Is Terra Ignota the new gold standard in science fiction? 

I was recommended "Too Like the Lightning" by a library staff person when the book I was looking for wasn't on the shelf. I didn't realize it was the first of a 4-book series. It was far more challenging/demanding than anything I've read in a long time and I read it in short bits... but never could abandon it because I had to find out what happened to Bridger. Only to find out I was being set up for a sequel! .... today, I just finished reading the 4th book and realize I have to start all over again, re-reading the series from the beginning now that I know who everybody is, more or less. And yes, maybe also do some reading of Roman and Greek myths, Thomas Hobbes, etc. Can't say enough good things about Ada Palmer and the world she created. 5 stars!

There was the Book of the New Sun and now there's Moid's Video of the New Style. I like it. You have definitely made me interested in these books.

The production on this video was top notch.

I just finished the series last night and it was as mind-blowing as you described. I did enjoy the philosophical forays, and Mycroft as a character (including the later revelations), the world building, and especially I do like an ensemble cast.

Wow! Great video Moid! This is on my TBR!

I've never heard of this series, but now it's on my TBR.

Just finished the series myself, maybe the best books I've ever read.

loving the new essay format. it's good shit.

Interesting and fun new style of video. Thanks moid!

Great overview, thanks. I’m definitely interested after loving BOTNS. Will see if I can squeeze it in this year. BTW - Amazon links in the description didn’t work for me.

Thanks for the reccomendation! Im really excited to start this! Your channel rules🤘

Dear Moid, The one thing I absolutely love about your reviews and interviews is the inimical, bawdy, irreverent delivery you improvise in your outrageous Hawaiian shirts with drink in hand. It is your devil may care, fire all the guns at once attitude that I find endlessly entertaining; like having a drink with a mate. This video to my taste lacks that warmth. It is a well done and informative review but the change in the way you address your audience is just a little colder. Never the less rock on brother!

I’ve nearly finished bk 1.

Thanks for bringing this series to my attention. For those interested in some background knowledge without reading the texts that Moid mentioned, Melvin Bragg’s In Our Time radio series covers quite a lot of the mentioned subjects. A Cliff Notes approach but better than nothing 👍🏻

Read the first book, looking forward to finishing the series !

Well, this is such a great sale pitch the first book just moved up several positions on my TBR

“Read it and not know what the hell you’re actually reading most of the time.” So it’s Umberto Eco.

Excellent video, I continue to be intrigued by this novel, but I haven’t read it yet. Your excellent review just makes me want to put everything else aside and read it.

Ok, I'm in. Ordering tomorrow.

2 books in and make no mistake, this is not an easy read. But very rewarding, rich and enlightening. Sci Fi at is best is of course speculation on the state and possibility of our future and this is hitting the spot for me.

Love your channel dude 👍🏻

I've only read the first hundred pages or so, of the first book, and I'm completely hooked.

So far I've just done the first book. Very weird, very inaccessible, very alien feeling. I think Moid got it right by comparing it to Book of the New Sun. At least for me BoNS was easy compared to this. Also the ENDLESS obsession with the 18th century. I did like where about 3/4s of the way through we find out some stuff about the narrator that made more relateable. And it's unsettling what that is. And for a supposed future global society it's super Eurocentric. I do want to find out what happens next, so I'll likely stick with it.

I like the video production of this.

great video, will read it soon. huge BotNS fan

Yeah yeah, on my TBR… I’m still not done with Cibola Burn, can’t keep up with you guys. I’ll get there! Sounds amazing.

Great review !! The first book has really stuck in my mind...hard slog though, for someone loving more adventure thrown in and less talk in BEAUTIFUL ROOMS 🤣 Got the other 2 ready to go after a well earned rest from her fist book.

starting my re read of perhaps the stars

What an excellent review! I am 1/3 through the 4th book and I. Am. STRUGGLING. at this point. Didn't love the 3rd book either but was very much intrigued by the first two.

I read the first book in summer 2017 and have been waiting first for the rest of the books to be published and for someone to start really talking about them. I am so glad you are doing it.

Thanks!

Great video Moid! I'm personally preparing my brain for the 4th book in the series which I'll get to soon, truly brilliant stuff. Also I like this new style of content, keep em coming! 🚀

"This...Jurassic Park." Classic Moid.

Really like the new presentation format. New gold standard??

Added to the read list.

Well you definitely sold me on it.

OK, I give in. I'll try it.

sold

I've been wanting to tackle this. Both Ada Palmer and Jo Walton seem hyper knowledgeable to me.

Robert Charles Wilson's The Affinities and Sean Williams' The Resurrected Man (not to mention William Barton's Dark Sky Legion) all did it first and did it better. Oh, and John Barnes' A Million Open Doors and subsequent Giraut novels.

Wow, just one of your best clips Moid, my leader!

I read the first 3 (was not aware of book 4) and enjoyed them but was so confused and am unsure if rereading them will help me haha

I would add to your list of references to the end, TI is also easy to appreciate for people who like anime: Utena, REIGN the Conqueror, Gundam SEED, Astro Boy, Princess Knight, Rose of Versailles in particular.

Is this the gold standard for science fiction book reviews? Maybe it is.

Thanks man, really good video!

best video of moid by far!

"I'll add it to the list"

im buying this tonight..cheers moid

You brought this series to my attention a couple of months back, thank you! I'm just done with Book 2. I'm really enjoying the prose stlye. I am trying to find the right adjective. Flowery? Lush? Dense? Lyrical? Literary? Old fashioned, even. It reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes books, or Ripper Street. As you say, I'm missing some/most of the references but that is not detracting as such, more a layer of nuance missing. I'm very much enjoying it, have recommended it to friends, and am launching into Book 3 on a long flight tomorrow. Great review.

I was blown away by the first three. I felt like I was experiencing a new art form. Then...book 4...my eyes just keep getting heavy. I've put it down three times. Should I keep plugging? Cause so far, it's real tough.

Ahaaa!

I am trying to consume this book as an audio book and honestly it feels like I'm banging my head into a wall. More so than Gene Wolf, which I also found uninviting, but ultimately enjoyed two times through. I'll continue to try stubbornly but I'm getting to the point that i may just have to rely on the common opinion that Too Like the Lightening is good and move on to less intentionally inaccessible fiction. I guess I'm just not quite an elitist.

Oooo ooooof this sounds like my copy o Earl Grey.

Fantastic review, very eloquently put and I agree with your take. Terra Ignota is a great series of books. Exceptional world-building, interesting ideas, and fascinating characters.

Do you think Mike will enjoy it?

Amazing video. We need more videos like this exploring the ideas behind books and series that are not the usual mainstream and talked to death. Please continue, it is an amazing format to add to your existing ones.

Taste is personal of course but I couldn't bear the first book, and dropped it only a few chapters in. The characters were too difficult to relate to and the prose leaden.

Best Science Fiction book review ever? Of all time? That I have seen? Just may be! Thank you, Moid, for taking us to the next level, for showing us the new gold standard!

We love the good shit. We don't like the beeps though.

You almost had me.

Man, last time I got caught in the expanse and it was utterly boring. I’ll have this one in mind though, it sounds interesting

Easily one of the best videos you've made! 👍

"Binded"? 😁

Love that Moid maybe made a nod to Alan Partridge at 1:28 🤣

I was sold as soon as you compared the series to The Book of the New Sun. My TBR just grew by four books. Oh, and by the way, bond not binded 😂. Pendant’s corner.

Haha haha Jarassic Park! 😂

OK, sounds great series ordered, last time I did this was the Southern Reach trilogy in March 2021... I was absolutely bored by them. 🤔🤣

Yes, it's future classic. Fantastic, intelectually stimulating read. Favourite SF series written in XXI century.

Enjoyed the video & I claim the prize for the deliberate mistake, John Paine's Common Sense 😁

I'm officially convinced to give this series another try.

Well I'm sold...Abebooks to the rescue again.

Sounded a bit like a paid for review this one till the end. I have been intrigued by this though but might be a bit too dense.

I have not read this book series but based on you description I did not hear much science or speculation, only fiction and fantasy. Great science fiction to me has always been about the exploration of powerful concepts rooted in the nature of reality (aka. Science). To each their own.

I hope you are not over-selling this series like you did with the Expanse. What a pile of s#!t that was.

You had me until the "magic boy". Why mix fantasy and science fiction? Not for me.

I finished the first book and found it boring and pretentious.

No because the premise is shit and makes no sense. It's just more Hunger Games idiocy.

I'm going to go with, no. Couldn't finish the first book myself.

finishing Too like the lighting and the heavy handed pedantic nature of the attempt at cultural philosophical infusion is very hard to stomach, albeit interesting ideas. very know it all, and indirectly insulting the intelligence of the reader. Fundamentally, and though this is a little presumptuous, i think generally the sort of reader who enjoys this subgenre would already be erudite enough to not need the explanatory exposition, and those who don't know alot of this stuff probably wouldn't be reading it. the latin with translation was the wooooorst. pick one or the other, sis.

I was interested..until you mentioned the God Child 🤦‍♂️

Not a huge fan after the first book and don't intend to continue. The world building was interesting, but the nod to old world writing style was irritating as was the heavy handed harping on pronouns. Beyond that - IT WAS NOT A COMPLETE BOOK. Unlike Alastair Reynolds Inhibitor series - Too Like the Lightning does not stand on it's own as a story (imo) which is one of my major pet peeves. There was no third act. There was an excerpt for those willing to invest (time or money) into book two (and maybe 3 and 4???) but I'm uninterested in going any further as Ada Palmer did nothing to prove to me that she can tell an interesting story or pay off. I found myself just hoping to be done with the last 150 pages or so as I'd had enough and it was obvious that the story was going nowhere in book 1.

I read about half of Too Like the Lightning and the plot and worldbuilding were very interesting but her treatment of gender, use of pronouns and Mycroft constantly apologizing for using them in his narration drove me crazy.

I got about halfway through the first book and gave up. I found it bloated and pretentious and confusing.

Is this the book with the weird pronouns ? Also saying this is the new gold standard, and complaining about three body problem is the weirdest take i've heard. But i guess to each own. Agree to disagree on this one.

Weird pronouns, written by a woman and a progressive academic to advance Enlightenment philosophy. No thanks. Comparing this to Gene Wolfe is like comparing Flannery O'Connor to Ayn Rand.

Sounds dumb.