in the name of Scalzi!

My pal John Scalzi got this phenomenal mention from SFFAudio:

The name of John Scalzi can now stand in Science Fiction pantheon proudly beside the likes of Orson Scott Card, Joe Haldeman and Robert A. Heinlein.

I recently put out my call for SF anthology suggestions, so let me return the favor: Get Old Man’s War, and move it to the top of your Giant Pile of Books You Bought And Won’t Ever Have Time To Read.

Then make time to read it. Yes, it’s that good. It’s Forever War good. I promise.

In related SF news, I took Nolan out to dinner last night, and he wanted to go into the bookstore when we were done. To my surprise and delight, he went directly to the SF section and began to browse.

“I want a new book,” he said, “but I don’t know where to start.”

I suggestedEnder’s Game, which I loved when I was his age and was something he could relate to, but for reasons that only make sense in the teenage mind, my enthusiastic endorsement had the opposite effect than that which was intended: “Meh.”

“Meh?” I said.

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem . . . I don’t know. Let’s find something different.” He said.

I thought about all the SF I love, but couldn’t come up with anything I thought he’d like. Ringworld wouldn’t interest him, I doubt he’d relate to Old Man’s War, as much as I love it. I suggested Fragile Things, October Country, and a couple of Gardner Dozois anthologies that readers had recommended to me. None of them got the dreaded “Meh,” but nothing was grabbing his interest.

I saw a golden opportunity slipping away. Nolan enjoys fantasy, but this was the first time in his life he’d expressed any interest at all in the science fiction that I so dearly love. I didn’t want to blow it by suggesting something that would turn him off from SF forever, so I sent a text message to my friend, Andrew, who is wise in the ways of science fiction.

“Did you suggest Ender’s Game?” He sent back.

I told him about the Meh.

He thought for a long time, before suggesting Heinlein’s Red Planet“I read it when I was a little younger than Nolan, and I really liked it then. I read it again this year, and it holds up surprisingly well.”

I grabbed it off the shelf, and read the back.

“This looks like a really cool book,” I thought to myself. Then, “Well, here goes nothing.”

I found Nolan on the other side of the rack, and showed it to him.

“Andrew says that he read it when he was your age and loved it.” I said.

Nolan looked at it.

“Have you read this?”

“No, I haven’t.” I said. I cautiously added, “it looks cool, though.”

He read the description on the back. I tried to act nonchalant while I watched him.

“Okay,” he said, “this looks really good.”

A bell rang in my head, and I smiled.

“Cool,” I said. “Can I read it when you’re done?”

“Maybe,” he said, thoughtfully.

“Maybe?” I said.

A mischievous glint flashed in his eyes.

“Now would be a good time to talk about you letting me get Assassin’s Creed . . .”

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70 thoughts on “in the name of Scalzi!”

  1. Wil, grab a copy of Ender’s Game, turn to the part where Ender knows the enemy is already in the Battle Room and has his gate surrounded, and get Nolan to read that scene. It’s what hooked me and what has hooked every other person I’ve ever shown it to. Absolutely brilliant!

  4. I finished Old Mans War last night. I read it in only two sittings. I would have read it in one, but I decided at 2am I really needed some sleep with work the next day!
    It is the best “proper” science fiction I have read for years.

  5. I only read Ender’s Game for the first time a few months ago. Completely knocked me on my ass.
    Oh, and I used to carry a copy of Ringworld around with me too. I’m a dork.

  6. I didn’t make it clear enough in the text of this post (I have major RSI in my right arm and hand from Rock Band, so I’m not 100% at the moment) but the main reason Nolan wasn’t into Ender’s Game was my enthusiasm for it. I think he thinks that there are things I REALLY like because I’m a HUGE geek, and since he’s not as big a geek as I am, he won’t like them.

  7. “I think he thinks that there are things I REALLY like because I’m a HUGE geek, and since he’s not as big a geek as I am, he won’t like them.”
    Which is fair enough. 😛 There are certain things I like too much to safely recommend too. 🙂
    As for Ender’s Game itself… I donno, I suppose I did like it quite a bit, but the sequels (just the plot summary of Ender’s Shadow was enough, really) and then Card’s political views retroatively ruined it for me.

  8. Personally I would have picked The Rolling Stones, or Tunnel in the Sky, or even The Fantasies of Robert Heinlein (since he’s a big fantasy fan), over Red Planet, but that’s just me. I think those are much better books.
    Old Man’s War is great, and so is the sequel The Ghost Brigades, I’d recommend both.
    The Last Colony is in my massive pile of books to read.

  9. First time poster here..but I had to come out of lurker mode to make a reply. As the mother of 2 teenagers (well..they were teenagers once), I understand completely. I once gave my daughter a copy of The Princess Bride and had to nag her into watching it. She had no interest in it whatsoever, certain that she would not like something I loved so much.
    Cause of course we all know kids are nothing like their parents. ../endsarcasm.
    It became one of her favorite movies and books (she had to have that after seeing the movie).
    The only other suggestion is to have a friend recommend it. Someone he doesn’t perceive as being as ‘geeky’ as you are. That may do the trick.

  10. Ender’s Game is the sci fi I hand to people who aren’t sci fi fans. It’s like how the Lord of the Rings movies captivated people who never would have watched any other fantasy movie. The movies are just that good. It gives people a glimpse of what we geeks see in fantasy. Ender’s Game is the same way, but for sci fi.
    Nolan, listen to the anonymous masses on the internet. Ender’s Game is amazing!

  11. I loved Ender’s Game when I was his age, the rest of the serious was horrible, but that one resonated with me forever. I would suggest the Pern series for him, because it starts out as fantasy, but eventually ends up in the realm of sci-fi. You really can’t go wrong with anything by Heinlein.

  12. Wil, I don’t know if it’s the sort of thing that’d influence him but Ender’s Game is on the USMC Professional Reading Program list, recommended for junior NCOs. I’m not a Marine myself but I heard about that a few years back and it moved the book from “Hmm, I really need to read that at some point” to, “Ok, I have to know why it’s on the list, I’m going to go buy it and read it”. It’s now one of my absolute favorite books, wished I’d read it sooner.

  13. Now here’s something interesting: a couple of years ago I decided to reread all of Heinlein’s juveniles after having read them, oh, 35 years ago or so. Oh all right, probably more like 40 years. Anyway, I remember really liking Red Planet when I read it, so I was really looking forward to the reread. What a disappointment! I have to think it’s one of the worst of his juveniles; I almost couldn’t finish it.
    Maybe I’m getting old 🙁
    Oh the other hand, I envy Nolan; I would love to be able to read Heinlein’s books for the first time.

  14. Clearly I’m not representative, because I think Speaker for the Dead is better than Ender’s Game and I think Red Planet holds up really well (duh, since I recommended it). I did later suggest some of the other juveniles, but Red Planet was the first one I read and I still enjoy it.

  15. “Red Planet” == not-as-strong-as-some-others.
    +1 for “Tunnel in the Sky” (which I just re-read for the umpteenth time).
    +1 “Meh” for “Ender’s Game”.
    My personal favorite Heinlein (quasi-)juvenile? “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. “True” juvenile? “Have Space Suit Will Travel”.

  16. I had a similar Ender experience with my stepson, who pretty much has the brains of Ender Wiggin but the stature of Bean. I bought him Ender’s Game for Christmas a few years ago. I thought it would be a perfect fit. He tried it once, said he was bored with it, and I nearly called 911 because my heart stopped for a moment. However, about a year later, he and I were discussing the book, and I mentioned that Card really wanted to make an Ender’s Game movie, but that the casting and production timelines were nearly impossible to pull off, according to Card himself. As soon as my stepson heard that, he had a new interest in the book, and gave it another try. This time, he loved it.
    As for Red Planet, it was one of the first science fiction books I ever read, and it definitely started the ball rolling for me. In fact, I wrote about it in my submission for “This I Believe” back in mid 2005. My submission wasn’t chosen to be read on the air, but I’m glad I wrote it anyway. It helped solidify just how important science fiction has been in my life. In fact, in reading it over, I’m reminded of THDoOL; we had similar experiences growing up, Wil, and I think that’s the secret of THDoOL‘s geek appeal.

  17. The Heinlein juveniles have been seducing kids into the world of SF for over a half a century. It is surprising how well some of it still holds up. The only problem is that some of those works reflect very 1950’s sensibility that kids today might not be able to relate to.
    Enders Game is a great choice too, and I am sure Nolan will eventually pick it up. When he’s ready, you can get him into the real classics like Dune (if the movie hasn’t killed it for him yet), Ring World, The Foundation Trilogy, Asimov’s Robot stories, and about a million others you can probably think of on your own.
    The SF habit is a hard one to break once you are hooked. The upside is that you can get your fix pretty easily, since there is so much good stuff out there.
    Have fun introducing Nolan to our wonderful world Wil.

  18. The Heinlein juveniles have been seducing kids into the world of SF for over a half a century. It is surprising how well some of it still holds up. The only problem is that some of those works reflect very 1950’s sensibility that kids today might not be able to relate to.
    Enders Game is a great choice too, and I am sure Nolan will eventually pick it up. When he’s ready, you can get him into the real classics like Dune (if the movie hasn’t killed it for him yet), Ring World, The Foundation Trilogy, Asimov’s Robot stories, and about a million others you can probably think of on your own.
    The SF habit is a hard one to break once you are hooked. The upside is that you can get your fix pretty easily, since there is so much good stuff out there.
    Have fun introducing Nolan to our wonderful world Wil.

  19. I got that meh from from my nephew the other day. We stopped at the local hockey mega store on the way to see an OHL game. I needed some new gloves, and he was looking at jerseys. I mentioned he should look at a Tomas Kaberle Leafs jersey. He just looked at me like no way. He checked out the Daniel Briere Flyers jersey. I was like “Flyers? Man, that’s just wrong!” We met half way with a Joe Thornton Sharks jersey being cool, and a Sidney Crosby Pens jersey being trendy. So as you can see the kid is pretty cool, and a great little goalie too.
    Anyways bro, just wanted to share that with you, and hey Nolan, play hockey. It’s the coolest game on earth.

  20. Red Thunder and Red Lightening by John Varley are ok for what you are looking for. He was basically trying to write something like a Heinlein juvenile. The rest of Varley is more adult (in the sense of more ideas) and is a must-read, but not yet for Nolan. Snow Crash?

  21. I am another long-time lurker, but I have to speak up for one of my top 5 books of all time, Heinlein’s “Have Space Suit– Will Travel.” I read it in early middle school, and twenty years later, I still read it every year.
    I have read “Red Planet,” too, and liked it very much, but I haven’t returned to it as often. Other favorites of mine that are never mentioned are “Space Cadet” and “Between Planets.”
    And I agree with Vavu that Nolan will eventually read “Ender’s Game” … it is just too good a classic to miss.

  22. “Meh?” I can’t believe Enders Game got a “Meh”. How tragic! Kids and their damn rebellion. Whatever you do…don’t get it for him as a present. He is, of course, destined to read it some day (as we all are), probably when he is 30-something. At which point he will contact via whatever mode of communication is in vogue to tell you about this great book he just finished. Then you can say, “I always knew you were a HUGE geek!” 😉

  23. Andrew: I agree that Speaker for the Dead is better than Enders Game. But I also think it takes an adult brain/experiences (or an extremely enlightend…perhaps too mature YA brain) to know why it is better.
    Haven’t read Red Planet. Will have to pick that one up.

  24. I thought Scalzi’s book was good, but not Forever War good. I think he has more to do before he gets there, but overall I was entertained by Old Man’s War.
    I think the thing he did with you is what all kids do with their parents. My father would suggest books to me all the time and I would just brush it off and read what I wanted to read. Now of course I’ve come around and read tons of the things he suggested back in the day. Not sure what motivates that sort of thinking. I think at a certain point you feel like you have to break out on your own and be skeptical.

  25. I’m not a scifi geek (I’m a geek allright, but not with the scifi qualifier), so I have no idea about any of the books mentioned. But I love reading about your relationship with Nolan, Wil. Gee, I can’t wait ’til mine’s a teenager.

  26. I have taken Wil’s advice and ordered “Old Man’s War”. I’m keen for a good read. Back in the very early ’60’s when I was 12 or 13, I remember the book I read that turned me on to Sci Fi permanently. It was “Galactic Derelict” by Andre Norton. I think after that, I read every Norton book I could get my hands on, plus Heinlein, Asimov, etc… I was in heaven!

  27. He’ll come ’round to Ender’s Game in his own time, fear not. My parents suggestions were always met with a shrug or a “I dunno”, but I always kept the suggestion in my brain…I’d read some good stuff, and then ask for the suggested tome out of the blue…Perhaps he’s using the same tactics…the blackmailing is brilliant! It’s a fun game…dammit.

  28. I’ve got to go with everyone else: Ender’s Game is an almost-absolute must, but I also agree that he’ll get to it in his own time.
    When he does, see if you can’t steer him to reading the original quintet first, then introduce the Shadow side stories focusing on Bean and the reast of Ender’s original team.
    Nolan’s missing out, but he’ll come around. I agree: The battle room is what sold me, and it’ll sell Nolan too, that’s for sure!

  29. As expected, everyone jumped on the literature aspect of your post, rather than focusing on the relationship.
    You have reached the stage where he will assert more independence and define himself outside of your world. Probably best not to share any favorites during this time or he may not ever share any of them with you. Good news is, this phase passes and then you get into a stage where you can both share things, remember though, you will have a bigger base of knowledge and experience to share, so go slow and every time he hits you with a recommendation, go hard at it and try and understand why he likes it.
    This is what is best about your writing, don’t lose it. There is a fine balance you strike between the world of us geeks and the real world, you do it better than anyone, keep it up! The more you can bridge that gap, the more appealing you will be to the masses. Definitely one of my favorite posts of yours, well done.
    PS. He sounds like a classic Sci-Fi guy to me. I’d suggest giving him a collection of short stories, older ones, like Ben Bova’s Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volumes 1 to 3. Tell him that you haven’t read any of the short stories, but you hear they are good.

  30. I don’t have any deep insights into sci-fi, but I liked all of the Pern novels. If he hasn’t read them, he might like them because they kind of go from fantasy to sci-fi. Asimov’s Foundation stuff might be appealing…I read it when I was a teen.

  31. I read Ender’s Game in 6th grade because Speaker for the Dead was on the Reading Olympics list, and I could not allow myself to read one book without reading the one that came before it. Now, I’ve read about a dozen of Orson Scott Card’s books, only stopping when I run out of money to spend at the bookstore (or, now that I’m in college, I don’t have time to read the books I have). Many of my good friends in both high school and college have read Ender’s Game, and we all loved it.

  32. Can we make a permapost of books we recommend for Nolan? After all, we’re all so cool he’d be bound to read them.
    Robin McKinley’s “The Blue Sword” absolutely kicks any body part you’d like to offer up to it — it’s fantasy, though.

  33. One of the things that got me really interested in sci-fi when I was young was Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter: Warlord of Mars. Of course I first had read many of the Tarzan books. He led me to Niven, Heinlein, Bradbury and Anne McCaffrey’s Pern. (New Pern book from her & Todd due out Jan 2008!)They led to guys like Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson. I only recently discovered Orson Scott Card through his Tales of Alvin Maker, an excellent series and look forward to reading Ender’s Game in the next year.
    Around the same time I discovered John Carter I was also reading another little tale called “The Lord of the Rings”; maybe that’s why I like my sci-fi with a little fantasy thrown in.

  34. Thought I chime in here. When I was a teen my dad recommended the John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Boroughs and I LOVED them. They can be hard to find these days but are totally worth the look for your kids or yourself if you never read them.

  35. Nuts, someone else already pimped “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” – that would’ve been my big suggestion.
    And I’m getting feverish thanks to the first big snowstorm of the year, so I can’t really come up with a nother title to suggest.
    In a somewhat non sequitur (and the reason the rest of my functioning mind can’t help) is I had a brief brush with minor fame at work; ‘Dr. Sid Hammerback’ from CSI:NY came in to get some salads; I’d forgotten that Robert Joy has ties back here, and would probably wanna see his family around the holidays if he’s not working…due to the Writers’ Strike.
    (BTW, he wears those cool eyeglasses off-stage too 😀 )
    So I guess you could say that “’tis an ill wind, indeed, that blows NO ONE any good.” :S

  36. I must be odd, my favorite Orson Scott Card book is “Pastwatch : The Redemption of Christopher Columbus”.
    I’m really into more contemporary Science Fiction right now. I adore C.S. Friendman’s stories. “This Alien Shore” finally triumphed over “Good Omens” and is now my all time favorite book.
    I find Timothy Zahn an excellent writer who sometimes has a very unique perspective. Also Tad Williams’ Otherland series made my mind trip out, more so considering I found his Fantasy fare to be perfect books for when you can’t sleep and really need to.
    In more news you already know – absolutely check out used book stores, there are so many older, out of print or circulation gems from so many good Science Fiction authors out there. Keep reading, keep happy.

  37. I truly love Ender’s Game. I’ve given that book to many people and I’ve yet to have someone tell me they hated it.
    I agree that Speaker for the Dead really stays with the reader afterwards. I think about that book all the time, and I first read it probably 10 years ago.
    IMDB has the movie of Ender’s Game in preproduction. I’m guessing it’s in development hell. Would the fact that Wolfgang Petersen is attached to direct be any enticement to Nolan? I mean, The Perfect Storm and Air Force One were such amazing movies…..

  38. April, Right On! Pastwatch is FABULOUS!
    Another book I really loved is Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, with its fusion of popular culture, cyberpunk and capitalism run amok.

  39. Old Man’s War earned a “meh” from me. I felt there was more left to say. Giving John the benefit of the doubt, I do plan on reading the next two, as I suspect he will take them places I expected him to go earlier. We shall see.
    I remember loving Ender’s Game, but being somewhat non-plussed by Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. I recently reread them and was surprised to find I liked Ender’s Game less – it came across to me almost like juvenile fiction – and liked the next three books a lot more. Except for Card’s physics of ftl travel. The whole ‘trip is subject to time dilation, but conversations via ansible are not’ thing was unreconcilable to me. Anyway, neither here nor there.
    Why do you think he won’t like Ringworld? I have always considered Niven to be very accessible.

  40. Oh, and @ Exurban Mom, Ender’s Game has been in “pre-production” for almost a decade. It is really dubious whether it will ever see the light of day.

  41. @Paul: The ftl rules in the Ender series didn’t bother me so much (basically, information can move instantly but matter and energy cannot). What bugged me, was the whole deus ex machina at the end of Xenocide, a book that I’d been enjoying a lot up until then. It was too easy. Since the entire plot of Children of the Mind follows off of that, I find it very difficult to set aside my dislike for that plot element and enjoy it.
    I should have mentioned Pastwatch earlier; the only reason I didn’t is that it’s been several years (too long!) since I read the book, and I wasn’t sure how teen-friendly it was.

  42. Man! You can be so lucky, that Your kids still read books!!!!!!
    Here, it seems, no kid ever would pick up a book for ‘whatever’!!!
    Ever read “Mockingbird” by Walter Tevis??? Nice SF Novell. I read it at the age of 13 and still love it! So….why not.

  43. dude, no way. you never read Red Planet? whoa. what about Rocketship Galileo, The Rolling Stones, or Tunnel in the Sky? I read those books for the first time when I was maybe ten, and I’ve read them every two or three years since. Sure, they’re dated. Sure, the idiom is somewhat repetitive. Sure, the science is antiquated. they’re still great adventure stories, especially for the younger reader.
    I really hope Nolan digs Red Planet, and that it drives him to dig into more of the Heinlein “juvenile” series, and thence onto stuff like Starship Troopers.
    Also, I just read Old Man’s War for the first time. Rock on. I’ll be picking up Ghost Brigades directly. Cheers!

  44. Seems like most people here have read Ender’s Game in novel form, and seen it on recommended reading lists (that’s the first thing that turns me off of a book, by the way, and is why I never read Moby Dick until I was in my 40’s), (and speaking of dating myself) I read Ender’s Game, as a teenager, when it was serialized in Analog–dang I’m old.
    Wil, don’t worry about what Nolan reads, as long as he’s reading, I know you’d love to have him follow your footsteps (it’s so validating), but he’s got to make his own choices, and that’s what the Meh– was all about.
    PS The first SF book I ever read (that I remember) was The Beyonders, by Jeff and Jean Sutton, which is out of print, and seems to be renamed The Beyond. I think I still have it somewhere, and should dig it out, to check my memory of the title.

  45. First: I’m lucky. One of the first more-adult book recommendations my dad gave me was Lord of the Rings. So I learned very, very early on to take my dad’s recommendations seriously. 🙂 Of course, he was also a grade-school teacher, so he had a huge personal library of books appropriate for all ages, so he just pointed me at the appropriate section and let me loose most of the time. 🙂
    Second: The only book recommendation I’ve taken from you so far is Ringworld. So that’s a pretty damn good track record! I think I need to head to the store. 🙂

  46. Wil, I’ll have to remember that trick when my boys get to be that age. Yup; let them think they can hold a book back from *you* and they’ll be hooked, huh? Cool.
    Seriously; Ender’s Game was an early favorite of mine, too. Never read the Ringworld stuff, oddly enough. However, I’m a huge fan of Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s collaborations, especially The Mote in God’s Eye. You could always try that. Their others include Footfall (invasion by, of all things, elephantine aliens) and Lucifer’s Hammer (a much better look at a post-asteroid strike than, say, Deep Impact).
    By the way, on a completely different note, I just want to say how impressed I am that every time your blog hits my RSS reader, by the time I get over here there’s dozens and dozens of comments posted. You have truly connected with people, man. Big kudos.
    Oh, and Numb3rs was absolutely fantastic (fan of the show + fan of yours = great hour of TV).
    Have a great holiday! 🙂

  47. Perhaps Nolan will get into reading sci-fi the same way I did – by reading ST:TNG novels ^_^. As cheezy as they are now, when I was 13-14 I loved em – esp “Boogeyman”, “Perchance to Dream” and the one where the Federation wants to destroy the Enterprise (if forgot the name of that one). I also read lots of Star Wars books as a kid – but after a while they became pretty lame. I can also recommend Anne McCaffrey – she’s a great mix of both fantasy and sci-fi. At least Nolan likes to read at all – which is more than I can say for many young people I know. Mad props to him for that!

  48. Wil,
    I think there’s equal parts “I’m gonna be my own man” and “Meh” going on here… I also suspect that he’ll come around to being an “Ender’s Game” fanatic once he gets through it.
    I’ve read that book over and over again, trying to figure out just where it is that we all suss out that Ender’s been fooled into fighting the final battle with the Buggers. Although I do not care for the author’s politics, I find the man’s writing to be so compelling and well-done that I can overlook his other views. They, after all, help form the books I enjoy, even if I don’t agree with all of them.
    I found the other books, particularly Shadow of the Hegemon, to be quite strange. But well done.
    As for the Heinlein… well, you haven’t lived til you’ve read Heinlein in his many forms.

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