Another give-me-book-rec post!

[cahn]

I feel that I ought to know the answer to this, but it is easier to ask you because I know you will have good solutions!

E. needs to read a science-fiction book that is appropriate for her age (12/6th grade/middle grade). If she were two years older I'd give her Ender's Game or Becky Chambers, but she's not. She says she likes fantasy better than SF but I suspect this is at least partially because she hasn't really read much SF, most of the stuff I know about being aimed a little above her head (she's read Dragon Pearl and liked it but is using it for another category). I'd considered giving her a Heinlein juvenile but I think she should probably be just a little older for that too. I also gave her The Martian to look at, which she rejected on account of it being too long :) (If it's something that I think will suit her interests enough, I'll give it to her anyway even if it's long, but Martian was already pushing things a bit -- I'll give it to her in a year or two and I think it'll work better for her then.)

(If there are sentient animals or puzzles to solve that would be a plus, but not required. Another reason she likes fantasy better is because there are more sentient animals, I think.)

Comments

[cenozoicsynapsid]

This isn't exactly my area--- I think I started reading science fiction in the adult section and moved backwards. Asimov's "I Robot" was one of my early favorites, and it's still a great collection of puzzle stories, but with an extra helping of weird 50s social attitudes that I'm not sure E wants to read past. (I grew into appreciating the character and emotional dimensions of fiction as I got older, but as a 6th-grader, I think, I wanted setting and worldbuilding more.)

Brandon Sanderson's "Skyward" immediately comes to mind. Teenage pilot, pet slug and artificially intelligent fighter plane start out on a space colony surrounded by aliens who keep trying to bomb them. There's a lot of Top Gun-style flight-sim action, but as the plot unrolls, she also learns more about the origins of the conflict and the possibility of peace. The second book has a ship piloted by super-cute monarchist gerbils.

Scott Westerfeld's "Leviathan" trilogy is a possibility? Steampunk World War I: the British and their living airships versus the Germans and their mechanical walkers), but way fluffier than the real war. Spunky teenage couple (heterosexual, if it matters) on opposite sides fall in love as they work together to save Europe.

I am not a huge fan of Heinlein juveniles. John Scalzi does a bunch of books that are basically "Heinlein for people who wish he weren't a crusty conservative", and unsurprisingly, since the originals weren't my cup of tea, I'm not really here for the remakes either, but perhaps other people have ideas about whether they'd be appropriate?

[cahn]

Ha, this is exactly my problem! When I was her age, I was reading all kinds of stuff from the adult SF/fantasy section, and I feel like anything I was reading at that time that was actually vaguely age-appropriate was fantasy. But she does get turned off stuff if it's too much for her -- I imagine it's a combination of her being farther out on the spectrum than I might (or might not) be (so stuff that requires more inferencing or more understanding of adult norms is harder for her than it was for me, plus which reading things she doesn't understand is much more frustrating for her than it was for me), plus that when we were kids I feel like there just wasn't as much variety so we sort of had to go to the adult section after a while, whereas she can kind of pick and choose rather more.

I read "Robbie" in our fourth grade reader and loved it, and was so disappointed to learn years later when finding I, Robot that the rest of the book wasn't also about Robbie! (Though I did very soon after become reconciled to it being about Susan Calvin instead.)

I will check these out, thanks! Cute monarchist gerbils?? Yeeeeah, that sounds entirely up her alley :)

[cahn]

Btw, brainwane just reminded me that I should tell you, Skyward is the book that E ended up choosing! She read the kindle sample of a few books and this was the one that she glommed onto immediately, although to be fair she might not have chosen it had I given her the paper book (which I did afterwards, as she prefers it), which makes it clear how long it is :) But length aside, she really liked it, thank you for the rec!

She hasn't felt the need to seek out the second book yet (the one problem with the book list is that she's pretty much sworn off non-book-list books until she finishes the list), but I think I forgot to tell her about the gerbils, that should bump it up.

[cenozoicsynapsid]

Glad to hear it! I'm a big fan of Sanderson's adult novels myself (and am looking forward to the new Cosmere books he apparently wrote during lockdown). I saw in previous threads that you are watching the Wheel of Time--- did you read the books, and if so, how do you think Sanderson's compare to Jordan's?

[cahn]

I read the first... seven? or so WoT books, back when they were being published, and then just ground to a halt. I tried to reread it when the Sanderson books came out, but didn't even get through book 2, having in the interim lost a lot of my momentum for epic fantasy. Which has also made it hard for me to get through Sanderson's books -- I had the same problem with Mistborn, which I know I would have loved if I'd gotten to it ten years earlier. And I did like the first book!

My spouse did actually read all of WoT, and my vague recollection is that he liked early Jordan better than Sanderson, but late Jordan is... so slow... and he did appreciate that Sanderson was able to wrap things up reasonably efficiently. But I'll ask him.