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If you had to choose a fiction/fantasy book to teach to first year university students, which one would you choose and why?

The only limiting factor is that it must be able to be a standalone story not part of a series.
ie. The History of the Runestaff is ok, as the complete story is told in one book, but The Mad God's Amulet is not as it is only a part of the Runestaff story.

Only one book from each genre is allowed.

There is no restriction on who the author is so anthologies are also possible.

I ask because I might be teaching such a fiction/fantasy reading class next year and am having a hard time choosing a text from all the books I like.
I am hoping to introduce the students to the genres without overwhelming them.
Course title is Introduction to Modern Fiction and Fantasy.

Thanks for your inspiration.

Sincerely,
Conrad

Anthology - Swords and Dark Magic - J Strahan, ed
Science Fiction - Conquistador - S.M.Stirling or The Stand - Stephen King
Fantasy - The Fall of Kings - Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman or The Armour of Light - Melissa Scott & Lisa A Barnett

Any reasons for your choices other than they were great reads?
I am familiar with all but The Stand and The Armour of Light.


Thanks for the recommends. It is appreciated.

Sincerely,
Conrad

Can I suggest as possibles, The Wizard of Earthsea (would stand alone), The Hobbit, The Handmaid's Tale.

I wrote a free access booklet for teachers and pupils that has been taken up by 30,000 teenage students and teachers in Ireland (and also used internationally). It is freely available on my site on the index page as a pdf click download. Feel free to use it if it proves useful to you.

The Hobbit. It's classic, it's easy to read, it's current (movies), and if they like it there's more where that came from.

The Book of the New Sun. Although it consists of four volumes, each of them are so short that it can easily be done as a single volume.

Besides that it's an excellent example of postmodern fiction that subverts cliche's in a way so subtle that you have to be alert to realize it, there is excellent fodder there for discussions of ethics and of tropes, and of how exactly the work subverts and deconstructs cliches and popular tropes, and so forth.

I can go on for hours and hours about why i would personally like to teach this work. A word of warning though: you yourself would have to read through it twice to really 'get' it. One doesn't pick up all the clues on a first reading, and it is essential that you read all of the 4 'books' or volumes in sequence and right to the end.

Clues (and surprises!) that illuminate the earlier parts of the story become more and more abundant as you near the end.
(Another small hint is that it's actually science fiction clad in fantasy robes)

It was originally published as four separate novels, but that does it a great disfavor.
Being only a total of 950 pages in all, which is the length of many modern novels, -especially fantasy novels, it makes sense as a single book.

PS. I am envious of you having this opportunity! :D

Conrad wrote: "Any reasons for your choices other than they were great reads?
I am familiar with all but The Stand and The Armour of Light.


Thanks for the recommends. It is appreciated.

Sincerely,
Conrad"

THE STAND is, to my mind, the best thing King has written. Has great characters and a really good plot following a group of survivors of a government-sponsored plague that somehow 'escaped' from the lab.

The Armour of Light is kind of cool for taking real historical characters and putting them in a world where magic is common

Or some of the anthologies for shorter attention spans with a bit of everything from the big-time-authors. Like the Legends sets of anthologies, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress XXII set more the traditional swordfighting questy stories, so maybe more likely the variety would hit a spark with someone. Or something that might get attention with the humor like one of the Greenberg anthologies like Fantasy Gone Wrong. Or ride the coattails of the Hobbit, LOTR and games of thrones fever with After the King: Stories In Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien. Actually if you search "fantasy / greenberg" at goodreads ther's a huge selection. I'd look at that selection to see what authors are included to find ones you would like to teach.

I'd actually stay away from the Tolkien wannabe books and stories that came out every time he had a resurgence in popularity. What I really loathed when studying fantasy was any book that could be summed up as here's a group of assorted races/classes [likely whatever political climate at time said was correct or whatever minority newsworthy] and here's a map they are going to wander about [endlessly through as many volumes as publisher will buy] encountering more creatures, battles, races or just visiting place names on the map.

My Favorite Fantasy Story is a selection of what popular fantasy author's would pick as their favorite fantasy story.

Hitting "similar authors" fantasy author pages also net you some good finds, for example http://www.goodreads.com/author/simil... ; http://www.goodreads.com/author/simil... ;

An interesting part of some classes I took always included asking what turns you off the fantasy genre, the worst examples, and what you like, the best examples. A mix of everyone reading/studying this book and a list of suggested authors or approved books to vote or select from, individually or in teams (depending on course length).

If anyone taking class because thinking of writing or to get a fairly thorough listing/explanation of fantasy elements, I always liked , How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy and The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference: An Indispensable Compendium of Myth and Magic.

Possibly browse the graphic novel racks for something that also ties into a currently popular fantasy book in case that helps catch someone's interest. Comics, graphic novels, and manga a whole other class; but, something popular enough to warrant a tie-in might jog some student interest.

If not anything useful to course, maybe useful for an additional suggested reading list as an introduction to some fantasy greats.

Frank wrote: "Can I suggest as possibles, The Wizard of Earthsea (would stand alone), The Hobbit, The Handmaid's Tale. "

I quite like these suggestions. If you'd like a more "grown up" fantasy novel, I'd pick American Gods by Neil Gaiman, lots and lots of intertextuality and myths a-go-go, and since it's a very good example of post modern lit you get a twoofer. ;) For SF I might go for Dune, The Left Hand of Darkness or The Dispossessed, depending on which kind of discussion you're after. Dune's the obvious choice, although I'd say TLHoD and The Dispossessed has more potential for discussion since they're both based on clear dichotomies (male/female or collectivism/individualism).

For inspiration the fiction part of the reading list for Fantasy literature (a half time 10 week course at the intro level) at Uni of Stockholm is:
(view spoiler)[
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865)
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell (2004)
Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising (1973)
Neil Gaiman, Coraline (2002)
Neil Gaiman, Stardust (1998)
Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle (1986)
Ursula Le Guin, The Wizard of Earthsea
(1968)
Ursula Le Guin, Tehanu (1990)
C S Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(1950)
George MacDonald, Lilith (1895)
George R R Martin, A Game of Thrones (1996)
Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment (2003)
Philip Pullman, Northern Lights/The Golden Compass
(1997)
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone (1997)
J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937); The
Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
(hide spoiler)]

Holy cow.

No, that's not a reading suggestion, that's my response to Evilynn's Stockholm list.

Seriously, not one mention of Samuel Delany or Octavia Butler? Kindred is actually used in many college courses, and not just the obvious ones like Women's Studies (though it is used there) and Delany is being utilized in Gender studies courses as well.

Conrad wrote: "If you had to choose a fiction/fantasy book to teach to first year university students, which one would you choose and why?

The only limiting factor is that it must be able to be a standalone sto..."


shoot for what college so i can be in that class lol

K.A. wrote: "Holy cow.

No, that's not a reading suggestion, that's my response to Evilynn's Stockholm list."

lol! Well, they've been running that course on and off for a couple of years, there's actually movies and games on the required reading list too IIRC (along with a list of non fiction literature).

Jester Girl wrote: "1. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (this definitely falls more under fiction than fantasy, but it is one of my favorite stand-alone works ever)

2. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (A go..."

The teacher that I took a fantasy class with two summers ago, taught Guards! Guards! in his fantasy class this fall.

Kevin, how did the class using Guards, Guards go?

I'm interested in which part he focused on.

Any hints/examples would be very welcome.

I was planning on using the Hobbit but another class beat me to it so it is out of my range this year.


Sincerely,
Conrad

Conrad, did you check Locus' top 50 20th century and 21st century lists that just were published on the web? I think they contain a number of genre classics, either author or title.

Carol, Thanks for the hint on the list. I shall check it out.

Happy Holidays!!

Sincerely,
Conrad

If you can only choose one book, I say go with an anthology, one of the Legends books or similar would be ideal, since all of the authors have extensive other works to their credit. I say an anthology, because if you choose a single work and some of the students have never read any fantasy before, and they don't enjoy it, you may turn them off Fantasy as a genre entirely. An anthology of known authors give lots of little 'tastes', and lots of reading directions to go in after your class is over. If you choose an anthology around a particular theme, you've got lots of room for students to compare and contrast between the stories. Just my .02 cents. :)
Have fun with the class!

Conrad wrote: "Kevin, how did the class using Guards, Guards go?

I'm interested in which part he focused on.

Any hints/examples would be very welcome.

I was planning on using the Hobbit but another class bea..."

I was not in the class, so I do not know how it went.

I second Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novels. You can get them all in one book, the Earthsea Quartet.

T.P. wrote: "I second Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novels. You can get them all in one book, the Earthsea Quartet."

Except that there is 5 of them. ;) (Well, six if you count Tales from Earthsea, I suppose)

Evilynn wrote: "T.P. wrote: "I second Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novels. You can get them all in one book, the Earthsea Quartet."

Except that there is 5 of them. ;) (Well, six if you count Tales from Earthsea, I s..."

Well, I have more reading to do...

I enjoyed the Earthsea novels, but another class on Women in Fiction and Fantasy is covering Ursula Le Guin so I can't use her novels.
Other class authors are unusable which eliminates most of the "big" and "well-known" writers.

The books have to be readily available through Amazon Japan and physical books as opposed to ebooks.

There is also a limit of 4,000 yen for the textbook(s).

those three limitations make finding a book hard.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Sincerely,
Conrad

The magazine, Black Gate on their website has a blog called Teaching and Fantasy Literature, which goes though the experience of teaching and introducing fantasy to students.

If it's a course on "modern" fantasy and fiction that would rule out The Hobbit, which is overdone anyway, IMO.

Sci-Fi:
In Conquest Born by C. S. Friedman - it does have a sequel but it was something like 20 years between books, so the first can be read by itself quite satisfactorily. It's about two warring races personified in two leaders and is just well done on all fronts (plot, character, etc.).

Anathem by Neal Stephenson - this one is both historic and futuristic and, while it's very good, you'll get more out of it if you know something about the history of science and mathematics on Earth. It's a good example of near-Earth sff, very readable and clever. (Edit: it's clever because of word play, so it may be less accessible to non-native English speakers.)

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein - more "literary" sci-fi with lots of discussion launching points. Heinlein's career makes for a great case study in author voice, messages in novels, and why speculative fiction is well suited for testing theories.

Fantasy:
I'll second the nomination of Elantris (Sanderson). It's light, well-written, not complicated, and there aren't too many weird names. Sadly, nothing else to add; all the ones I like are parts of series. Anthologies may be the best option to introduce fantasy.

Anthology:
Powers of Detection - I don't know if this one is readily available but it is a good overview of various fantasy subgenres. The collection is all "detective" stories with a fantasy/magic twist but they run the gamut historic to urban to dystopian. I was introduced to several good authors with this collection.

Short Stories:
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov and The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. Masters of the genre, these are good jumping off points for two illustrious careers.

Hope that helps!

Have you ever read Frankenstein from a Sci-Fi perspective? I still hold that book as the greatest hard science fiction story ever told. But assuming you want something more modern, I would suggest Ender's Game as the quintessential modern science fiction, and for fantasy, the essence of it all is contained in The Princess Bride.

If you're interested in choosing something that pulls the camera back from the more limited meaning of fantasy that tends to dominate most modern discussions, I'd go with Life of Pi.

Jefferson wrote: "Have you ever read Frankenstein from a Sci-Fi perspective? I still hold that book as the greatest hard science fiction story ever told. But assuming you want something more modern, I would suggest ..."

This is only tangentially relevant to the main topic, but I happened to read recently that there are plans in Hollywood for a sci-fi revisionist take on Frankenstein:



Looks like it wouldn't be ready for quite a while, but perhaps it would help with the "current movies" point mentioned before in this thread. You could discuss what a sci-fi revisionist film version might look like, and what "rules" it should follow and how they would translate to visual versus textual media...