to a human trying to keep up with a were-mare's libido while she was in heat?  Piers Anthony, man.  Kinda like Heinlein that way.



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Reply #36 on: October 30, 2013, 09:19:57 PM
The Three Investigators I read and re-read a lot. They were great. Although I do remember that the cover of The Mystery of the Green Ghost gave me nightmares -- this ghostly green Mandarin figure with long fingernails and evil intent, gliding down a stairway. Honestly, it did literally give me bad dreams. I was a sensitive child. :)


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Reply #37 on: October 30, 2013, 09:39:11 PM


It certainly was a chiller!



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Reply #38 on: November 08, 2013, 06:49:37 AM
Almost certainly not the first I read, but I do distinctly remember devouring Janet & Isaac Asmiov's Norby books as a pretty young one.  A Wrinkle in Time was right around then as well.  I still remember the sensation of that book expanding my mind.  It was the first book I ever had to tackle slowly just to process the ideas it was throwing out  I was first introduced to them by a serialized comic of one in Boy's Life. Like many kids my age, I also read Jurassic Park in fourthish grade.



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Reply #39 on: November 12, 2013, 08:46:47 AM
I was about to post Isaac Asimov's robot stories, but then saw "A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle" and realized that was my first. After Asimov, I went on to Heinlein, Vonnegut, Bradbury and others. I found Spider Robinson after Heinlein died, and many more since then.


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Reply #40 on: November 13, 2013, 02:04:36 AM

I was about to post Isaac Asimov's robot stories, but then saw "A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle" and realized that was my first. After Asimov, I went on to Heinlein, Vonnegut, Bradbury and others. I found Spider Robinson after Heinlein died, and many more since then.


I wonder how common that pattern is?  I'm going to guess we're pretty close in age. 

I didn't read A Wrinkle in Time but Asimov's robot stories and Heinlein's "juveniles" were among my first SF stories.  Asimov's Foundation stories, and some Bradbury followed on within a few years or so, along with Heinein's work for adult readers -- especially The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers.  I started reading Spider when he was doing book reviews for Galaxy, though I think the first short story of his I remember was a Callahan's Crosstime Saloon story, which I think ran in Omni sometime in the late 70's. 

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Reply #41 on: November 13, 2013, 01:21:35 PM
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Reply #42 on: November 14, 2013, 01:26:13 PM
Like many of you, the first science fiction that I recall was A Wrinkle in Time. My middle school English teacher read to the class every week and this was one of the books she read. The first science fiction that I remember picking up and reading on my own was L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series. Not really high brow, but I do remember enjoying them thoroughly.

Now, as a parent, I'm trying to introduce my girls to science fiction (3 and 6). We're reading DuPrau's City of Ember as their start. So far, so good.



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Reply #43 on: November 16, 2013, 01:30:34 AM

I was about to post Isaac Asimov's robot stories, but then saw "A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle" and realized that was my first. After Asimov, I went on to Heinlein, Vonnegut, Bradbury and others. I found Spider Robinson after Heinlein died, and many more since then.


I wonder how common that pattern is?  I'm going to guess we're pretty close in age. 

I didn't read A Wrinkle in Time but Asimov's robot stories and Heinlein's "juveniles" were among my first SF stories.  Asimov's Foundation stories, and some Bradbury followed on within a few years or so, along with Heinein's work for adult readers -- especially The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers.  I started reading Spider when he was doing book reviews for Galaxy, though I think the first short story of his I remember was a Callahan's Crosstime Saloon story, which I think ran in Omni sometime in the late 70's. 

I graduated high school in 1976. I'll let you do the math.

I read Spider's CCS after there were a few sequels. He and I started corresponding by email in 2006 when I mentioned that SciFi.com had Heinlein's date of death off by one year in their review of Variable Star, and asked him for help trying to correct it. Turns out the Library of Congress has it wrong, and that was their source, so, um, no.  We discussed Very Bad Deaths as he was writing Very Hard Choices, and whether or not he'd write a sequel to The Free Lunch (his reply:  "The problem I have is, the book ended with them on their way to the dark Thrillworld.  I don't think I want to spend a whole book of my life there...."). I had never tried corresponding with an author before, so it was rather thrilling.


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Reply #44 on: November 16, 2013, 02:56:17 AM
Now that's amazing... the first "modern" scifi I read was aboot Kip and the spacesuit he "won"...

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Reply #45 on: November 16, 2013, 04:34:57 PM
I'm pretty sure the very first sci-fi I read was The Invisible Man By H.G. Wells, when I was seven. But I also read A Wrinkle in Time (which I thought of as fantasy rather than sci-fi when I was little, for some reason--maybe because of the centaur/pegasus/witches?),Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Time MAchine all around that time, too, so I'm not sure which one I read first. I do remember being super-excited by the whole passage about light reflection and refraction, because I was learning about that in school at the time.



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Reply #46 on: November 17, 2013, 03:25:21 PM
A translation of the novelisation of Star Wars IV. I still own that book. It includes a picture of Mark Hammill and Carry Fisher out of their costumes stating that those are Luke and Leia, also one of the subtitles hints at a love story between Luke and Leia :D



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Reply #47 on: November 18, 2013, 05:22:49 PM
Like many SF fans in the UK, I was reading Doctor Who novelisations fairly early on.
I think I read a lot of fantasy before I started on SF, though.

A few that stand out for me:
- Under Plum Lake: my first real sense-of-wonder SF
- The Little Prince: although I was mostly objecting to the improbable planetary mechanics
- various books by Douglas Hill: 'proper' SF with spaceships and lasers and stuff.
- various books by John Christopher: The Tripods had just been shown on TV as well.

It helped that Mum is a SF/fantasy fan.



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A translation of the novelisation of Star Wars IV.

My mom read to us the Star Wars novels around the dinner table as kids. Being the geeks that we are, my brothers and I would argue every time the dialogue of the book was different from the dialogue of the movies. Drove us crazy and we would frequently correct my mom with the appropriate quote. Frickin' geeks. ;)

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Reply #49 on: November 21, 2013, 03:29:58 AM

I was about to post Isaac Asimov's robot stories, but then saw "A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle" and realized that was my first. After Asimov, I went on to Heinlein, Vonnegut, Bradbury and others. I found Spider Robinson after Heinlein died, and many more since then.


I wonder how common that pattern is?  I'm going to guess we're pretty close in age. 

I didn't read A Wrinkle in Time but Asimov's robot stories and Heinlein's "juveniles" were among my first SF stories.  Asimov's Foundation stories, and some Bradbury followed on within a few years or so, along with Heinein's work for adult readers -- especially The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers.  I started reading Spider when he was doing book reviews for Galaxy, though I think the first short story of his I remember was a Callahan's Crosstime Saloon story, which I think ran in Omni sometime in the late 70's. 

I graduated high school in 1976. I'll let you do the math.

I graduated in 1980. 


I read Spider's CCS after there were a few sequels. He and I started corresponding by email in 2006 when I mentioned that SciFi.com had Heinlein's date of death off by one year in their review of Variable Star, and asked him for help trying to correct it. Turns out the Library of Congress has it wrong, and that was their source, so, um, no.  We discussed Very Bad Deaths as he was writing Very Hard Choices, and whether or not he'd write a sequel to The Free Lunch (his reply:  "The problem I have is, the book ended with them on their way to the dark Thrillworld.  I don't think I want to spend a whole book of my life there...."). I had never tried corresponding with an author before, so it was rather thrilling.


Well, that's cool.  I imagine it was thrilling; I never would have had the nerve to write him. 

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ChicagoBurdman

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Reply #50 on: November 23, 2013, 02:22:23 AM
As far as my recollection goes back, I think the first thing I read was "A Sound of Thunder." I had absolutely no clue about who Bradbury was. All I knew was that the story had dinosaurs in it, and that was good enough reason for me.

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ArbysMom

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Reply #51 on: November 23, 2013, 07:51:12 PM

I read Spider's CCS after there were a few sequels. He and I started corresponding by email in 2006 when I mentioned that SciFi.com had Heinlein's date of death off by one year in their review of Variable Star, and asked him for help trying to correct it. Turns out the Library of Congress has it wrong, and that was their source, so, um, no.  We discussed Very Bad Deaths as he was writing Very Hard Choices, and whether or not he'd write a sequel to The Free Lunch (his reply:  "The problem I have is, the book ended with them on their way to the dark Thrillworld.  I don't think I want to spend a whole book of my life there...."). I had never tried corresponding with an author before, so it was rather thrilling.


Well, that's cool.  I imagine it was thrilling; I never would have had the nerve to write him. 

When I first wrote, I thought I was just contacting Spider's webmaster, asking him to pass along the information and request for help. Imagine my surprise when Spider replied personally!


Katzentatzen

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Reply #52 on: April 28, 2014, 02:35:46 AM
Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall" was definitely one of the first sci-fi stories I ever read. It really freaked me out at the time.

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skeletondragon

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Reply #53 on: April 28, 2014, 04:20:30 AM
I've been racking my brain and although I think my kindergarten teacher may have read us a picture book about an alien, I can't recall reading anything I would loosely call scifi before Commander Toad in Space by Jane Yolen, and its sequels, which I devoured around 2nd grade.

When it comes to short stories, however, I'm absolutely certain it was "That Only a Mother" by Judith Merrill, which is the first story in Pamela Sargent's absolutely wonderful anthology Women of Wonder.  I got that book for a dollar at a library sale and it changed my life forever by singlehandedly starting my obsession with science fiction short stories.



Pnakotic_Manuscripts

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I suppose the first story I would count as science fiction would be the Choose Your Own Adventure novel "Invaders of Planet Earth". It had a fairly interesting plot, at least to a child naive to the conventions of SF; electricity has been banned on Earth by hostile alien invaders, forcing us back to a simpler way of living, and your job is to save the planet. I'm not sure it's ever explained what the aliens use for energy or to power their devices.



Listener

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I suppose the first story I would count as science fiction would be the Choose Your Own Adventure novel "Invaders of Planet Earth". It had a fairly interesting plot, at least to a child naive to the conventions of SF; electricity has been banned on Earth by hostile alien invaders, forcing us back to a simpler way of living, and your job is to save the planet. I'm not sure it's ever explained what the aliens use for energy or to power their devices.

I think I remember that.

One of my very favorite books ever was a CYOA where you are a new ensign on the Enterprise.

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adrianh

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I can't really remember not reading SF. Some of my earliest memories are looking at the pictures of an adaption of some HG Wells's SF books in some collected Look & Learn magazines sometime in the early seventies. Along with their Trigan Empire comic strip. It was before I could really read so I must have been three or four - but I can still picture them in my head.

I do however have a very strong memory of the first ever book I purchased with my own money. Which was Patrick Moore's "Scott Saunders and the Spy in Space" age 7, in the summer of 1977, in the bookshop of the Shuttleworth Air & Vehicle Collection. Read it to bits. It was 10p as I recall. Earned from household chores ;-)

« Last Edit: May 09, 2014, 01:09:31 PM by adrianh »



Pnakotic_Manuscripts

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I suppose the first story I would count as science fiction would be the Choose Your Own Adventure novel "Invaders of Planet Earth". It had a fairly interesting plot, at least to a child naive to the conventions of SF; electricity has been banned on Earth by hostile alien invaders, forcing us back to a simpler way of living, and your job is to save the planet. I'm not sure it's ever explained what the aliens use for energy or to power their devices.

I think I remember that.

One of my very favorite books ever was a CYOA where you are a new ensign on the Enterprise.

That would be either http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Voyage_to_Adventure or http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Phaser_Fight, I would assume?



Listener

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I suppose the first story I would count as science fiction would be the Choose Your Own Adventure novel "Invaders of Planet Earth". It had a fairly interesting plot, at least to a child naive to the conventions of SF; electricity has been banned on Earth by hostile alien invaders, forcing us back to a simpler way of living, and your job is to save the planet. I'm not sure it's ever explained what the aliens use for energy or to power their devices.

I think I remember that.

One of my very favorite books ever was a CYOA where you are a new ensign on the Enterprise.

That would be either http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Voyage_to_Adventure or http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Phaser_Fight, I would assume?

The former.

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eytanz

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Hey, that was the book that turned me off CYOA - it's the one that made me realize, as a kid, that the different outcomes of your choices don't take place within a coherent world, and that there's no relationship between your actions and the result. If you turn left, than the guy your with turns out to be a Klingon spy. Turn right, and he is a loyal Starfleet officer. If you report to engineering, then the Enterprise is attacked by Romulans. If you report to the Bridge, it flies through a wormhole (not real examples since I no longer own a copy to look up). That bugged the hell out of me.



Pnakotic_Manuscripts

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Hey, that was the book that turned me off CYOA - it's the one that made me realize, as a kid, that the different outcomes of your choices don't take place within a coherent world, and that there's no relationship between your actions and the result. If you turn left, than the guy your with turns out to be a Klingon spy. Turn right, and he is a loyal Starfleet officer. If you report to engineering, then the Enterprise is attacked by Romulans. If you report to the Bridge, it flies through a wormhole (not real examples since I no longer own a copy to look up). That bugged the hell out of me.

That just seems like laziness. How hard could it be to make the choices even a little bit meaningful? I think the best CYOA books probably do have choices like that. I have an old copy of one of the earliest books in the series (By Balloon to Sahara, http://www.gamebooks.org/gallery/cyoa003n.jpg), I'll have to pick it up and see where it falls on the arbitrary choice scale.



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Star Trek is the only one that comes to my mind


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geeze, the first, I don't remember...

...wait, it's a very fuzzy memory... second grade advanced reading group... tooth filling is a radio... aliens in tweed suits...

'Fat Men from Space' by Daniel Pinkwater.

For a long time I really couldn't remember, and had to google the details to get the title.  'The Giver' and 'A Sound of Thunder' were also on the list, but i am pretty sure those were much later.

Does anyone remember Fatmen?



Darwinist

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Reply #63 on: July 07, 2014, 01:20:15 PM
The first science fiction I remember reading was a collection of Arthur C. Clarke's short stories, maybe when I was in 6th grade.  I remember having my mind blown with the ideas presented and I have loved science fiction ever since.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


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Reply #64 on: August 09, 2014, 06:59:15 PM
Secret Under the Sea, by Gordon R. Dickson.  I recently found a paperback collection of his books titled Secrets of the Deep with the same youth hero Robby Hoenig and the unflappable "security agent for the International Bureau of Police," rMr. Lillibulero, who is  straight from the book "was good at pistol, rifle, bow abd arrow, knife and boomerang". 

A youth targeted book, but still not a bad read. 

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Reply #65 on: August 10, 2014, 12:10:18 AM
Oho! Interesting. I didn't know Mr Dickson did any YA stuff.


SpareInch

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Reply #66 on: August 10, 2014, 03:07:33 PM
I can't say which was the first for certain, but the principal suspects would be...

The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes. (Apparently published as 'The Iron Giant' in The US"

Something from the 1965 Boy's World Annual (Which would be 9 years before I was born)

The Graphic Novel edition of Star Treck - The Motion Picture

Or a 1950s YA novel (If I may be permitted to use the term YA of a 50s book) called Stand By For Mars! (With the ! as part of the title as I recall) But I can't for the life of me remember who wrote it. I gather it was one of a series called 'Tom Corbett, Space Cadet' and the name Rockwell keeps surfacing in my mind, but that doesn't mean much.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2014, 03:10:10 PM by SpareInch »

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TrishEM

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Reply #67 on: August 20, 2014, 02:59:18 AM
Probably The Enormous Egg, about a boy whose chicken laid an egg that hatched into a triceratops, or maybe a cartoony invasion story whose title I can't recall, where the boss enemy turned out to be something called The Big Think-Think (I think the invaders were super-specialized like body parts working together).
Those would have been books I ran across in the children's library.
The first SFF books I remember consciously choosing were The Beasts of Tarzan (ERB) and The Forgotten Door (Alexander Key). After that, the James Blish Star Trek episode write-ups. After that, more and more and more!



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Reply #68 on: August 20, 2014, 11:42:29 AM
Trish - I loved THE ENORMOUS EGG as a child.  Oliver Butterworth's later book, THE NARROW PASSAGE (1973), had a profound effect on me as well, as it was intended to be read by a reader entering adolescence, and I timed it perfectly.



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Reply #69 on: August 20, 2014, 02:05:38 PM
The illustrations for these books have an impact on me. I'm sure I read these. For some reason my library doesn't have them so I can't revisit and confirm.

I bet discussion of THE NARROW PASSAGE would have some interesting compare and contrast opportunities with The Grotto of the Dancing Deer over on EscapePod.

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Reply #70 on: September 15, 2014, 05:34:54 PM
'Fat Men from Space' by Daniel Pinkwater.

[...]

Does anyone remember Fatmen?

Yes, I love Pinkwater -- probably Alan Mendelssohn, Boy from Mars was my favourite as a kid. Later I liked the Snarkout Boys books.

I actually started reading SF before kindergarten, I think with some of my grandpa's old Analogs, Galaxies, and F&SFs. The first novel I remember reading was Heinlein's Red Planet about then.

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UnfulredJohnson

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Reply #71 on: October 12, 2014, 11:17:32 PM
I came late to the genre, the first book I can remember was Marrow by robert reed when I was about 15. It blew me the frac away. I'd never really been exposed to all these ideas- which I now recognise as tropes- and it was like somebody turning on a light. The possibilities were branching and endless and fantastic. Who knew you could imagine such things? Who knew you could invent such worlds. Sci-fi represented for me a freedom of ideas I had never previously encountered and I fell in love. You never forget your first I suppose.