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Suggestions needed--Mutant books

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stacer:
I'm trying to flesh out my SF side of my rewritten syllabus for this class that's ending next week. I know, I know, most of you have better things to do than help me with my homework. But if any of you have suggestions on books about mutants and/or gene-manipulation, please let me know.

The only one I've found so far is a collection of short stories edited by Asimov called Young Mutants. It seems that we have a lot more TV shows/movies/comic books about them (the obvious example being X-Men, of course).

Also, does anyone know when Starship Troopers was originally published, and if it was originally written for children? I found a copy of it in the children's section of the library, but I didn't think it was really children's or YA. Maybe it is considered YA now--if it was written before 1970 or so, there was no YA genre for it to fit into. Anyway, the computer catalog entry for the copy I have says this is "highly abridged" but I can't find anywhere in the book that says that.

Aha--just found it on the copyright page: "A much abridged version of this book was published in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine under the title 'Starship Soldier.'"

The copyright on my version says 1959.

Mad Dr Jeffe:
The Wild Cards series is well written and insightful (especially the first 3 books)

As for Starship Troopers it was written in 1959.  Heinlein always did write on a level that young adults could read, but not one that they always understood.
Troopers is a very complex book about politics war and fighting for what is right. He has been called a fascist, a communist and an elitist by experts so its possible that young adults might find some of the concepts challenging. The book is totally different from the movie so don't judge it on that basis. Suffice it to say that there is no sex, intellectualized violence and a lot of moral ambiguity. Its probably one of my favorite books because each time I read it I take a away another layer.

stacer:
Glad to hear that--I never saw the movie, though it looked interesting, because I heard it was pretty stupid. But I had heard that the book was a pretty seminal SF book, so it's worth reading.

Mad Dr Jeffe:
Oh definately, It'd have to be among the top ten of Sci-Fi along with Asimov's Foundation, David Brins Startide Rising, Arthur C Clarks 2001 and Rendevous with RAMA and Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy those are seminal books in Sci-fi indeed.

Fellfrosch:
I would definitely classify Starship Troopers as YA, more so than almost any of Heinlein's other books. It has nothing to do with mutants, though, as far as I remember.

As for books about mutants, I have no idea. Would you object to putting actual comicbooks on your syllabus?

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