My 10 Favorite Sci-Fi Books of All Time 

Correction: Kurt Vonnegut

Cixin Liu! I agree with Ursula K Le Guin being amazing 😇 Great list!

And the Scholar's Tale is just heartbreaking. My favorite sci fi novel ever.

@@carlosbranca8080 Agree. I bought it last year to have my own and have to read it again.

Fax, same thing I feel of the novel

Yes, very good! Though I was so disappointed by second book I couldn't even finish it

@@carlosbranca8080 Agreed on the scholars tale, once it clicks it was heartbreaking. What a book though, so good.

It is a really fun book. For some reason people expect more from it and are disappointed

Still looking for a copy of the sequel. I'd love to return to that world

The man himself! I would have loved to be at one of his talks. Might check out that library, I love close enough to it

But wait It gets better! I was already a massive Vonnegut fan and earlier that year My mother had taken me on a 1 month long tour of Australia. While there I had acquired a small library of paperbacks that I had not found in the US. Well about a week or so later, I once again found him in the Sturgis Library reading room and remarked on his books that I had found in the land down under. That I really loved the one called Welcome to the Monkey house because it referred to the speculative sewer systems under Cape Cod and resolved the joke about no word that rhymed with Orange... He looked at me with a frown when I mentioned the publisher. Apparently they didn't have a deal to pay him! I gladly handed him my collection of Australian Rip offs. A few weeks later, I found him yet again and I got a big smile a hand shake, and a hearty Thanks for bringing it to his attention. He also returned the books, Signed... Unfortunately, The books have been lost in multiple moves over the decades...

@@bookjack The Sturgis Library in Barnstable is the OG Longest Lasting. The One in Centerville is/was apparently a satellite Annex?. Of course, They didn't make that crystal clear to us as kids. But yeah, I found him in the one on Centerville Main St...

That's too bad. But a great memory and a great story!

Woohoo! Great Book

@@bookjack Me too! and my Mom.

Couldn't get into it in my 20s, will try again in my 60s.

its about epistemology, the philosophical content goes over the head of a lot of sci fi readers@@TheMisterGriswold

@@TheMisterGriswoldyeah, I read it a couple years ago, didn’t like it.

I definitely included Lathe of Heaven after watching your top 15 list. Glad you enjoyed mine

Happy to hear that. Glad you enjoyed it :)

Strong sci-fi can offer a different perspective that is different from fantasy. Asimov, Clarke and Herbert earned their audiences by writing great stories that challenge their readers.

Thank you!

Thank you so much. Glad you enjoyed it

Thanks so much! I really do like sharing lesser known books. So many recommendations out there but sometimes it's fun to go blindly into an obscure book

I've got that treasury as well 🙂 Thanks for watching

Happy to help :)

I love The Count of Monte Cristo. Going to make a top 10 Classics video soon. Will be in the top 3 for sure

Yeah 😅 We always seem to have similar viewpoints

Glad you liked them. Just finished In Cold Blood. A dark point in my biography and my bookshelf. Amazing book though

PKD is good at that. Thanks for watching

Thanks glad you agree. I'll get around to my top 210 someday :)

It drew me in for sure

Snow Crash was a little long for me. Neuromancer I need to revisit. Hitchhikers Guide was awesome and probably deserved an honorable mention. Dune I haven't read (yet) 😅 And Enders Game is obviously top tier

Your list is also mine. Snow Crash is the best Steampunk/Cyberpunk genre. Better than Gibson and his own later novels

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it :)

I'm holding onto a lot of books not worth rereading as well 😅

I read that a little while ago. Classic stuff for sure. Not as smooth as Scalzi though imo

Hope you enjoy them as much as I did :)

Yes my wife and I spent a night doodling. Was relaxing :) Glad you enjoyed

I reread canticle for leibowitz recently because it makes so many top ten lists and I remembered being so bored with it I struggled to finish it in high school. I still found it to be a very slow plodding book without a real payoff. Maybe that’s the point.

@@scottchristofersen2367 Yeah. I guess it's not what you'd call action packed. Sorry it didn't work for you.

Thanks for watching :)

So sorry to hear that man. I have a relative who lost everything to Katrina so I know how you must feel. Glad I can at least offer some distraction ❤️

This morning I threw away my English 1st edition of The Neverending Story by Ende. The entire book was printed in red and green ink. it was gorgeous. Such a waste. I'll ultimately get over it. Thanks for being a fellow book nerd.

Glad you agree :) Thanks for watching

Yes, I miss Ursula very much. Her willingness to allow a story to grow organically and move at a slower pace if needed, plus her absolutely beautifully-crafted prose, made her a star. And her championship of environmental issues, feminism, and freedom of artistic expression were inspiring!

Thanks. I don't have a goodreads and have only read a few cyberpunk novels but am hoping to make some more list videos

Awesome, would you recommend any off the bat?

Id recommend Neuromancer even though it was hard to get through at times. Gibson also wrote a short story called Dogfight which I loved. Snow Crash was far too long for me and read like an 80s action movie

Didn't know there was a film adaptation. Good to know :)

@@bookjack yes think was a TV movie from mid 90s with Sean Astin but there's a free version here.. I re-watch it from time to time. amazing what they did with an 8 page story.

I'm wondering if I should add the sequels to my TBR

@@bookjack the origins of the Shrike and a lot of the mysteries surrounding the war are explained in later books. Basically elements from each of the six pilgrim’s tales eventually factor in to the big overall story. It’s really satisfying.

Interesting, that was the big letdown of Hyperion... the ending

If I recall correctly it was meant as one large work in 4 parts. I really liked the 3/4 books but I gather many people didn’t. Simmons is great author but he is big on references which everyone might not know. Here eg details of Keat as a poet.

I liked it, but it was a bit pretentious at times. The weird simping for John Keats for example.

Thanks for the recommendations. I've read Ancillary Justice. Liked it but not enough to continue with the trilogy. That Butler book sounds interesting. I'll keep an eye out for it

how about the dispossessed

It does have a certain kind of magic to it

@@bookjack I was at my Jazz Club in Paris a few years ago. There was a US-French Jazz collaboration, they'd composed 7 pieces in the 7 modes, with each piece representing a different character in Hyperion. Fab stuff.

Hey Ryne thanks for watching. I tried Dune a very long time ago so I probably didn't have a lot of patience for all the diplomatic stuff. I'm sure I'll like it when I try again

@@bookjack One reason Dune impressed me so much is that Herbert pulled from many cultures/religions to create his world. Probably helped that I was raised Roman Catholic, so I really enjoyed the way the author used it for vocab/imagery.

I loved 3 Body Problem but felt the trilogy got a little too dense for me as it went on. Still great stuff though. Thanks for watching

Yes I feel exactly the same. I'd also recommend Welcome to the Monkey House a book of short stories

I can get bored very easily, but Slaughterhouse Five was an absolute blast when I read it in my freshman year of college at 18. To each their own ig lol

It’s the you that you bring to a book that determines what you get of it. Great books give you more as you grow. Lesser books are those you outgrow.

I’m opposite, read it when I was 17 and loved it, read it again when I was a little older and it didn’t hit the same

Wasn't planning on reading Children of Memory, but that's probably not fair of me. Still great books even though they're not as good as the first one

Agreed. So glad I picked him up again. Read Sirens of Titan recently and it rivals Slaughterhouse 5. Am planning on ranking all the Vonnegut books I've read pretty soon. Jerry Garcia? The guy from the ice cream?

​@@bookjackidk if you're joking but Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead band

Also Sirens of Titan is a masterpiece. My personal favorite 📚

I watch enough RU-vid to know what the people want 😁

No, I didn't! Thanks for the recommendation

Thanks, I appreciate that :)

You've got lots of masterpieces in your future. Hope you enjoy

I've seen his name around but haven't picked up anything by him. Will check that one out

We've got a lot in common so I'm sure you'd love Ted Chiang as well Interesting to hear that about The Fall of Hyperion. I've been turned away from it for some reason

@@bookjack Ted Chiang is on my TBR, I’m looking forward to it! The change in structure and slow first 100 pages turns some people away from The Fall of Hyperion but I thought it built to some amazing moments.

Old Man's War was definitely an outlier. I hope you like Canticle for Leibowitz. Kind of slow at first but stick with it

I bet Left Hand of Darkness has a good German translation. Probably Hyperion too

@@bookjack Hyperion absolutely yes. one of my all time favourite and the best Simmons Book.

Haven't heard of that one but I'll add it to the list Thanks :)

I have not read that but am always looking for more favorite short stories of all time 😅 Thanks for the recommendation

Thanks for watching :)

Thanks for the recommendation. Haven't seen that one around, but I'll keep an eye out

Awesome! Happy to bridge that gap. I've never heard that story talked about on here otherwise

Thanks for the recommendations. Martian Chronicles was a great read

You definitely should. Amazing author. Amazing ideas

I have heard generation ship before. Not sure why I said colony? Do people call them colony ships too? 😅

@@bookjack I think "colony ship" would be the set of all ships carrying people (or whatever) to make their home on a new world; "generation ship" would be the (slow-moving, by outer space standards) subset. So, all generation ships would be colony ships, but not vice-versa.

I've heard of that series. Will keep an eye out

Films? Wow somehow I didn't know they made films. Would be really hard to do

Loved it when I was a teen. Now I would find it irritatingly meandering.

Lol the same thing happened to me with that story. Glad you liked the anthology 😀

Thanks for the recommendations. I read The Dying Earth recently. I know Jack Vance expanded on that world a lot too

Maybe kind of but you're the first to mention it

The ending totally got me too!

Haven't read any Niven yet but he's on my TBR

Awesome. Thanks for the recommendations

Huge CGI budget

I did really get into the first book. You're right the world was really easy to get into. Not sure why I didn't pick up the second book though 🤔

Correct I haven't read him but I want to so thanks for the recommendation :)

Looks like it's in a few best of collections. I'll keep an eye out for it. Thanks

Haven't read any Gene Wolfe, but from what I hear I would enjoy him. Canticle was definitely a little slow for me, although I'm reading a slow book right now and using it as an exercise in patience. I need those

Someone did mention that 😅 my bad. And thanks for the recommendations

I've only read The World Inside but I did really enjoy it. Thanks for the recomendation

@@bookjack The World Inside is a good one. I'm currently reading the very surreal Son of Man and will read Man in a Maze next.

I read Sirens of Titan after making this video. That one might be my favorite

Rama was a fun read. He manages to build a lot of suspense inside that ship

@@bookjack yes, and did an amazing job at building an alien environment.

I haven't heard of it no

I have one copy of Catchworld of English version. Unfortunately, I'm not good at reading English books. I want to send it to you. Do you have your own website or blog? I want to show you my address so I can send you Catchworld.

Thanks for watching :)

Will look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation

@@bookjack Wow~ if you've not read it, you're in for a treat! I guess it comes under hard sci-fi, but it's not too difficult to follow and has some really unique qualities in terms of alien races and galaxy structure.

Also the sequel is good and apparently has some distinct similarities to Children of Time.

@@stovic1442 That's definitely on my TR list 👍

My memory needs that physical spark too. Plot, characters, ideas all come back to me once I pull the book from the shelf

Looking forward to that one :)

I have read the trilogy actually and 3 Body Problem should get an honorable mention but the 2nd and 3rd books got a little dense for me. Amazing ideas but the story got kind of suffocated