Yeah Weir definitely writes his characters as “look at me! I’m a scientist but I’m also irreverent, isn’t that wacky!” They seem written with the intent to be adapted into movies.
i do too here as he had to catch us up on a lot of books, it was very well done and covered a lot of ground, but normally i prefer mr. matt's three at a time review videos.
The way you characterize MODERAN made me smile all over my old-man face. My 5* review says of these stories: "they are brilliant tours-de-force of a man's vision of a future no one could possibly want, but they're likely to get anyway." Such a delight to find someone else who appreciates Bunch.
It's incorrect to say that The Lord of The Rings was originally published as a single book and then split up to make money. Tolkien wanted to publish it as a single novel but paper shortages in post-war Britain made it impractical. This is well-documented.
Correct, but it was also felt that marketing a single volume that big would be difficult at that time, plus binding technology was against an easy print job.
Thanks for this, always enjoy your videos. I loved your description of the writing style on Hail Mary 😆 You have single-handedly summed up what I hate about the dialogue in many modern movies and tv shows...
Ehhh, I've read a lot of books that are popular and didn't click with me. I like this guys approach and I don't feel like he is saying it to get a rise out of ppl... at least imo.
Project Hail Mary is the first book I’ve read in over five years, and I’ve historically disliked reading for a long time. It worked great for me, easy to digest, and since I don’t have much references to compare it to, it served its purpose. I’m excited to read more well-written works in the future.
1. I like this format 2. Thank you for the "The Sorrow of War" rec. My father (a Vietnam vet) has recently been reading these types of biographies by US authors. I had him watch your review of it and he quite quickly got the book. I'm going to try to get to it myself 3. I'm right there with you on Weir in finding his writing utterly tedious to read. The Martian was just barely good enough to get through, but Hail Mary is so bad that I DNFd pretty early on
I only read The Long Tomorrow by Brackett, and it is not pulpy; it is a grounded post-apocalyptic story. Now I’m curious about her wilder stories if you dare compare her to Robert E Howard.
@@joelstainer65 bingo.. I’m not coming from hateful place i just found it funny. Bookpill has actually given me couple good reads this year and he sounds like me when I hear commercial hip hop lmaoooo but giving it a F is some wild shit . It’s a very solid , fun well paced read. Which it’s time jumping was enjoyable.
@@joelstainer65 Yeah. Like it's fine to not think it's amazing or even very good at all. But people super low-ball it to try to counteract it's popularity. Or people have just never read an actual bad book.
@@joelstainer65I’m a Hail Mary hater, I don’t feel obliged to hate it, it’s just that the writing style is extremely grating, I liked the intro enough, waking up aboard a ship as a sole survivor and trying to figure out why you’re there and where you are going is interesting enough. It’s the quippy, Marvel esque ‘’well, that just happened!’’ writing that makes it so unbearable. Also the flashback sequences are terrible, the characters are totally one dimensional and are all walking stereotypes, the woman in charge of the project (forget her name) is cliche beyond belief. It’s the equivalent of a summer blockbuster. Switch your brain off and you might have fun, but the book is poorly written mass market slop.
Hail Mary is a fun beach novel if you can get past the author's voice and one-dimensional characters. The friendship between the protagonist and his non-carbon-based counterpart is memorable.
Rocky is one of the most interesting aliens written IMO. Initially unsettling then deeply weird but in an understandable way. Most alien depictions seem to be either scary, or waay too human.
MODERAN sounds worthy of checking out. Usually when I speak with my friends about programmable body parts we joke that in the future you'll have to pay subscriptions for all your organs or else their creators just shut them down or reudce their function till you pay again or die.
I agree with your take on Margret St Clair. I've read her short story collection Change the Sky several times. The standard is remarkably high, & the stories are diverse & interesting. I haven't read Amerika by Kafka, but I have read his short story collection Metamorphosis, & he's very high on my list of writers who write fiction that feels like SF, but which probably isn't. Anyway I recommend his works to SF readers. For those who are leery of short stories in general, the best way to read them is to treat each story as a separate entity - like it's a novel - there's no need to finish the collection in one sitting.
Love to see lots of people losing their mind over you putting PHM in F. In my opinion, it belongs somewhere lower than an F, but you did the best you could. I mean, most of the people aggressively defending it are saying that they listened to it on audiobook and that it has good voices... One person even said that it NEEDS the voices for the story to be enjoyable... It's like you insulted the single book that certain people listened to (not even read) that year and they take that extremely personally.
I get you. In fact I liked the PHM audiobook better than the actual novel. I suspect I will love the movie more than both. It's possible that the 'smarmy' gets bleached out of the text in different mediums.
Oh no, I loved Hail Mary 😅 I did listen to the audiobook, which is really well performed, so I don't know if reading the book itself would be more of a slog. But I see where you are coming from. The main character is VERY similar to Mark from The Martian, so yeah if that's not your jam, it would be hard to get through. I did however really appreciate how the physics of space travel (and Rocky's dilemma with it) was depicted.
I tried very hard to read The Snail on the Slope. I got 2/3 of the way in and threw in the towel. The symbolism was lost on me, which was disappointing because I know they considered it their best work. Even after reading the Afterword and a detailed explanation about the story, I was unable to pick it up again. I respect it and appreciate the number of hoops they had to jump through to get any of their work published. That aside, you have given me several books to put on my reading list.
There's a book called "Tales Before Tolkien" which contains fantasy stories that inspired Tolkien, one of them being "The Baumhoff Explosive" by Hodgson.
I’ve been wanting to read Joanna Russ and decided to start with The Female Man if for nothing else than to see what “Old cranky-ass Bookpilled” finds really funny.
The Snail on the Slope is called The Forest in czech. It was the most favorite book of my father and my gateway to sci-fi. Listening to you and looking back I see this is truly difficult book, but I read it as a fairytale for adults and enjoyed it immensely as sixteen year old. It is brilliant and strangelz funny. Resambles Kafka in some passages. And this book is the reason I was able to read Kafka later. Great.
i read hmv and just very recently read futurological congress, which was pretty interesting. at first i was flustered by the silliness, but then it took a more serious pkd/they live type turn didn't it?
"I don't want to make a stink. I just..............................hate it." I see Project Hail Mary around in used book stores. I was tempted, but thanks.
Reading Project Hail Mary was like reading a car manual for me. The F is justly deserved. Moderan is a unique work, but not for everyone. I enjoyed it immensely. Definitely deserves more attention by readers. Have you read A Canticle For Leibowitz? I'd like to hear your take on it.
i'm almost done with left hand of darkness, geez is it well written and just plain enjoyable -- on deck tbr are a couple classic novellas, anna kavan ice and chambers the king in yellow.
I may have told you this before, but Bayley’s two best books IMHO are Fall of Chronopolis and Collision Course, both of which are time travel novels, but not the usual type.
Same, there are some elements but I chalked them up to the pulp style of the times, similar with HPL. Some stories are stronger than others but overall his writing was quite good, and he does get into some deeper ideas here and there. Would put at A myself.
I've read maybe 12-15 REH stories, and can't help but feel like racial othering was among his favourite tools. I think once you see it you can't unsee it, but that's partially because he baked it into his worldbuilding, and partially because Conan looks down on pretty much everyone...
“The Apparition in the Prize Ring” is about a black boxer who has visions of the ghost of another famous black boxer from the past encouraging his fighting prowess. “Racists” don’t write stories about heroic figures among people they supposedly hate.
@@chrisw6164 Yeah, I really appreciate Bookpilled and his recommendations. He is my favorite booktuber, but I am convinced that he has to read some more REH stories. Especially his boxing and horror stories like "Pigeons from Hell"... Don't want to spoil anything but that ending though...
Regardless of your opinion on Third eye I just really enjoyed their fake lama story. But to each their own, and your reviews are always welcome and entertaining. This a great format.
I just discovered your channel, I needed to see if our tastes align before I took the plunge and and acted on your recommendations. Your take on Project Hail Mary is bang on, it's 100% YA, (nothing wrong with that, I'm just not in that demographic) yet I keep seeing it at the top of "must read sci fi" lists. I've just acquired 5 of the titles that you recommended from a previous video - Neuromancer, Roadside Picnic, Solaris, Blindsight and Fire Upon the Deep. Thank you, and I'm now subscribed.
I read _The Third Eye_ when I was about 12. I gave it to an intellectual adult friend, and she told me "this is bullshit". That was kind of an "ah ha" moment.
The funny thing for me is that the only two books on here that I've read are in your F Tier. I read The Third Eye as a young teen in the early 60s. My mother was reading it and the title and cover intrigued me so I asked about it. She described boring a hole in the forehead and inserting a wooden sliver to wake up the extra senses. I was hooked. The book was strange and engaging for a kid in a small country town in the middle of nowhere in Australia back then. Years later we heard it was an English plumber. This is one of the first times I've even heard it mentioned since then.
I like how this also made a Gaussian :) We have quite different tastes in books. I quite liked Project Hail Mary as a fun read but not a top tier heavy hitting book. I actually didn''t like Roadside Picnic. I desperately wanted to. I'll have to re-read sometime in the future.
Sorry you didn't get on with _The Man in Black._ It is repetitive, but I think in a ritualistic, fairy tale sort of way. I can imagine some people might find the style a bit arch, but I found it slyly witty. Otoh - Like _The Stars My Destination?_ Ok, that's _Fury_ straight on my wish list.
You hit the nail on the head…it’s super easy to record a controversial book review video in your Daddy’s basement, quite another to write successful novels (Andy Weir) and literary Masterpieces (Tolkien).
Do you think one day you might do a video , or there might already be a book or something about what all the eras are. Like you reference “new wave” and “golden age” and as a moderate sci-fi reader I’m not too familiar with a few of the terms you use. Maybe like a video on the brief history of sci-fi , or how to approach and classify old sci-fi.
It's actually surprisingly tough to demarcate where eras begin and end. I'm not an expert. Maybe someday but it's pretty fuzzy around the edges at the moment with me.
The Outlaw Bookseller youtube channel defines these terms well, but from memory "Golden Age" is 1940s - early 1950s while "New Wave" is late 1960s - 1970s - although they're more descriptive terms of particular styles rather than strictly chronological.
Hope someone can help me out. I have been looking for a book going on 15 years now. The premise is a priest is asked to interview a little girl A.I. to see if she has a soul. I believe her name was Ariel. She explains time travel or that she no longer sees time like we do. The thing I remember the most is she apologizes for his inability to understand. if you think of the book help me out.
nope but thank you it only contains 3 characters the priest the little girl and the Biship that sends him. I do remember that at the start he walks by a little girl praying. That girl is the AI in the end.
I bought Dangerous Visions in the early '70s and read it a bunch of times. So I recognized the name Bunch, but I can't recall any details of either story he had in it. Might have been the challenging prose, making my early teen brain glaze over.
Moderan is great. Definitely agree that it required full attention for its depth & style. I actually just blindly bought the Snail & the Slope and now it’s moved up the pile after watching this! Good video!
Great succinct video and very useful presentation of relatively rare authors and titles- miss the sci fireplace but the tier tower is an okay digital display. Thanks Matt, you rock!
Good to see someone else besides me mentioning David Bunch. Lots of great stuff here, Matt, your first Derek Raymond, Russ, Lem, the Strugatsky book I found the most irksome despite its virtues, Bayley, Kuttner - I've been telling people for years that 'Fury' is the precursor of Bester's 1950s novels. Upwards and onwards, my friend. And a bottom tier ranking for Weir cannot go without the praise it deserves.
Read ALL the Conans in my very early teens and loved them. But when I tried a revisit later found them, as you say, very much repetitive wish-fulfillment - though with some excellent horror thrown in. For adolescents at best.
absloutely. those stories are meant for teens. that said, i am going to buy that complete chronicles collection, it looks very well done and i just want it.
Surprised you didn't like Eden more. It's been a while since I read it, but I thought that you would like the body horror component and the idea of alien recycling of body parts. That was quite a revelation when I read it. I love the sense of incomprehension that Lem builds in this series (Eden, Solaris, Fiasco).
I just read a Moderan story in the republishing of Harlen Ellison's Dangerous Visions and thought it was awesome in a terrible way, I'll have to check out the bindup.
Midworld was one of the first books I read from beginning to end. I haven't touched it since--no need to destroy a pleasant memory. ("The characters are obnoxious"--perfect.) Glad you've mentioned Barrington Bayley--accurate assessment of his genre/subgenre. These made me think "The RU-vid guy might like these": The Year of the Quiet Sun - Wilson Tucker Replay - Ken Grimwood Lords of the Starship (I stayed away for ages thinking it was some old pulp thing) - Mark Guston Level 7 - Mordecai Roshwald Russ' We Who Are About To... remains one of the most miserable sf novels I've read. Not entirely a bad thing.
Booooo, hisssss, booooo! 😀 I really liked Project Hail Mary! Granted it's not a cerebral ESS EFF masterpiece, but as a fun popcorn read I thought it did the needful. Great summary of your recent reading Matt. 👍📚
You may be too kind to The Third Eye. The Factory books are something I see hardcore crime fans really drool over as height-of-the-genre work. The one I read was certainly amazing, and I’ve got the others here to read, too. You’ve sold me on checking out Margaret Sinclair. Weir gives pleasure to many of my friends. I don’t hear the music. The Sorrow Of War sounds fascinating. On my list it goes. Hearing Gypsy praised by someone who also bounced off Palimpsests makes me add that to my list, too. Amerika is like Borges writing Tintin. It’s great. For a long time I didn’t realize David Bunch wasn’t Chris Bunch, and I was very confused.
i havent read Project Hail Mary yet but you perfectly described the issues i had with The Martian. no matter how cool the story or the ideas may or may not have been, the goddamned Marvel humor writing threw me off by like page 100
Project Hail Mary is right up there with Ready Player One for “books which are depressingly popular”. There are so many great books, but people generally prefer this slop.
You may be too kind to The Third Eye. The Factory books are something I see hardcore crime fans really drool over as height-of-the-genre work. The one I read was certainly amazing, and I’ve got the others here to read, too. You’ve sold me on checking out Margaret Sinclair. Weir gives pleasure to many of my friends. I don’t hear the music. The Sorrow Of War sounds fascinating. On my list it goes.
I agree with you that The Return of the King is a weak link. The Two Towers is def the best, but I love The Fellowship for how it sets up the story, and the magical world. Took lots on notes from this one...lots to read. Thanks!
I'm currently reading Roadside Picnic on a vacation in Zion national park, fantastic book so far! I intended to read it on the side as I get through Gravity's Rainbow, but ended up reading 60 pages in a single sitting of Picnic.
The Castle is the only Kafka I've read and it left a deep deep impression on me. Given, I was stuck in a dorm room during lockdown in my first year of college ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I agree about Return of the King, but the chapter where one of the hobbits spends a day just futzing around in the big city right before the war starts is probably my favorite part of the whole series for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.
My favorite Alan Dean Foster novel is Quozl. I reread it at least a couple times a year, and is currently within reach in a stack that also includes Thebes Of The Hundred Gates by Robert Silverberg. Quozl is a story told multiple points of view, both human and alien. The aliens have a particular mindset when it comes to sex, and violence, that is rooted in their biology. That is treated by the narrative as largely positive, but that most humans might find upsetting without the core philosophy behind it. The aliens' very confused perspective on the events of the 20th century is fun to read.
Have you ever read John Crowley? I'd love to see you review Engine Summer and I haven't watched all your videos but I haven't seen his name come up once
I've gor the DAW We Can Build You. It is mid-range PKD, but I still like it. I think Priz is a great character and I love the conversations between the Lincoln android and the humans. Funny and moving. I must re-read it sometime.
Kind of refreshing to get a different take on PHM. I thought it was a fine book - nothing at all special. Everyone seems to gush though... I thought The Martian was better back when I listened to it years ago. It can't help that I had just finished Blindsight, Ice and re-reads of Solaris and Roadside Picnic prior to PHM. All of those were far more interesting to me and better constructed. I didn't love Ice, personally. I guess I didn't 'get it'. I still generally look for a story more than it provided, or perhaps a read I can relate more to. I can respect and value it's construction and prose. Similarly, I also have only tried a bit of (Crash), and failed to get into Ballard. Anyway - I can't understand PHM's massive popularity. I would not place it in F-tier, but it's not better than B or C or so for me. I can still enjoy a C-tier book - it's just not going to ever be re-read or considered a classic/great.
