What reading level is he at? For a sixteen-year-old boy reading at age level, I would actually stay away from most YA and throw adult novels at him. On the other hand you named mostly YA as stuff he's already read, so maybe he does read below grade level, or just doesn't read much at all? (All the same I'd probably throw him right in with adult SF: most boys I know who started really reading at that age did it because they fell in love with an adult SF series and powered through, not because they were eased in to it.)
...not that there's anything wrong with YA! But I'd say that, say, Animorphs and Patricia Wrede and Tamora Pierce and Artemis Fowl might be too young for him?
Here's some recent adult SF writers that unregenerate het-male-type people I know really love but are also approved of by feminist/lgbt types I know:
John Scalzi Jim C. Hines A. Lee Martinez David Weber (particularly the Honor Harrington books) S. M. Stirling (particularly the Nantucket series and the Emberverse) World War Z Lois McMaster Bujold Terry Pratchett (who has some longer YA if you want to start him on easier stuff) Cory Doctorow (ditto with having some YA) Neil Gaiman (ditto) Lev Grossman (who wrote The Magicians, often described as 'Harry Potter all grown up') Jim Butcher
I would actually, um, avoid McCaffrey - I love her stuff too, but it's chock-full of really problematic gender and sex elements, of the kind that sixteen-year-olds can internalize without noticing (which is why so many of us loved it at sixteen, and yet.)
Older stuff that fits the same categories: Lord of the Rings - he will either bounce right off of this or fall completely in love with it and demand all the books of Lost Tales, one or the other. Ursula K. LeGuin - who has some great classic dystopias, among other things Roger Zelazny Douglas Adams
(I could list more but they get into categories of either 'might not be the best place for an SF beginner to start' (Like Octavia Butler or Samuel Delany) or 'might be too problematic or full of sex' (like Robert Heinlein.))
Also, is he/was he at any time interested in Star Wars or Star Trek? Because they both have some really good, not too difficult to read tie-in novels (and even the not-so-good ones are workmanlike) and if you can get him started on those he will probably never run out. Also many of them are written by people who write/wrote their own good original SF, so they're a good way for a beginner to start finding authors they like without just picking at random.
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Date: 2012-01-10 07:56 pm (UTC)...not that there's anything wrong with YA! But I'd say that, say, Animorphs and Patricia Wrede and Tamora Pierce and Artemis Fowl might be too young for him?
Here's some recent adult SF writers that unregenerate het-male-type people I know really love but are also approved of by feminist/lgbt types I know:
John Scalzi
Jim C. Hines
A. Lee Martinez
David Weber (particularly the Honor Harrington books)
S. M. Stirling (particularly the Nantucket series and the Emberverse)
World War Z
Lois McMaster Bujold
Terry Pratchett (who has some longer YA if you want to start him on easier stuff)
Cory Doctorow (ditto with having some YA)
Neil Gaiman (ditto)
Lev Grossman (who wrote The Magicians, often described as 'Harry Potter all grown up')
Jim Butcher
I would actually, um, avoid McCaffrey - I love her stuff too, but it's chock-full of really problematic gender and sex elements, of the kind that sixteen-year-olds can internalize without noticing (which is why so many of us loved it at sixteen, and yet.)
Older stuff that fits the same categories:
Lord of the Rings - he will either bounce right off of this or fall completely in love with it and demand all the books of Lost Tales, one or the other.
Ursula K. LeGuin - who has some great classic dystopias, among other things
Roger Zelazny
Douglas Adams
(I could list more but they get into categories of either 'might not be the best place for an SF beginner to start' (Like Octavia Butler or Samuel Delany) or 'might be too problematic or full of sex' (like Robert Heinlein.))
Also, is he/was he at any time interested in Star Wars or Star Trek? Because they both have some really good, not too difficult to read tie-in novels (and even the not-so-good ones are workmanlike) and if you can get him started on those he will probably never run out. Also many of them are written by people who write/wrote their own good original SF, so they're a good way for a beginner to start finding authors they like without just picking at random.