I'm not sure how Mormon-appropriate these are, but:
I liked "Tunnel in the Sky" (a Heinlein juvenile), which wiki compares to Lord of the Flies: "As in Lord of the Flies, which had been published a year earlier, isolation reveals the true natures of the students as individuals, but it also demonstrates some of the constants of human existence as a social animal. Its underlying themes run counter to those in Lord of the Flies, however, in that it shows a belief in the inherent strength of humans as proto-adults that can self-organize rather than descend into barbarism. Some of the students fall victim to their own foolishness, and others turn out to be thugs, but that is a part of human nature, just as the counter-trends take the group as a whole towards the beginnings of a stable society. The numerous political crises of the fledgling colony illustrate the need for legitimacy in a government appropriate for the society it administers, another common theme in Heinlein's books."
I also liked "Podkayne of Mars", and -- checking wiki -- can see a lot of real-world and teen-specific parallels that could be made. Things like sibling rivalry, terrorism and airport security, the corporate monopoly ultra-capitalism of Venus, racism, and politics that most teens are insulated from. There are a couple of points I recall that might be a problem, such as when Podkayne overhears fellow ship passengers gossiping about her and her uncle, "they're two different races, she's clearly sharing his bed not his bloodline". I don't recall exactly how the passage goes. There's also an illegal drug called happy dust, and although none of Podkayne's family use it I think Podkayne's little brother (amoral and possibly sociopathic) drugs one of their kidnappers with it so they can escape.
Asimov's "The Last Question" is a short story that might or might not be offensive to very devout Christians. It's about a supercomputer being asked how to stop or fix the heat death of the universe for the sake of humanity, and ends with the supercomputer's final iteration -- itself plus all the trillions of human uploads, on a server in hyperspace outside the dead universe -- having no one to give the answer to, so it restarts the universe with "Let there be light."
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-08-17 11:18 am (UTC)I liked "Tunnel in the Sky" (a Heinlein juvenile), which wiki compares to Lord of the Flies: "As in Lord of the Flies, which had been published a year earlier, isolation reveals the true natures of the students as individuals, but it also demonstrates some of the constants of human existence as a social animal. Its underlying themes run counter to those in Lord of the Flies, however, in that it shows a belief in the inherent strength of humans as proto-adults that can self-organize rather than descend into barbarism. Some of the students fall victim to their own foolishness, and others turn out to be thugs, but that is a part of human nature, just as the counter-trends take the group as a whole towards the beginnings of a stable society. The numerous political crises of the fledgling colony illustrate the need for legitimacy in a government appropriate for the society it administers, another common theme in Heinlein's books."
I also liked "Podkayne of Mars", and -- checking wiki -- can see a lot of real-world and teen-specific parallels that could be made. Things like sibling rivalry, terrorism and airport security, the corporate monopoly ultra-capitalism of Venus, racism, and politics that most teens are insulated from. There are a couple of points I recall that might be a problem, such as when Podkayne overhears fellow ship passengers gossiping about her and her uncle, "they're two different races, she's clearly sharing his bed not his bloodline". I don't recall exactly how the passage goes. There's also an illegal drug called happy dust, and although none of Podkayne's family use it I think Podkayne's little brother (amoral and possibly sociopathic) drugs one of their kidnappers with it so they can escape.
Asimov's "The Last Question" is a short story that might or might not be offensive to very devout Christians. It's about a supercomputer being asked how to stop or fix the heat death of the universe for the sake of humanity, and ends with the supercomputer's final iteration -- itself plus all the trillions of human uploads, on a server in hyperspace outside the dead universe -- having no one to give the answer to, so it restarts the universe with "Let there be light."