I am a big fan of "Dragon's Egg," which I read about forty years ago, and there is one scene that has stuck with me all these years. The cheela "astronaut" has boarded the human ship and determines that interspecies communication is impossible because of the speed differential between the two sentient entities. Then, the cheela "astronaut" detects a cancerous growth in one of the humans and then proceeds to removes it. Just a short scene but I really thought that was a nice touch to describe the speed differential which was what the book was all about.
I read Dragon’s Egg soon after it came out. Thought it was a fun read. I did not find it that much harder to read than Niven’s Ringworld. Recommend the movie version of Contact. Really enjoyed this video. Thank you!
Great list! I'll need to read a few of those. I'd like to throw in some honorable mentions... Seveneves from Neil is great. Pandoras Star was amazing, and I'm surprised Hamilton nor Reynolds made your list. Both authors are amazing imo. Salvation Sequence was also great. Quantum Magician is also good! Thanks for the vid!
Ha I just reviewed Diaspora, it was very very out there, but I ended up loving it. It did break my brain a bit, my advice for books like that is to treat the math and science like you would a magic system, you don't need to grasp it 100% to enjoy it, its enough to know the characters did, just like it's not all that important to understand how a wizard conjures a fireball. I also loved Ubik and Blindsight, Dark Matter dissapointed me just abit, I think just because it was overhyped in my head. I need to read Quantum Thief it sounds right up my alley.
Nice list. Not sure if I'd agree with Ubik as an intermediate read though, it's one heck of a mind-melting narrative that requires you to really pay attention.
Solid list; I've read and enjoyed all of them except for sea of rust, blood music and dragon's egg --- I have purchased all 3 and look forward to reading them, thank you!
after reading "Blood Music" I bought about 12 Greg Bear Hardbacks LOL, I use to get them off Ebay for dirt cheap prices! Now I got a Kindle and gave maybe 200+ books to the local library.
Dragon's Egg takes place on the surface of a neutron star. Stephen Baxter's Flux takes place inside one. The human analogs smell photons and see sound because sound travels faster than light at neutron star densities.
Not sure if these are advanced or expert, but two of my all time favorite novels. Far Future, Post human... The Golden Age by John C Wright Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
A few for me to try here, thanks! A fire in the deep was expert level for me, but now I'm reading Babel 17. Eek not a before bed read, too much brain power required. Although perhaps with the weirder books, letting it wash over you rather than trying to fully understand, is a better way to go?
I haven’t read Babel-17, but I found his novel Nova a bit hard to connect to and that’s supposed to be one of his easier ones haha. And yes, I think that’s a good approach!
So good to see you holding one of favourite author's books ever: Greg Egan's Diaspora. The opening is mind melting. Fans of hard sci fi should also check out Egan's anthology Axiomatic and look up his phenomenal short Tap.
There are PKD novels where it’s easier to keep track of what is going on than Ubik. That said I’m about to read it for the third time. Might go with the three stigmata of palmer eldritch first though.
Glad to hear your thoughts on Diaspora, in particular. It was such a tough read for me. Usually I can skim over hard science things when it's just a sentence or a paragraph here and there. This was something different. There was one page where I had no idea what it was talking about and most of the words I either didn't know the definition of or I had never heard before. That made it a slog. I'm sure, for a very smart person, it's A good book. Too hard for me to enjoy. I wonder if the author was just flexing his brain to show off. I read his short stories book Axiomatic and it was really good. Thanks Jonathan
Wasn't aware of most of these. Really appreciate you breaking them up into categories and putting some less popular titles on here. Nothing hurts like getting halfway into a sf book thinking you're going to get your mind blown and then it turns out you're just reading something like Dark Matter 😂
Great list - Blind Sight and Diaspora are both favorites of mine. If you can get through these you should try Risen Empire. The Golden Age by John C Wright is in my top three of all time
That’s okay. Snow Crash is supposed to be a bit more tongue in cheek than his other books. I plan to read Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon and Seveneves eventually!
I loved Snow Crash but it’s definitely doing double duty as a satire but also a book that exemplifies the best tropes of cyberpunk. Seveneves was one of those books that made me depressed about humanity.
It was a pretty different experience reading it when it came out... it was simultaneously a lethal parody of, and an ultimate example of, the cyberpunk genre as it stood at the time.
Blindsight was very good but a little difficult to push through at some points. The payoff is worth it, but after finishing I just felt... kind of tired. I haven't been able to bring myself to start the sequel.
Cool list! I like how you describe the books without anything remotely approaching a spoiler. Will definitely check some of these out eventually. If I had to make my own list, Beginner: Recursion by Blake Crouch Intermediate: Children of Time Advanced: The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin Expert: uhhh…House of Leaves by MZD (does this count as sci fi?)
I was hoping to hear The Golden Age (aka The Golden Oecumene #1) by John C. Wright with your expert level books. I consider it teeth shattering hard sci-fi, and even reading the description might sound intimidating depending on where you read it from. It sounds like Accelerando in your list (that is, full of technobabble), except our entire solar system is the setting. The protagonist found out he and EVEYRONE ELSE was given amnesia over something he said or did. Him trying to find out what serious crime he did is the main focus of the first book. The primary form of communication is a mix of video phone, virtual reality, and telepathy. A form of AI do most of the work, while everyone else mostly pursue their own projects and artwork. There is only one court, and the entire military is just one guy... in which most people forgot about.
@@WordsinTime Just note it was written to be one book, but the publisher wanted to turn it to a trilogy. This caused some issues. The first act (book) fires plot twists in rapid succession and is the best of the three as it has all the world building. The third is just one overlong reveal.
I need to get PKD onto my TBR later this year. Btw I met Robert L. Forward briefly during my bookselling days when I worked for Waldenbooks. He was very friendly and much smarter than I'll ever be. I read part of Dragon's Egg, but it's above my pay grade.
Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams would make for a good Advanced selection. Imo it builds on Zelazny's character Sandow from Isle of the Dead, another great read, but that wasn't surprising given that those two writers admired each other.
How about a similar video but for sci-fi series? I tend to prefer long series so the author has plenty of time to develop characters and plot. From the junk food style Undying Mercenaries and Expeditionary Force (fun and doesn't take itself too seriously), to the Ender Saga (beyond Ender's Game, in particular), Honor Harrington, Ark Royal and The Lost Fleet (space opera), The Culture and Foundation (including the robot series and empire series). These are some of my favorite series.
@@Maxvla Those are good picks! I haven’t read as many series start to finish compared to standalones, but I do plan to make a video on my top series in the future.
You listed several of my favorites. Dragon's Egg actually has a sequel called Starquake but don't know if it'll give you any more satisfaction assuming u haven't already read it. Also the Contact film is pretty good though recall it introduces a religious character don't think was in the book and makes the plot a little too much about the science vs religion conflict which is why I prefer the novel. Just hope if u really like jody foster's character try to keep your appreciation within bounds as some of her past admirers unfortunately have not haha. ⚛😀
You crack me up, Jonathan! I would note that there was not a single female author on your list so I will provide one for some of the categories. 😁 Beginner: A Long, Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers; Intermediate: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jamisin; Advanced: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. I haven't got a good one for Expert, but I'll continue to noodle on it.
Another wonderful sci fi 'philosophical' writer from Australia to track down is Terry Dowling. His book Rhynosseros was s beautiful, toughing, thoughtful and truly original. I'd rank it as light sci fi or middling, along with Philip K Dick.
I suck at reading sci fi....3 body problem was good of what i understood...but alot of it went over my head...i can read things like dark matter tho...but I'd like to get better at the harder stuff
I just started Blindsight last night, am about 50 pages in and haven't had any problem following it so far. Does it get harder as it goes or something? I'm a little bit of a science nerd 🤓 so it's been up my ally so far.
@@WordsinTime Wow that was a fast reply haha. At first, I found it very strange how light hearted the narrator is, especially when he's describing his violent childhood. I was a expecting the book to have a more serious tone and be a lot more difficult than what I have experienced so far.
@@WordsinTime - It won't be long until I'm reading SciFi again. Despite the fact that Shogun is over 1200 pages I'm blazing through that doorstop of a book. Highly recommend.
I'd like to add a few, Beginner - Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks. Intermediate, Flux by Stephen Baxter. (really the whole Xeelee series, but Flux is my favorite (so far))
I wouldn't say Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence is intermediate, it's pretty complex due to the nature of the setting, almost every civ with FTL has time travel, plus the scope of the series is too massive and keeping up with the timelines can be pretty hard.
great list all winners. the 1985 contact book is great the movie did not stick to the book . i also believe that they put a movie version of the book out with the same name ( not sure of this )
contact is a great movie. i read to book first decades ago, and i remember wondering whey they made some of the changes they did in the movie, but to be honest, I don't even remember what they are now. I've read the book once, but have watched the movie probably 9 or 10 times.
I love the idea of beginner to expert. I hope you rate more books like this. Gives me good ideas of what to read. I read 3 Body Problem as a beginner and struggled with a lot of technical parts of of the video game and almost DNFd it. I think exploring more basic ideas in fast paced can be a good primer to get to some of the technical. Any recommendations on advanced or expert sci-fi dealing with lamguage? Im a linguist so I think I'd get a lot of that type of technical stuff.
@@taylormelton6661 I’m glad it was helpful! I think language plays a role in A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. And I haven’t read it yet, but I believe it’s important in Babel-17 by Samuel Delany.
_Hellspark_ by Janet Kagan deals glancingly with linguistics, but more directly with various cultures, including one where they are trying to decipher whether the planet's natives even *have* a language. It's not the most sophisticated science fiction, a high schooler could read it without much difficulty, but it's one of my enduring favorites.
I’m going to try a few in beginners and intermediate lol. I loved Dark Matter. But my brain doesn’t work well with epic fantasy or sci-fi BUT! It is my absolute favorite genre to read and to watch. I usually stick with YA since they’re much easier to understand. But I am wanting to branch out into adult a little bit
@@WordsinTime I mean...there aren't too many sci-fi books from which people can attain a doctorate through analyses...I've been reading BoTNS since the early 80's and am still finding new twists and turns...Wolfe was one of our all-time greats.
NIce list. Apart from Quantum Thief. Only useful for testing that your new shredder works. Not sure I'd go totally with the order though. Id put Hyperion in there somewhere and have Accelerando top in terms of expert, its probably as hard core as hard SF gets. Sea of Rust is the only one Ive not read, need to get round to that. Ive been recommending to a friend of mine that her book club reads Slaughterhouse 5, even though they dont normally do SF. So that maybe could be in there perhaps instead of Ubik. But hey another day Id choose some other books. Apart from yes Hyperion, yes Accelerando and NOT Quantum Thief.
man this is a great list of stuff...Dragon's Egg is great too. Never tried Adrian Tchaikovsky...heard he is an effing downer and a drag. I don't have time for a lot of negativistic sad crap.
I stick with what Asimov said (paraphrased) that there are some writers who deliberately make their writing obtuse , too abstracted to cover up the fact that there's no real ideas or plot and also think they are being "clever" and it's a battle between author and reader. If a books too complicated long hard to read just bin it the author is being a dick
I liked your list but it suffers just a little bit by being mostly white males. You mention 3 body problem, but that could have been in this list. The murderbot series by Martha Wells should be on this list too. Surprised you didn't go for a Ursula LeGuin or Octavia Butler in this list.
5:47 - I beg to differ. (BTW, yes, the film is OK.) **** SPOILER **** AVERT YOUR EYES! Ahem, OK. So, "classical" first contact story is about contact with "ordinary" aliens, someone like us, but different, if you see what I mean. Here the our protagonist SETI scientist meets what/whom you might consider God(s) or at least creators. Our Universe is an artifact (as I often say, a Cosmogony 101 exercise on some university for mata-beings; OK, perhaps this was a practical PhD thesis.)
Definitely intrigued by 'Spin'! I think I've heard it mentioned on other sf videos at some point and your mention of it here has confirmed its addition to my tbr. Cheers 👍
Please read Spin as soon as possible. I’ve always told my children that good scifi has good science and Spin is one of the very best scifi books I’ve ever read. It’s very friendly to normies, holding your hand through some difficult to understand concepts. Very well done.
*Contact* is even more fun if you read it with Carl Sagan's voice in your head the whole time. The movie is decent. Some changes from the book, obviously, and one famously-overacted scene. But worth checking out. I also loved *Blindsight* and *Quantum Thief* . I'll have to check out some of the others on your list.
Robert Charles Wilson has become one of my go to authors. Two of his books : The Harvest, & Darwinia, were top draw. Looking forward to reading your recommendation, Spin, at some point.
I've read none of the beginner level here but have read and reviewed Spin, Ubik, Blindsight, The Quantum Thief, Accelerando. I started to appreciate Accelerando after about a hundred pages when I could see more clearly what Stross was doing with the story and the reader. Here's a part of my review on Hardcover: "He packs every sentence with crazy terminology and new concepts so that many sentences don't make sense, although page by page it's somehow coherent. There's a famous sentence in writing, 'colorless green ideas sleep furiously' which is nonsense as a sentence and filled with self-negations even though it is grammatically correct. That is this book in a nutshell. About two thirds the way through I suddenly thought, "This is one giant piss-take. He's filling the story with all this crazy stuff and all the while sitting there with a smirk thinking, 'See, I'm still doing it to you.' "
I've only read a couple of your recommendations, & both books were good : Ubik, which is one of PKD most entertaining SF novels. & Blood Music : I found it very character driven, which is alright, but I wished there were more depictions of it's transformed world, than was actually shown in the book - it also had a chilling ending, which was absolutely perfect.
Dark Matter is on my list - would you recommend reading or watching first? Hey, maybe even do a video on the topic - 3 Body, Station Eleven, Sweet Tooth, Shogun (not sf but just awesome show) - book or tv first?
👨🏫 Exciting curriculum, sir! You’ve set some ambitious homework ahead of your students. I fear I won’t be passing this course with a Degree with Distinction as I suspect I’ll top out at Advanced, despite being a mature student 👨🎓
Great video! It seems to me only that maybe the advanced ones are harder to follow than the expert one? I haven´t read Dragon´s egg yet, but I can´t imagine it being "more difficult" than The Quantum Thief, only more science-oriented :D...So it´s just a matter of definition
Of the books on this list that I have read, I did not really care for Snow Crash, Spin or Ubik. I know that I read Blood Music, but it's been so long that I have no idea what happened.
