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Science-fiction fandom as a communal entity came into being in the late 1930s. Those fans who are still with us from those days are known as First Fandom.

Many of the founders of fandom were themselves responsible for much of the literature that was its inspiration. Included in the list of First Fans were the three writers who make up what I call the holy trinity of science-fiction: Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke.

The next generation of fans came up on works of the holy trinity and on such films as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "The Thing" (both the original versions). Television gave them "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone" (also original versions). Later, others came into the fold via the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises.

Now, we have many fans becoming citizens of our geek nation through a love of anime, manga and an endless supply of games in various media.

What all of us have in common is the desire to find things that give us a sense of wonder. That is what science-fiction and fantasy are all about. I hope to help those who come here in the hope of fulfilling their quest by suggesting some of the wonderful science-fiction and fantasy I have found.

For those of you who came up in fandom when it was almost totally devoted to literary science-fiction and fantasy, I suggest you take a look at some of the wealth the Internet has to offer. Hulu is a handy site for viewing television programs you may have missed. If you haven’t been to YouTube, hie thee hence and type in whatever subject you wish to see a video about and you’ll soon be treated to a plethora of choices. Beware, I’ve been to YouTube intending to watch just one video someone has suggested and have found myself at the computer viewing many more than just the one video.

Using your favorite search engine, you can find convention listings, science-fiction podcasts, comic strips, blogs, free science-fiction books to download and nearly anything else you could want. Enter your interest and you’ll be off into a wide world of possibilities.

For information on close to everything in the universe, there’s Wikipedia. Just go there. You won’t be disappointed.

Another area that fans who’ve been around the universe a few times might think about revisiting is gaming. Some of us played role playing games, or as we call them RPGS, back when Gary Gygax and Dave Arnison were the gurus of gaming. But there are some new kinds of games that just might catch your interest: online role playing games and live action role playing games.

I have not played any of the online roleplaying games, but my son has at various times been addicted to EverQuest and World of Warcraft. As he has grown up in a fannish family, he’s a connoisseur of geekdom and I take his word for the fine qualities of online game playing.

What I have tried and loved is LARP, or live-action roleplaying. A couple of years ago, I and my author friend Richard Lee Byers LARPed for the first time at GenCon in Indianapolis. LARP is basically make-believe for grownups and it’s fabulous fun.

In just a few days at GenCon last year, I got to be a gypsy woman in the 1800s, a Roman woman in old Britain, and a black woman with second sight in 1950s New Orleans.

What makes LARPing just a bit different from childhood make-believe is that there is a structure given to you and a gamemaster who guides the group of gamers toward some sort of revelation or completion of a task.

Now that we have delved into some of the shiny new stuff for fans, it’s time to move on to some of the great old stuff that some of you who have come to the fan community in the last 20 years may have missed.

It seems to me that some of the old science-fiction movies were better than some of the newer ones because they couldn’t sacrifice a good story to great special effects. I can’t tell you what happened in the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," but the pacifist message of the original has stuck with me since my first viewing of the movie. "The Day of the Triffids" is extremely scary and "Forbidden Planet" is a great adventure.

Somewhat newer but not so new that young fans will have seen them at a theater is the Back to the Future trilogy of films. These 1980s movies have some decent effects but what truly makes them a lot of fun is that they have coherent stories and characters you like and with whom you can relate.

If you are looking for a sense of wonder in comics, you might want to go to some of the silver age comics. Read the Spider-man, Hulk, Superman, Fantastic Four, Avengers and Batman books. One of my favorites is Dr. Strange. His run was short but I loved those books. As a child, I was fond of Superman, especially any book in which they featured the Bizarro world.

Some of the novels and novellas I’ve read that I would feel comfortable suggesting to anyone are "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein, "Ringworld" by Larry Niven, "The Peace War" by Vernor Vinge, "The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov, "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuin, "Way Station" by Clifford Simak, "The Incompleat Enchanter" by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, all of the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, and the original "Dracula" by Bram Stoker.

The thing about giving recommendations is that it’s best to be aware that not everyone has the same taste as you do and not everyone is going to agree about what is great or shiny. That being said, I hope at least some of you will find something in what I’ve written about to try for the first time.

It’s good to try new things and I am open to suggestions of shiny new books, internet goodies and TV and movies from Airlock Alpha readers. You can send me email at amorris@airlockalpha.com

Next time: It’s Good to Be a Geek