I second ‘The Death of Grass’ and ‘Other Days, Other Eyes’. Can’t believe there isn’t a Bob Shaw book in the SF Masterworks line. Wish they could be pried out of their rights owner’s hands for another printing.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Hi Richard, I'd really like to read DoG, I like a good catastrophe. I have in mind a top 10 along those lines soon. Thanks for watching 👀!

@hornbeam7131

Ай бұрын

I second the comment on Bob Shaw, we lost him too soon.

@leemason6897

Ай бұрын

I likewise agree on the Bob Shaw as well as "The Death of Grass".

Interesting selection of recommendations! I'm not familiar with most of these but Other Days, Other Eyes is one I'm planning to read soon.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

I have an interesting audience! One of the joys of doing this channel is the firehose of book recs i get from viewers. Thanks for watching 👀!

Some interesting books I should keep an eye out for. I seem to remember reading a slow glass short story in Analog. It was very poignant. I seem to remember a bit of body horror in Downward to Earth involving parasites which fixed it in my mind but the rest of the recommendations were new to me.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Hi Brian, great to hear, and thanks for watching 👀!

World Out of Time is one of my favorites by Niven.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

You are not alone, it seems! Thanks for watching 👀!

Have read some of them... Larry Niven's "A World Out of Time", part of the Bob Shaw collection as I've read "Light of Other Days" and the Stephen Baxter "Creation Node". The last one might be my favourite one that I read last year... well, that or "Plutoshine" by Lucy Kissick which I thought was excellent hard SF too about a colony wanting to terraform Pluto.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Yes i like the sound of Plutoshine, i think I featured it in a video, can't remember which one. Thanks for watching 👀!

Shaw and Silverberg for sure!

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Right on! Thanks for watching 👀.

Many years ago, I read The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley. I don't remember much of the story, but I liked it, and thought it was an interesting concept for a book. Right now I am listening to The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O'Keefe (giving modern sci-fi another chance) and I am really enjoying it. I may look into some of the recommendations you got.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Get you with the modern stuff!! I enjoyed her previous trilogy. I'd like to read her new books too. Thanks for watching 👀!

I had „Nordwest of Earth“ on my TBR and it moved up quite a bit now. And I think I’ll have to plan a trip to Fenris soon …

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Han Solo on Mars! Thanks for watching 👀!

@DieMeiseWasabi

Ай бұрын

@@SciFiScavenger Best pitch I ever heard!

Oh wow, two of my recomendations here. Thanks for that. I feel that Baxter dosen't get enough attention anymore, and it's a shame that Kessel isn't a household name in sf. He is absolutely brilliant. Silverberg and Shaw are fantastic. Great stuff.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

you're welcome, thank you for the recommendations! thanks for watching 👀!

When Bob Shaw’s slow glass stories first came out some critics heralded them as the latest original idea in SF in many decades. I think they were correct. Still great underrated classics. Silverberg is always good, i like his earlier Ballantine sf best. Piper is a masterful storyteller, i have read all his books. And liked them all but the Fuzzy books are excellent and the best is probably Lord Kalvan. For fans if the Kalvan stories, Richard C Metedith wrote an excellent trilogy, the Timeliner books. Good video, fun and informative. Cheers!

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Hi Gary I have that Timeliner trilogy on my shelves, haven't got to it yet, sounds good! I see it's dedicated to Piper. Thanks for watching 👀!

Thanks for the shoutout, world out of time just so happens to be the first novel I ever read at age 9🙂

@User_Un_Friendly

Ай бұрын

One of the most astonishing creations in hard science fiction, a fairly brief passage in a World Out of Time, is how they literally rearranged the planets of the solar system. My imagination was fired up beyond belief, when I first read the description of the great fusion engine, sticking like a thorn out of a lion's paw, being lowered to one of the Jovian planets, and after a burn time measured in decades, merrily rearranging the planets of the solar system. 😳🤯😵‍💫🤓

So, you think I have nothing better to do? (OK. You got me). 👍

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching 👀!

Well, alright! What a way for a normally dull day to get juiced up - once again, leave it to a BookTuber. I spread around a few hopefully soft-sell, non-pushy comments about a few books - the more neglected, the more in need - and suddenly there's that pesky Amy Thomson novel that muscled its way onto my Top Ten SF Novels personal list getting highlighted. My 3rd favourite SF novel, and likely, I think, not to get bumped...down, anyway. I'm trying not to have a full-on Steve Martin with the phone book in The Jerk moment ("I'm a somebody! I matter!"), after all I didn't write the thing - but all hail Comments that someone noticed (or went back and dug up).

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

I went equipped with mining light and pick axe and struck sci fi gold. Thanks for your contribution!

I hazard Niven's A World Out of Time is more interesting than the synopsis would have it. It is actually a charming book. The name "Jerome Branch Corbell" is a tip of the hat to my favorite American author, James Branch Cabell, whose high fantasy comic romances (owing something to Voltaire's philosophical romances, and to the even older tradition of Menippean satire) hover in the background of Niven's tale. Cabell was a huge influence on later Heinlein, too, but with less success. This is fun stuff. Quirky; odd. A strange marriage of Cabellian themes and hard sf. It's interesting to me that one of the chief pushers of UFO disclosure, these days, is someone named "Jeremy Corbell." Coincidence?

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Very interesting, thanks! I have it on my shelves, I'll give it a read at some point. Thanks for watching 👀!

Re: Elizabeth Moon, I find her _Familias Regnant_ ( _Serano/Suiza_ ) series, while somewhat similar, better than _Vetta._

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

I have both sets, I'll have to decide which one to read first. Thanks for watching 👀!

I see you have Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos series… have you read it and is it worth it after the 1st book?

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

I've read all 4 but probably 15 years or more ago, i don't remember much about the later books. I should do a re-read at some point. There's only one sure way for you to find out! Thanks for watching 👀.

I need to read more from Silverberg, I will probably read Downward to Earth at some point.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Me too! I've got Lord Valentine's Castle on audiobook at the moment, it's excellent. Thanks for watching 👀!

@bartsbookspace

Ай бұрын

@@SciFiScavenger That's great to hear. I have Lord Valentine lined up for a read, hopefully in summertime. Does it read more like SF or Fantasy? The cover throws me off.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

@bartsbookspace9798 it straddles the boundary. Science fantasy. It's set long after a colonisation on a planet, thousands of years later. There is still interstellar trade, some tech on planet, aliens (also immigrants to this same planet), but it's a quest really. Young man with a destiny, that type of thing.

@bartsbookspace

Ай бұрын

@@SciFiScavenger Got it. That’s very helpful, thanks. 🙌

Any novel by Neal Stephenson

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

I've read a few, but the ones that stick with me (both in my top 10, in fact) are Seveneves and Anathem. Thanks for watching 👀!

C'mon Jon, stop prevaricating and get Why Call Them Back From Heaven read. Jeezus !!!

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Epic fail.

The only book I’ve read of those presented was Northwest Of Earth and it was a huge disappointment. All the characters, and I mean ALL, are flat and two dimensional. The worst part of the book was that the stories were all the same. If you read one you’ve basically read them all. And the final straw is that they’re deadly dull. I was looking for some rip- roaring space adventure and was served up a turgid stew of indigestible story’s. Don’t waste your time.

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Soooooo....not a fan then? 😀 i haven't read much of her work but do have that book on my shelves, I'll get to it t some point. Thanks for watching 👀!

While Piper's Four Day Planet was excellent, I'm going to recommend Space Viking, and the magnificent masterpiece, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen instead. They're both awesome, and if you're a softy for cuddly things, read Little Fuzzy and the two sequels. I really can't recommend Four Day Planet as an intro to H. Beam Piper's books. It's good, but certainly not Uller Uprising, or even the Cosmic Computer. His short stories are also not to be missed. Particularly his Paratime stories. 😉 If you're curious about the other novella shown on the cover of Four Day Planet, it is the Lone Star Planet, excellent if you're familiar with Piper, but confusing if you're not, because it's outside the Paratime, or the Federation. It occupies a unique niche among his stories. 🙄🙂🫡. Of course, the image of Texans living in another planet, herding dinosaur sized cows with TANKS, is kinda hard to get out of my head...Do read the Wikipedia article on this novella afterwards, you'll find out Piper's motivations and inspiration for this story. 😂🤣

@SciFiScavenger

Ай бұрын

Excellent, thanks, and thanks for watching 👀!