I remember the salt smoke from a beach fire
And shadows under the pines-
Solid, clean… fixed-
Seagulls perched at the tip of land,
White upon green…
And a wind comes through the pines
To sway the shadows;
The seagulls spread their wings,
Lift
And fill the sky with screeches.
And I hear the wind
Blowing across the beach,
And the surf,
And I see that our fire
Has scorched the seaweed.
Dune is about as difficult a book as you are ever likely to encounter, unless you ever take up James Joyce’s Ulysses. But there are a huge number of great science fiction books out there that are much more accessible.
Frank Herbert’s short stories are much more readable, for example. And many of them are quite good.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 is a collection of classic short science fiction stories. It’s some of the greatest science fiction ever written, and definitely a great introduction to the golden age of the genre. Most of the authors represented in the book have published volumes of short stories themselves as well as novels, so this is a good place to find authors you like!
I can’t recommend the works of Cordwainer Smith strongly enough. The son of an American diplomat, he grew up in China. His writing style was greatly influenced by Chinese storytelling styles. He wrote science fiction that wasn’t like anything anyone else wrote, ever.
Many of his stories are in the public domain in Canada, and are available via FadedPage. The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (1993) is a print collection of all of his short science fiction. Start with “Scanners Live In Vain”, one of his first and most famous stories. His one science fiction novel is also still in print: Norstrilia (1975). It’s a classic. Smith is not to be missed.
Larry Niven is definitely one of the foremost hard science fiction writers in the field, and quite possibly the best. His Tales of Known Space are outstanding. The series includes many novels as well as short stories. Ringworld (1970) is the best known, probably. The Ringworld is a classic Big Object, a ring a million miles wide and the diameter of Earth’s orbit encircling a star; it has living space equal to fifty million Earths. Earlier novels in the series include Protector (1973) and A Gift From Earth (1968). Niven’s short story collections are really excellent, too.
Robert Sheckley’s Store of Infinity (1960) was the first science fiction book I ever bought for myself. It was a very lucky find, because a better collection of dazzling short stories would be hard to imagine. It’s a great introduction to his work. Among the many wonderful and hysterically funny stories in this book is “The Prize of Peril”, which predicted reality TV (and its worst excesses) decades before it happened! Sheckley is arguably the O. Henry of science fiction.
Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series is a classic of humorous science fiction, featuring an interstellar criminal turned reluctant lawman.
The Retief series by Keith Laumer is a riotously funny science fiction parody of the diplomatic corps. Laumer also wrote the Bolo series about self-aware military tanks; it’s not a comedy, being much more about honor and loyalty. Yet oddly enough the two series have connected a couple of times.
James White’s Sector General is rare and special: a medically-themed science fiction series with an underlying sweetness. Sector General is a galactic hospital in space, staffed by an enormously broad selection of alien species that are brilliantly imagined and detailed. The hospital and its medical ships are frequently a place for first contact with new species. The stories themselves are often about interesting and unique new medical problems.
Jack Finney’s Time And Again (1970) is a very memorable time travel novel that includes images from the past. It damn near convinces you that time travel is possible, and that you could do it. I’d highly recommend it; it was on the New York Times bestseller list for a ridiculously long time. There’s a sequel, too.
The Past Through Tomorrow (1967) collects most of Robert A. Heinlein’s “Future History” stories, which are some of the greatest stories of the golden age of SF. Those stories broke science fiction out of the pulp magazine ghetto and made it mainstream.
H. G. Wells wasn’t just one of the founders of the genre of science fiction; his short stories were macabre, incredibly imaginative, and unforgettable. Project Gutenberg has all of his works, I believe, but Standard eBooks has a great collection of a lot of Wells’ short stories available free in all the major ebook formats. You can read the book online at the link, too.
Note: Please consider patronizing your local independent book shops instead of Amazon; they can order books for you that they don’t have in stock. Amazon has put a lot of great independent book shops out of business.
And of course there’s always your local library. If they don’t have a book, they may be able to get it for you via inter-library loan.
If you’d rather order direct online, Thriftbooks and Powell’s Books are good. You might also check libraries in your general area; most of them sell books at very low prices to raise funds. I’ve made some great finds at library book sales! For used books, Biblio.com, BetterWorldBooks.com, and Biblio.co.uk are independent book marketplaces that serve independent book shops - NOT Amazon.
Happy reading! 📖
P. S. - I’m not a bot. My son just said I sounded like a bot. 🫤
Gravity’s Rainbow would like a word.
But on a more serious note, great list of suggestions. I’d add Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s anthology called The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. It’s a great collection of both less and more widely known authors, including eg. a 1905 story by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain from what’s now Bangladesh. I personally liked the variety, and I trust Jeff VanderMeer’s taste