YALSA-bk is a listserv with lively discussions among librarians, educators, and beyond about all things YA lit. Sometimes one listserv member will ask for help finding books around a certain theme or readalikes for a particular title. This post is a compilation of responses for one such request.
The original request
I have a patron here looking for some good teen science fiction that is NOT set on a future dystopian Earth. She wants space travel and adventure, exploring new planets, aliens, etc. I’ve pulled a few but my current science fiction list seems to be pretty heavily slanted towards the dystopian stuff that came out after [The] Hunger Games. Does anyone have any good suggestions for her?
Suggested titles
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
- Avalon By Mindee Arnett
- Losers in Space by John Barnes
- The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
- A Matter of Profit by Hilari Bell
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci
- Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke
- Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill
- Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman
- The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 by P.J. Haarsma
- Dangerous by Shannon Hale
- 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
- Klaatu Diskos trilogy by Pete Hautman
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Crater series by Homer Hickam
- Keeper of Isis by Monica Hughes
- Living Hell by Catherine Jinks
- These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
- Alienated by Melissa Landers
- Pendragon series by DJ MacHale
- Planesrunner series by Ian McDonald
- The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
- Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness
- A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix
- Starglass and Starbreak by Phoebe North
- Temeraire series by Naomi Novik
- For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
- Across the Universe by Beth Revis
- Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
- Zoe’s Tale and Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
- Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon
- Life on Mars: Tales from the New Frontier, edited by Jonathan Strahan
- Comet’s Curse series by Dom Testa
- Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn
- Any of the Star Wars or Doctor Who adventure books
Suggested graphic novels
- Doug TenNapel’s sci-fi graphic novels
- Forager by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
- Star Trek and Star Wars novels and graphic novels
Suggested authors
- Poul Anderson
- Isaac Asimov
- James Blish
- Ray Bradbury
- Lois McMaster Bujold
- Gordon R. Dickson
- Robert A. Heinlein
- C.M. Kornbluth
- Anne McCaffrey
- Elizabeth Moon
- Larry Niven
- Andre Norton
- H. Beam Piper
- Frederik Pohl
- Jerry Pournelle
- James Schmitz
- Theodore Sturgeon
- A.E. Van Vogt
- David Weber
Have more titles you think should belong on these lists? Add them on the YALSA wiki or leave a comment! Looking for more compiled booklists? Check out the YALSA wiki or other booklists here at The Hub.
— Gretchen Kolderup, currently reading Where Do Camels Belong? by Ken Thompson
The Adaptation series by Malinda Lo.
Oh I love Avalon by Mindee Arnett! That’s such a great space opera!
False Memory by Dan Krokos is science fiction and not dystopian.