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As a guy who's been reading sci-fi/fantasy in English since my early teens, I'd recommend:

- Douglas Adams' books (especially the Hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy series of 5 books - my favourite books!)

- Arthur C. Clarke's works (the first Rendezvous with Rama is very good, touches upon very interesting things in not too complicated way)

- Isaac Asimov's works (the Foundation series is great, but perhaps too tough for his age. So I'd recommend the Robot series - for example Caves of steel, Naked Sun, Robots of the Dawn)

- Discworld series (others have already suggested, and I have all the books from it!)

- I'd also recommend the Artemis Fowl series -> they're about a young (teen) boy who's a genius, has awesome inventions, fights bad guys, is friends with the pixies and other races from an underwater world etc. I liked it, and I think it's geared towards younger audiences.

- Dune might be too tough for him, but I read it in my mid-teens and it had a big influence on me, and I've loved re-reading it ever since.

- Lord of the Rings + Hobbit

I'd also suggest going to the local library and asking them which of the books in this thread are most suited for a boy of his age.

I thought of a few others...he has probably been through all the Percy Jackson series as well as the related books by the same author but if not, he'd probably love them. In addition, if he won't do classics, at least try with some of the abridged versions. While they lack the rich language (and therefore are easier to read) they maintain the excellent story lines. AND have the benefit of giving kids the background knowledge needed to interpret more modern stories. After all, reading Percy Jackson is just that much more interesting if you have knowledge of the Greek gods.

Give them a try. He'd read each one in about a minute.

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens

[This message edited by twisted at 2:05 PM, October 20th (Monday)]

Plenty of fantasy/sci-fi recommendations, so let me try a historical sidestep.

Look into Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle trilogy - The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers. Technically children's books (well, young adult, I suppose) but better written and crafted than 80% of what passes for adult historical fiction these days. Sutcliff has plenty of other books, though many are out of print or not available as ebooks. The Eagle Trilogy is available, though - I'm certain of that.

I'd recommend her novels to anybody, not just a smart fifteen year old.

My favorites:

The wheel of time series, but it will tie him up for a year! Lol!!

2nd on the Pawn of Prophesy. (Belgariad series)

Nine Princes of Amber. Series but shorter reads....cocky sardonic lead.

Ender's series

The Sum of All Men.

In Her name ( not as racy as Martin, not anywhere near it -- but has a spot or two.) and the lead character is a boy despite the title.

Kindle sci-fi. spinward fringe was good.

[This message edited by Take2 at 5:47 AM, October 21st (Tuesday)]

I'm with Hobbes, especially Asimov and Heinlein ... though I'm not sure what a 15 year-old would do with Stranger in a Strange Land....

Anything by Jack London, but include The Scarlet Plague.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series and/or C. S. Forester's Hornblower series might be enjoyable and informative for him. Cornwell's Sharpe series are pretty easy reads and are historically accurate (except for Sharpe, that is). Van Gulik's Judge Dee series (T'ang China) might interest him.

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction used to publish annual anthologies of 'the best' stories of each year. They were great.

He might like classic mysteries - Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, and the Brits.

If he likes history, how about Xenophon, The March Upcountry, or Suetonius The Twelve Caesars, or Gore Vidal's Julian (which really doesn't fit here, since it's fiction)?

[This message edited by sisoon at 2:45 PM, October 26th (Sunday)]

If he loves science why not Stephen's Hawkins. ALso get him into some more reading like 1984, Clockwork Orange, .. I goobled them up when I found out that they were "banned" when they came out!

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Terry Pratchett has a massive series called discworld. It's fantasy, and it's a lot of fun. I've probably read 30 of them.

I loved Terry Pratchett. The Wee Free Men! So great!

Also, the series by Brian Jacques, The Redwall Series? Wonderful vocabulary, stories and descriptions of settings and characters. From wiki:

His book Redwall was written for his "special friends",[1] the children of the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, whom he first met while delivering milk. He began to spend time with the children, reading books to them. However, he became dissatisfied with the state of children's literature, with too much adolescent angst and not enough magic, and eventually began to write stories for them. He is known for the very descriptive style of his novels, which emphasize sound, smell, taste, gravity, balance, temperature, touch and kinesthetics, not just visual sensations.

I was not any older than 15 when I read Stranger in a Strange Land, for better or for worse.

I am currently reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King and it's great. Also, The Stand. Fantastic.

I love the Dragonriders of Pern too, good stuff.

Here are some books my brainy boy has enjoyed. We often share books with each other. Some Sci fi and speculative fiction, some not.

Speed of dark

Life of Pi

Slaughterhouse five

The book thief

The things they carried

The great train robbery

The wee free men

Maurice and his educated rodents (something like that -- terry pratchett)

The fault in our stars

Great expectations

Martian chronicles

Fahrenheit 451

Holes

Strange case of the dog in the night

Absolutely true story of a part time Indian

Incredibly loud and extremely close

Heroes of the valley

Red mars

Into thin air

Hyperbole and a half

Binky the space cat

Ronald Dahl, Boy: tales of childhood (autobio)

Bartimaeus novels by Jonathan stroud

The ear, the eye, and the arm

House of the scorpion

Predictably irrational

Short story collections

He also enjoys science fact books, such as the wildlife of our bodies, and wacky science (books like, how to fossilize your hamster, mini weapons of mass destruction, that sort of thing). My dad has given him a subscription to national geographic for years -- he enjoys that too.

Have fun!

The "Michael Vey" series by Richard Paul Evans. He usually writes adult novels but this one is especially for young adults. Book #4 just came out and it's what I'm giving my 15 year old 'brainy' grandson for Christmas.

My son has the same reading list. He has read some of those cat books ten times. It's his comfortable familiar place. Which is fine.

He loved the Hunger Games series. Ender's Game (the second one is eh, the third one is ugh). I pushed him into Maze Runner, which he loved. He just did the Life of Pi in class, and liked it.

I'm thinking about Steven King. The Stand has some sex in it, but probably OK for a teenager who has been exposed to that kind of stuff (I tend to be looser on the language and more grown up topics that a lot of people, so YMMV). I also just forced him to get Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I never read that one myself, but love Gaiman, and have heard good things about it.

I wonder if he'd like Good Omens? There is some really British humor in there. One of the funniest books that I ever read, but I don't know if he'll get it.

I have heard Pullman's His Dark materials (I think that's right).

I suggested things like Verne and Wells. That's where I started.

I'm on #8 in the Wheel of Time. Its a love/hate relationship with me.

Thanks for the suggestions. I got more than I gave.

A lot of these have been mentioned so I'm just going to add my vote for...

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The Dune books. The prequels were fantastic.

Ray Bradbury:

October Country (short stories)

Something Wicked this way comes

The Halloween Tree

The Dust Returned (Halloween Tree sequel)

The Martian Chronicles

Watership Down

The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson)

Michael Crichton specifically:

The Andromeda Strain

Eaters of the Dead

Congo

Jurassic Park

Timeline

Prey

Binary

Crichton's books are excellent for brainy kids. He spends whole chapters on explaining the science behind the story. Very little of it gets into the movie versions.

Something non-fiction? Richard Preston's The Hot Zone. It's about Ebola Reston. Yes - all about an outbreak in Reston, Virginia. True story.

Richard Preston also wrote The Cobra Event which is fiction. Based on smallpox and the common cold fusing into a new type of disease.

[This message edited by MailServer at 10:45 AM, November 11th (Tuesday)]

The Way of Kings By Brandon Sanderson So good!

Actually anything by brandon sanderson

Wow, thank everybody!!!

I am going online tonight to get a bunch of these.

For the Rick Riordan fans I noticed at the end of Blood of Olpmpus that he is starting a new series due out next fall this time with the Nordic pantheon.

Personally, I like his books I think the story line is great and I can't wait to see what he does here.

Snow crash was one of best scifi books I've read.

Gormenghast was amazing.

What about non fiction tragedy/adventure like:

the Perfect Storm about massive weather that sunk a fishing boat of massachusets coast.

By Sebastian Junger.

Or The thin Blue Line by Jon Krakauer about the 1996 disappearance of climbers in mt everest.

Or

Into the Wild also by Krakauer about a young man surviving on his own in Alaska until he got trapped and died from eating poisonous plants.

These two authors write so compellingly that these are page turners, but they include science, geography, botany, etc. described in a very accessible style.

When you say he's not mature enough for George Martin, do you mean you're not comfortable with him reading really bad sex scenes and stupid, unnecessary torture scenes? Because that series isn't exactly mature. Actually, it's pretty fucking immature and stupid. It's like, take Dragonlance and add sex and torture, and take away the dragons, but, I dunno, add entire books about dragons that don't have dragons in them, and then, there you are.

Because Snow Crash, that's a lot more of a mature concept level than Game Of Sexposition, but it's FUCKING AMAZING. Neal Stephenson is great if he can understand it.

Otherwise, Terry Pratchett fits everything.

Everything.

Yes, that too.

No, not the creepy incest sex fantasies and torture shit. So not everything.

Everything that is COOL. Terry Pratchett is cooler than Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Combined.

Seriously.

Please include Harry Potter. They're incredibly clever and interesting.

Also, my son really enjoyed the Da Vinci Code books.

The Maze Runner series is good, way better than the movie, BTW.

Depending on how brainy he is, check out Gene Wolf's The Wizard and The Knight. It's a duology. His stuff is known for being extremely dense, but that one is written to appeal to a wider and younger audience (still not all that wide compared to popular fiction). It's a little weird, but there is nothing objectionable. The storyline is just weird.

His best known stuff is the Book of the New Sun series. It's also weird, and there's nothing too objectionable except that the main character is a torturer (I don't remember it being very graphic, though). That's not really geared toward kids, though, because it's about as dense as fiction comes. Every word has a reason, he makes up some words, the narrator is unreliable despite stating early on that he has a perfect memory, etc.

The Wizard and The Knight are like New Sun light or something.

The Martian by Andy Weir is a great book!!!