AKICOLJ: A book for tom

[coalescent]

The esteemed Mr Anderson passes on this request for book recommendations:

... an SF book for a reading group - needs to be something that non-SF readers would appreciate, not too hard to read, something to get them started with SF. Any ideas? Also needs to be in cheap-ish paperback I suppose.

The need for it to be readily available in paperback probably implies something fairly recent; it needs to be science fiction, not fantasy; and obviously, it needs to be good. Tom is already suggesting The Separation, The Prestige, and ("through gritted teeth") Cloud Atlas. What else should be on this list? (Tom notes that he will find and kill, horribly, anyone who suggests Air.)

(On a separate note, for anyone who might be interested my books-read-in-2006 roundup is here.)

EDIT: Tom has listed the suggestions so far here.

Comments

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

See Liz's comment in this thread :-)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

If I'm understanding Liz correctly (which I may not be) she doesn't think the book is bad because the sf is bad, she thinks the book is bad in all respects, including the sf. Or to put it another way, even if the cloning was explained in more detail, if everything else stayed the same she wouldn't like the book much, if at all, more. Adam Roberts' review is along not-dissimilar lines.

Whereas I thought you were talking about complaints of the "the science isn't explained, therefore it's a bad book regardless of other considerations" variety. Which I haven't seen.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

You seem to think that I paid a huge amount of attention (or indeed, very much attention at all) to reviews of the book. This may be a mistake on your part.

(And reading Roberts' review reminds me why I don't bother to read all that many reviews).

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

You seem to think that I paid a huge amount of attention (or indeed, very much attention at all) to reviews of the book.

Well, you did somewhat give that impression by saying "I know there was a lot of ... complaining going on." :-p

Most of the mainstream reviews either went out of their way to reassure their readers that no, of course it's not science fiction, don't be silly; or to reassure them that yes, it's science fiction -- but don't worry, it's actually quite good! What a miracle! (In a deeply ironic twist, the only review not to mention the phrase "science fiction" at all was by Margaret Atwood.) Most of the genre reviews, like Roberts', actually focused on the qualities of the text, which made a refreshing change even when I disagreed with them.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Well, you did somewhat give that impression by saying "I know there was a lot of ... complaining going on." :-p

Knowing that people are complaining != paying attention to reviews :-p

In a deeply ironic twist, the only review not to mention the phrase "science fiction" at all was by Margaret Atwood.

And mine :-p

[hawleygriffen.livejournal.com]

Mine either, but it doesn't count so much as a review as rambling.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Hee! I only tag my book/film/TV ramblings as "reviews" because it's a shorter tag than "in which I witter and ramble pointlessly about stuff for a bit" :-)