William's Book Blog

Breaking radio silence...

... emerging from a busy start to 2015, where life seems to have got in the way of reading, or at least of blogging on books.

So once again World Con looms.  It's in Spokane this year, which seems to be harder to get to than Timbuktu, but I've just booked flights/hotel anyway.  World Con is not actually until late August, but I want to orient my reading for the next couple of months around my YA panel program there.

In particular, I've signed up for a panel called "Hard SF for Teens".  The description says:

"Science and science fiction isn't just for adults. More and more science fiction for teens is being written, including hard SF. What hard SF is currently available? Who should we be reading? What should we be looking for? How "hard" should hard science fiction get for teens?"

There are a few that spring to mind, such as E C Myers' Fair Coin and Madeline Ashby's vN.  Cory Doctorow's Little Brother/Homeland/For the Win.  Beth Revis' The Body Electric.  Karen Healey's When We Wake.  Marissa Meyer's Cinder.

I've read all of these, and I've got a couple of others on my TBR list - E C Myers' The Silence of Six and Shallee McArthur's The Unhappening of Genesis Lee, which look as though they might have some scientific underpinning.

All of these go some way towards having some hard science in them.  But they're a long way from the works of (say) Iain M Banks or Alastair Reynolds.

What else is out there?  If you were looking for a book to win the Hal Clement award, what would you pick for your shortlist?

(The Hal Clement award is awarded for "science fiction books written for grades 6 - 12 (approximately) that have a young adult protagonist. The science should be as correct as possible, but still a good story."   See http://www.goldenduck.org/guide.php )

Help!  Your suggestions, please.