[Whiterook]

"Great Zeus, he murmured, as he peered sheepishly into Pandora's Box!" I'll talk well into the future on this subject (Oh come out from under the bed, you sorry lot!), but perhaps a little fine-tuning here: we talking about books, TV, or cinema?

Books:


Issac Asimov, for me, is the clear cut leader. He was my first "serious" venture into sci-fi. My first Asimov reading was "The Stars, Like Dust". The cover intrigued me (as good a reason to pick up a book as any), and it held me in a grip until I flipped the last page. It offered me a recurring theme that pulled me into the genre...a Walter Mitty-esque feeling that I was living the character on the page. It was like being pulled out of my world into a grand adventure, that I could dream I participated in. I know it sounds corney, but it is an example of what was much later buzz-word coined "escapeist fare". For a kid in the 60's and 70's, and all the big "space stuff" of those days, this offered me a chance to get away from the mundane and sail off to exotic worlds. Pretty cool stuff. It also wound my mind into hyperdrive as to what possibilities could be awaiting us, as a species, in my future and long after, good and bad. In many ways, sci-fi was more relevant to future history than anything I learned in school. It amazes me that sci-fi is so quick to be trashed by the sophisticates and snobs. Their loss, really. Asimov's Robot Series are brilliant.

In high school, they actually offered a science fiction class, and the teacher was one of the coolest I had. She had us read short stories in particular, and I kick myself today for not paying more attention to the names, as there were some really amazing stuff. I don't know if schools anywhere offer a class like that today, but I would be sadden to learn they don't. IMO, the majority of kids today are in desparate need of an imagination, with their lifeline to their cell phones, computers, and gaming consoles snipped clean for lion's share proportions of their time. (OK, put down the stones...you're scareing me!).

Other notables would include Arthur C. Clark, and Robert Heinlein. Been meaning to read Greg Bear.