Science Fiction for people who don't read Science Fiction because they are afraid of Science Fiction

We could argue about the exact meaning of science fiction. Is it only fiction that includes real science? or is it also fiction with fictional science? Is science fiction a parent genre or is it a sub-sect of fantasy? That's really up to you. If you are trying to get published, you may have to wrestle with the debate a little, but for our purposes in this post science fiction encompasses both fiction about or that includes real science and also fiction that includes anything science related even fictional science.

I like to think I write 'socio-political science fiction', although people don't seem to use that term any more. It's often just called 'soft' science fiction as opposed to 'hard' science fiction which includes lots of real or plausible science. The modern trend is to not subject this kind of fiction to the label of science fiction, but simply to dress it up as literary fiction or some other new brand of fiction that separates it from actual science fiction or fantasy. To me this degrades the genre. I am quite happy to say I write science fiction and leave it at that. I don't really need to declare it as anything else.

In my time I've met people who, although they read fantasy and these other types of 'literary' science fiction dressed up as something else, won't read things clearly labelled as science fiction. Here is where all the assumptions and preconceived notions about science fiction come in. Just as there are all different types of any other genre, there are plenty of different types of science fiction. People who don't want to read science fiction or have tried, but can't get on with it have usually encountered the 'harder' forms of science fiction, or the traditional 'Space Opera' form of science fiction. This scares them away and makes them unhappy and frowny when you tell them you not only read science fiction, you write it.

My own particular view on science fiction comes out of the television and film science fiction of the sixties and seventies mixed with the works of Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and HG Wells. To me science fiction is about character, metaphor, politics, social injustice and the human condition. science fiction is about morality, society, overcoming adversity. It is about hope, perseverance, and paying the price for ones actions. It's just set in space, or the future, an alternate reality or a dystopian view of modern society. This is the kind of stuff I think people who think they don't like science fiction need to read.

Here are some excellent examples of the science fiction I like to read, some contain real science and some do not. What they all ultimately have in common though is good story telling and writing style. They are books that made me think and they are books I could easily read again. Some of them you'll find in the SF section of the bookshop and some others you'll have to dig deeper for:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

20,000 Leagues under the sea by Jules Verne (see other works by Verne)

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (see other works by HG Wells)

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Brave New World by Aldus Huxley (see other works by Huxley)

1984 by George Orwell (see other works by Orwell)

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (also short story collections)

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

The City and The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke (see other works by Clarke)

Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick (see other works by Dick)

Behold The Man by Michael Moorcock (see other works by Moorcock)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (see other works by Vonnegut)

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (also Left Hand of Darkness)

High Rise by J.G. Ballard (see other works by Ballard)

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney (see other works by Delaney)

Gateway by Frederik Pohl (see other works by Pohl)

The Last Man on Earth anthology ed. by Isaac Asimov (out of print, but you might find a used copy)

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler

Grass by Sheri S. Tepper (see other works by Tepper)

Desolation Road by Ian McDonald (see other works by McDonald)

Air by Geoff Ryman

The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod (see other works by MacLeod)

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

This is by no means an utter and complete list, merely a sampling of some of the SF I have enjoyed reading and I think is more palatable for people who are adverse to reading SF. Additionally I have not put "see other works" against all names because I haven't read any other works by this author as of yet. Exploration is always encouraged.