Hard SF for 12 year olds?

[brixtonbrood]

Tiny is now 12. Go Tiny! He has celebrated this by spontaneously deciding that he is OK with long form narrative fiction (as opposed to Haynes manuals, WWII plane spotters guides and popular science books with cartoons in

Comments

[pmcray]

"Anathem" is basically a YA novel. Vinge, perhaps?

[purplecthulhu]

Way too much character development for him in Anathem!

I'll echo the EE Smith and Heinlein. Wait a few years for Haldeman and Herbert. Reynolds would be good too. I also have a soft spot for Clarke.

[timscience]

To be honest when I was twelve I became obsessed with E.E. "Doc" Smith. You won't be short of space battles. I tried to come back to it about 5 years ago for nostalgia reasons and found it pretty much unreadable.

Wait till he's at least 14 before giving him any Ballard.

[coth]

I've just come to your journal after reading your comment re Lloyd's on Andrew Ducker's. I'd be interested to know what Tiny read next - I'm not sure I would recommend any writer published more than a decade ago for a modern child.

I might have offered Becky Chambers, A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, although the spaceship isn't very big.