Science Fiction for the other gender

Science Fiction is usually seen as an bastion of nerdy maleness. Men write it and boys of all ages read it. As I was cleaning the around the house I had found fifteen to twenty paperback books of Sci-fi. If I hadn't mentioned it before, I'm a hoarder and I need to pass on things before I get buried under them.

One of my sons has mockingly call me Smaug, the dragon from Lord Of The Rings that sits on his pile of treasure and would never think of having a yard sale. Anyway I gave that box of books to a single mom who has two sons of her own. Her oldest son is just the right age for a total emergence into the genre. As I said to the youth "let this rot your brain and inspire you at the same time".

Later on, we had a good rolling conversation on how and why science fiction became such an XY chromosome thing. You have action, adventure and cool gadgets; plus science fiction's ascending golden age was the 1950's when only guys were picked as astronauts. Another friend wanted to know if there was anything I could recommend for her daughter.   

Through Middle School and High School I lived off of science fiction and read a lot of Andre Norton. Most of her books span the pre-teen to adult market, all her stories are very accessible . She's most famous for The Witch World books, one of the first successful science fiction fantasy  franchises. Andre Norton was very prolific and is sometimes compared to Marrion Zimmer Bradley, now I'm trying to stick with authors I've actually read. I was introduced to Marion Zimmer Bradley's books back in the 1970's by a woman who was also into Ayn Rand -it was not happy event and sad to say out of that negative association I never looked further into Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Octavia Butler is one of those rare science fiction writers that bridges the genre to mainstream fiction. I've heard it said that the best science fiction uses an exaggerated future to examine the past. Her book The Kindred is her most famous and if you take out the element of time travel it's one of the most grimly haunting depictions of slavery ever. It's not a book for younger teens. Once I hear Octavia Butler in a radio interview, her deep, wise and almost other worldly voice still sticks in my mind.

Ursula LeGuin is the only person to win both the Hugo and Nebular Awards in two consecutive years. She is probably best known for the science fiction classic The Lathe Of Heaven -a story where a man's dreams alter the course of reality. 

Women writers seem to have a different spin on the world. Women have no problems writing solid credible male characters just as many men have written truly believable and memorable female characters. Maybe that fact alone is good to know that men and women can have equal talents but different outlooks.

As part of that conversation we also talked our favorite science fiction stories. Mine was a short story, by Robert Heinlein, The Green Hills Of Earth. Not to be a spoiler, I'll just say it's about true courage and maybe how history embellishes the story afterwards.

Robert Heinlein was a career naval officer and very staunch conservative (read Starship Troopers) but he was also an exceptionally decent man. Once Phillip K Dick asked him for a loan (PKD was notoriously bad with money), Heinlein didn't talk politics or get smugly superior. He just gave him money and said "pay me when you can".     
The best things about science fiction is the idea that the imagination has no boundaries, and the future is out there waiting for us. I'm happy because I got to recycle my old books and put them in the hands of the next generation. It's kind of a gamble because most kids will only read a fraction of all the books they're given but match up the right book with the right child -well that's magic.

Please feel free to comment or send me your favorite sci-fi tittles.