"Dawn" is incredible. Butler was a legend. In my top 5.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

That’s great!

have a read of Frank Herbert's "Hellstroms Hive". it has slightly dated but the hive sections are very thought provoking. though nightmares of "stumps" may occur lol

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Interesting! I’m currently reading Children of Dune.

Glad to see someone mention Altered Carbon. Seems to get overlooked on Booktube. It’s a really gritty noir style cyberpunk/ detective story. The second book in the series “Broken Angels” is completely different, but also worth reading It’s more military sci-fi.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

I’ll have to check out the sequel!

@DaBIONICLEFan

9 күн бұрын

Agreed on Altered Carbon. It's lurid, violent and has morally grey characters as all good cyberpunk should be and have. Does its own thing from Neuromancer and stays original. Have his 'Market Forces' to read next.

@BomageMinimart

9 күн бұрын

I thought the Takeshi Kovacs books got better with each new book, actually. I also enjoyed the Land Fit for Heroes trilogy and Black Man (Thirteen in the US) but didn't care for Market Forces. And he's kind of gone far down the male fantasy rabbit hole now: Thin Air was pretty awful.

Blindsight is one of my favorites, too. Read it two times and can't stop thinking about it.

@WordsinTime

10 күн бұрын

Awesome! I’m looking forward to re-reading it one day.

@szymonskowronski5689

10 күн бұрын

@@WordsinTime How about Echopraxia? It's still on my "to read" shelf...

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

@@szymonskowronski5689 Same!

yeah, blindsight is one of the few sci-fi books that really are worthy of the moment we're in...really great

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

I’m glad it resonated with you!

1.) Brain Wave, by Poul Anderson 2.) Blind Lake, by Robert Charles Wilson 3.) Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky 4.) Blood Music, by Greg Bear 5.) The Santaroga Barrier, by Frank Herbert

@WordsinTime

7 күн бұрын

@@berserkley Great picks! I’ve read and enjoyed all of these authors, although I haven’t read those particular books by Anderson, Wilson and Herbert.

Awesome video Jonathan! Altered Carbon has been on my list for a while. I loved the show!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Cheers Chas! It’s great, but violent!

Really loved CJ Cherryh's Hunter of Worlds.

@WordsinTime

7 күн бұрын

@@davidoran123 Nice! I’ve only read Kesrith. I’ll look that one up.

Great list, all ones I want to check out!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Hope you enjoy!

Getting back into sci-fi again also means getting back into your videos! Great stuff =D

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Haha glad to have you! 🤝

So many books, so little time. An interesting list of books I've not read - although, worth noting, that Altered Carbon, was the basis for a very good Netflix mini-series. Thank you for your recommendations.

@WordsinTime

8 күн бұрын

Haha yes it’s a never ending battle with the TBR ⚔️ 📚

I think Solaris by Stanislaw Lem will be in my head forever haha, also was the first Sci-fi novel I read and i'm chasing that feeling since 😅

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

One of my all-time favourites!

@floeten-olm8396

9 күн бұрын

@@WordsinTime just too good

Wonderful list, Jonathan. I loved Annihilation and am reading Authority (book 2) now. Dawn is on my shelf, but I haven't read it yet, but loved Clay's Ark from Butler. One other mention: The Carpet Makers, by Andreas Eschbach - a galaxy-spanning, epic tale of revenge. It really stays with you.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

That’s great! I read The Carpet Makers this year and it was a 10/10 for me!

Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" has stunned everyone I know who has read it.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Yes, one of my all-time favourite books!

Adding them all to my tbr

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Nice! Hope you enjoy!

I might join you on the Annihilation journey, but you have me intrigued by some of the other books on this list, "Dawn", and "More than Human", specifically. I've read the others, and agree with you, although most Vonnegut had that effect, so couldn't tell you how long I was haunted by "Galapagos". Thanks for the recommendations!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Nice, I’m looking forward to it! And I hope you enjoy the others!

Galapagos was the first novel I read by Vonnegut. I just loved it and then read all his novels. When I saw that the Library of America had a sale on a collection of his novels, I quickly purchased it for only $80! One of the best novelists ever!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

That’s awesome!

Three cheers for mentioning Theodore Sturgeon's "More than human!" Very thought provoking and quite well written, in my opinion. Sturgeon at his "soft" Science Fiction best!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

I’m glad you love it too!

I've been telling all my family and friends who read about Vandermeer. Southern Reach trilogy blew me away. Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem trilogy is also really unique currently finishing Death's End.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

That’s great! And yes, the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy is 🤯

I just started reading Hyperion, I like it very much and think that this book will stick with me for some time into the future.

@WordsinTime

7 күн бұрын

@@gmcenroe One of my favourites! I hope you enjoy the Hyperion Cantos!

Asimov's Foundation series keeps coming up im my mind lately.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Lots of great ideas in that one!

"Blindsight" is so freaking good. Definitely gets stuck in your mind pretty much forever. One that I can mention is "Parable of the Sower", waaaay too relatable kind of apocalypse. Uff, "Annihiliation" is in my list that goes something like "posmodernity has allowed some elements of scifi into literary/mainstream fiction which means there is a lot of bad scifi showing up in the fancy hallways".

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Uh oh haha

Hey I have actually read some of these. We are both reading Annihilation this month!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Perfect timing! 🤜 🤛

I've been fitting Vonnegut books in between Sun Eater books and just finished Breakfast of Champions. I went back to your tier list and see it way down the bottom. I was laughing all the way through. The funny thing was, because I use an e-reader and so don't see the cover and title whenever I pick up the book, I thought I was reading God Bless You Mr Rosewater. Not until I was getting it onto my Hardcover page that I found my mind had been scrambled. Sun Eater: got through Kingdoms of Death with my soul intact. What a trauma. The previous book made Hadrian shine like the universe's hero, KoD crushed him. Vonnegut was very cheery-uppy by comparison.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Haha those are 2 of my favourites and a good combo. I like everything that Vonnegut wrote so even the books on the lower tiers I still thought were good!

For sci-fi books that stick with you long after reading them, I'd have to say Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash was that for me. But then, most of his books stick with me in that way.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

I enjoyed Snow Crash. I need to read more Stephenson!

Dawn: You did a great job with the premise . The problem I had with the story was that I never really connected with Lilith. Throughout the book the aliens told her what they were going to do, and her reaction was always "Whooooo?!", "Whaaaat?!?!". Bloodchild was a better read for me. Southern Reach Trilogy was very good. Great content.

@WordsinTime

10 күн бұрын

Thanks! I’ll have to check out Bloodchild.

You must also try Alien from earth by sobers rodrigues. It's very creative story.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

I’ll look it up!

Hope you enjoy Annihilation. The book has a much more interesting, mysterious, weird feel than the movie. (I did not like the movie because it strayed too far from the book)

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Interesting! Looking forward to it!

Vast by Linda Nagata got stuck in my head in 1998 and it’s still there, living rent free. Such a clever story.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

I’ll look it up!

I read and enjoyed all these books. Another good one by Sturgeon is Godbody. It's been a very long time since I read it, but back in the day I put it up there with my all time favorites. Anyway, good vid!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out!

Annihilation is an excellent read and quite different from the film. I would advise, if you’ll permit, to read the whole trilogy back to back as they are a single cohesive whole and were published, I believe in the same 12 months. But I hope you really really like it.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Nice! Thanks for the info!

Loved annihilation. It's full on eerie.

@WordsinTime

7 күн бұрын

Nice! I’m looking forward to it!

Even though I had to skip to the end 76% through The Wolf in the Whale stuck with me.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Interesting!

@sharylgrangaard8484

9 күн бұрын

@@WordsinTime and I'll never know what happened to her fucking brother 😪

one book i cant stop thinking about, is The Mountain in the Sea. if you havent read it yet, i cannot recommend it enough

@WordsinTime

19 сағат бұрын

@@LevelUpYourFandom I own it but haven’t read it yet. Looking forward to it!

@LevelUpYourFandom

19 сағат бұрын

@@WordsinTime i think you will find it shares a bit with Dawn, in that its primarily a dystopian 'first contact' story of sorts about the nature of consciousness. i read it a year or so ago now, and i still think about it. its one that completely caught me off guard too when i got into it, was not expecting it to hit so deep

Nuts. More books I have to buy.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Haha I’m here to help 📚

Woohoo! Annihilation for the win! I devoured the entire series earlier this year and it's one of the ones that still has me thinking. I do think The Southern Reach is better read in total. I'd add A Canticle for Liebowitz, Anathem, and the Three Body Problem as thinking novels for me. Embarrassingly, I have read none of the books on your list. 😬 😳

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

I’m looking forward to Annihilation! I’ve read 2 of those 3 but there’s a couple of Stephenson books I want to get to before Anathem haha

@cherylmccutchan1282

9 күн бұрын

@@WordsinTime Math monks! How could any Stephenson come before math monks??

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

@@cherylmccutchan1282 Those math monks are too wordy!

@cherylmccutchan1282

9 күн бұрын

@@WordsinTime They are absolutely very wordy. I can't believe you don't want to read 100 pages on Platonic idealism theory.😅

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

@@cherylmccutchan1282 😵‍💫

Started Altered Carbon this past weekend when I found a copy at my local coffee shop's take-one-leave-one shelf and I'm in love. Reconciling the advancement of technology with stipulations of religion, what happens to the relationships of people who have been married 250+ years, losing your body like one might lose their house in an economic crisis. All wrapped up in this dark gumshoe plotline 🤌🏼 Another great list!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

That’s a great description of it!

galapados isn't one of my faves by vonnegut either but I appreciated it for its unblinking look at the nature of human nature. I ended up DNFing altered carbon when an amazon reader pointed out a huge mistake the author made that I hadn't even noticed. But since I've forgotten what the mistake was I may go back and finish it!⚛😀

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Haha give it another try!

Much preferred the film Annihilation to the book if I'm honest. Be interested to here what you think.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

Good pick!! I really enjoyed the Southern Reach trilogy. Weird Sci-Fi and cosmic horror at its finest! I haven’t read (yet) any of the books you mention but they’re all in my TBT now! Thanks! Books I can’t stop thinking about: Solaris, A Canticle for Liebovitz, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, The Forever War

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Those are all great choices!

Annihilation: I liked both the movie and the book. But they differ significantly.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Interesting!

No Permutation City? I better call Jonathan and let him know his account has been hacked. Somebody is posting cheap fakes of him.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Permutation City is always an implied recommendation haha

Annihilation? But it was soooooo close.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

🙉

Yes! Annihilation!

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Let’s go!

@floeten-olm8396

9 күн бұрын

@@WordsinTime just finished the southern reach trilogy a couple of weeks ago, stoked he's publishing a 4th novel

Finished 2 out of 5 and DNFed Altered Carbon. It seemed like gratuitous violence to me and I could not bring myself to give a damn who killed him and why. A very long time since I read Dawn and mostly was not enthusiastic about it. I liked *More Than Human* .

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

Altered Carbon is very violent. I’m glad you liked More Than Human!

@psikeyhackr6914

9 күн бұрын

@@WordsinTime Did you ever check out *Daemon & Freedom* by Daniel Suarez? I don't recall your ever saying. I must watch too many booktubers.

@WordsinTime

9 күн бұрын

@@psikeyhackr6914 I own Daemon and plan to read it later this year!

@psikeyhackr6914

9 күн бұрын

@@WordsinTime Daemon & Freedom are actually a single story, it is just spread over two books like Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion.