As I mentioned in my intro post, I’d like to get a monthly reading group started at Freethinking Ahead. Please post your recommendations in the comments below.
A few things to note:
- Given the focus of this blog, we’ll stick primarily to science fiction, though I’m open to works of non-fiction as well as poetry collections.
- I’d like to balance contemporary and classic works.
- Anything that is blatantly grounded in negative -isms (sexism, racism, etc.) is out.
- If you’d like to recommend something that is out of print, go ahead. Just post something to let us know that’s the case.
- Recommendations for novella and novelette length works are welcome. If you’d like to recommend something longer, I may run with it for a few months out.
I’ll have November’s selection posted by the first of the month.
I think “Weapons of Math Destruction” would be a great selection. It’s non-fiction, but it hits currents square in the tuches. And – to give it a SF connection – it shows how “science” (as in Big Data and Bad Algorithms) is creating fictions!
Bonus, despite it’s name, no math is needed to fully understand it!
Air by Geoff Ryman.
One of the works that impressed me in my youth (I have not revisited it) is Olaf Stapledon’s 1930 work, Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future.
Freely available via Project Gutenberg.
I’ve already mentioned Pamela Sargent’s Venus trilogy – Venus of Dreams, Venus of Shadows & Child of Venus plus Jan Mark’s The Ennead (1978) which I’d highly recommend. In addition to the Crown of Stars anthology by James Tiptree Jr aka Alice B. Sheldon. I suspect these are likely all out-of print but don’t know for sure.
There’s quite a list here :
http://bookriot.com/2016/07/09/100-must-read-sci-fi-fantasy-novels-female-authors-2/
Which I’ve just seen via facebook and only had a very quick skim through may be worth considering here too.
Also Anne McCaffrey’s Ship Who Sang and Crystal Singers novels maybe albeit quite probablyout ofprint too?
Bit off topic but a classic feminist SF novel is on the main wikipedia page as featured article today :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Namely Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness – certainly a well known and awesome one we could discuss if folks wish.
Crystal Society is an adventure from the point of view of one goal thread within an AI learning to interact with humans. It’s quite an engaging bit of SciFi. The Kindle version is only $5 and can be read with the free Amazon app.