5 Hard Sci-Fi Books That Will EXPAND YOUR MIND 

Ring (and by extension the whole Xeelee-saga) is about the hardest sci-fi I've worked myself though. Absolutely fascinating stuff. He has also al lot of spin-off novels which often just happen to be in locations, objects or universes references in the overarching Xeelee war, but are completely independent stories. Guess there's time for whole civilizations to rise and fall if you main story spans millions of years...

Blindsight and Echopraxia by Peter Watts immediately come to mind as does the Manifold sequence by Stephen Baxter, comprising, Time, Space and Origin, and a collection of short stories called Phase Space.

I loved the Three Body trilogy. My favorite hard scifi book is Seveneves by Stephenson, I actually just started a reread of it yesterday.

Excellent list! I've read 2001, Dragon's Egg, and The Three Body Problem and indeed they blew my mind when I read them with the ideas they presented. It makes me eager to read the other two you discussed. I would say of books I've read more recently (as in the last decade haha), Fire Upon the Deep also did this with its universe, and Reynold's House of Suns that I'm currently reading is doing the same.

Dragon's Egg was such an unusual read. Loved it.

Loving the videos, I especially love your love for the Three Body Problem books! A lot of people don't like the writing style (Chinese writing is a very different style to European/North American writing) or find it too hard for even hard sci-fi, so I'm glad you give it the love I think it deserves. (Though I hope a Chinese speaker can help you learn how to say Liu Cixin's name correctly at some time ;) )

Stephen Baxter has written quite a few good hard Sci-fi books my two favorites are Manifold Space and Vacuum Diagrams.

I would always push classic greats like Hal Clements (Mission of Gravity), David Brin (Startide Rising series), Frederick Pohl (Gateway series), H. Beam Piper (Fuzzy Paper), Joe Haldeman (Forever War series).

Thanks for this vid. These are the kind of reviews we need more of

Having just gotten serious about my sci fi journey, I've tried to pick through books that come highly recommended. I'm working on the 1984 audio book right now, per your suggestion, and am really enjoying it. Not having much experience with the categories, it's hard for me to decide sometimes. If these books are a ten out of ten on "hardness" of their sci fi concepts, how would you rate Hyperion? That's a book I've read and thought the science fiction aspects were super cool and thoughtful. Knowing it's a 3,5, or 8 would better prepare me for how hard these books would be to read and understand. Great video

Great recommendations, I've only read 2001 and Three Body, wasn't too excited to continue the Three Body series but apparently it's worth the time

Reading permutation city right now based on your reccomendation from a previous video. It is insane!! Thanks for the reccomendation

I haven’t even read the three body problem, but I know the premise, and the premise alone hurts my brain big time. Thanks for the video!

I will always remember the first time that I read Ringworld by Larry Niven. It needs to be a movie. I also would love to see The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter become a movie.

Great list Jonathan! I recently watched 2001 for the first time, and I liked it, but haven’t read the book yet. I just started Three Body Problem. So far it’s pretty interesting, but I’m only a few pages in.

I completed your sentence about “Ring” taking place across millions of years out loud, in synchronicity with you! That made me laugh. It’s one of the things that delighted me about this book. Glad you liked it. I need to do a re-read.

Read the "Three Body Problem" books and you are right. I found much of it hard to track. Not all of it, but I would have to read them again to capture more of the scope of the storyline (s).

the man who folded himself....david gerrold...one of the best time travel books ever.

Ring is one of my top 10 favorite books. It was my intro to Baxter and the Xeelee sequence. I LOVE IT! I got way too excited finally seeing some Baxter love on booktube! And I'm fairly certain I know which character you will remember because so will I. Anyone who read Ring will

The Three Body Problem series is the only one I've read. I detected a different philosophy that I attributed to the author's Chinese background. It is a wariness of outsiders. China has had a fraught relationship with others like Japan, US, and Europeans. This is most starkly evident in Dark Forest Theory which is introduced in the second book. If you are alone in a dark forest you risk attracting unwanted attention if you light a fire. So better to hunker down in the cold and dark than attract attention. It seems to address the question: where are all the interstellar civilizations? They are staying hidden in order to avoid attracting attention from an aggressive and powerful civilization lest they be attacked. The US and Europeans seem to have a more positive outlook embodied in Star Trek's Go Boldly Where No Man Has Gone Before. That's had its historical dark side too (ask Native Americans) but are we not lighting a bonfire in a dark universe?

The Seedling Stars by James Blish, Dragon's Egg by Robert L Forward, Inherit the Stars by James P Hogan Neutron Star by Larry Niven

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Great list! Another hard sf recommendations: 1. Chris Moriarty - spin state, spin control, ghost spin. 2. Alastair Reynolds Revelation space books. 3. Derek Kunsken Quantum series. 4. Linda Nagata, Inverted Frontier series, 5. Gregory Benford, Galactic Center series

Great list. I have read all of these except Permutation City. Going to Amazon now to rectify that.

Quality list. Liked and subscribed

I read four out of five. I have Ring on my shelf, but I’m waiting to read the other books in the sequence first. I preferred Egan’s Diaspora to Permutation City.

Ring is on my list! I read your others except Permutation City, but I did read Diaspora by Greg Egan. Diaspora had the wild artificial sentience of Permutation city, but with the 'higher reality' moments of 3BP.

Thank you for listing Greg Egan. He is a champion mind-blower.

I loooved Permutation City. Usually hard science fiction downplays charcacterization in favor of the ideas, but the characters in this book felt very real and there were scenes where I just ached for them.

I can only find the German version of Ring for Kindle. I am in the U.S.A, and my Amazon account is in the USA as well. I see it listed in Canada's Amazon. And the hard copy version is available in U.S. Amazon, but I can only read Kindle now. Any ideas on how I can get the English Kindle version of Ring?

I read Robert Silverberg’s Hawksbill Station and that alone made me decide to get as much of his work as I can find. I think he is exceptional! But aside that, solid list!!

James Hogan's Code of the Lifemaker is a nice one.

Dragon's Egg sounds like a development of the ideas in Hal Clements's Mission of Gravity.

I'd recommend Protector by Larry Niven which combines relativity, human evolution and war in space. Another which I like by Niven is A World Out of Time which is future society, rebellion and the unexpected in the far future.

I have come to judge sci-fi booktubers by whether they include Remebrance of Earth's past in lists like these. Good job, you passed!

As someone said below, and I will second it. The book by Larry Niven, A World Out of Time, was an excellent read that I read many years ago. Here's synopsis. A cancer-patient from our time, resurrected in a criminal's body given the task of seeding planets throughout the solar system with an almost immortal AI in omnipotent ship. And, that's just chapter one ... he he he.

I enjoyed all the books you mentioned (haven't read Permutation City yet but plan to now!) The revelation space books by Alistair Reynolds are great, but my all time favorite has to be The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Parnell.

Hal Clement's SF, spring to mind, especially "Close to Critical". Warm regards, Rick.

You had me at cyberpunk, thanks for the list.

Whenever I think hard sci-fi I often think of "His Master's Voice" by Stanislaw Lem first, though looking at reviews it might be better to call it hard philosophy. Multi-disciplinary might be an even better term. Nevertheless, I do recall reading way more about random number generation than my brain could handle, though that feat could be accomplished in a sentence or two. Anyway, imagine sitting down to watch 'ET' for the first time then deciding to have an existential crisis instead because you don't have any idea how your DVD player--or anything--actually works. That vaguely reflects my experience with HMV, though it fails to describe my fascination with and 'enjoyment' of the book. Let's just say I didn't regret reading it. (Forgive me if this comment is oddly formatted. YT/my tablet lost my previous attempt at this comment, so I'm copy/pasting attempt two.)

If you really want to expand your mind you could read the "original" three body problem prize-winning essay by Poincare - truly an Einstein that goes unrecognized.

Something strange happened to my comment- here it is clean. Super video! Thanks for the hard sci fi push! I suggest James P Hogan as an author to check out. Inherit the Stars trilogy blew my mind when I was 16 years old! Also The Cradle of Saturn rises Velikovsky up and dives into a violent universe of physical activity. Code of the Life Maker takes a look at completely independent electronic life evolution.

"Dragon's Egg" reminded me of Hal Clements's "Mission of Gravity". If you haven't already, check out "Darwinia" by Robert Charles Wilson for a reveal that will blow your mind.

Thanks for the note and the inspiration. I am going to try this again, this time with more of a philosophical intent. Still, the story of fending off the alien invasion and entrapment of earth is interesting enough.

I recommend Neverness, by David Zindel. Zindel was at the time a lecturer in advanced mathematics at (? I think) Princeton. I could spend a half-hour typing even the smallest concepts, but he tells of a space-faring race, of navigator mathematicians. They need to clear the gravity well of a planet, and then drop out of real-space and into the void, where they explore the Manifold between dimensions. The concept is not all that unlike 'hyperspace' in StarWars or something, but the way he does it, is perfectly in line with higher mathematics. The leader and founder of the Sacred Order of Mathematicians, is older than anybody knows. He is in fact, the oldest human being there has ever been, and pretty much the whole human race of today, are his descendants. He remembers hunting mammoth in the last ice age. Mankind is the bridge, between an ape and a God, and this guy is the corner-stone. A girl is born to be a female Ninja, a Japanese assassin, except females are not accepted as Ninja. She gets in because they can't keep her out ~ she's too good. That's because she has been genetically optimised for this. She rises to high in the Warrior Poets but then steps aside, not taking leadership which she could have, but perusing her ascension to the position of Goddess by augmenting her brain.... Her native culture is Japanese and cherry blossoms, but English culture of the Victorian era fascinates her. So the Silicon entity entraps and holds Navigators, and asks them a question : "Tiger Tiger, Burning bright, In the Jungles of the night. What Immortal hand or eye ~ finish the line. Your life depends on it." It has got some beautiful beautiful characters and situations. Our professor of advanced mathematics, knows a few things about psychology and human behaviour too ~

The three body problem was actually great. Personally I think Stephen Baxter is a terrible author. But one of the best hard sci-fit books I’ve ever read has to be Anathem by Neal Stephenson. And I’d actually also give the Diamond Age by the same author honourable mention

Being an 'old school' reader, I only read 2001 from your list. Arthur C. Clarke could write about space travel like no other author I know. I could never tire of his technical descriptions---they were almost like poetry, such was his passion for the subject! 2001 was truly his masterpiece, I read it many times, including the early versions. Clarke at his best.

Yessssss Stephen Baxter's RING! thank you for this rec!

Dragons Egg sounds ridiculous. When gravity is so high electrons are forced into protons, having any matter other than neutrons is impossible. Plants, I don’t care what form, cannot be created from pure neutrons. I had some real problems with Three Body Problem too.

Asimov's Foundation series is my favourite .

Great choices. I read 2001 in the 70's and loved it, I even loved the movie when I saw it in 1976, although half the audience were confused. Love the 3 body problem and I have been watching a Chinese TV Series based on book.

I'd recommend Hal Clement's _Mission of Gravity_ and Robert Heinlein's _The Man Who Sold the Moon_. And if you haven't read it, a short story: "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin.

2:29 commenting before watching the segment: I think Baxter is, at least in the scifi booktube community, really underapreciated, especially compared to Reynolds. I wonder why this is. ok, now commenting after watching the segment. About the "dialog is used as a vehicle for info dump" ....yeah. that is pretty Baxter :D Maybe a weakness of his You are right, Ring, is the 4th book, and the 2nd book, Timelike Infinity, is a more or less direct prequel to it. Raft and Flux are a little bit separate and can be read on their own and also do not directly contribute to the "main story". There is also a short story collection called "vacuum diagrams" which i thoroughly enjoyed. There is also a second trilogy, called "destiny's chuldren" which is kind like a reboot? I formulate this as a question because recently Baxter started (another?) reboot of the story. Anyway, if you want "High Concept SciFi" it is pretty hard to find anyone more high concept than Baxter.

They melted your brain ...and simultaneously expand my mind...

I finally bought 2001 A Space Odyssey while watching this video 😂 I am also interested in checking out Ring and Permutation City.

I'm surprised 'Heart of the Comet' by David Brin wasn't there.

The Dark Forest genuinely scared me

I've said it before but try Accelerando. (note, its available, perfectly legally, for free do a search). Its Cyberpunk but more accessible than Neuromancer which ive just had my second attempt at and still DNF 3/4 through. Diaspora (by Egan) is super hard SF worth the read but you do need to go with the physics and if physics isnt your thing you'll likely give up.. Not really a spoiler to say its ending is somewhat reminiscent of House Of Suns even if the two books are totally different. I love all your other suggestions apart from 3-body which was also a DNF for me. I know its popular I just couldn't get into it.

Respect for you. If you would have excluded Remembrance of Earth's Past, I would have given you a hard pass. The fact that you made it number 1 means we are on the same level. The 2001 Odyssey series was great as well. Still Cixin Liu blew my mind on every level. In addition, the cultural difference between Eastern and Western philosophy made it all the more fascinating imo..

In the fifties and sixties the author Hal Clement was considered the king of hard sf.

Many kudos for Dr. Forward's novel. Dear viewers, be sure to get your hands on the sequel, _Starquake,_ too. as well as another two book series, _Rocheworld,_ also full of amazing, very plausible worldbuilding but with more character development and relationships and even some political intrigue. Re: Baxter - _Millions_ of years? He doesn't get out of bed in the morning for less than a billion years in the whole _Xeelee Sequence..._ Very good list, overall. (BTW, I don't think that the ending of _2001..._ lends itself to too many different interpretations, in a way _Solaris,_ for example, does.)

It's more fantasy than Sci Fi but, I hear the Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman is pretty good

Just finished “the three body problem” and he is right, its fantastic. And 2001 us a classic, everyone should read Clarke in general. Just ordered Ring based on this review

Influx by Daniel Suarez…

I like 2010, both book and film a lot. Both are less weirdly abstract and expositional than 2001 book and film. I got much more sense of wonder with 2010!

Can anyone recommend any novels in the similar vein as Permutation City?

Greg Bear’s Uplift Trilogy.

I'll wait for the movies.

I'd recommend Downbelow Station, by C J Cherryh.

I have not read any of these; since I want to keep my gray matter intact, I doubt if I shall.

haldeman forever war! one of my favs. great science in general, time science, military spec. also great viet nam war book.

I've read Raft, and Ring, and Ring IS the better book. As for books about extreme environments, Hal Clement has long been considered the master. Mission of Gravity, Needle, and many more are sure to give your mind a good stretch, sometimes in unexpected ways...

What’s with the jazz hands?

Has any one read Dark matter whats your thoughts on?

my mind is saturated with distraction

Anyone remember "Stranger in a Strange Land"?

I don't understand the gushing over the three body problem that I see everywhere. I found it weak in most ways. Where are Hal Clement and Larry Niven?

Seems a bit exagerated.....60+ billion times Earth's gravity?

2001 is en excellent read.

What I took away from the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy is that women must never be put into positions where their actions could affect the future of humanity because, if that is the case, they will cause the destruction of humankind.

I enjoyed the audio but the video was annoying. You move your hands too much when talking.

Great list Jonathan! I recently watched 2001 for the first time, and I liked it, but haven’t read the book yet. I just started Three Body Problem. So far it’s pretty interesting, but I’m only a few pages in.