Sci-fi for those who don't read sci-fi.
I love science fiction. Most people look at me funny when I tell them that, like I just admitted I like a good whack on the head every so often. I try not to let on to customers that I really haven't read much that wasn't sci-fi in years. I can't live the lie any more, I love it and I don't care who finds out. I love it so much I'm determined to get people who don't read it, to read it already. Seriously, there is some fantastically good literature hiding in your local sci-fi section. I won't go into a defense of it's literary value, mainly because others have done it better than I ever could (see Stanislaw Lem's 'Micro Worlds' for some good essays on that topic). My only goal is to recommend books that I think could/should have wider appeal.
In honor of Black History Month my first recommendations are for my favorite African American authors. First is Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany. This book tore my head apart and left parts laying about for weeks. More magical realism than sci-fi, this is the story of a city in middle America that has been abandoned after a strange and unknown occurrence. Life in the rest of the country is going as normal and many people don't even know what's happening in this small corner of the nation. Gangs and criminals wander the streets while a few remaining citizenry try to continue their lives amongst the ruins of civilization. One of the most powerful books I've ever read.
Next is Kindred by Octavia Butler. I feel that many female sci-fi authors have wider appeal than there male counterparts. This is especially true of Octavia Butler (and Ursula K LeGuin, but thats for another blog) and 'Kindred' is no exception. This book follows a modern black woman who is suddenly transported back to the deep south during slavery and saves the life of a young white son of a slave owner. The woman, Dana, keeps getting sent back for longer and longer periods, to help the past but to also save her present/future self. A moving look at slavery and its effects on us as a society and as people. Many book stores don't even shelve this book in the sci-fi section.
More later on the wondrousness that is speculative fiction.
--Chuck
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