Science Fiction Recommedations Part 1

I love science fiction because of the escapism that it provides and the way that it can actually shape our growth as it looks to the future that we are all striving to. We don't ever quite get there because progress is not as fast as we can imagine but who would have thought that the cell phones that we carry around in our pocket would have more processing power and memory than the entire vessel that went to the moon. We have definitely made large strides into the future and our own improvement but we look ahead still through science fiction.

I was able to take a science fiction focused lit class my freshman year of college. I met one of my good friends there but I also met a lot of good books and authors. Some of them have stuck with me and will always rattle around in my head because of their timeless nature.

Heinlein. He wrote during what is known as the golden age of science fiction. I've only read a handful of his pieces but they are so very worth it. My favorite is All You Zombies (forgive the formatting, it's what I was able to find on the internet). I am a sucker for time shenanigans and this is truly mind warping. It is along the same lines as the recent movie Looper. It's a quick short story so you should read it several times over just to get a sense of what is going on. It's pretty incredible. The second one of his that I'll recommend is Stranger from a Strange Land. This one is interesting because I had to use a significant amount of suspension of disbelief and you don't/can't understand everything right away but as you read more, it becomes clearer or at least your brain is able to understand a little bit more from the context given. So my advice is to just keep reading. Don't stop to try to understand it. Just keep going. It's an interesting take on Jesus' story from a science fiction perspective. And it catches a lot of human aspects that I haven't really thought about like why we laugh. It's a harder concept to explain that one would think but there is a scene that does it very well. 

Asimov. I liked I, Robot the movie for its use of science fiction and because Will Smith was in it. I like anything Will Smith is in. But the only three things that the movie takes from I, Robot the book that Asimov wrote are the three governing laws of robotics. (Btw, Asimov popularized the word 'robot' with this book and is credited with the coining of 'robotics.') I, Robot is actually a collection of short stories that expound on how the three laws function and effect the robots. I love the two engineers who are used as a vehicle for the stories. They have to go through so much shit because of the laws. But Asimov creates this scenario/world where robots are common place with such ease that you can slip into it without too much detail. The focus is more on the interactions between human and robots and are told in cute self contained stories. I've already shared my second recommendation for Asimov but I'll put it here as well. The Last Question is a great what-if piece. Again it is a quick and easy read so just go read it now.

Armor by John Steakley. This is one of the ones that I grabbed off of the shelf of one of my ex-boyfriend's basement library and brought it home with me. My brother ended up reading it as well. I returned it and went through several more shelves of his books before we parted ways. But years later my brother brought it up again because it had been rattling around in his head. A good book will haunt you and Armor is definitely one of the ones what will stick with you for a while. The method of storytelling is interesting, the pacing is too, the exploration of the human psyche is beautiful, the survival beyond all odds will have you flipping the pages as fast as you can. The main portion of the story being told within the story is reminiscent of Heinlein's Starship Troopers and a little of Iron Man. This has my strongest recommendation to read because it will stay with you for a very long time. 

Another one that my family has shared is Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I think we found this one while trying to find Steakley but it's good on its own right. If you have ever read A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift then you might have stumbled on a similar essay (that I can't find right now, curses) that has old people fighting in wars instead of our young men and women as is current. Old Man's War is something like that. Old people live their life out on earth and then are sent off with new bodies to go fight for the human race in space. It has several other stories attached to it, but this is where to start.