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Calling this "sci-fi" is an *insult* to Lem and the genre. It's SF. "Sci-fi" is a term made up in 1950s USA to denote pulp cowboy space action. American media later pushed out "SF", possibly because it kept confusing it with San Francisco, and forced "sci-fi". The rest of the world didn't, yet in the last decade, export of American popular culture is sadly changing that, too.

I read the first three when I was a child and loved all of them, especially 2010. Now as an adult, I find 2010 and 2061 really stretch my credulity.

5:00 Well, that's just kind of wrong. Most wars throughout history, not even counting non-human animals, were fought for the personal gain of the people fighting the war. Looting was a common reason people went to war, for example. Or just to make sure the guy next to you didn't die. The hatred of the "other" is frequently very low on the list. And even some in retrospect unjust wars were fought for moral reasons. Bush did invade Iraq because he wanted to help Iraqies. Fat load of good that did them.

I loved this book when I had to read it in high school. It enthralled me and I read the whole thing in one day. Me and my best friend still say "so it goes." When he started writing he actually dreaded being call a science fiction author; he felt as if most authors didn't have a STEM background (he had a degree in chemistry) so to them the things he wrote about was sci-fi even though he just thought it was a more technical fiction. He said eventually he stopped caring because it doesn't necessarily matter in the long run for what he's trying to say. He wrote about it in what kinda was his memoir, "a man without a country." Though memoir isn't a great term since he just talks about the politics of 2005 for most of it, though its a super short read.

I might have to check these out since I love the Halo games

I picked up Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse 5 always gets away from me, but I'll get it in soon.

Banks prose is very dense and can be confusing in places. Great Review!😀

oh yeah, I forgot about this book when making my book collection wishlist. I’m putting it on there now! Also, I read Venus on the Half Shell and it was excellent. It inspired Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but didn’t become popular because it’s an X rated book. Cannibalism, alien sex and profound insights into existential questions; what’s not to love?

You know to this day I don't know which of these books I've not read. I read the first, obviously, I read 2010 when I was a kid also - that much I know. But whether the other in the series I read as a young adult was 2061 or 3001 I couldn't tell you. It's probably 3001 I've read, because I remember some of tech seemed ridiculously advanced (even by today's standards). There was like a space station or something that circled the entire planet. That has to be 3001, right?

I want to say that in my country (Russia) fiction is one genre that is popular among men. I don't mean that mostly males like to read but if anyone does it, they will most likely choose fiction. Usually they choosed low quality books like isekai (this is called "popadantsi" here) or novels based on alternative history, in recent years litRPG has reached the top of sales charts.

I haven't read it and I know how difficult it can be to get a family member to read but I've heard great things about the book "The Brothers K" by David James Duncan. I'm not positive on the narrative but I know it takes place from around the 1940s-60s and is somewhat of a family epic that is steeped in baseball and religion within a family going through a difficult event. I think you should definitely give it some consideration if you want to find something for your father to read. Hope all is well, always enjoy the content!

That's a very well-articulated commentary on the value of a liberal arts education and of reading fiction, especially the great works (and this includes the great works of science fiction.) When I imagine myself trying to explain to someone why those things matter, I just don't have the words. This will help.

Oh my dude, this was a juicy video and I deeply enjoyed it! I have much to say. What especially resonated with me were your remarks on war. It is, indeed, stupid and insane. I remember being in Iraq looking down the barrel of my .50 cal at all these protestors throwing rocks, saw blades and glass bottles full of motor oil at me, and thinking... am I really going to have to kill all these people? Is this the way power works? This is nuts! Fortunately, our HMMWV drove away and I didn't have to. For that reason, I don't enjoy fiction that presents war as entertaining in and of itself. If there's a deeper commentary on war, then it can be something that I read. It's why I love Harry Harrison's Deathworld and Planet Story so much. You might find the books Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America to be interesting non-fiction reads. They compare the trauma of modern warriors with the trauma of ancient warriors in those epic works and the similarities are striking. Humanity has been doing the same old dumb things, with the same tragic results, for a long, long time. I'm in the process of writing a book. I've finished my outline and started the first chapter today. It's about two factions of humans who have knocked the earth out of orbit with a superweapon. They're still at each other's throats and what is their game plan? To recapture the superweapon (each faction has one half) and redetonate the superweapon again to knock Earth back the way it came. Brilliant thinking, truly. The kind we have today, unfortunately. Anyways, great video and one thing is for sure: male dogs don't read fiction 'cause they're too busy scrapping!

This was so amazing! You’re really right. But do you think that an idea or a “point” can be understood in the same way that it’s meant to be? I mean everyone only sees what they want, either from fiction books or nonfiction. I lend one of my friends an easy to read book, which he only saw what made that book useless and “boring”, I believe because, want it or not; every idea is planted deep within us, it only needed a hand to reach the surface again. Do you think we read books and resonate with them based on that? and I know that everyone's perspective on things are different… yet still I think a book can only show you what you want to see.

Running is good stuff! Always lifts my spirits.

Yesterday I have been reading The Lost World (coincidence), too light. It's like it was specifically written to be adapted into a family movie by Disney.

You have a very cozy blog. I like beards, but you look better without the beard and also you look like the character of Michael Douglas in Wonderboys the movies (one of my fav movies)

The most important thing in Clarke's work is his voice. With him, it's in the 'telling'. He has a knack for explaining theory and scientific ideas through a narrative voice that rolls over you like a wave in a grand cosmic sea. Fun stuff. 😊

Possibly NEW books are not being created. But for readers, there are *so* many books that have already been written that a normal reader would never get through them in a lifetime. For people who read 50,000 words a day and get through 700 books a year...all I can say is: is that really reading?

So AI can flood the market. Yeah, and? The market is already flooded, and people still read books. It can take effort (and will take much more effort) to find quality writing, writing that you want to read, writing that resonates with you, but videos like these, sites like Goodreads, and good old-fashioned book groups are the key to that. Someone using AI to write 100 books a month will not stop me from seeking out and reading quality books that I want to read; people using AI to churn out books will not stop anyone from reading if people want to read. People using AI to churn out 100 books/month are going to bring down the average level of quality, but that won't stop quality writing from being produced. And it certainly won't mean the "death" of books, any more than the rise of mass-market paperbacks and pulp novels did.

one of my favourite books that I think deserves more attention, enjoyed the review :)

Previous book about dinosaurs in modern times: Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.

The Ellison claim that Cameron ripped off "The Soldier" is horse-crap. Ellison was very litigious. Sometimes with cause, but not infrequently because he though he invented everything. The only things the same (other than two time-travelers going to "the present", not exactly original to either writer) is that the opening scenes both take place future battlefields. Really! That's it! Far closer to Ellison is the fact that both his short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" and Cameron's script both involve a future defense computer "waking up" and turning on mankind! But, interestingly, this wasn't even mentioned in the lawsuit. Why not, you may ask? (And well you may.) Well, it so happens that the Ellison short story came out one year after the publication of the D.F. Jones novel Colossus . . . . . . about a future defense computer "waking up" and turning on mankind! Wait, Ellison lifted an idea from another writer? Not the sort of thing you want to bring up in a court case where you're claiming someone else took your idea. All the more ridiculous when the stories of "The Soldier" and The Terminator are otherwise conceptually unrelated. And, as a sidenote, when the film Back to the Future came out, Ellison suggested in a review of that film that it was a "direct steal" from Robert Heinlein's book Time Enough for Love. You see, Heinlein's main character goes back in time and sleeps with his own mom. And Marty McFly DOESN'T sleep with his mom! Holy Jesus! All the more interesting in that Ellison's TV show The Starlost has a curious similarity to Heinlein's story "Universe." "Universe," you see, is about a young man who comes to realize that the "world" he lives in is not the entirety of existence, but is, rather, the interior of a slower-than-light starship, off-course for generations, and now on a collision course with a star. Compare that to The Starlost, which is about a young man who comes to realize that the "world" he lives in is not the entirety or existence, but is, rather, the interior of a slower-than-light starship, off-course for generations, and now on a collision course with a star. Glass home? Stone throwing? Ellison could in point of fact be a massive jerk! P.S. I was kicked off the Ellison-appreciation FB page for making these points. I take it as a badge of honor. 😉

You nailed it bro! As a developing writer myself, I want to look back on a body of meaningful work that I can leave behind, something that communicates what it was like for me on my brief sojourn of being alive. Of course that other youtuber wants to ignore all that and just say books are dead, because he’s selling AI junk and is in it just for the money. Books won’t be dead unless we’re dead inside, and we aren’t. Also, please excuse the self-promotion, but yesterday I posted an intro video and an audiobook with text for a story I wrote. It’s a fantasy story about my experiences after the second Iraq war. It’s called Begone, Demon and Come Forth! It is 100% FREE of AI, just home grown story telling, made right here in the real world by me! I’d love to hear what you think, and hopefully you would enjoy it. If not, no worries! I know you’re a busy dude Thanks for your thoughtful content, as always

All of this science fiction "what if" it is all shenanigans and imagination and it is in the scriptures about imagination. There's no other intelligent life in the universe in the corruptible flesh but us and it all end with us because of what must happen in the future in the holy Bible scriptures revelation. Survivors of mankind in this realm on earth or in earth after the third world War will be taken down to none existence by eternal monsters from the sky but first 5 months of torture and pain and then you know what is coming after that. This is reality in the future for mankind. We are all in trouble in the afterlife for 13 and older and it is eternal so stay alive and God bless you all.

I completely agree. Galactic Patrol through Children of the Lens is the truly cool stuff.

I have not watched his video so cannot comment on his view, but AI may not be able to perfectly replicate human experiences and output now, but in the future, perhaps? If all of human experience is uploaded in real time via implants to AI that can use those experiences to create new composite outputs of their own that is unique, maybe it would output something that is identical to what a human can do. I really don't know. If that happens though, should I be worried? If AI ends up truly able to create something beautiful, unique, wonderful, and high quality, then I get to benefit from that. Of course, this ignores the ethics of AI stealing the experiences and the works of humans to make its outputs - and that's a whole other BIG issue, but I can forsee at least the potential (if it's even technically possible, which is may not be) for an AI that creates works that are identical in quality to humans. Whether we ever get there, and whether we should be willing to sell out those who have already created to get there, are other conversations.

I read a poem by Dlshad Mariwani in my native language. Which he says “my fingers are thirsty, don’t reject them. Allow me to run them through your fine hair and let them stay, so they can drink enough of its perfume.” An AI could never come up with such delicate and beautiful words that lights up many feelings.

thing is the proper way to say it is "slow" dead would mean ZERO peaople out all 9 billion use books, few use, so its "slow" not "dead" which is what us admins are told to say when a server is on low player count.

Thanks for making these videos. True writers of fiction write about the human condition. We are all incomplete individuals making our way though each unpredictable, messy day. We have our victories and abject failures. We get angry and we experience joy. There are some newer authors out there treating AI as the new ‘Uber’ of the book workd. Faster, cheaper, disruptive etc. It’s all about volume and profit. But that’s not writing. Writers are generally just one poor-selling series away from having to purchase their groceries on credit card. There’s no mass market, high volume Uber solution to any of this. Also - no one wants to see AI play a human in chess. We get it. You can’t beat AI at chess. It’s humanly impossible. AI is far superior to our imperfect human minds. But - no one cares about how perfect AI is. Humans want to read about the fallible human experience, written by fallible humans.

I’m so grateful to you, and I feel so happy to be able to watch your videos. I indeed believe that AI writings is cold and has no relatability. Happy new year, may this year be filled with all good things that the world has to offer.

❤❤❤

favourite book of all time. Thank you for covering this man.

1. Story Of Rostevan, King Of The Arabians 36. "My day is done; old age, most grievous of all ills, weighs on me; if not to-day, then to-morrow I die--this is the way of the world. What light is that on which darkness attends? Let us instate as sovereign my daughter, of whom the sun is not worthy." “Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light. Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer, like hands joined together, like the end and the way.” Therem Harth rem ir Estraven --> Rostevan What light is that on which darkness attends? ---> Light is the left hand of darkness; and darkness the right hand of light, ... 😁

Sounds like it might hit too close to home as a read for me these days, when it seems humanity is riding the struggle bus offroad. I still appreciate the review however!

Thank you for so eloquently expressing your views. It added to my own reading of the book greatly. It’s an example of a sci-fi book that is less overly ‘about’ 20th and 21st century themes, but touches on many of them. It creates a thoughtful piece of writing that I haven’t totally connected with on first reading but that has been ruminating around in brain ever since finishing. Thanks again 😀

Does it have a decent font size?

Ice has been on my To Buy list for some time but the comparison to Dhalgren means I am in no hurry. Good review.

Most people in these discussions talk about reading novels, but in my opinion, where science fiction really lives and breathes is in the short story. I think if you didn't read any of the great novels, but instead read years of F&SF, Asimov and Analog, or the Gardner Dozois Year's Best Collections, or even a lot of the notable collections like Dangerous Visions or Mirrorshades, you'd have a much better grasp of science fiction as a field than if you read only the novels.

I feel like you don't necessarily need to have read all the most important books, but read enough of the important discrete ones, AND of the ones representative of the more important different trends and sub-classifications. Now, achieving that is hard to pin down. But since SF has a lot of internal back and forth regarding ideas, themes, styles, etc. I think a wide sampling across the board should be comprehensive enough with just a handful in each major subgenres.

May your heartfelt works of love cut through all the AI generated junk like a blazing lightsaber, to be seen brightly and clearly in the night!

Merry Christmas! This has been my favourite channel I have discovered this year it's like a hidden gem. Wishing you the best in 2025 and don't feel pressured to finish books and put up content just enjoy the journey, Cheers!

Fun fact, I was a very poor reader when I was growing up. But my dad had this SF book collection and there was amazing cover art on most of the books. (Circa 1970's.) I really wanted to find out what was going on. I sat down and began reading Skylark of Space... my brain couldn't process most of what I was trying to read until I was about a third into the novel and then something clicked and it all came together, and now I could understand what I was reading. For that, and other reasons, _Skylark of Space_ will always have fond memories for me.

Merry Christmas! I like your ambitious plans. There's something about aiming high and even if you miss it, you're still better off than if you aimed low. Something like that. It sounds like you have a workable plan. It's also good that you truly like writing. Best wishes on everything.

Happy Holidays Nerdius. Sounds like big and exciting plans for next year. Have appreciated tagging along with your videos. Have a great 2025.

Merry Christmas! I hope you a wonderful time.

I highly recommend the movie "The man from Earth". It's kind of unknown, but man, I think it's one of the greatest sci fi movies ever! Good channel you have here, sir.

Interesting discussion. Hard to really nail down the point at which someone becomes "well read" precisely, if that is one's goal. On the point of being an incompletist, we are all one of those (as you alluded to) but its only a matter of degree.

Are you considered well read if all you’ve read is Pornucopia by Piers Anthony? Asking for a friend 🤔 Joking aside, I found this to be a thoughtful video, thank you.

I've read a few Star Trek novels and the quality varies so much that I think on average you'd be reading mostly terrible books. I guess if you never read anything else though, you'd have nothing to compare it to. I've read loads of sci fi, new and old, one thing I've noticed is how far back some Ideas they keep presenting as new go; there are stories from the 30s, 40s and earlier that hold up really well.