First Science Fiction Read

I watched a lot of science fiction on television as a kid. I was enamored with Star Trek (syndicated then and now The Original Series), but I had also watched Battlestar Galactica (70s version)1, Lost in Space and occasionally Space 1999. I’d read a lot of comic books, which weren’t framed as science fiction or fantasy, but more of escapist entertainment. It wasn’t until high school where I read fantasy and science fiction novels.

My art teacher, Mr. Pace, was a huge science fiction nut, and he thought I should read some. He loaned me a copy of ‘I, Robot’, which led to the Robot series and the Foundation series. The possibilities opened wide for exploration. Isaac Asimov (and by proxy, my art teacher) opened the doors to what was possible in science fiction beyond space battles and visual effects. The concept of testing out ideas in the fertile landscape of the mind was inescapable.

I was in Navy Fire Control ‘C’ School when I heard of Mr. Asimov’s passing. The time that power to our barracks had gone out, so some classmates of mine were standing on our balcony talking about it. It had been the first time an author’s passing had impacted my life. I stood there in an odd state—tired from my graveyard shift classes and bewildered at the idea that someone who had shown me through words the power of ideas at the intersection of science and fiction. Were his stories perfect? No, they were a product of his time—a little less character and more about ideas. Yet he was a prolific writer, and for a young mind his science fiction was often about possibilities. A colleague of his noted that he had ‘200 more books in him’. He had written or edited over 500 books at the time of his death. That would have been something. I would’ve liked to have met him.

Isaac Asimov would’ve been 100 this year, and as a product of his generation, did not fair so well under modern scrutiny. It’s easy now to condemn the writer and their works (even a debut writer can be excoriated before her first novel is published). It’s much harder to separate the writer from the works in the modern age. It was much easier in the days before the Internet, as accessibility to writers was through their work, mail correspondence, or conventions. Asimov is long gone now, and i don’t have the experience of meeting him in person—I only have his writings, which I enjoyed. I still would like to read his coauthored work, Nightfall.

Apple+ seems to feel that his works are worth examining—they are working on a series based on his Foundation novels.

What was your first brush with science fiction in novel form? Was it hard science fiction, or softer? More literature or social? Was it Asimov or someone newer or older in the genre?

In book news: I’ve set new goals for myself this year, that I think I’m tracking well on. I’ve completed a very loose outline for what may become Invisible Enemy 2, a larger outline and world building draft for a new series that I’m lining up to begin, and I’ve jumped into the rewrite of the final series novel, Rise of Avalon, which should take two more months to complete. If all goes well with my revision and my editors like the work without large structural changes, it is on track to come out the second half of this year. I’ll keep you apprised every month (as a means of me sticking to my new goals).

Interested in looking for new authors or a new series to try? Look at this group of Fantasy and Science Fiction novels—all free on various platforms (including my first in series, Fall to Earth):

That’s it for now. Next month, I’ll do a review of a series I completed recently.

1 - As with anything you watch as a child, your memories are colored. This show was not as good as I remember, and I remember they recycled a LOT of the special effects shots.