Today’s prompt for SciFi Month is “AstroNavigation”, or discussing the books that got us into science fiction. I’ve talked about that a bit before, but what follows is a shorter/sweeter iteration.
What book got you into science fiction? This is a difficult question for me to answer, because while I read a lot of SF as a kid, I wasn’t conscious of it as a distinct category: I was just reading fun stories, and whether they were about a man trying to survive on an island, or a man trying to survive in an England overrun with Martians didn’t make a huge difference. I believe the first adult SF novel I read (not an abridged juvenile version like my Verne and Wells reads) was The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov, which I read thinking it was the source for the Robin Williams movie, Bicentennial Man. Several years later I picked up Nightfall and other Stories by Asimov (possibly inspired by reading an astronomy work of his) and fell arse-over-teakettle into his works, then into science fiction in general. Since then it’s become a primary genre for me (following immediately behind historical fiction), and I’ve read pretty much all of Asimov’s SF save for his Lucky Starr juveniles and End of Eternity. I’d say I have a marked preference for near-future SF like that of Doctorow and Suarez.
Reading Freely 
I read all of the Lucky Starr books (ages ago) & remember them being pretty decent.
Asimov wasn’t my introduction to SF but he was pretty close on the heels of the author who was – E E ‘Doc’ Smith with ‘Interplanetary’. VERY overblown 30’s SF but I was *totally* hooked! Like you, I never really looked back and read SF almost exclusively for a good 10 years after discovering it thanks to a friend of my brother who took pity on me looking bored one day…
I remember your story about that….he saw it and thought you’d like it!
Indeed! Not sure how much I’d like it these days though! It certainly wasn’t one of the books that I intend to re-read in my upcoming Sci-Fi Project. Maybe I should…. [muses]
I haven’t read any of these. The first adult SF book that I read and loved was Cyteen by CJ Cherryh. Between then and last year, I only read a little SF here and there though. I’m not sure why, maybe it was timing. Over these last two years I have been branching more into in and have been enjoying it a lot – helped, I think, by having a good idea of what I will like vs not.
I haven’t read this one. I liked a lot I, Robot