Funny you should pick two authors (Pratchett and Gaiman) who are more accustomed to using the tropes of fantasy or horror, than SF for your introductory paragraph. Nevertheless, the podcast's contents sound intriguing.

One of the things we cover in the discussion is why all such authors - from Pratchett to people like Reynolds and Kim Stanley Robinson - are bracketed by publishers in the same SFF category ... Reynolds and Noon (writing at opposite ends of the SFF spectrum) both said they were relaxed about it ...

Excellent stuff - I can't wait to listen to it. Do you cover sci-fi for children in the podcast, only there seems to be all too little of it about. I've read some Diana Wynn-Jones with my boy, and things like that, and he enjoyed it but he's been on the look out for a Harry Potter-type sci-fi series. We did find one called How To Fill A Black Hole which he really liked, but that's only just begun and there's going to be a bit of a wait for the next one. It's a bit frustrating when you've got a boy eager to read but there's not much available in the subjects he's keen on. He's a bit young for PK Dick. If anyone's got any other suggestions, it'd be much appreciated.

Patrick Ness and Suzanne Collins both spring to mind for younger SciFi.

I must admit I've also noticed the lack of SF for young people. It was originally something that I wanted to do something about as a would-be writer, but what began possibly as a young person's thing has ended up quite resolutely a novel for grown ups.

Still, there's always the next one (and the sad thing is I've begun writing notes for it while the first remains unfinished!)

What we need is a twilightsort of series, but with virginal robots who can't decide whether they've been prgrammed to be together over 3 million achingly dull pages.

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On another note I used to love Asimov's short stories as a youngun. Though in hindsight they may not be all that exciting. Cor time were diff'rent bak den in de mid eightees uuur...

Jeff Noon is awesome, both Vurt and Nymphomation are trippy brilliance, and Needle In The Groove was deeply soulful.

Codename: Icarus was a dystopian SF kids book I read as a 70s child, no idea who wrote it though and CBAG.

For the very young, wouldn't fairy tales be classed as SF these days?
It's true that the inherent social and intellectual comment tends to cast SF novels into adult moulds, but they can be very accessible as these longish short stories.

Science fiction is what can be imagined. Good.

The problem is dark fantasy and urban romance/fiction (?). As Sulu says, we have to unite against Twilight.

This was a good podcast.

I've just started Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space which was recommended to me by a Guardian commenter on an older SF blog. Apparently it should be my kind of cup of tea as I'm a big fan of expansive hard sci-fi (of the kind Michael Moorcock probably wouldn't approve of) from the likes of Stephen Baxter and Arthur C Clarke. Indeed, the end of Baxter's Space has to rank as one of the most epic space scenarios in science fiction.

From the first few chapters of Revelation it already reads like it could be good movie material, some excellent scene-setting writing. @Alastair, that kill scene with the gravity trick during the fall down the ship's elevator was stunning! (@readers, it's not really a spoiler).

Jeff Coon sounds like he has some interesting ideas too.

Re: the discussion about sci-fi for younglings: I remember really enjoying those fantasy novels which made you choose one of 2 or 3 different scenarios and depending what you went for you would be directed to a completely different page. I found this fascinating. It was also easier to read than having to trawl through hundreds of linear pages (the idea of which puts some kids off).

Do those kind of books also exist for the sci-fi genre?

Failing that, I recommend Clarke's Rendevouz With Rama, which is easy to read and has a simple premise (mysterious spaceship orbits Earth, a human crew shuttle to it and try to get in...).

The rest of the Rama series is an acquired taste, I suppose...

Another recommendation for the younger readership are Asimov's Robot short stories. Again, they're easy to read and because of the short story format the modern youngster's possibly-suspect attention span won't suffer :))

...and maybe invoking the name of Will Smith might help too.

For children most certainly Mark Brandis - I loved the books when I was young and gave them to my children when they were preteens and they read all of them in one go. Some of the earlier books of Robert A. Heinlein are quite readable for this age, Asimov most certainly.

For Teenagers, probably Lukanienko, Philipp K. Dick

It's hard to say what children might like. Sci Fi is so much more than just a story in the future/other world. The world created by the authors is only just a platform on which a story is taking place. There are mysteries, spytales, timetravels, horror, psychic, utopie and dystopie and all kind of stories which are existing in common fiction. The difference is just that authors are not limited to the known physical world and can act out their creativity.

@ToucanGesture

I'll add my voice to the chorus recommending Asimov (especially the Foundation trilogy and the Robot short stories) for young readers. Clarke's novels are hit and miss, but his short stories are excellent, accessible to all ages, and available in one large volume.

I also highly recommend Bujold's Vorkosigan series. Warrior's Apprentice is essentially Midshipman Hornblower in space. Exciting Space Opera that also deals with serious social and ethical issues. First rate.

McCaffrey (some of her best work is SF - e.g. Decision at Doona, Nimisha's Ship, The Rowan, The Crystal Singer) always goes down well with youngsters, at least until they spot the repeated plot-arc. Heinlein's juveniles are all very readable, if a tad right wing for some guardianistas, as are E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensman books, despite their dubious ethics and ridiculous female characters, who generally fit a 'pneumatic overqualified bimbo' stereotype.

for kids: Ursula Le Guin. Sci-Fi, magic and fantasy. Harry Potter is a shameless rip-of of her "Wizard of Earthsea" short novels.

She also writes for grown-ups...

Iain M Banks.

The Culture is the most impressive creation in modern Sci-Fi.

I began reading science fiction with the likes of Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov as a teenager. I also avidly read the Gormenghast trilogy around that time. Regarding more recent fiction, my daughter and I moved on to Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series after working our way through the Diana Wynn-Jones books. We had earlier followed up Harry Potter with the Northern Lights trilogy.

Ender's Game is, without a doubt, one of the best YA science fiction novels I have ever read. I'd also recommend its sequel Speaker for the Dead, and Ender's Shadow, which runs parallel to the original and offers a different perspective on its plot.

Author, Orson Scott Card is a Mormon and gets a bad rep for his unsavoury views on the subject of same-sex marriage, but some of his books really are very good.

The last great work of science fiction to my mind was, as the the person said above, the Culture series by Iain M Banks.

I think science fiction has lost something.Ever since the 1980s there seems to be a singular lack of imagination.

Given everything that is happening right now there is enough material to create great works of science fiction.

I am certain the great works will come (but I wish they would hurry up!).

Hello TG, stories may be bit long in the tooth maybe but I used to read Gollancz SciFi anthologies by the yard, also Alpha, Hugo & Nebula compilations. Wide-ranging, thought provoking and bite-size. If a particular author strikes a chord then follow up with a collection of their stories or novels.

Harry Harrison (War with the Robots), Colin Kapp (Unorthodox Engineers are a hoot), C J Cherryh, Robert Silverberg - amongst a myriad of accessible authors in the field.

John Wyndham's novels have always been a safe bet. Possibly Chrysalids or The Kraken Wakes?

Have fun : )

Science and fiction are two opposites - at least in intention. The former seeks objective truth at least to best possible extent; the latter seeks to tell a story that is just that - a story! The genre of science fiction writing was popular when knowledge of science and its latent power was the preserve of the few. It allowed the writer to develop worlds that were almost the realm of fantasy but had still that potential for future truth.

Today the paradigm has changed. Science, in its modern sense of quantum theory, offers a world that even the most imaginative sci-fi writers cannot describe. Even the scientists themselves struggle to come to terms with the limitless reality that is unfolding.

Out of this a new science fiction may emerge - one more attuned to the complexity of modern science yet still steeped in the manifold potentialities that it is revealing. More importantly, one that explores the philosophical implications of a seeming sense defying reality.

Trillions is a really good children's book, really imaginative, Nicholas Fisk is the author, who I think has written quite a few children's sci-fi books - worth checking out based on Trillions.

Bought my first SF book when I was 11 (New Writings in SF) and then most of the classics - Moorcock, Asimov, Clarke, Herbert, Farmer, McCaffrey, Vance, Simak, Pohl, Kapp etc from my teens onward. Recently Pratchett, Banks etc.
As I get older the thought of lugging books around and also laziness means audiobooks are becoming preferred, but if I bought an iPad or kindle I would 'read' a lot more.

I agree with what Moorcock said on the podcast, there isn't enough politics, economics or sociology in current SF, we're too obsessed with hard science and technology.

Anyone care to explain why the brilliant science-fiction written by John Christopher - The Tripods, The Guardians, Empty World, The Lotus Eaters, etc. - which fired my imagination as a kid in the 1970s is now largely out of print?

You didn't say your son's age. There's plenty of old SF for kids as other have already mentioned, but you'll have to scour Oxfam books to get it. Harry Harrison has done genre works specifically for kids (as did Heinlein) - I still have my puffin editions of Starship Medic and The Men From P.I.G and R.O.B.O.T, and most of his adult work is suitable for any child aged 10 upwards. There's also the excellent Dragonfall 5 series by Brian Earnshaw. There's all the Golden Age stuff such as by Asimov (especially "I Robot" and "The Caves Of Steel"), Leinster and Sheckley to name a few and lots of it is public domain if you have an e-reader. Most SF work pre-dating the mid Sixties can be read by any child , though you'll have to use caution over some of the social mores. I cannot comment on more recent works - my boys prefer detective/adventure/espionage stories!

I also suggest trying him with audio books and radio shows. Download the radio shows "X Minus One" and its predecessor "Dimension X" of the Internet Archive. As fine an introduction to SF as you'll find anywhere. Keep an eye on what comes up on Radio 4Extra's "Seventh Dimension". Check out sites such as ssfaudio.com and podcasts like Mark Nelson's "Scipodcast".

sorry, that should be sffaudio.com

I have to commend your decision to introduce your child to science fiction, it is a great way to teach the young (and adults) difficult concepts. All of the other recommendations for children are great. Mr Simack's "City" has a nice simple feel....actually, Arthur c Clarke's the City and the Stars is a similar far future distopia.

Somebody else mentioned the Ender series by Orson Scott Card, but not necessarily wrt children. I actually described this to my friend as like Harry Potter in space...very highly recommended, even if it does trail off a bit towards the end of the series.

As this is a bit of a discussion board, I personally think that as truly wonderful Rendezvous with Rama is, the pace may be a bit slow for a kid.

Happy reading

I think China Mieville's work is socio-political, in its way. Perdido St Stn., The Iron Council, and also Embassytown to an extent.

The most original SF novel I have enjoyed in the last year was The Quantum Thief.

Is Cyclonopedia SF? I tried, but found it unreadable after a few dozen pages.

Hoovering up endless short story SF anthologies as a teenager certainly worked for me.

When I was 10 I dove into Madeline L'Engle, Heinlein and Bradbury. L'Engle's books are written for children, as are plenty of Heinlein's.

Hey all, late back to the party, as ever. I'm going to blog on this on the main books blog, so we can get a wider range of responses - it's a really good question. We'll also post a version on the children's site and ask for the site's users to come up with suggestions. I'll come back here and link when I'm done!

ps @dholliday if you like hard SF you'll LOVE the new Alastair Reynolds - I was entranced. Best space opera since Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy I reckon - have passed on to my dad, which is the highest recommendation I can give ...

Just posted on the books blog, asking the same question:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jan/09/science-fiction