io9.com: Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
Charlie Jane Anders, io9.com: Science fiction is all about discovery and invention, but only a few books have actually created whole new genres. Here are 10 books that pioneered a new type of science-fictional story. Do you have what it takes to join them?
The genre: First contact with an alien race
The book: Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. This was a tough one — even if you only define “first contact” as being a scenario where human society, as a whole, comes into contact with an alien species (and not just one solitary human explorer) you still have tons of early stories about aliens showing up. Some would say the earliest notable “first contact” novel is H.G. Wells’ The War Of The Worlds.
But let’s say that a crucial component of the “first contact” story is that the aliens are friendly — or at least reasonably well-intentioned. Otherwise, you just have an invasion or war story. In that case, Childhood’s End, with its super-advanced Overlords showing up and guiding humanity to a higher plane of existence and merger with the Overmind, although somewhat disturbing, is still a more benign story than Wells’. And thus a more proper precursor to books like Carl Sagan’s Contact and Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis saga.
