Sci-Fi Books For Pre-Teens? 1419
o2binbuzios writes "I have two pre-teen boys who are avid readers, and I am going through my mental catalog for great sci-fi & fantasy books for them. What are some of the classics (and maybe new additions to the classics) that would be great for them to read? I am asking because some of the 'straight-up' classics I remember actually seem kind of dark & cynical for younger readers. Starship Troopers and some of the other Heinlein are definitely darker and more political than I remember... Foundation Trilogy and psycho-history maybe too dry. Road-trip reading season is upon us — what are the good reads for the kids in the back seat?"
Try these (Score:4, Informative)
I'd suggest you try Anne McCaffrery's "Decision at Doona" and James Blish's "Welcome to Mars."
Both are great SF, both are aimed at younger readers, both are upbeat and greatly enjoyable to read.
Re:Try these (Score:5, Informative)
Orson Scott Card has Ender's Game (and several more in that series). These are definately classic.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, and the follow-ups are all very well written, though some of the deeper themes might be a bit above your kids depending on how sharp they are.
CS Lewis' Space Trilogy is excellent, though it gets pretty violent, and might be a bit advanced for pre-teens.
Terry Pratchett's books are funny, but they tend to spoof the politics and happenings of the US and the UK, so your kids might not grasp all the jokes. Much better would be Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the (increasingly misnamed) Hitchhiker's Trilogy (there are five books there).
If you like, you might even start them on JRR Tolkien, which is more fantasy than sci-fi, but definitely a classic. You also have the advantage of the movies once they're done with the books. (Books are better though.)
Those are my picks, and that should be enough reading for at least this summer, if not longer. You can also walk into your local Borders and ask someone. There's tons of great kids books in Sci-Fi...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Addams and Tolkien Great choices.
But since the topic is scifi"&"fantasy I suggest the Christopher Stacheff Books in the Warlock series. It's about a space "secret agent" who is sent to a world where magic appears to be a real phenomenon. Witches, shapeshifters, robots and rayguns. Its great stuff.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/christopher-stasheff/ [fantasticfiction.co.uk]
C.
Re:Try these (Score:5, Insightful)
The burning lands series has some great elements of questions about science and technology whether or not its use is ultimately good or evil -- good food for thought for youngersters raised in the Internet age, and also is sex-scene free.
Additionally, if you read some books you now think are too old for your kids, maybe you should consider that those books were too old for YOU, and you turned out fine! I cringe when my son reads MAD, but it was probably just as nihlistic and subversive in the 1970s as it is today.
Re:Try these (Score:4, Insightful)
Anne McCaffrey is definitely on the top list, along with David Eddings.
Re:Try these (Score:4, Funny)
Wow, your taste doesn't match mine! What a thought!
Re:Try these (Score:4, Interesting)
i can still tell you the exact time and place i picked up my first sci-fi read.
i was thirteen, in junior high school, and it was Heinlein's "The Star Beast". that was decades ago.
been hooked ever since. don't always have time for it, but always come back to it.
don't live in the parent's basement or fit any other definitions of hardcore nerd- or geek-dom, but picking up that first sci-fi book (and i subsequently read _all_ of heinlein, hebert, asimov, campbell, pournelle, niven and the rest) definitely started me on a path to looking at the world with different eyes.
the guys that write sci-fi (especially in the "golden age") are/were genuine pioneers of thought. fuck disney; they're the _real_ imagineers.
i can't recommend more highly turning your kids on to a "thinking out of the box" genre like sci-fi.
as to which first? don't know; times change, but you see where i started, for better or worse.
hell, i'm just glad someone wants their kids to actually read.
Re:Arthur C Clarke and Doctor Who (Score:5, Funny)
Just make sure you use the paperback version. Otherwise, you might:
a) hurt the kid.
b) hurt your arm.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Heinlein's juveniles [wikipedia.org] aren't dark.
Niven's stuff may work, depending on your definition of dark.
I can't think of any of Frank Herbert's [wikipedia.org] work that isn't dark (or at least twisted) though the Jorj X McKie [wikipedia.org] ones may just be a bit odd (I Arthur C Clark's work? Certainly some classics, although, a bit slow in places.
And a random smattering of alternate suggestions:
Greg Bear
Peter F Hamilton [wikipedia.org]
David Weber [wikipedia.org]
Louis McMaster Bujold [wikipedia.org]
David Brin [wikipedia.org]
Re:Try these (Score:4, Insightful)
Though I would argue that dark isn't bad.
Kids thrive on dark; fairytales, ghost stories... though maybe I wouldn't give them Martin. Especially if they tend to bond with characters they grow to like.
Re:Try these (Score:5, Insightful)
Terry Pratchett's books are funny, but they tend to spoof the politics and happenings of the US and the UK, so your kids might not grasp all the jokes.
You're just thinking of the Discworld, which isn't even Sci-Fi. Then there's the Diggers and the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, both of which are actually Sci-Fi series written for children. Kids should be able to get those jokes. They have lessons in them, too. It's a complete package. Pratchett also happens to be an amazing writer. His command of language, plotlines, and character development are a wonder to behold. People have written doctorate theses examining the art that is Terry Pratchett's work. So he's definitely a good choice.
Anne McCaffery has some good ones
You're reading them as an adult, and you're glossing over things. Her novels are definitely PG-13, or possible R rated. She makes sex and death an everyday part of her novels, and not the Judy Bloom way. Characters are mating with/killing other characters, and she's describing how it makes them feel, which makes it much more real than seeing random redshirt die in Star Trek, or Kirk sleep with the green chick.
CS Lewis' Space Trilogy is excellent, though it gets pretty violent, and might be a bit advanced for pre-teens.
Definitely. The language is too complex for most. It's also highly Christian. As in, the protagonist is a Christian fighting the forces of Satan with the aid of angels. And this isn't all symbolic/easy to overlook like it is with the Chronicles of Narnia. So if you're hostile to Christianity, don't have them read it. If, however, you're not, it's a really good read. One of the first sci-fi novels written where you actually end up getting to know what the characters are *feeling*.
Which is a problem with the early works of the genre as a whole (i.e., pre-1960 or so). Start with people who actually write well to get them hooked on reading. Sadly, quite a few of the classics - Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Wells - are terrible writers. They have excellent ideas from the broad "wouldn't this make a good story?" sense, but their command of language, plot development, and characters aren't as vivid as many of their counterparts of the times they wrote. That was just the way that sci-fi was. Most important of these is the characters. The timid reader has to become attached to them early on in the story so that he'll keep reading.
Later, once they're voracious readers, they can take on the guys who have great ideas but don't write well. They won't need to constantly be fed the writing equivalent of high definition to want to "view" it.
And for that reason, I definitely like the parent. These writers he has chosen are really good at writing to grab the readers and hold their attention.
Bearing that in mind, I have two more authors to add:
David Eddings - he's known for his endearing characters. Unfortunately, I don't think he's ever strayed from writing fantasy. The important poitn is that you can basically start with "you liked Harry Potter? Why don't you read this..." IMHO, going from Harry Potter books to David Eddings is a fairly natural progression. Once you've absorbed those, you're pretty well prepared to move into heavier stuff.
Alan Dean Foster - writes, among other things, the "Pip and Flinx" novels. While he's not the greatest writer in the world, Flinx is a young boy at the start, and very well developed as a character. Young readers will identify with the feelings and attitudes that Flinx goes through as he transitions into someone remarkable.
Re:Try these (Score:4, Funny)
Definitely. The language is too complex for most. It's also highly Christian. As in, the protagonist is a Christian fighting the forces of Satan with the aid of angels.
Nothing wrong with reading CS Lewis provided you go on to read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials for balance (protagonist fighting the forces of God and the church with the aid of witches and fallen angels...)
PS: Beware - do not place His Dark Materials on the shelf next to Narnia or the Space trilogy - they will annihilate each other in a burst of dark matter.
Re:Try these (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There is a nice list of science-fiction stories [livejournal.com] on this LiveJournal blog.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
All sex scenes are poorly written by definition.
Of course, I'm taking this on faith, as you will have to, since, the two of us being slashdotters, have never had sex with anyone.
*not* Niven's Ringworld (Score:3, Informative)
I don't exactly want my kids reading about rishathra and it's many uses political/social/entertainment as pre-teens.
Great books, but with vampires/ghouls/sex I don't think pre-teen is quite the right time.
Sex is a boogeyman, but not sexism? (Score:5, Insightful)
Where did we get the idea that pre-teens can't be exposed to sex in any way? It's a good idea to read books before recommending them to your children to make sure the presentation of sex isn't sinister in any way, but the mere presence of sex shouldn't disqualify a book.
I see several posts on this page where people rule out any sex whatsoever, but nothing at all lamenting the fact that most classic sci-fi is absurdly sexist. Usually naively and unintentionally sexist, perhaps, and only occasionally misogynistic, but not suitable to be the bulk of your kid's literary diet.
In fact, the best reason for tolerating a little sex is that most of the non-chauvinistic sci-fi does contain sex. Plus, it is a good idea for kids to be self-consciously, abstractly wondering about sex before they encounter their own urges in a concrete form. They aren't going to take their ideas from you, their parents, and the alternatives are books, movies, TV, and peers. Obviously, good books and a few movies are your best hope if you want your kids to take a thoughtful, critical approach.
I don't know ANYTHING about pre-teens except what I know from being one, but I know I read several books about sex as a pre-teen and was alternately amused and horrified by the unreflective, superstitious, fetishistic approach to sex that my peers took to sex. Whatever they heard from anyone between their age and twenty-one, they took as gospel truth. Whatever they knew at a given time was assumed to be pretty close to the whole truth. Good science fiction is a wonderful inoculation against those attitudes. (Unfortunately, it seems that most science fiction is optimized to sell to people who would rather fantasize about sex than think about it, but you just have to find the exceptions.)
Here are a few books that might be suitable for preteens.
Island [amazon.com], by Aldous Huxley. I actually read this as a pre-teen. The main thing I took away from it is that sex and love present some thorny problems, and different people have come up with many very different ways of coping with them. It influenced me to approach sex with a combination of compassion, love, and pragmatism, in that order. I learned to keep that attitude to myself in the macho culture I grew up in, and gave up on it altogether by the time I went to college, but eventually my adult experiences with sex brought me right back to where Aldous Huxley started me out. This is a no-brainer choice to give to freethinking kids. It does advocate judicious use of hallucinogens for spiritual purposes, but I read and admired it as a preteen and was never tempted to test that particular idea. (Twenty years later, I still haven't.)
Fledgling [amazon.com], by Octavia Butler. Perhaps this one should be saved for older teens. I really don't know what to say about this book except that it made me think. I'm normally a pretty quick reader, but I kept putting this one down just so I could think for a while. (I know, I'm supposed to do that with every book. So I'm a philistine; sue me.) The takeaway lesson from this book is that people have to be very ethically careful about relations of power and dependency.
Stranger in a Strange Land [amazon.com], by Robert Heinlein. The older I get the more I realize that Heinlein was a pompous dick who loved to put ridiculous ideas over on people, take undeserved adulation from naive people (like my teenage self,) and then defend himself against the critics by saying he was just "throwing things out there" or "seeing who would take him seriously." So I would definitely rer
Re:Try these (Score:4, Funny)
Why not Douglas Adams' novels? I read those when I was 10 - pretty^H^H^H^H^H^H^H mostly harmless
There. Fixed it for you.
Re:A Wrinkle in Time SUCKS (Score:4, Interesting)
It was a fine book when I was 10. Now that I'm 55, it's not so good.
And much though I loved Heinlein's juveniles when I was 10 - 16, today I find them... juvenile.
The first science fiction book I read (and the first all-text "adult" book, too) was A.E. Van Vogt's "The Voyage of the Space Beagle." I was seven.
Douglas Adams is fine for all ages.
Piers Anthony is great when you're 10 - 16, starts to lose it after that.
Orson Scott Card, check.
James Patterson isn't thought of as an SF writer, but his "Maximum Ride" series is excellent juvenile SF -- and not shabby for adults, either.
Just turn kids loose in the library, let them get what they like. It may not be what *you* like, but hey! We each have our own taste in authors and styles.
Give them what you read (Score:5, Interesting)
Chances are they'll like it too. I was 13 when I read LOTR, and Dune. When I was 11-12 I "discovered" Asimov, Heinlein, Niven, Bradburyand other grandmasters, as well as the Star Trek novels. Those guys are famous for a reason.
Might want to try some collections of short stories, and see what they like. You might already have it in your collection. My library, at the time, had YA stickers on books (young adult), and I remember cruising around the library, looking for those stickers for a few years.
I also used to read the first page in a book, and some other random page just to see if I liked it, or the style. Try that with them.
Or give them what they want to read (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, you can propose some books you think they will like, but please also take them to a library and let them browse and pick up whatever they want. This is how you get kids into reading in the first place. We are all different, I have a lot of books that are dear to me that I've pushed on this or that youngling, and with some I have been successful, with some I have failed totally. I think I bought my sister Michael Ende's "Momo" twice by mistake, and she never read it once.
Real readers start omnivorous, reading all sort of good as well as bad books, but of all the books I read as a child, very few of the more important (for me) were "for children".
Jules Verne (Score:5, Informative)
When I was a kid, I had a lot of fun time reading Journey to the Center of the Earth, from the Earth to the Moon, etc.
Re: E.E. Doc Smith (Score:3, Informative)
Those are good. Along those lines, if the readers in question can put up with a style like Verne's (in the sense that it isn't a modern style) they might enjoy E.E. Doc Smith's Skylark and Lensman series; those were very cool to read. The styles can be a show-stopper for some, though. Personally, I just re-read the Skylarks and they were great.
Re: E.E. Doc Smith (Score:5, Interesting)
A problem with the Skylark and Lensman series is that they were written when eugenics was still popular in the US, before the NAZIs made such a graphic display of their dark-side implications. The good guys are good guys and the bad guys bad guys largely due to their genetics. The last book of the Lensman series shows that the police/military organization you've been following was actually a secret breeding program, run by behind-the-scenes aliens, to produce a human master race to rule the galaxy and wipe out their ancient enemies.
Whenever I feel like trusting government officials I re-read the section of _The Grey Lensman_ where an "unattached lensman" (a supercop, with carte blanch to do whatever he pleases, no oversight, massive resources, and a gadget that lets him wiretap minds remotely) wipes out a nest of dope dealers by calling in the equivalent of a massive surprise nuclear carpet-bombing on the city they're in, to vaporize them all before they can get away.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
agreed!
I'm less than a month past my 24th birthday and have just started getting into Jules Verne. He's not just for kids - its great literature and you can learn a lot. Verne was waaaay ahead of his time with some of the things he discusses.
For instance, he proposes hydrogen fuel cells (using electricity to separate the hydrogen and the oxygen) as an alternative to coal (which he predicts to run out in 250-300 years) in "The Mysterious Island," which is sort of the sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Re:Jules Verne (Score:5, Insightful)
At first I was going to suggest The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, and the Foundation series -- you know, the classics. Then I got to thinking a bit and the sad thing is that I'm not sure the kids today would appreciate those works as much as we did when we were their age. If they were to read those when they're slightly older or maybe even as adults, then maybe they might appreciate them more. But now? Probably not so much. I mean, we're talking about a generation that's grown up on a style of television and film different from that that we grew up with. Today, a camera angle rarely holds for more than 10 seconds before it cuts to another angle.
All this to say that I think your recommendation of the Verne novels is pretty spot on. There's more plot and more stuff happens in those Verne novels -- which are indeed great -- than in the works of Bradbury and Asimov which tend to be more contemplative and intellectual.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Jules Verne (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong Martian Chronicles [wikipedia.org]. Bradbury's work was philosophical, allegorical, and in many ways surreal, and while I don't have trouble reading it I've found that even as an adult (with some graduate training in literary theory) it takes some effort to appreciate the nuances. Not a work for kids, though I think his Fahrenheit 451 should be required reading for someone who's just finding out about real literature.
Re:Jules Verne (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't lower your expectations of your kids; they might surprise you....
You could do what we did. A very prominent wall in our living room is solid-packed bookshelf of several hundred fantasy and SF novels. I told each of our daughters that they were absolutely forbidden to read any of them.
Naturally, they were soon sneaking novels off the shelf and reading them in their room, and I suspect they've gone through at least 3/4 of the library by now.
There was absolutely no filtering other than that it reflects our taste in the genera. They're both Straight-A students (one in university now) and their conversation is consistently astute and challenging and full of fresh ideas, and they're both full of smiles and bounce. Mind you this could also because they told us to pull the plug on free-to-air/cable TV several years ago, so that source of brain Lanacaine was removed.
So to follow the thread, we have the full Pratchett at eye level, Asimov at the top left and Zelazny at the bottom right. The Heinlein juveniles were popular as were the Eddings Belgariad/Malloreon series.
Let 'em read it all; good minds will do the filtering themselves, and do a better job of it than second hand criticism.
Larry Niven: A World Out of Time (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I love almost all of Larry Niven's books but World Out of Time may not be good for pre-teen boys. Part of the plot is that most of humanity is wiped out. The remainder is look like pre-teen boys but are actually immortal. So far so good. These boys do maintain a breeding population that consists mostly of women with the minimal number of men to keep them pregnant. There is at least 1 orgy scene and some other sex scenes. Minimal violence though. So if you don't mind your 10 year olds reading about orgies, g
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This is going to go into the borders of TMI territory, but I have to admit to being turned on by events that I found even in Piers Anthony's Xanth books as a teenage boy - when let's face it, anything will accomplish that. It does not seem to have unduly warped me, however; for example, I do not believe Piers Anthony to be a competent author now that I am an adult.
Long story short, kids will actually seek that stuff out once they know it exists; but they have a short attention span and low burnout factor. O
Re:Larry Niven: A World Out of Time (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of the pervy stuff I totally didn't remember.
And this pretty much sums up why people worry too much about this stuff.
Terry Pratchett (Score:5, Insightful)
Modesitt (Score:4, Informative)
I like the Recluse series by L. E. Modesitt. I read those books over and over.
Ender's Game (Score:5, Informative)
Ender's Game [ender.com], of course.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Baroom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Score:4, Interesting)
"Invitation to the Game" (M. Hughes) (Score:5, Interesting)
Brief plot synopsis: unemployment is skyrocketing due to mass mechanization of society, although the unemployed are well taken-care-of due to the same efficient use of resources. It can be dull to be unemployed, at least until you get an invitation on your doorstep mentioning a secret game with a very exclusive list of players.
Mystery/adventure/scifi, very highly rated, but do not read the Amazon editorials (thar be spoilers afoot).
Heinlein juveniles (Score:5, Informative)
Citizen of the Galaxy, Farmer in the Sky, Have Space Suit will Travel, Starman Jones - all by Heinlein. These are his juveniles and are all good stories, drama and action along with some moralizing about studying hard etc ... I read them as a kid and was hooked. The Larry Niven short stories.
The complete Heinlein juvenile list: (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Heinlein juveniles and others (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget RAH's first - Rocketship Galileo, and also Space Cadet, Time for the Stars. Also: I think 'The Rolling Stones' is the correct title of 'Space Family Stone', although I understand many of his early works were originally published serially, and under different titles; that may be the case here, but the novel has always been known to me as 'The Rolling Stones.' I would also include 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' and 'Starship Troopers' here, and perhaps 'The Puppet Masters.' I read all of these before I hit 12, and had no problems with them. Indeed, Moon is perhaps my favourite book to this day, even though I don't agree with some of Heinlein's social or some of his political views, it certainly formed or firmed a lot of my beliefs then and since. I don't see any need to avoid political stuff simply due to being young. On the contrary, much like with pets, it's good to get exposure early, else you might develop an allergy later in life. :)
Other good ones include Isaac Asimov's "Lucky Starr" books (originally credited to his alter ego, 'Paul French', I think). There are also Schmitz's "Telzey Amberdon" books, as well as his classic "The Witches of Karres." Clarke's "Islands in the Sky", Gallun's "The Planet Strappers" (hard to find, but awesome), "Across a Billion Years" by Silverberg, "Space Angel" by John Maddox Roberts, "Healer" by F. Paul Wilson, "Eridahn" by Robert Young (dinosaurs! Time travel! Martians! Aliens! (yes, Martians and Aliens are listed separately here :)), someone else already mentioned "Welcome to Mars" by Blish, and I'll certainly second that. There's a LOT more to E.E. Doc Smith than his Lensman and Skylark books, and I think I'd recommend them all. "Spacial Delivery" by Gordon Dickson was a good one, as are "Talking to Dragons" by Patricia Wrede, (which is apparently part of a series. This is the only one that I've read, and it stands alone brilliantly), the Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey (set on the Pern world), and the undersea books by Jerry Pournelle (I think) I remember as being quite fun, too. Also: Robert Aspirin's "MythAdventures" books, and Piers Anthony's "Xanth" books (though the older you are, the more you'll get the 'awful' puns).
Many, if not most, of these, will need to be purchased used, due to the sad state of the publishing industry. *sigh*
I actually wrote a gigantic list on this subject several years ago on Slashdot - you may be able to find it via a search by using some of the more unique titles or names listed here as keywords.
Bradbury -- yes. Heinlein -- yes. (Score:4, Insightful)
On the Heinlein side, check out his youth fiction rather than his more political stuff. He wrote a bunch of novels targeted directly at youth.
Everything (Score:5, Insightful)
Van Vogt, Russell (Score:4, Informative)
I mostly bring up old-timers because they're the ones I read when I was young. Asimov's Robot novels like "Caves Of Steel" might be more appealing than the Foundation stuff. Heinlein wrote a lot of juveniles. I've read that "Starship Troopers" was supposed to be a juvenile but it was deemed to rough by the editors and re-marketed as adult. However, "Double Star" is a good juvenile by Heinlein.
In the old days, Sci-Fi was mostly short stories, go find good anthologies! The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame anthology of the best science fiction stories is a good place to start.
Other recommendations would be "Voyage Of The Space Beagle" by Van Vogt, "Wasp" by Eric Frank Russell.
Harry Potter, of course (Score:5, Insightful)
No doubt Slashdot is full of Harry Potter haters. I was one, too, until I actually read the entire series last month. It's still not exactly my cuppa, but it's an incredibly well-crafted work of fantasy fiction for young adults. The first couple of books are pure wish-fulfillment, which will appeal to any pre-teen. The books are too long for young readers to make it through all of them back to back, though, so by the time they get around to the later volumes, they will be just the right age to appreciate the darker aspects and more complex themes of the series's conclusion.
Unfortunately, most kids will probably just watch the movies.
Re:Harry Potter, of course (Score:4, Interesting)
Red Wall (Score:3, Insightful)
Along a similar line as Harry Potter-
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Brian Jacques' "Red Wall" series of books. Perhaps I am getting older, but those were a lot of fun when I was in elementary school.
The series is about various critters who act like humans. Lots of well described scenes, battles, and specific personality traits characteristic of which type of critter you are looking at. Your kids will probably learn some vocabulary too.
Thoughtful and well written series of books.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
JK lies though... she didn't plan it all from start to finish, otherwise every book wouldn't introduce something completely new and unheard of before.
Sure it would! That was one of the things that kept the series interesting for me. After the first two I began to detect a pattern: sorting hat, first day of class, Christmas, birthdays ... every year was starting to seem the same. Only then she started throwing us curve balls.
Besides, she never said she had the whole thing plotted out on paper, the way George Lucas claimed to. I think she said she had the last chapter of "Deathly Hallows" completed somewhere during the writing of "Order of the Phoenix." B
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
by the end she is not telling a story she is recording the lives of the main characters.
Actually, I think that's her major innovation. So much fantasy fiction relies on generic stereotypes and faux-operatic melodrama. By contrast, Rowling's old, white-haired, bearded wizard is not Gandalf. Her protagonists aren't hobbits and they aren't the long-lost kings of an ancient race and they aren't kids at their magical old uncle's house; they're 21st century British schoolkids. The people they meet are ordinary folks in an extraordinary setting. They have feelings -- not all of which are worthy of f
HHGTTG and Ender's Game (Score:5, Informative)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a good, easy read, and is what actually got me started reading Sci-Fi.
Ender's Game is excellent, and while a little dark in places, it's no darker than most classic fairy tales.
Also, if you're at all interested in getting them some fantasy books, two of the absolute best reads would have to be Clive Barker's The Thief of Always, and China Mieville's Un Lun Dun.
Here's some that got me started, decades back. (Score:3, Informative)
Here's some that got me started, back in the late 50s. They are all quite accessible to a young reader:
Eric Frank Russel's _Wasp_ (Also good: _The Space Willies_ A.K.A. _Next of Kin_)
Murray Leinster's Med Ship series.
Hal Clemmet's _Needle_ (A.K.A _From Outer Space_)
Heinlein's _Red Planet_
George O. Smith's _Space Plague_ (A.K.A. _Highways in Hiding_) and _Venus Equilateral_ (though the latter is quite dated, using vacuum tube technology.)
Foundation (Score:5, Insightful)
"Foundation" is not "too dry". The best thing you can do for your kids is to give them reading material -- sci-fi or any other genre -- that challenges their mind, and makes them think.
Before Foundation, though, get them started on three Robot novels, then the seven Foundation books. After they're done with Asimov, give them the three Lord Of The Rings books. I read all three LOTR in my early teens, in high school. They weren't "too dry", in the least. I loved them. I had no problems with it, and English isn't even my native language.
Don't be afraid to challenge your kids. Challenging reading material is very good brain food. Other suggestions:
* The first three Mars books, by Edgar Rice Burrows. Some of that (mostly the first book) is a bit dated, and a bit bizarre (everyone on Mars walks around naked, and Martian women lay eggs). But, once you get passed the weird stuff, it's great pulp.
* War of the Worlds, by HG Wells
* A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court, by Mark Twain. Yes, it's sci-fi/fantasy.
That should be enough to last until next year. Come back then for more stuff to suggest.
give 'em all of it (Score:4, Insightful)
Ringworld, Snowcrash, Cryptonomicon, The Hobbit, LOTR, Harry Potter, Odd Thomas, Dragonlance (the stuff written by Weiss and Hickman, not the 3rd party crap), Star Trek novels, Sword of Truth, A Game of Thrones, Neuromancer is pretty edgy, but a great read. My younger brothers absolutely loved a series called Animorphs. When I was about 12 I really enjoyed Swiss Family Robinson. Maybe throw in some classics like Frankenstein and Dracula. H.G. Wells Time Machine, Gulliver's Travels, Around the World in 80 days, Dune
I would also second the suggestions of Card's early work. Ender's Game, Songmaster, The Shadow Series, The first few Alvin Maker books are good. I would definitely get them to read Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus.
You also can't go wrong with comics. There's a lot of really good stuff in trade paperback these days. You can introduce them to Marvel's Ultimate lines; Ultimate Spiderman, Ultimate Fantastic Four, etc. These series start over and reboot the universe. They will be more compelling for young readers because there isn't 40 years of continuity to sift through.
I would also suggest giving them books that you enjoyed as a child, or even an adult. Just because something is edgy or political doesn't make it automagically inappropriate for a child. You can tell them to come to you with any questions, and you will end up raising a kid who's wise beyond his years, and that will serve the kid well as he gets older.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I was practically raised by the DragonLance Saga (definitely Weis and Hickman, though don't avoid Knack's The Legend of Huma), which taught me a lot of my morals. Good guys wear silver armour, bad guys wear black. Honour and chilvary are paramount. Tears that honour life are OK, and we must never give up hope.
I think I cracked my first DragonLance novel around the age of eight or nine. Definitely grade A fantasy for the younglings.
As others have mentioned, McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern novels are all gre
Darkover! (Score:3, Informative)
rj
A few very basic suggestions (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not a huge sci-fi reader, but also never really found what I read to be all that difficult.
'Dune' is a great place to start out. I was never able to get through the sequals, but the original is a classic. Possibly a bit advanced and cynical, but definitely on the 'required reading' list. The Sci-Fi channel miniseries is also excellent.
Another obvious recommendation is The Hitchhikers Guide series. They're easy, they're funny, and unfortunately not strictly sci-fi. Either way, I'd have a hard time thinking of reasons not to read something by Douglas Adams.
On the fantasy end of things (more my tastes, and still closely related to SF), I'd strongly recommend His Dark Materials, LoTR (if you can manage to get through the first 250 pages), and anything by Terry Pratchett.
If your sons have any interest in The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, I'd highly recommend starting early, as the average lifespan of the typical human is only just barely long enough to cram them all in (I jest, but seriously.... if you follow the user-submitted reviews of the books on Amazon, the readers get fewer and angrier as the series goes on with seemingly no end in sight).
Re:A few very basic suggestions (Score:5, Interesting)
My dad introduced me to science fiction by bringing home a "kid's" novel one day. I couldn't have been much older than eight or nine. I tore through it as quickly as I could, sneaking a flashlight under the covers to finish it. It was Tom Swift: The City in the Stars [bobfinnan.com]. As each new one came out, I'd spend my allowance on it (when I wasn't saving for a Lego set).
I was hooked. I made it through the sixth book in the series before I tumbled to the fact that this wasn't the original series. At that point I became a regular at the library and checked out every Tom Swift book they had. That's how I learned about this "interloan" thing.
I'd never been out of the kid's section before but I noticed that the library had this whole other back section that wasn't nonfiction, and wasn't kid's books. I walked back through it and to my amazement I discovered shelf after shelf full of fiction and a fair number of the books had the letters SF written in Sharpie on a label card on the spine. Magic!
I decided to try out my first "Adult" science fiction novel and I thought robots were just the coolest thing (next to spaceships of course, but all decent science fiction had spaceships in it). Robots of Dawn had just arrived, and since the title sounded cool, I grabbed it from the returns rack. I became a lifelong fan of Isaac Asimov after the first chapter. I went back to the library and dug up as many books by him as I could find, not just his science fiction, but the Ellery Queen stories, his science books, as much as I could find in the library's catalog or through the interloan program.
I began reading back issues of Astounding Science Fiction, Analog, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (IASFM!), and discovered other authors. Many of the story intros or commentaries in anthologies had mentioned this Dune novel, so I decided to check it out. I had to renew it because I couldn't read through it in three weeks (it was 1984, the same year the David Lynch movie was released... I was ten). It was a revelation.
From there, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Silverberg, Heinlein, Simak, Gordon R. Dickson, Phillip K. Dick, Sturgeon, Bradbury, Poul Anderson, Piers Anthony, Douglas Adams, C.J. Cherryh, Kim Stanley Robinson, Spider Robinson, Ursula K. Leguin, Joan D. Vinge, Vernor Vinge, and more, and more. But to understand all of these, I had to get their references, and so I began to dig into Dickens and Melville and Shakespeare. By the time I was in Junior High School, I was more widely read than just about any other kid in school.
Don't sell your kids short thinking they're too young for Asimov. Granted, his writings are a gateway drug.
Earthsea (Score:3, Insightful)
Valentine's Castle (Score:3, Interesting)
For Kids Of All Ages (Score:3, Informative)
Pretty much all Hienlien's earlier stuff is what I call "boy scout" stories. I developed the term from his Sunjammer solar sail story that premiered in the boy scout magazine "Boys Life".
And every kid of any age should read everything from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Besides 36 novels, he's written some books specific to younger readers (and won awards for same) and there's been both animated and live versions of some of the Discowrld books made. The Discowrld stories are much like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons -- well done for and received by kids, but some more esoteric pieces inserted specifically for those who can find them -- mostly for adults, sometimes for specialists (like the details of the "clacks" being there for techheads).
Asimov's collections of short stories are good for kids and he puts in well explained details of the science involved. And if you can interest them in these, then you can give them his collections of science essays, which are equally entertaining but even more educational. By the time they catch on to the latter, they'll be more interested in learning more, and that's the best thing that can happen from all this.
Recommended Reading List (Score:5, Informative)
Piers Anthony (Score:3, Interesting)
Heinlein (Score:4, Informative)
Tom Swift!!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh heck yes! There have been multiple generations of this series. The older stuff like Tom Swift and his biplane perhaps not as interesting but there were at LEAST 3 generations after that! I actually collect some of the really old ones - now nearly 90 years old and have some of the 2nd and 3rd gen ones too, I think there's a 4th newest generation as well.
For stuff that is NOT dark, not super violent, and a decent read for younger people this stuff is great I think. It's like Sci-Fi Hardy Boys. When I was a
Little Fuzzy (Score:4, Insightful)
H. Beam Piper.
2-3 sequels..
fuzzy sapiens...
a great read- similar to heinline juveniles.
hard to find-- worth the search....
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Ah, another Piper fan. I also strongly recommend the Paratime stories and especially _Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen_.
So many....try Danny Dunn (Score:4, Informative)
I loved sci-fi short stories as a kid.
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (get the book of short stories not the movie adaptation)
The Wind From The Sun is a good collection of Arthur C. Clarke.
If you can find 'em, the Danny Dunn series of books were great, always had hard core science. Kinda like the Hardy Boys, but with a sci-fi influence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn [wikipedia.org]
Sherlock Holmes!
Short stories are best (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't try to avoid dark in sci-fi. A lot of the best sci fi is more about exploring the human psyche - the technology or remote physical setting is more a tool than the focus of the story.
My recommendation: Go for a short story collection. Anything by Asimov would be good. Or failing that try a collection that exposes the youngster to a wide variety of authors, but in short little bursts. Any story that isn't interesting can be skipped, or if read won't turn into a long drawn out drag that'll put the little tike off.
If short stories aren't what you want, try Cities in Flight James Blish.
Jules Verne books (Score:3, Informative)
The first books I've read and still remember fondly these days were The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. I think I was 9 or 10 years old at the time and the edition I read had some pencil-drawn pictures every 5 pages or so.
Amazing, engrossing story of a group of people lost on an island and how they build their own little pocket of civilization. There's an engineer in the group and they build a watermill, a telegraph, etc. They even rebuff a pirate attack! I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I absolutely loved those books (I think it's only a single book, but the ones I had were split in two). They are accessible and I don't remember anything objectionable in them. There's a little tie-in at the end with Captain Nemo, from the Twenty Leagues Under the Seas story, but the books stand on their own.
I highly recommend this book. Hmm, I wonder if I can find a good online version of it to read again...
Clarke (Score:5, Informative)
Anything written by Arthur C Clarke. I was devouring everything clark when I was around 10. I started with Rendezvous with Rama, which remains my favorite book of all time. It was actualy on the pre-teen shelf at the library when I was a kid. The sequels are really good, too, imo... though many disagree. The 2001 series is good, Hammer of God, Songs of Distant Earth, Childhood's End. Too many to list. Sometimes the themes are a little advanced, but don't underestimate young readers. I think kids should pick up more advanced books early anyways... it helps development. Too many adults these days are still stuck in a Dr. Seuss world =)
Nicodemus
Think about this for a minute. (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't remember these books as dry and cynical because you didn't care.
You're not seeing them the same way today. Just as I look back on books I loved as a child and see new things, so do you. But the fact remains: they were good books. Children are very, very good at ignoring the things they don't understand in favor of the things they do.
Consider just handing them Heinlein, and letting them figure it out for themselves. Children are robust little machines for making sense of the world. Give them "Stranger in a Strange Land"; all the sex and religion parts whizzed right by me as a kid, and I mainly came away from it with an appreciation for cultural differences. So if you were looking at that book thinking the sex and religion parts were too much, you might be right, but you're also throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Some that haven't been mentioned yet... (Score:3, Informative)
Series:
Novels:
Collections:
Another fan's list (Score:4, Informative)
I'll try to stick to ones I didn't see on a fast pass through the topic...
As always, vet for yourself! Good luck! I envy your kids, just starting out with all the wonder out there.
All the books you'll need (Score:3, Insightful)
I started very young ... (Score:3, Insightful)
and I really enjoyed Jules Verne. The Asimov short stories are really good and not as convoluted as Foundation.
Asimov's robot series are also pretty simple unless you try to make them fit into the big picture, then it turns into a huge headache. I still remember throwing Prelude to Foundation across the room when I realized that it connected to some other Asimov books I always assumed to be isolated.
The litmus test for when a kid is ready for Asimov is to let him read "The Last Question" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question).
If the kid goes "uh, whoa" at the end of the story, then he is ready for Asimov.
If he can't figure it out, then he isn't ready.
If he goes "this is bullshit, what a bullshit ending!" then there's nothing for you to worry about, hand him some Philip K. Dick and see what happens.
Childhood Fantasy (Score:4, Interesting)
The following are all "coming of age" stories which I hope might appeal to your children. Most are winners of the Nebula and or Newberry prizes for literature - which generally means that they can be found in a local library. I will not bother to list all of the wonderful Heinlein novels and stories as they clearly have many champions, though I will plug the anthology "The Past through Tomorrow" which hooked me at age nine and started a life long passion for reading.
David Eddings
Lloyd Alexander
Ursula LeGuin
R. A. MacAvoy
T.H. White
That should keep them busy over the summer.
SF and Fantasy Authors for Young Readers (Score:5, Informative)
Over 50 authors sorted by chronological age of readers. Some (e.g. Heinlein) have books for younger readers, but continuing with the author leads to adult books. All (except the Acorna series) are accessible to older readers.
L. Frank Baum - classic Oz for the very young
Lloyd Alexander - Prydain
John Christopher (Samuel Youd) - Tripods series.
Susan Cooper - Dark Is Rising series
Robin McKinley
Robert Asprin - Myth Adventures and Phule series. Other series should wait until mid-teens. Just bought Dragon's Wild -- not read yet, but seems more adult.
Jody Lynn Nye - Mythology
Terry Pratchet - Discworld
Christopher Stasheff - Warlock series, earliest books will need to be reread when older; middle of series is great for children; latest are romances for late teens.
Craig Shaw Gardner
Piers Anthony - Xanth
Brian Jacques - Redwall
Lyndon Hardy - Only one fantasy trilogy.
Harry Harrison - Stainless Steel Rat series. Many other books for different age groups.
Marion Zimmer Bradley - Darkover
Katherine Kurtz - Deryni
Barbara Hambly
Anne McCaffrey - Acorna series is for young children, painful for adults. Talents, Brainships, and Crystal Singer are for any age. Dragonriders vary starting late teens.
Joel Rosenberg - Guardians of the Flame series; warning: main characters die!
Stephen R. Donaldson - Mordant's Need (fantasy), then Gap series (SF). Covenant series for late teens.
Alan Dean Foster - pulp writer great for children but too many clichés for adults.
Edgar Rice Burroughs - classic Tarzan, Mars, and Pellucidar are mandatory.
C. S. Lewis - Narnia
Gordon Dickson - Dorsai (especially appealing to boys), many others.
Terry Brooks (Magic Kingdom for Sale series)
J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter, mandatory for this decade
Fritz Leiber - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series is great for boys
John DeChancie - Castle series
Fred Saberhagen - Empire of the East and Swords series
Frederick Pohl
James P. Hogan - SF
Laura Resnick - Fantasy
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game, Shadow series, Enchantment, Songmaster, Magic Street.
Spider Robinson - Deathkiller trilogy and short stories. Callahan's Series for late teens (fun but adult-themed jokes would be missed when very young.)
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. - Ecolitan and Recluse series.
W. Michael Gear - Now writing long-winded pulp with his wife, but his Spider trilogy (and "The Artifact" prequel) is incredible (warning: main characters die!)
Philip José Farmer - World of Tiers
Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth series starts well
Roger Zelazny - Amber
David Farland (Dave Wolverton) - Runelords
Jules Verne - classic
H. G. Wells - classic
Harry Turtledove - alternate histories, often fantasy.
Douglas Adams - mandatory for potential nerds.
Arthur C. Clarke
Charles Ingrid - SF
Robert L. Forward
Isaac Asimov
Robert Heinlein - mandatory for sci-fi discussions.
Poul Anderson
Larry Niven - Ringworld, etc.
Jerry Pournelle
Greg Bear
Ray Bradbury
Mike Resnick
C. S. Friedman - often requires rereading to understand (even for adults)
Re:Enders Game (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dark and Cynical? (Score:5, Insightful)
The first time I read the Narnia books, I had no idea there were "Christian overtones." But I was young and just enjoying a quick fantasy.
When I read the Narnia books when I was a kid I had no idea there were "Christian overtones.". When I read them again when I was 33 I still had no idea there were "Christian overtones."
I think whatever overtones you're reading are more about what YOU put into what you're reading than what's written on the page.
I know C.S Louis was considered by himself and others as a christian writer, but it's quite a stretch to think that the Narnia series are any more "christian" than most other fantasy novels.
Unless you consider anything with good and evil epic battles and sacrifices to be "christian", but that seems like an awfully broad definition.
Re:Dark and Cynical? (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, C.S. Lewis had been converted to Christianity by J.R.R. Tolkien and in fact wrote the Chronicles of Narnia as a sort of Christian allegory. The "overtones" (to put it mildly: I agree with others now that they are overwhelming and a bit cloying) are not really meant to be subtle.
This is in contrast with The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings which does have a very Catholic foundation in its setting. The entire nature of the origins of the Elves--firstborn of the Children of Ilvatar--and their undying nature, the idea of the Halls of Mandos and the Gift of IllÃvatar (Elves were immortal only as long as Arda existed, but the spirits of Men lingered in the Halls of Mandos and then passed beyond the circles of the World), plus the hand of God guiding the heros (Frodo actually failed his Quest--it was impossible for him to overcome the lure of the One Ring, but because he showed Sméagol mercy and did everything that he had the strength to do, by divine fate the Ring was destroyed.
All in all I far prefer the quiet, assumed Christianity of Middle-earth to the blatent allegory of Narnia. That said, I found the series delightful as a child.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, Tolkien grew up a devout Catholic. So that's definitely not it. :)
I hate to appeal to Wikipedia, but the article there does mention Lewis's falling away from Christianity as a teenager and then returning to theism and then Christianity when he in his early 30's.
C.S. Lewis was definitely one of the great Christian apologists of the 20th century, and it's no wonder that you remember him as such.
Re:Dark and Cynical? (Score:5, Informative)
The "sinner" is replaced by the blameless sacrifice, who is shamed, mocked then killed, the women weep over the body which disappears, then the blameless sacrifice is resurrected.
Lion the witch and the wardrobe.
Re:Dark and Cynical? (Score:4, Funny)
Or as my wife like to succinctly put it "OMG WTF Jesus Lion"
Re:Dark and Cynical? (Score:5, Funny)
3-Line Narnia
C.S. LEWIS: Hey, a Utopia ruled by children and populated by talking animals!
THE WITCH: Hello, I'm a sexually mature woman of power and confidence.
C.S. LEWIS: Aaaahhh! Kill it, lion Jesus!
Re:Enders Game (Score:4, Informative)
Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit Will Travel". I first read that when I was nine, and it was the first "real" sci-fi I read (L'Engle's stuff doesn't really count as sci-fi). It's not dark, it's not cynical, it's nicely anti-authoritarian and tons of fun. After that I read Dune. Quite a shift.
Re:Enders Game (Score:4, Informative)
I wouldn't say ANYTHING by him. Ender's Game is obvious, but his early sequels to it were too preachy, dull, and moved away from a preteen protagonist. His later sequels/retellings?, however, are great - the Ender's Shadow series.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Except in the universe presented there had been concerted effort to make smarter and smarter children who would be intelligent at younger and younger ages.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Kids keep getting smarter.
No they don't. They just push them harder.
When I was 4 years old, preschool consisted of fingerpainting and coloring, maybe a little bit of ABC and number recognition. My recently-5-year-old finished preschool in May, during which she learned to recognize and write over 2 dozen words (colors, numbers, shapes) as well as basic addition and subtraction.
None of that is surprising. You were not pushed as quickly. 5 years old is about where kids learn to read. That can be pushed back up to about a year for most kids, but no amount of anything is going to result in a 2 year old that can read. Kids aren't changing.
In the near-distant future (200 years? 300 years?) how much further along will kids be? Algebra in primary school?
Kids already learn algebra in private primary schools. Again, you can shift the age a little with aggressive teaching regimens, but we'll never see 7 year olds learning advanced combat tactics.
Don't sell kids short. Unless you have kids of your own, you really don't have enough material with which to reference an evaluation.
Now you're just
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In particular, McCaffrey's Dragonsdawn even has a little bit of science in it! A smattering of biomed, genetic engineering, some light AI, space navigation and terminology (this is where I discovered Oort clouds), a tiny bit of geology and botany. It's fun, and the psionics comes in late enough that you can ignore it if you want.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In "Time Enough for Love" (by Heinlein), the protagonist has sex with both his mother (there is time travel) and with his X-duplicated, female clone. Lots of his stuff would be fine, but not really all of it.
Re:Alfred Bester (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow, another Bester/"Stars" fan? I thought I was among the five people left in the world who loved this story. I was about 12-13 at the time I read it for the first of perhaps half-a-dozen times. Now that you've reminded me about it, I'll have to read it again. It's in my now almost fifty-year-old copy of A Treasury of Great Science Fiction edited by Anthony Boucher which I just found on the bookshelf.
I like many of the Heinlein novels from his early period, particularly the ones that were political in nature. His depiction of an America with politics based on fundamentalist Protestantism seems remarkably prescient since the Reagan years. Once sexuality appears on your childrens' horizons, it might be time to read Stranger in a Strange Land.
I was a pretty devout Catholic as a child and remember the impression Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Star" made. Like the protagonist in the story, it may have marked the beginning of doubt.
Another author that I loved in my youth was "Andre" Norton, the pen name of Alice Mary Norton [andre-norton.org]. When she started writing SF and fantasy, women were so rare in the profession that she took a man's first name to get published. Looking at her bibliography [andre-norton.org], I recall reading a number of books that she wrote in the late 1950's and early 1960's.
Finally if your children like fantasy, I strongly recommend Ursula LeGuin's [ursulakleguin.com] Earthsea Trilogy, another series intended for young readers but with great appeal to adults as well. Le Guin was the daughter of the famous American anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, an influence that's obvious in many of her best works like The Dispossessed.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not at all. It's just that most people who love it know it as "The Count of Monte Cristo."
Actually, if I had a kid who was into science fiction I'd love to give them "The Stars My Destination" (which I agree is a terrifically entertaining read and a great story in its own right even if Bester did cop the basic plot from Dumas) and then *after* they'd read it rent a movie production of "The Count of
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Andre Norton (Score:3, Informative)
If ERB is the Stephen King of SF/F then Anre Norton [wikipedia.org] was the Judy Blume. Like ERB, almost all of her 300 books [wikipedia.org] are suitable for younger readers.
It's been so long since I read her stuff, but don't ever remember being disappointed by any of her books.
Some titles that come to mind:
Quag Keep
Zero Stone
Android at Arms
Ice Crown
Merlin's Mirror
Voorloper
Crossroads of Time
Forerunner Foray
Exiles of the Stars
Postmarked for the Stars
The Time Traders
Galactic Derelict
Witch World
Tripod Series (Score:3, Informative)
The Tripods Series is a great Sci-Fi read for that age. It's a vaguely Orwellian world of the future, ruled by aliens with man in controlled virtual slavery. Kids try to break free of control and rescue man, etc, etc....
When the Tripods Came/White Mountains/City of Gold and Lead/Pool of Fire.
I'm pretty sure the books are labelled in sequence order
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+pool+of+fire&x=0&y=0 [amazon.com]
In the same vein: (Score:5, Insightful)
Lloyd Alexander's books. His "Chronicles of Prydain" (starting with "The Book of Three") are probably his best work, but he's got some other wonderful stuff.
Jeff Smith's Bone [wikipedia.org] -- don't hold the fact that it's a graphic novel against it. :)
Re:Hmm (Score:4, Interesting)
I strongly disagree, at least with the Dune series. I read Dune (although not in English) when I was 11 or 12, and I believe it's the perfect kid sci-fi. It's light, it present political and social ideas with simple examples instead of explanations, it is morally clear cut so the kid will know who's who, and yet introduce him to some exoticism which can open the kid's mind and certainly lead him to dream about this world. I certainly did.
On the other hand, I think foundation is better for a 14 or 15 years old. It's better on the "idea" side, it has more food for thought, but there is a lot less action and heroism. It's certainly more nerdy than Dune.
(Disclaimer, I read both series a long time ago, so I'm relying on a 25 to 30 years old memory... I may be wrong)