Yesterday I read @didic's post on New Voices Of Science Fiction and Fantasy and it inspired me both to write this post as well as go back to the two sci fi books I am curerntly in the middle of. One is classic, Snow Crash, the other brand new, Meanwhile, Elsewhere, an anthology of science fiction by transgender writers.
I've been a fan for years, most of my life, but my good friend was new to science fiction a couple years ago and asked me for recommendations. So I made her a list books that I thought would be a good intro to sci fi. I used GoodReads because I was on it anyway and it seemed like a good organizing tool where I wouldn't forget it.
Firstly, I wanted this intro not to be too overwhelming. I mean I could keep adding to it for days but I wanted this list to be just a very curated place to start. That said, even though I have several classics in here I also have some lesser known feminist and/or queer titles. Those things are important to me and I even used to attend a feminist and queer sci fi book club so I had a lot to draw from. Of course there is also some overlap (LeGuin I think is pretty classic and Octavia Butler is almost canon too) and there's a lot of good first timer classics I may have missed simply because I haven't read them or they weren't my personal favorites. But I still think it's a good starter.
So what books would you all have put on a list for someone who had never really read any sci fi but wanted to get into it?
Oh and if you're already a science fiction fan and more into finding more queer titles here are a couple really great articles from my favorite queer women's website:
8 Black Lesbian Speculative Fiction Books To Read Right Now
8 Queer Sci-Fi Books To Read Right Now
I haven't read all of the books listed here but I've read a lot of them and they're really good.
