Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Sci-fi book club: January picks

The book club is taking a brief hiatus for the holidays, but will resume Jan. 7.

After a lot of delays and setbacks, we finally have finished "Have Space Suit -- Will Travel." If your child enjoyed that book, there are a number of other books by Robert Heinlein that are appropriate for teens and preteens. (Be warned that a number of his books are aimed at a more mature readership.) The Heinlein juveniles, as they're called, include books like "Starship Troopers," "Tunnel in the Sky" and "Starman Jones." You might also enjoy his short story "The Man Who Sold the Moon."

Because a lot of the truly great science fiction has been written in short story format, I want to spend January looking at some of the great science fiction stories. Here's the schedule:

  1. Jan. 7 -- "Farewell to the Master," by Harry Bates. This story served as the inspiration for the original "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
  2. Jan. 14 -- "Nightfall," by Isaac Asimov
  3. Jan. 21 -- "The Sound of Thunder," by Ray Bradbury 
  4. Jan. 28 -- "The Ugly Little Boy," by Isaac Asimov

All four stories have been anthologized extensively, but they also may be available online as free ebooks or on somebody's web site. In the case of "Nightfall" and "The Ugly Little Boy," there are full-length novel forms of the story, written by Robert Silverberg. They're quite good, but we'll be focusing on the original short stories.

The book club meets from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m  Mondays at the New Brunswick Free Public Library. It's generally aimed at readers who are in their early teens or older, but any homeschooler who can read the material and who wants to attend the discussions is welcome to join us.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

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