Science fiction stories for Young Adults/Children?

[General Mung Beans]

I'm thirteen myself and have read both of those abovementioned series. Plus those books are explicitly marketed at teens.

If you really are 13 I suppose that might explain your habit of proudly regurgitating republican talking points 9 as if that amounted to a coherent argument.

Your age of course doesn't explain how you figure Lewis or Lovecraft to be science fiction but I suppose your being a creationist might.

Others people were already mentioning fantasy fiction (ie Phantom Tollbooth and arguably Wrinkle in Time).

[Stofsk]

They certainly aren't sold or placed in the kids' or teens' sections.

That is irrelevant to what I asked you. I can find Harry Potter in the 'sci-fi & fantasy' section of a bookstore where I am from, that doesn't mean it's sci-fi or marketed towards adults. So on what basis do you think Star Wars novels are marketed towards adults?

[Simon_Jester]

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein.
Most collections of Asimov robot stories, if the kids are bright (I, Robot is the most famous one)

Hmm. Nothing else off the top of my head, but there's surely more.

[Stofsk]

Both are good suggestions. I especially think Asimov's short stories are pretty accessible for young adults.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much written for teens/YAs these days in the same way Heinlein's juveniles were. I think that's a shame.

[Norade]

I shudder to recall it, but the Young Jedi Knights series was aimed for youths. The one redeeming feature is the scene with the spear and the storm trooper.

[Plekhanov]

I'm thirteen myself and have read both of those abovementioned series. Plus those books are explicitly marketed at teens.

If you really are 13 I suppose that might explain your habit of proudly regurgitating republican talking points 9 as if that amounted to a coherent argument.

Your age of course doesn't explain how you figure Lewis or Lovecraft to be science fiction but I suppose your being a creationist might.

Others people were already mentioning fantasy fiction (ie Phantom Tollbooth and arguably Wrinkle in Time).

Mayabird was clear in putting forward The Phantom Tollbooth because is a book she really loves even though it isn't really scifi aside from that she suggested A Wrinkle in Time & His Dark materials which are Science Fantasy & Tripods which is straight out scifi.

In contrast you suggested nothing but books which only creationists could regard as sci-fi.

Both are good suggestions. I especially think Asimov's short stories are pretty accessible for young adults.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much written for teens/YAs these days in the same way Heinlein's juveniles were. I think that's a shame.

Possibly this is because whilst it's easy to fit child protagonists (which are obviously rather common in children's books) into fantasy universes where inherited magical abilities, prophecies focussing upon children... make some kind of sense. In contrast you've got to be a much more creative to come up with a scifi universe in which children are anything but bit part characters.

[Stofsk]

True. On the other hand, nothing says the protagonist of a children's or YA book needs to be a child. Young Adult in particularly covers the teen years and early twenties.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Both are good suggestions. I especially think Asimov's short stories are pretty accessible for young adults.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much written for teens/YAs these days in the same way Heinlein's juveniles were. I think that's a shame.

There are tons of books aimed at teens these days. They mostly tend to be Tie-in novels, though, such as Halo, Mass Effect, all the DnD/FR books (though they aren't sci-fi), Star Wars, Star Trek, Warhammer 40,000, Doctor Who, etc. Many 'adult' science fictions authors write at a level easily approached by more experienced middle schoolers, such as Niven, Asimov, Clarke, Weber, Douglas, Bujold, Cherryh, McCafferey, Laumer, Crispin, Campbell, Scalzi, Drake, Turtledove, etc. Depending on the child, he or she could probably read almost anything currently in the Sci-Fi section and understand what is happening, so long as mature themes and content aren't an issue.

On the other hand, there are many adults who are functionally illiterate, and they obviously started out as nearly illiterate teens. For them, the best bet is to give them some comics or manga, then maybe some "independent reader" (i.e., for grade schoolers) literature, then let them work up to tie-in fiction, which is as a rule easily comprehended.

If we knew where this particular child's reading ability lie, it would make it a lot easier to give meaningful recommendations.

[EchoGarotte]

For good youth sci-fi, I do reccommend the Animorph series as a nice starting point. (I have fond memories of my Grandmother asking me to get the whole series so she could read them too. GRHS.) Interstellar Pigis good too, I really enjoyed when I was in 4th grade. Heh, guess I'm saying all the same things everyone else is.

I do remember a book called Mallworld, it's a bit more in the Sex, Drug & Rockn'Roll stuff but nothing graphic that I remember. (I could be wrong though.)

Although personally, I always say you can never go wrong exposing children to any of the written works of Terry Pratchett.

[Sriad]

As has been mentioned, much of the best children's SF is also the oldest; golden and silver age pulps were aimed directly at youngsters who grew up and brought the genera with them. Golden age stories are a bit too male-centric, but otherwise they've aged well.

The already nebulous border between SF and F is blurred further with YA/children's genre literature. Generally there's a broader market for fantasy, but a number of successful fantasy authors cross over. At any rate, to add to what has been listed, these are books or series I've read and enjoyed:

Bruce Coville's "My Teacher is an Alien" series, etc
Coville is a prolific children's author who splits his efforts pretty evenly between fantasy and sci-fi.

Sylvia Engdahl, "Enchantress from the Stars"
"Like Star Trek, but better": The Federation monitors developing cultures to ensure they are allowed to mature without interference. The novel takes place on a planet which has been invaded by a mid-level civilization, and which the Federation is attempting to liberate with minimal cultural contamination.

Nancy Farmer, "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm"
In 2194, future Zimbabwe, three children are kidnapped to work in the Plastic Mines. Their family hire the titular mutant detectives to find them.

Diane Duane's Young Wizard Series
I know it has "wizard" right in the title, but other than the protagonists using magic instead of space ships and ray guns the books are very Science Fiction-al. When they aren't talking to trees, they go on interstellar missions and deal with alien cultures.

In this vein, there are a lot of good science-fiction-y Fantasy authors in the YA realm, who write internally consistent and well thought out fantasy that would fit into this topic if you replaced "magic" and "dragons" with "unobtanium" and "alien megafauna". Diana Wynne Jones, Jane Yolen, Eoin Colfer, Laurence Yepp, Phillip Pullman, Patricia Wrede... but I'll stop there before getting too far into "these are authors I like who don't actually have anything to do with the thread" territory.

[General Mung Beans]

If you really are 13 I suppose that might explain your habit of proudly regurgitating republican talking points 9 as if that amounted to a coherent argument.

Your age of course doesn't explain how you figure Lewis or Lovecraft to be science fiction but I suppose your being a creationist might.

[/quote]

I am not a creationist in the sense you are using it, as I am a theistic evolutionist. Plus some of Lovecraft's latter stories were actual science fiction (ie "Shadow Out of Time")

[LadyTevar]

Lovecraftian Horror has always been a clash of Science (of the time) meeting Things Outside Human Knowledge. The clash never ends well for the scientist, who often breaks because his nice world of rules gets shattered.

Conan and Tarzan (the originals) are fantasy.

If you can find the SW Han Solo Trilogy, it was written for YA and fits better into the EU than any of the more recent novels IMHO. The original saga, the stories that lead up to Han and Leia's kids, and the Thrawn trilogy are honestly your best bets, as well as the older Rogue Squadron.

The StarTrek novels are really hit-and-miss. It's really something you have to see who the author is to find a good story.

His Dark Materials I agree is a good series that walks the line between science and fantasy; Chronicles of Narnia is not. However, if you don't point out the Christianity ties and avoid "The Last Battle", the Chronicles can be very good moral fantasy.

Piers Anthony has several sci-fi series, as well as his infamous Xanth novels. His Geodyssey series is well-researched science on human evolution, and as such contains violence and a few adult themes. The Xanth 'trilogy' (it grew out of control) really expands a person's vocabulary simply from the puns alone. Expect your teen to start repeating the worst ones to you, just to make you groan.

Terry Pratchett is another great teen author that crosses Science and Fantasy genres in his novels.

Ursula K LeQuin's Ekumen series (setting for "Left Hand of Darkness") is classic Sci-Fi, although the "EarthSea" series is also a great read for YA.

Unfortunately, as I'm looking around at my bookshelves, I'm finding far more Fantasy Authors than Scifi. I guess I just lean that way. On the other hand, if you think your child is mature enough, Nitram and I both love the BOLO novels. The original Laumer novels are being re-released, which is a good thing.

However, I have one last good link for you: Baen's Free Library. A good mix of fantasy and Sci-fi authors who have given permission for their novels (sometimes the start of series) to be posted online for free download. Eric Flint has also gone back to the older authors -- Tom Godwin, James H. Schmitz, Andre Norton -- bringing their classic novels forth for new readers to discover.