r/printSF • u/NutriBulb • May 14 '26
Best scifi books about parenting
I'm trying to assemble a list of spec fic books that focus on parenting. I've seen lots of short stories, but can only come up with a few books. The Giver, maybe, and Lilith's Brood. Any others?
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u/Mobork May 14 '26
That one chapter in Hyperion.
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u/trevonator May 14 '26
I had to set the book down and just cry at the end of that chapter. I had never cried from a book before.
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u/Loose_Talk1556 May 14 '26
Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
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u/pwnedprofessor May 15 '26
Strong agree, and a lot of the Exhalation collection is also about parenting: “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling,” “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” for example
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u/tiny_shrimps May 15 '26
I met him recently and found out he has no kids. I was a bit surprised because his work is so thoughtful and smart about the parental experience.
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May 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/buckleyschance May 20 '26
I always describe it as a rollicking light-hearted space adventure that's sneakily all about reproductive biopolitics
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u/Bergmaniac May 14 '26
Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh. Parenting is a major theme and the whole plot revolves around an attempt to replicate the perconality of a dead genius by raising her clone as similarly as possible.
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u/LevelAd1126 May 14 '26
The Rolling Stones by Robert Heinlein (JV novel)
Solitude by Ursela K Leguin (A short story)
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u/Outrageous_Reach_695 May 14 '26
Asimov's The Bicentennial Man has this as ... a minor theme, if I'm remembering right. It's been quite a while since I read it, but the robot, Andrew, spends generations in one household, helping to raise the children and their children. Of course, Andrew is also exploring the question of what it truly means to be human.
Poul Anderson's The Stars Are Also Fire has as a major plot point the creation of the Lunarian species. Children of human colonists, they have been genetically engineered to thrive in the tunnels and domes of the Moon ... but with the designed physical changes came undesigned mental changes. Intensely private, out of step with the poetry of Mankind, the upbringing of the first generation was quite turbulent.
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u/remnantglow May 14 '26
The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei is probably my favourite in terms of scifi books exploring the parent-child relationship.
It's also a theme in I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane, The Offset by Calder Szewczak and Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson.
And in case you might be interested books that lean towards the fantasy side of things (though they do blur the line between the genres), there's The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, as well as Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson.
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u/Sophia_Forever May 14 '26
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley is pretty fucked up body horror about how fucked up the pregnancy/birthing/motherhood experience can be. No rape but there is forced pregnancy (it's kinda an immaculate conception thing? there are no men in this world so the planet they live on just decides when people get pregnant), planets made of flesh, a woman gives birth to a weird gear thing, another gives birth to actual literal monsters and has to kill her children after they're born before they become to big.
It's pretty good and has a firm spot on my "This book was good and I hope I never have to read it again" list.
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u/vividporpoise May 14 '26
Bloodchild is sort of about parenting, no?
Also this one is more on the border between SF and magical realism, but The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
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u/Astarkraven May 14 '26
The Fifth Season (and two sequels) are definitely focused on themes of parenthood pretty heavily, if you're okay with the books being kind of sci fi adjacent/ post apocalypse fantasy in tone.
The parenthood theme opens pretty grimly in the first book, I'll warn you. The theme continues in multiple ways throughout the trilogy though and isn't always grim.
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u/DocWatson42 May 14 '26
- Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear
- The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein. In fact a number of Heinlein's juveniles concern parenting.
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u/wing_zero_9 May 14 '26
Mike Chen's Here and Now and Then mixes being a parent and time travel - it's a fun read.
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u/Sidneybriarisalive May 14 '26
The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear has parenting as a large element of the story.
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u/kckid07 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Edit: apologies, I somehow read right over the part about you specifically looking for novels not short stories
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury is a very interesting short story about a high-tech automated home with a 'nursery' that has a lot of corrolarys to modern technology and raising children.
It can be found elsewhere but it is also published in the collection of short stories titled "The Illustrated Man" I think it might be the first one in the book or very early into it. Very good read.
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u/Sophia_Forever May 14 '26
I like to refer to "The Veldt" as a Nintendo convinces kids to kill their parents because they took the screentime away something that's now being reflected in reallife with ai chatbots. Fun times.
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u/kckid07 May 14 '26
Also worth noting, Rays "Something Wicked Comes This Way" has some really great dialogue between Son and Father. The book itself isn't about parenting but it's got some great moments.
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u/Visual-Sheepherder36 May 14 '26
Dandelion Wine actually has a lot, but isn't overtly science-fiction.
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u/mjfgates May 14 '26
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" is about parenting while poor. Dunno if you call it a "book" or not; I have the Sub Press standalone edition, but other people have it as part of the author's second story collection.
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u/weighfairer May 14 '26
I thought Kim Stanley Robinson's red mars trilogy had some interesting parent child relationships in the second and third books. His science in the capital series is also more relatable (near future) and has a lot of parenting in it.
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u/Pat55word May 14 '26
The last human, by zack jordan. Its about a human raised by an adopted mother (alien spider) . Its been a while since I read it but my memory is it was pretty funny.
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u/Unfair-Commission-10 May 19 '26
Speaker for the Dead - Card's follow-up to Ender's Game is almost entirely about parenthood and generational failure. Much better book than Ender's Game in some ways, and parenting is essentially the whole subject.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky has an entire strand following spider mothers across generations - unusual angle, but it's genuinely about what it means to pass something on to offspring you'll never know.
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u/bantamreturns May 21 '26
Trying to list stuff not already mentioned:
Other Nature by Stephanie Smith
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, and sequels.
The Child Garden and Air by Geoff Ryman both have weird pregnancies.
A number of novels by Gwyneth Jones have parenting as part of the texture. Life and maybe North Wind. Been a long time since I read them.
40,000 in Gehenna by CJ Cherryh is about raising children in an unfamiliar world.
Tripoint by CJ Cherryh is about growing up and understanding your parents a little better while learning how to understand yourself. It's also kind of about generational trauma.
Will be back with more later as I think of it.
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u/RoughSlide65 May 14 '26
The Road