SF, more than most literary genres, makes use of children as protagonists or major characters. This is understandable in SF stories written for children (as we discussed in the previous section), but it is still unusually common in SF stories written for adults. The children in these stories usually fulfill one of several different roles ().

There are stories in which children are portrayed as more open to connection with aliens , or even masquerading as aliens. To adults, children's motivations and reasoning are often difficult to understand, and it's easy to see them as not fully human. Adults also often view children as innocent, uncorrupted, and therefore better candidates for judgment by alien races. In these SF stories, adult readers can have a nostalgic retreat to what they remember (perhaps inaccurately) as a purer, happier, time in their lives.

Conversely, there are stories in which children are portrayed (whether through contact with aliens or not) as monstrous, demonic, villains. In some of these stories, the child character is diabolical, in others, he is merely unable to control his extreme power. In either case, it is quite easy for any parent to relate to the plight of the victimized adults in the story. Anyone who is a parent knows the joy and love our children make us feel, but there are certainly times when any child seems like a powerful tyrant, bent on ruining our lives .

Sometimes overlapping with these stories of monstrous children, there are stories of children with unusual powers, usually esp or psi powers, but sometimes merely extreme intelligence. The children in these stories are often set apart, both from other children and from the adult world, because of their powers. They are sometimes portrayed as initiators of a new race (mutants ), representing a future stage of evolution. These kinds of child character provide a connection for the many readers of SF who, as children or as adults, felt themselves separate from their peers and from the world of school and adults, especially when they felt more interested in books, say, or computers, than sports and popular music. SF in many ways (as we saw earlier) is an outcast literature, and a literature for outcasts. What causes the feeling of separation, often, is the same uneasy ambivalent response to knowledge, to science and technology, that drives so much of SF.

The final category of children in SF is a category that is certainly not limited to SF. Many SF stories deal with a child (or barely adult) character, coming of age. The story presents a test, a crisis, which will make the boy a man, or the girl a woman. These stories are in response to a universal human concern and experience, yet in SF they tend to focus on a specific set of skills or competencies, which are unique to the SF value set. Calm application of reason, thinking under pressure, creativity and ingenuity (especially with technology) are the qualities of successful adults in SF. In SF's coming of age stories, these are the qualities which young people must learn and demonstrate.

No specific discussion board for this section. Use the chance to add some more responses to forums you might have neglected.