Yesterday I read '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.