Get to Know the SF Reader Tag (Tagged by Stephen over @ Reading Freely)

1- What is your sci-fi origin story? (How you came to read your first sci-fi novel) 

As I’ve said on multiple occasions now, when I was in my early teens sitting on the sofa presumably looking bored, a friend of my older brother’s had just arrived to see him. Seeing me he threw a book he was carrying into my lap and said “I think you’ll like this”. It was Triplanetary by E E ‘Dod’ Smith – a 1930’s space opera. I didn’t like it – I absolutely LOVED it and have never looked back. 

2- If you could be the hero in a sci-fi novel, who would be the author, and what’s one trope you’d insist be in the story? 

An Iain M Banks ‘Culture’ novel. A hard-assed sassy female assassin companion, so we could spend the book swapping quips and causing sparks with our unresolved sexual tension which we’d both play up to outrageously. 

3- What is a sci-fi you’ve read this year, that you want more people to read? 

The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin 

4- What is your favourite sci-fi subgenre? What subgenre have you not read much from? 

My favourite sub-genre is probably Cyberpunk or Military SF. I’ve hardly read any comic SF and what I have I didn’t really like.  

5- Who is one of your auto-buy sci-fi authors? 

Difficult to say. A lot of the older authors are already on my shelves. I’m far too out of touch to auto-buy any new ones. 

6- How do you typically find sci-fi recommendations? 

In the same place I find all of my recommendations – A combination of YouTube/TikTok, other Blogs, Amazon recommends, random places... 

7- What is one upcoming sci-fi release you’re looking forward to? 

No. FAR too out of touch with modern SF to even be aware of what's coming next/soon. 

8- What is one sci-fi misconception you’d like to lay to rest? 

Written SF is not the same as movie or TV SF – generally it's MUCH more diverse and generally MUCH better.  

9- If someone had never read a sci-fi book before and asked you to recommend the first 3 books that came to mind as places to start, what would your recommendations be? 

Short Stories, Similar things to what SF you like watching on TV/Movies, short(ish) novels.  

10- Who is the most recent sci-fi reading content creator you’ve come across that you’d like to shoutout? 

I’ve stumbled across Feral Historian who talks about all kinds of Sci-Fi. I don’t always agree with his political ‘take’ but he does make lots of interesting points about SF content. He’s well worth a visit. https://www.youtube.com/@feralhistorian/videos