The algorithm brought me here, and I'm glad it did. Good to hear an Australian reviewer. My particularly self-serving suggestion is my debut, 36 Streets (Titan Books UK). It was just last week shortlisted for an Aurealis Award (Best Science Fiction Novel), so I can assure you it's not terrible. Cover quote from Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon), who's a huge fan of the book. Cheers, T. R. Napper.
Congrats on your novel! Believe it or not it is actually already on my TBR after it was recommended to me on Discord. I don’t know when I’ll get to it but I’m looking forward to it. Glad you found my channel!
House of Suns is easily the best book I've read so far in 2022 and I would recommend that to anyone who is even remotely interested in Sci-Fi on large scales. Remembrance of Earth's Past is also one of the greatest Hard sci fi book series I've ever read. The second installment, the Dark Forest, is a thought-provoking wild ride! Great video Jonathan, I'm looking forward to your next one!
My top sci-fi reads this year were The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and To Be Taught, If Fortunate (both by Becky Chambers), The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig and The Locked Tomb Series by Tamsyn Muir, which I need to reread now… and possibly several times to fully grasp all of its intricacies. Thanks for this list! I can’t wait to discover more from Black Crouch and Andy Weir in particular.
First off: love the tone and pace of your content, cheers 😊 Second: you mentioned a sci-fi/fantasy title, so it got me thinking, "Did anyone ever expand on the concepts and world-building in the movie"Krull"? It would be fun to know more about The Beast, how the world knew about it? who forged The Glaive? what are the Hunters? And on and on.
@@WordsinTime it's a bit of a mess, almost no exposition, just a lot of "of we go to the next step" kind of adventure. Plus: you get a very early Liam Nelson role 😁
Ooo, I like lists! There is a risk of repeating myself since I don’t recall if I have used these items before, but I own and have read all of these: 1️⃣ Space Opera: The Cold Between by Elizabeth Bonesteel. 2️⃣ First Contact: Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos 3️⃣ Post-Apocalyptic: Wool by Hugh Howey 4️⃣ Hard SciFi: Ring by Stephen Baxter 5️⃣ Sci-Fantasy: The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood 6️⃣ New&Old: Lightless by C.A. Higgins 7️⃣ Nolan: 🤷♂️ 8️⃣ Pulpy: Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon I need to get to the Suneater series - that is high on my TBR.
Wool is on my TBR list, too. I read Trading in Danger a while ago and enjoyed it. Most of the others I don't think I've even heard of, but I'll have to look into them. 😉
My favorite scifi subgenre is space opera so I try to consume as much as I can. House of Suns is great it makes you think. The Expense everyone knows about it, fun read. James Pinche Holden HOWEVER! What I want to give out a shoutout to is "Spiral Wars" It's a book not really talked about in the RU-vid community and it's actually great I'm on book 7 (the latest book) so you know you've got good consistent reading. It's a bend of military action and brings some interesting things which makes you stop and think about it once in a while. EG how does natural evolutionary traits effect different spices inclination to things like curiosity, democracy, etc. Just wanted to give a shoutout to spiral wars since ya its good stuff.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve never heard anyone talk about it except for Liam’s Lyceum and he loves it. I hope to be able to get around to it relatively soon!
I’ve been enjoying your recommendation videos and 2 of those are on my September TBR. Children of Time is one I’ve been meaning to read for years but upon seeing that book 3 will be coming out soon I finally got the push I needed. Hail Mary is the second TBR book. I’ve enjoyed Weir’s other books The Martian and although many didn’t enjoy his follow up Artemis, it’s one I enjoyed as well. Next year project:Empire of Silence, I must know what all the hype is about!📚
That’s awesome! I’m looking forward to hearing your reactions in September! Children of Time can be read as a standalone but I am also intrigued to read the next two!
Awesome! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! The series ramps up from book 2 onwards but I thought the writing, world building and character development was already fantastic in book 1.
I'm always behind you with your love for Three Body, I've got at least one of the others on my ereader TBR... Trying to work my way through the 200+ unread books on there but for every one I finish I buy another five!
Great video. Have you ever done a video of like your top 10 or 20 favorite science fiction books of all time? If not, I'd really be interested. I'm getting most of my book ideas from you. Thanks buddy
Thanks Dale! I haven’t made my all-time list video yet. That video has the potential to get the highest amount of views so I want to do something special for it. I plan to make it this year!
I recently added The Three Body Problem and its' sequels to my TBR. I'm curious about Blake Crouch and will look into his work later as time and money allow. Since I already own several Arthur C Clarke books I still havn't read I'll add a few to my list of planned reading including Imperial Earth, 2061: Odyssey Three, Astounding Days, and The Fountains o Paradise. Happy reading.
I've read Three-Body Problem and Children of Time and loved both of them. Great recommendations. After this set of recommendations, I feel like I must pick up House of Suns. Also, just ordered Oryx and Crake. I tried to read it several years ago and it is just so grim as is most Atwood. I would place Ancillary Justice on modern scifi list also.
I’m glad you enjoyed those two, hope you enjoy House of Suns as well! Oryx and Crake certainly is bleak and there’s some cool ideas in Ancillary Justice!
I've just got into Sci-Fi and still trying to find my ideal genre. This was really helpful for being open minded and exposure to a broad array of stuff, thanks for creating and sharing! Cheers
Great recommendations, I finally put House of Suns on my TBR list. The Trisolaris trilogy was great and I agree, book 2 and 3 are much stronger than the first one which seems a little too classic. Also, Oryx and Crake sounds interesting, I'm feeling very postapocalyptic right now. 🖤
Three-Body Problem is a bit strange, because Dark Forest (which I'm currently reading) is actually much improved over book #1. On one side, I'd love to recommend this series to other people, but I am aware that TBP has some serious flaws, even though I liked it too.
Some very solid picks! I’m currently binging Blake Crouch, I highly recommend delving into Recursion if you haven’t already. I just finished Upgrade his most recent novel, while I didn’t enjoy it as much as the other two, it’s still better than other novels I’ve forced myself to suffer through recently 😂
@@WordsinTime ah yes! I was thinking about reading the wayward pines trilogy as well. Unfortunately I had watched the show years ago and some things stuck with me that I’ll have to push through now lol. Luckily the pacing of his books so far have been great and I’m sure I’ll be sucked in in no time. Cheers and enjoy! Let me know what you thought of Upgrade when you finish!
Recursion is one of my favorite books ever! I read Upgrade this year and really enjoyed it. I have to check out Dark Matter based on my experience with Crouch so far.
Welp… I’m a Christopher Nolan fan, so I guess I should try Dark Matter. 😅 Great list. I’ll probably return to it for more recommendations in the future. -T
House of Suns is on my Kindle and I hope to read it soon. I loved Children of Time. One of my favorite recent books. I'm ambivalent about Three Body Problem, I just could not get into it. Empire of Silence is another book I already have on my Kindle. Project Hail Mary is another book I loved. Great concept and a couple of very memorable characters in Grace and Rocky. Dark Matter is yet another book I bought and hope to read soon. Deathstalker is the only one of your reconendatios I have not already read or bought and plan to read!
It's an old story, but if you like books that combine elements of science fiction and fantasy, consider "Port Eternity" by C. J. Cheeryh. Not a long read, but an enjoyable one.
The Three Body Problem is one of those books that I wish I could read in the original language. From what I've heard, there were different translators for some of the installments? There seems to be a bit of a divide on that level. Without being able to read the original, it's impossible for me to know if one or other of the translators have a style that doesn't work for me, even if they are correctly conveying the meanings of the words, or if the way the original writer wrote it was something I didn't enjoy in general. Translations can be tricky. You can directly translate words, sentences, and paragraphs word-for-word. The entire book may correctly convey the meaning of the original 100% accurately. But it can be done in a way that is clunky / doesn't flow well in that other language. Does that make sense? (Apparently, I'm bad at communicating even in my own native language, LOL!)
That is a great point! I would be intrigued to read the series in Chinese if I was able to. Books 1 and 3 were translated by Ken Liu and book 2 was translated by Joel Martinsen. I thought the writing felt a tad smoother in book 2 but there wasn’t a big difference.
Oryx and Crake brought me to tears near the end! The second book was ok, I find there was too many coincidences just for the purposes of moving along the plot
Children of time had some Deus Ex Machina in it bridging some gaps in the spider evolution, and along with some plot manipulations, the human conflict, I was a bit frustrated by it. Beautifully written, and fast paced, I finished it and was entertained by it.
Three Body Problem was a interesting read. But the physics part made it complicated, since I haven't read in in my language. The idea of Children of Time is great. The way he describes the spider civilization is fun, the spaceship part is very emotional. Great final. The only small thing, that was a let down, was the history of the spiders. Here is too much human history interwoven.
Thanks for sharing Andreas! I agree that some parts of the spider history were taken from human history, but there were also some aspects that were unique to the spiders.
I've read project hail Mary and recommended it to my son, and I'm currently reading the three body problem, and it's still early to say how it will go. We'll see 😊
For a dystopian modern sf novel I think I'd lean toward The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I know many people are freaked out by this book, but it's hard to argue with a Pulitzer Prize.
Oof yeah I was warned about some of the content in Oryx and Crake, but I still really want to read it. I thought Hard Scifi was going to be a sub-genre I wouldn't like, but I actually ended up really enjoying the Three Body Problem, so I might have to give the subgenre more of a chance. Okay I'm finally putting Project Hail Mary on my TBR.
Read it and loved it! I think people who like Andy Weir would also like Hull Zero Three. Something horrible went wrong and a man and woman need to survive and figure out what happened kind of story.
I loved Children of Time. However, I’m struggling with the sequel, Children of Ruin. My first thoughts was that the author gave us a hit with intelligent spiders, so, why not do the same thing with intelligent octopus? For me, it’s just not working. Not sure if I’ll continue with the series or not. Very disappointed with Children of Ruin after loving Children of Time so much. Love you videos and your book recommends.
I loved Children of Ruin myself. The concept up uplifted octopi after uplifted spiders does seem a lot like just a remake of the first book, but I found it was different enough to still draw me in and I'm looking forward to the next installment in the series. I've seen enough reviews of the book by people who didn't like it to know you are not alone though.
You might try the Poseidon's Children series by Alastair Reynolds. Neural interfaces with elephants and eventually super smart elephants. It's an epic space opera!
Good idea to have these caategories. In the strange case anyone else cares here's my take on them ... House of Suns is the last SF book i read. Loved it. Children of Time . On my TBR list. Oryx and Crake. DNF. Just did nothing for me. 3 Body problem. Hated it. I know everyone else seems to loves it.I bailed out half way through skimmed parts of the sequels and glad i didnt bother finishing. Empire of Silence. Sounds interesting, not heard of it, will check it out though though sword fighting seems anachronistic given its someone who can destroy suns ! Project Hail Mary. Loved it (also loved The Martian). Read it last month. Dark Matter. Ah yes i read that some time ago. Interesting idea and a good read AFAICR. Deathstalker. The cover puts me off and likely not for me off but I'll check it out.
I'm always going door to door, telling people about: Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer. It's such a radically *different* science fiction book. It takes place in 2454, and human society has really changed, a lot. People are living on the moon, and engaging in a very long-term deep time scale terraforming of Mars. ... Too much to say. It's about society, and religion (religion has been banned in this world,) war, law, time, ... so many things... If you're looking for something *different,* and very much science fiction, -- I want to direct your attention to Too Like the Lightning.
The trilogy imo is very close to being a masterpiece. I would also recommend her Handmaids Tale series the second is better than the first ( but probably because I was too familiar with the first due to the TV series)
II have something to say about hard sci-fi - I've read your recommendations, but I do wonder why you don't recommend Ken MacLeod or Greg Egan in the hard sci-fi category? The Three body Problem is fascinating don't misunderstand me, it's grappling with cultural history is perhaps its best aspect, otherwise strangely idealistic yet nihilistic simultaneously with it's chaos dynamic sysetm themes, it doesn't address our pressing issues like AI and politics, extremism and corporate greed and politics like: Dissidence (2016), Insurgence (2016), or Emergence (2017), or sideloading in Zendegi (2010), these make Liu Cixin book feel dated by comparison, like a rediscovered classic. Read these and while Greg Egan gives everyone a run for the intellectual money, he makes the competition look decidedly easy.
How would you contrast and compare the spider civilization in the Tchaikovsky book (I have not read it) with the spider civilization in Vinge's book "A Deepness in the Sky"?
Please, I'm seeking help finding this book again. It's about a man hunting impending darkness, a mother with a daughter who controls the forest and a man battling the cold.
@@WordsinTime It turns out that the relatively grounded atmosphere of the cultural revolution with somewhat smaller concepts was easier to visualise, but that could be because I attended some political studies in the past. Later books had some interesting ideas as well, but overall I found the lack of closure annoying and overall it felt like if the books ran further and further in to a fairytale land with motivations not too clear. Too broad strokes on that painting I guess.
