Help with Research/Science Fiction

[rendo]

I'm currently a student at law school and have been assigned a research position for the summer. The article that the professor is writing is about genetic engineering/profession ethics/constitutional rights etc.

The law research isn't really an issue. I should be able to find plenty of cases that relate in one way or another to that aspect. However, the professor I am assisting is an unorthodox thinker and also wants me to bring research in the genre of science fiction. I am out of my depth because I simply have not read much in the way of science fiction outside of Orwell, Bradbury, or Card.

I am asking for help. Anyone who can recommend science fiction novels, short stories, may be even video game/movie plots that have to do with DNA testing/engineering and the Military. Anything you can point me toward will be much appreciated.

Thanks community.

[The Judge]

Hi. Can't help you myself I'm afraid, though we've plenty of people here who'll be able to rattle off a dozen books without breaking sweat. What I will do, though, is move your post out of Book Search -- which is really for trying to get a title and author name for a specific book one has read but can't now recall -- and put it into the general books forum where you'll likely find more people willing and able to help.

Good luck with the research.

[alchemist]

You didn't mention comics, but when I think of genetic engineering and the military, I automatically think of 2000 AD's Rogue Trooper, a GI (Genetic Infantryman)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_Trooper

[rendo]

Originally Posted by The Judge

Hi. Can't help you myself I'm afraid, though we've plenty of people here who'll be able to rattle off a dozen books without breaking sweat. What I will do, though, is move your post out of Book Search -- which is really for trying to get a title and author name for a specific book one has read but can't now recall -- and put it into the general books forum where you'll likely find more people willing and able to help.

Good luck with the research.

Thanks! Sorry for cluttering up the forum, I thought Book Search would have been the best option, but I'm new around here.

[rendo]

Originally Posted by alchemist

You didn't mention comics, but when I think of genetic engineering and the military, I automatically think of 2000 AD's Rogue Trooper, a GI (Genetic Infantryman)

Thanks! I'm definitely checking that out right now.

In terms of comics, do you know if the Amory War series by the guy from Coheed and Cambria has anything about that kind of stuff? More of a personal interest in thumbing through those and hoping I can kill two birds with one stone!

Thanks for your expertise.

[monkeypooper]

John Scalzi's -----Old Mans War ---series

At 65 they sign up to go off planet to fight an alien race but first they grow a new younger healthier stronger body using their DNA which for some reason they grow them Green then transfer their conscience to the new body they also allow no-one else off Earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man's_War

[FireDragon-16]

Off the top of my head, I can give you a couple movies...

ZPG (1972): In the future, there's too many people and they've been banned from having babies for a generation. One couple breaks the rules and trouble follows (I've only seen bits and pieces, but it might help). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069530/plotsummary

You also might try Splice (2009), that's definitely DNA testing...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1017460/combined

Hope these help! If I remember any more, I'll try and get them up ASAP!

[rendo]

Thanks everyone! Keep them coming, I promise I'll read/view/consume whatever is suggested (within reason). I want to really come with some impressive research at my meet up in a few weeks.

[alchemist]

Originally Posted by rendo

Thanks! I'm definitely checking that out right now.

In terms of comics, do you know if the Amory War series by the guy from Coheed and Cambria has anything about that kind of stuff? More of a personal interest in thumbing through those and hoping I can kill two birds with one stone!

Thanks for your expertise.

Alas, I can only give the impression of expertise. I haven't even heard of those comics, but I'm sure others will follow with more knowledge.

[rendo]

Originally Posted by alchemist

Alas, I can only give the impression of expertise. I haven't even heard of those comics, but I'm sure others will follow with more knowledge.

Haha, most appreciated anyway! Looking forward to any and all recommendations.

[j. d. worthington]

I would say there's quite a rich tradition dealing with these issues in sf... far too much to list even a tithe here. However, I would suggest, as far as "classic" sf writers are concerned, taking a look at some of the stuff in Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind series, such as the much-anthologized "Ballad of Lost C'Mell"; there is also, from a rather different perspective ("artificial persons" being an accepted, though often disenfranchised, part of this society) Robert A. Heinlein's Friday. Roger Zelazny's "The Keys to December" also addresses these issues, though the textual approach makes it among his less successful works overall....

[merritt]

RUR - Karel Capek
written before DNA circa 1920, short read, touches on created/engineered people, ethics & civil rights.

should be some great background/historical "Sci-Fi"

[Metryq]

The movie GATTACA is well worth the viewing. In the near future, designer test tube babies are the norm, but some people still do it the old fashioned way. However you are born, DNA readers are everywhere—and the basis for new type of discrimination.

(GATTACA, the name of a company in the movie, is made up of the four letters representing the nucleobases in DNA.)

[Metryq]

Originally Posted by merritt

RUR - Karel Capek

Excellent suggestion. The play can be found in Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13083

I've always felt that the movie BLADE RUNNER was a variation on the play (although based on a book titled DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?)

[dask]

Didn't "The Dragon Masters" by Jack Vance deal with gene altering DNA type stuff? Or H.G. Wells's THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU for that matter? (Or just about 97% of all sf in one way or another?)