did you know there are books outside fantasy and scifi? truly astounding stuff who woulda thunk it. What's the best book you've read in the last year? ~ Tim
The two genres have been around for so long, and still there’s regularly new authors and new books out. Huh… It’s almost like they’re the best two genres out there 🤔
You should read the metro trilogy by dmitry glukhovsky, those books are underrated. Everyone just plays the games, which are good, but the books are definitely better. Some of the best dystopia I've ever read and each book is extremely distinct but you never feel like any of them don't fit. Rupert Degas also does a really good Russian accent in the audiobooks.
Here's a tip I really like: if it's your birthday coming up, ask your good friends to gift you a book they cherish, their favourite book or a book that impacted them in an important way. You read out of your comfort zone and get to know your friends a little better.
I always feel bad for offering books but omg gifting your fave book is always like... such a cool thing like please we can even swap books I don't know, SHARE
I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote. Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews TH-camrs made of them. They are hilarious. One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist. They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin. I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer, I'd go with Krimson Rogue. But again: MANY reviewed those hilariously-bad and hyper-cringey books! Whetever you like cringe (like Neckbeard-Stories on Reddit) or not: I warmly recommend it still.
this guy has no business reviewing sci-fi at all. he;s a book nerd who doesn't understand the stories... he just sees characters and plots and the covers.. he doesn't get the authors..
@@agnidas5816 Yeah, how dare someone let the characters or the plot of a story get in the way of their enjoyment of the themes of certain books. After all, while themes and the author's vision is only part of what make a story, we should just ignore when we don't like the plot or the characters in a story, if the characters and or the plot of a story seem like they're only there to serve the theme of the story, everyone should just ignore their own feelings on a book, and if a book does things that break our suspension of disbelief, we should just ignore all that I guess. I guess that's how feelings work, if we don't believe the characters in a story act like real people, we should just pretend they do, for the sake of 'muh themes'. I guess that's what people mean by books stimulating our imagination. 'Good' books stimulate our imaginations, by causing us to have to pretend that we enjoy bland characters or a boring or non-sensical plot or whatever, so long as there is a theme. Because heaven forbid we define good writing in such a way that includes more than one element of the story actually be good. But yeah, this guy has no business reviewing sci-fi at all, because opinions other than your own are somehow 'wrong' I guess, even if they do a much better and more thorough job explaining theirs than you did. Actually, he talked about what the stories were about, their themes, so what part of the stories could you possibly claim he didn't understand? Clearly he 'sees' more than character and plots, if he also talked about the themes and subjects of these stories. Also, he didn't even mention the covers, don't know where you got that one, just another empty claim by you. Also, if you think this guy has no business reviewing books, maybe you should try and make a sort of gate, and try and keep him out of it. And definitely, definitely, get your knickers in a twist over either my comment, him having a different take on Foundation, or whatever it is that bothered you, or both. And just winge about it. I'd tell you to also do jack about him reviewing books and talking about them, but you don't need to be told do that, you ain't doing a damn thing about him and his channel. Just let that sink in, that no matter how much you don't like him or his reviews, all you can do is complain on the internet. I'm sorry I typed this comment, because I know it's a waste on you, and you'll probably just continue to ignore half or more of whatever people say, just to try and pretend you have a rebuttal.
Gaiman is the reason I have an interest in short stories. It is incredible how easily he can create a world, magic entities, and relationships within a few pages. Each story can explore new emotions, make you question your preconceptions about "normal" storytelling. What I'm trying to say is, you just forced me to reread his short story collections.
@@Korilian13 Im looking at the "Trigger Warning" collection. Looking at the contents I'd recommend: "The Thing about Cassandra", "Adventure Story", "Orange" for the weird story telling style, "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" but in particular: "And Weep, Like Alexander". Fragile things might be his weakest collection in my opinion. But it has a few bangers like "Other People" and "The Day the Saucers Came". "The Sunbird" had a very strong American Gods-feeling. You can always expect some of the stories not to affect you or be difficult to understand but then you find a gem of comedy, horror or that makes you think.
i love how, instead of reviewing each book in order, you discussed them through these topics that tied some of the books together! also i highly recommend the fifth season trilogy, it explores wonderful ideas AND has well-written and interesting characters
I really enjoyed the first book of the trilogy. I saw the twist coming, but it was well done nevertheless. The 2nd book is the typical case of a middle-book of a trilogy, I'd say. Progress was slow and the ideas didn't feel so fresh anymore as they did in the first one. The third book, well, I don't know. I mean, obviously you want your climax to be well established. But I guess one can overdo it? When the finale came, it was so clear what must happen, that it didn't take me by surprise even in the slightest. It was inevitable. And I think N.K. Jemisin was aware of that, for the climax felt oddly short and kind of laconic to me. So yeah, it's a good trilogy for all the ideas packed into it, like a magic system that is so unique in effect and foundational world building, that it would be worth to read the books just for it. And the characters excel as well, at least the main ones. But in my opinion, the first book is by far the strongest of the trilogy. That doesn't make the other two a waste of time - at least I didn't regret the time spent. But they won't deliver the same "Wowzer" as the first one did.
I read the Foundation trilogy for the first time in the last year, and I think I loved it - it remains my favourite book since I read it - for the exact same reasons that you couldn't enjoy it. Foundation, especially the first book, is a story that explicitly doesn't care about telling a character story. The closest thing it has to a protagonist is Hari Seldon, and he's been dead for hundreds of years by the end of the third novel. Foundation, to me, is a story about societies and systems interacting at a galactic scale, where the slightest movement can topple an Empire. I found it shockingly compelling for that reason, watching Asimov set up a domino and then knock it down from a star system away. My favourite moment in all of fiction is when the protagonists of one of the novellas that makes up Foundation utterly and completely lose to an invading general - but win the day anyway when the inevitable political reality of the Empire that sent the general takes him out of the equation for perfectly understandable reasons. It's beautifully poetic. (Asimov's prose does suck though - but I kind of enjoyed the wooden nature of it, kept reminding me I was reading something properly old).
Oh, wow. I love the 3x genre of videogames, so maybe I would like it. Quick summary of the genre: gameplay is made up of turn-based exploration and often galactic-scale interactions between players controlling one nation-sized group each. Most of 3x is staunchly sci-fi anyway, and even though I lean far more into character stories when deciding what to read, I enjoyed The Silmarillion to the point of it being on equal footing with The Hobbit and LOTR when it spends far more of its time building the world than building the characters in it. I enjoyed Nightfall to the point of it being my favorite short story ever written, (for the past 6 years now) so I know that there MUST be more of his stories that I’ll enjoy… I just haven’t found them yet.
Yes! It is the life of a species, instead of of a character. For me the dry prose (especially in the early books) was a good choice. It gives it the feeling that you are reading an sociological paper of a culture yet to exist. It reinforces the idea that behavior prediction could be primarily quantitative data driven (sociology), instead of qualitative/anecdotal (like old school anthropology, and much of our day to day policy).
Yeah, the moment I realized Tim values character driven stories over plot or idea driven ones, I knew I probably won't have to worry about the books he doesn't like.
Foundation had such an awesome premise. I use it for most of my D&D settings to justify why there's ruins full of treasure everywhere. The profound message that Tim is missing is that all societies are doomed to fail, even Terminus (The Foundation).
You know there are more than three books? Its been a while since I've read them but I think there are like seven in the series. He kept adding on after he wrote the trilogy. A couple of the books in the series have returning main characters but you are right in that the Foundation series cares much more about the story of the universe than a character story. I love the series but I can completely understand why some one wouldn't get into the series.
I read House of Leaves recently and it was a masterpiece. Very much a "you'll either hate it or love it" kind of book, but damn did I love it. Very weird, very gripping, very mind warping. One particular scene made it difficult for me to sleep.
Agreed, I just read it recently & I love it too - one of the most unique books I’ve ever read in my life. It was extremely skin-crawling in its creepiness at times (there was one night I legitimately had to sleep with my light on because I was feeling too spooked to sleep with the closet in the dark behind me), and yet it had some very heartfelt moments and bits of writing, as well.
The Foundation trilogy is one of my most favorite sci-fi stories, so I’m afraid I have to disagree on that one lol. Having said that, I have had Hyperion on my list for years and am now even more greatly looking forward to it. Thank you for the book reviews! Stay well out there everybody, and God bless you friends. :)
Speaker for the Dead is actually where Ender's story started. Orson Scott Card already had the concept for the story thought out and then conceived Ender's Game in order to give his character a strong background heading into the book he was more excited about.
@@Richard_Nickerson this. I tried reading Xenocide, but it was so bad and disappointingly horrible that I threw it in the trash and angry-cried for a bit. Then I decided to find out more about the man… I don’t enjoy spending time on social media, so I was extremely late to finding out that he’s actually an absolutely shit guy. I angry-cried some more, but at least I read Ender’s game from my local library and got a physical copy of Speaker for the Dead from a second-hand bookstore… I was gonna read the books when I was way younger; thank god I waited. I’ve had one childhood-forming author end up being horrible, and I don’t know if I could handle 2
OSC's really dangerous views and problematic religion shows up in so many of his books. It's vomit inducing. I still have to admit, he's a great writer, but his propaganda is gross.
Noooooo I loved foundation! It reads a lot differently when you read the society itself as a character. Not for everyone for sure, but still a fantastic series.
It was unclear if he read the full series. I agree with his assessment of the first book. It's essentially a collection of short stories like Robot. The story gets better, though the characters mostly don't. edit: Ha got to the point where he says Asimov's short story selections are good. I feel like the first Foundation book definitely should be considered a short story collection and not a 'novel'
@@JediWreith, yeah, the Foundation series is nothing but short stories till you get to the 80's Foundation's Edge and beyond. They were compiled after they were written in to the books we have now. But I guess he didn't know that? They even READ like short stories, so I'm rather surprised he missed it.
So glad to find some others who enjoyed/appreciated Foundation* I asterisk it because I can’t really speak to what reading just foundation would be like as I read all three series (robot, foundation, and.. empire? I always mess up the names) consecutively (not by publish date). Perhaps Foundation itself is less then impressive by itself, wouldn’t know. Personally I loved each book, and the greater story they were telling. (Cosmere anyone?) I actually got into those Asimov books after hearing Brandon Sanderson cite it as one of two main things that kind of lead to/motivated him to write the Cosmere (if you know you know.. gah I hate that phrase, so cocky, but seems best way to put it)
Yeah the first book is riveting for me. The first and second crises are so incredible, with Salvor Hardin’s masterful politicking weaving a thread through each that truly feels like the only possible solution. One mark of a great writer is to make their characters truly feel intelligent without breaking the internal rules of the novel, and many characters in Foundation feel like pillars of intellect in their world.
I was looking away from the screen when I heard him say it and only barely saw him put a book down as I turned to see, and had a sly gut feeling🤔…I rewound to see what he picked up and my suspicions were put to rest.
Foundation made me fall in love with sci fi ._. I've never really got invested in any characters in any stories I've read. Foundation treats states as characters, and you (or, I guess, me) get invested in the future of humanity. I couldn't care much for the mc in Dune, for example. I wanted to know more about its ecology though. The planet itself is a great character, and I wish there were more stories like foundation and dune, where small pieces of characters and situations create a bigger picture. Doesn't need to be profound, philosophical, and I couldn't care less about flowery language, I love it simple. This format of Foundation really helps me read a story about a whole galactic empire without unnecessary character development for characters that will be short outlived by the narration itself.
I loved your description of Speaker for the Dead. It's one of the books that I try to get people to read, but it's really hard to convince people to read a book at all, much less the second book in a series.
Exactly my worry - I'm perfectly happy reading both but, if the first isn't really all that and I can jump in to SFTD straight away and not be lost, I wouldn't be against that. Not planning on reading the rest anyways seeing as it seems to be that they got worse so, if only reading one is an option, I'm game.
I found that I liked foundation until the jester broke everything. Then it just became a dull "whoever speaks last wins!" situation. and the twist that the 2nd foundation was right where the first one was (or the capital, can't remember wich twist he went with) was a really boring twist that felt like he was self congratulating how smart he was.
i havent watched star trek, or most of the star wars movies for that matter (Since i am oh so very young) but i *have* read foundation just a month ago, and i had dune read for me like, 3 years ago? Point is, i liked Foundation better, so i am guessing i would like star trek.
I just finished Annihilation, and - oh, my. The way Vandermeer uses this incredibly elegant phraseology to describe at times incredibly abstract concepts, it's fantastic. And that pacing! It knows exactly when to move from beat to beat, constantly keeping me engaged, never boring, never overwhelming (not in a bad way, at least). Edit: Reading my own comment, i notice that what i've said so far is only a sliver of what i loved about this book, i - yeah. Thank you so much for the recommendation, i'll certainly be passing it along to my friends!
I first read the Foundation books in my teens in the 80s. I re-read them during the last year. The books seem as relevant now as they were in the 1940s. Asimov wrote them as the social sciences (sociology, psychology, etc.) were becoming increasingly important in the world's increasing urban, industrial, and bureaucratic societies. He was playing around with the idea that sociology and psychology (combined with mathematics and advanced computing) could predict and direct the actions of large groups. I was intrigued by the idea when I first read the books. Is this kind of power good, bad, or neutral? Could that sort of power ever really be exerted with the level of control suggested by psychohistory. Re-reading it now, it's impossible not to see the parallels with our current world. We are the constant targets of big data, algorithms, and psychology. We're living in the world of the Foundation, but without a benevolent Hari Seldon trying to guide us toward a better future.
For Gaiman, you might want to read "Neverwhere", which is...loads of weird fun, and "The Ocean At The End Of The Lane", which is....well...just read it.
Neverwhere was originally a BBC miniseries that he later re-wrote into a book. Like a lot of BBC stuff, the production design is lacking, but the story is great.
@@jasontankable Apparently it's more like a book that was adapted by the BBC before it was published. Gaiman had the story down, and then they kept changing bits and he kept saying 'That's fine, I'll put it right in the book,' until one day the producer came up to him and said 'we're cutting this scene, and if you say 'I'll put it back in the book' _I_ _will_ _kill_ _you_ .'
Neverwhere is amazing! Good Omens, that Gaiman co-wrote with Sir Terry Pratchett is also well worth a read (I also highly recommend the TV miniseries, Michael Sheen and David Tennant are absolutely brilliant).
I knew they were originally published like that, but they have long been reframed to be a single story nowadays. Even within the text, it does not treat them as short stories, but as a continuation of a single narrative. At no point does the text itself even refer to itself as an anthology or collection. But even if I talked about them as short stories (which I didn't because they aren't presented as that these days), in my opinion they pale compared to other collections I've read. ~ Tim
I came here to say that. Sure, that’s not how they are packaged, but it’s what they are: an anthology linked by a central conceit. If you look at each story, it is very much constructed like a short story. It’s hardly surprising as Isaac Asimov was a master of the form. From (distant) memory the later books might be more novel-ish in structure, but it’s been decades.
I'm not that avid of a reader, but "Rise of Kyoshi" really grabbed me. I read it in only two sittings, which is really weird for me since I mostly read in short bursts.
I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote. Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews TH-camrs made of them. They are hilarious. One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist. They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin. I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer, I'd go with Krimson Rogue.
I can't understand how one can hate Foundation so much? It's a collection of shorter stories that portray the rise of a new empire through a number of crisis.
Yeah when I read them it felt like reading a connected series of short stories, and that wasn't an unusual thing. Ray Bradbury had done the same with the Martian Chronicles and several other books. And the as the Foundation series continued it seemed like he invested more into the characters he was developing for those books.
I picked up N.K Jemisin's The Fifth Season on a whim and absolutely devoured the entire trilogy faster than anything I've read before. Such a great story of resilience and cycles of pain and claiming the respect you deserve but aren't afforded
The Broken Earth trilogy is so incredibly good(i'm not even done with book three and im still recommending it hshsf) nk jemisins writing makes it impossible to stop thinking about the world, the characters, and the many layers of the story its a very pleasant mix of scifi and fantasy, done with a lot of commentaries in enthralling ways definitely read it, you wont regret the decision
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison was the book that really impressed me this year. It's not a light reading, but it is very well written. It tells the story of an ex-slave and her children and the way they deal with trauma of their past. It really helped me dealing with my depression.
I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote. Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews TH-camrs made of them. They are hilarious. One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist. They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin. I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer, I'd go with Krimson Rogue. Whetever you like cringe (like Neckbeard-Stories on Reddit) or not: I warmly recommend it still.
Yeah, but all the cool kids say it's bland (no character development, yadda yadda yadda...), so I better hop on the cool train. Now seriously, I was surprised when I started hearing these kind of critiques of Foundation. Did we read the same book(s)? I'd give anything if I could erase it from my memory so I could read it again for the first time (and all the rest of Asimov's work, for that matter). I have a theory of why people say (think?) this of this series (I mean, beside the fact it doesn't check the boxes of "proper writing" some fake guru invented and everybody accepted as gospel): they can't accept there's no 'character development' for example because it emphasizes the fact that any one person is completely insignificant on galactic scale of space and time and they just can't deal with that thought. Somewhat like why many people embrace religion even though their reason tells them it's a bunch of fairytales. If you just say "I didn't like it, it's not my cup of tea, it didn't click with me", that's perfectly fine. But no, they (the reviewers) usually start elaborating why it's 'objectively badly written', thus not good (not necessarily the author of this video, but you can see he's part of that pack). The story of Foundation spans several centuries in time and immense distances in space. People are not immortal in that universe. How can you expect any deep character development of particular persons when their lives are but a speck of dust in a dust storm? The Empire and the civilization is in some way the only constant protagonist throughout the whole story, beside (SPOILER ALERT!) that 'guy' from the Robot series after the universes merged. And while we're talking about Asimov, why is no one mentioning "Gods themselves"? I've had some people who haven't read Sci-Fi before and to whom I recommended the book say that it's the best book they ever read, period.
@@DukePaprikar Yes the point of "Hard" ScFi is that the science *IS* a (the?) main character. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but many of us LIKE "idea" driven ScFI....
I'd really recommend A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. It's one of the true mind-bending scifi novels that I've encountered. It can be a rough start, but once it clicks, your own audience journey at understanding *alien thought* coincides with the other characters.
@@bottlewishez7889 I generally agree, but I would put Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space there as well. I've heard similar things about Ian Banks The Culture (I just haven't read enough to have an opinion)
@@dauchande Of these, the Culture series was the hardest for me to really get into, even though I've read them all. The Vinge series is amazing, as is the multiple variations on Revelation Space by Reynolds.
Respectfully, I disagree on Foundation and still really enjoy it. I'm glad you picked up Asimov's short stories, many are pretty great. Did you read any Heinlein?
I'm a lifetime fan of Asimov, and I swear by the Foundation series... I still wouldn't recomend it to somebody starting on SciFi, and I wouldn't fight any debate where I would need to defend how well written it is. I love it because of both the premise and the story itself, but it's not really the best written novel out there (not even a well written one). Now, if you put your brain in the right headspace, and have a general idea of what to expect from an Asimov novel series, you enjoy it A LOT more
@@yoshienverde I know it’s not for everyone, but taking notes while reading his works really helped me understand them (at least to the point of not feeling totally lost), and it seems to only work for me with just Asimov’s works. I try doing the same thing with poetry and uni course material, but it’s somehow not working for me. I think it’s because his ideas are still very solid now; they’re this fascinating intersection of stretched, yet still instinctually understood reality and sci-fi’s surrealistic awe in my eyes. There’s this awesome surge of feelings when one of Asimov’s short stories fully click in your head. I’ve unfortunately only experienced that with Nightfall so far, so if the Foundation series is similar - even if only in bits and pieces throughout - then I’ll pick them up. If not, I have a very short backlog.
I'm unsure if he read just Foundation (the first book), or the original Foundation trilogy, all of which were originally printed in serial in magazines. (Books 4 and onward are in an entirely different style and feature characters from other books he wrote.)
I’ve only read The Book of Sand, but that one alone was definitely super moving. I literally ended up writing a poem semi-inspired by it that same day haha
@@gracetopherkirk5742 That's really cool! I haven't read The Book of Sand yet, but I've read all his stories from the beginning of his career up until The Aleph, and I'm really excited to keep going.
great book though i don't remember it being a collection of short stories, more like a web of personal tales that all tie into a single narrative of events but to provide context for each character. great fucking book though
Oh dang, I read this one a decade ago. I wrote an essay about it for my college application, but I haven’t looked back on it since. It might be time to revisit it
@@mdeac48 pretty accurate vibe for a frickin Vietnam book though, wouldn’t you say? Some stories freaked me out too, especially “sweetheart of the song tra bong”, but i appreciated how real to the confusion and fear they were and how powerful that made the accounts
I'm not sure if anyone wants my recommendation but here goes: I'd certainly recommend reading "The Apothecary" by Maile Meloy. A good blend of fantasy and magic with the reality of our world. Plus the sequel, "The Apprentices."
*might look into some of the very early works or George R.R. Martian especially the Thousand Worlds short stories and the ones in the Tuf Voyaging arc...there is an excellent channel here on YT run by Preston Jacobs who has audio book versions of these stories...think he reads some of these and his commentary on these worlds is very good and insightful...i really enjoy them*
I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote. Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews TH-camrs made of them. They are hilarious. One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist. They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin. I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer, I'd go with Krimson Rogue. But again: MANY reviewed those hilariously-bad and hyper-cringey books! Whetever you like cringe (like Neckbeard-Stories on Reddit) or not: I warmly recommend it still.
The feeling of visiting a classic everyone says is good and..... it's actually good, shouldn't be as surprising as it is I really appreciated this video. I read pretty quickly but I do have a niche comfort zone I stick to and, while I'm still not great with darker stuff, I'll have to give some of these a try
@@waggyn Yeah, I definitely see that. It didn't help that my english teacher didn't allow me to critique misogyny/racism in the classics (brushing it off as 'just the time period') or making his interpretation of the work the only one we were allowed to write about
There is this great video series "Extra Sci Fi" by "Extra Credits" that tackles a lot of classic Sci Fi and shows us what makes them unique and why they are great (starting with Frankenstein): th-cam.com/video/DnSmGFmP8qU/w-d-xo.html
@@waggyn What's your problem with "grapes of wrath"? I'm genuinely curious, because I went into it not expecting very much and ended up finding it genuinely amazing, earth shattering, landscape defining...
I was surprised by your opinion on Foundation at first. I am a business/econ grad currently studying political science and also have some level of aphantasia... so my preference makes a little more sense now! If you like dry conversations dealing with power structures and can't picture scenery in your head- the foundation series is for you! haha Loved all your recommendations and discussion structure!
Not sure how Ursula K Le Guin didn't show up on your list, but I am pleased to see Childhood's End on it. Fantastic book. Hyperion and Dune are probably the best Science Fiction books ever written. In fact, Simmon's hyperion cantos is clearly the best series. There's stuff in the fourth book that finishes the story in the first book...how he plotted the story from the start is just astounding. Something G.R.R. Martin knows very little about...
I read Hyperion in a fugue state some decade or so ago and not too long ago had the unique experience of reading my favourite book for the first time *twice*.. Cannot recommend it enough, and there are three other books in the saga if you enjoy it!
@@HelloFutureMe I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote. Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews TH-camrs made of them. They are hilarious. One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist. They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin. I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer, I'd go with Krimson Rogue. But again: MANY reviewed those hilariously-bad and hyper-cringey books! Whetever you like cringe (like Neckbeard-Stories on Reddit) or not: I warmly recommend it still.
Boy, we are going to have a profound disagreement. I love the Foundation series. It's fantastic world building on a micro view. Favourite story was the Merchant Prince having a shield in essential a thumb drive. After that I read the whole series, his Robot and Earth series and most of the Foundation and Empire series....maybe I should go finish it. Also love the Dune series, except Chapter House Dune. Though that may have been fatigue.
@@Takejiro24 Think of it as building a world from the bottom up, a small detail or tech that exists in the world. The micro view/perspective then builds on that to answer the "who/what/when/where/why and how" this item, saying, tech, etc regarding this detail. In Asimov's Foundation series (SPOILERS) the Thumb sized energy shield was a product of resource scarcity. They needed the item but couldn't produce the large ship generators, so they had to shrink it. Thus this society is clever, efficiently using limited resources and technologically advanced. Hope that helps.
I read a variety of genres. My sister-in-law, who is also an avid reader, got me "Educated" for Christmas. It's something I probably never would have picked up on my own. I loved it. Love your channel.
Speaker of the Dead is in my top-five favorite books of all time. Love that book. Interesting note: Speaker was the first book that Orson Scott Card wanted to write starring Ender/Andrew, but he didn't think that Andrew's character was believable. As a result, he wrote Enders Game to develop the character and demonstrate how/why someone could be as empathetic as Ender/Andrew is in Speaker.
kind of! but not exactly he had already written the story of ender, but only as a SHORT STORY. he then had the concept for Speaker of the Dead in his mind but found it wasn't exactly working the way he wanted it to until he decided to make Ender the protagonist (or got that idea suggested to him by someone idr exactly) this then made him go back and rewrite enders story into a whole book, the Enders Game we know and love today, so he could develop enders character and backstory to the point of making Speaker for the Dead work as a sequel!
Hearing your absolute passion and joy throughout this video was wonderful! The last book to absolutely blow me away was the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin - a really fascinating and unique spin on fantasy and sci-fi all in one.
I tried N K Jemisin and second person present is just utterly inaccessible. Any recommendation of N K Jemisin--or any other second person novel, especially second person *present*--needs a disclaimer about it. It's so different and weird and hard to get into that readers need to know about it beforehand. I want content warnings for this narration style.
@@lunasophia9002 Would something like “Told In The Second Person” being present on the cover be enough of a warning? That narration frame is so incredibly rare to be in a published work, and it’s even rarer still to come across it by accident…
@@lunasophia9002 I can completely understand that - the 2nd person stuff is very difficult to get into. However, when it's revealed *why* the 2nd person is used, it makes it all so much better.
I read the initial Foundation trilogy last year. I loved the first book, but it certainly didn't conform to the flow I typically expect from a novel. Books 2 and 3 weren't as good but still enjoyable. Later in life Asimov added a number of additional Foundation books that tried to tie his entire universe together into one large story-arc. I haven't read those yet, but they were all penned something like 30 years later. As a result I think they're probably far less interesting.
@@colin1818 They're a mixed bag. There are some neat ideas, but the uninteresting character thing is exacerbated by the fact they follow single characters instead of multiple characters throughout time. The exception being Hari Seldon himself in the prequels, but it helps there's and undercurrent in Forward the Foundation of "the author was literally slowly dying while writing this, so the melancholy of it is applied very well in the book".
@@colin1818 Foundation's Edge + Foundation and Earth are great and the best titles of the series, I'd say. Prelude to Foundation + Foundation Chronicles are ALL about the character Hari Seldon and are very cool too; particularly to fill in blanck and explain stuff from how the Foundation came to be! I highly recommend them. They are all for sure different than the Foundation Trilogy and also much more dynamic in the narrative, with a bunch of worldbuilding!
Foundation and Empire was the peak for me, I loved the Mule as a villain. Foundation's Edge lost me though, I never read past it as I figured it was a sign of the spark going out. Good series but I don't think it deserves the enormous praise it received, but it came about in a different time.
Read Neuromancer on the coach on a school trip when I was 11; excellent book. I love having to read between the lines without explanations being given to you on a plate - the main thing is not to worry about not understanding something right away and trusting that it'll click later; every concept is a potential reveal.
Hard disagree on Foundation. It comes down to personal taste of course but for me sci-fi is all about grand ideas and Foundation is truly epic in it's scope and ideas. Yes it is not character driven or heavy on plot but the themes it tackles more than makes up for it. It comes down to what you enjoy of course. For me modern sci-fi like the expanse feels like reading a detailed movie script rather than reading a novel. So it does not speak to me as much. But I can understand why Foundation would feel dry to such an audience. Also like others said you must try Ursula K. Leguin. Left Hand of Darkness, Lathe of Heaven, The Dispossessed. These are all must reads im my opinion. As always great video, I really appreciate your points.
if anyone out there enjoys short scifi horror stories: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury tbh not all of them are horror, but like- a good 90% edit: they best compare to some of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories, which is... probably not a coincidence, since one is themed around the Fall of the House of Usher
Probably my favorite book I've read so far this year is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. On balance, possibly the most haunting and beautiful novel I've read in years.
I picked up this book earlier this year and wasn’t immediately drawn into it. I think I may have just been too busy for it - did you find it pulled you in a little further into the book?
@@tonykirk8295 It's definitely one of those books you have to let pull you in and give it a bit of patience. And it does give you more the further in you go.
@@Kathywake23 I appreciate that. I feel like Piranesi sort of resists those "synopsis/here's what the book's about!" reviews somehow, you can't actually get the point of it without just reading the thing and the less said about it the better.
@@Kathywake23 Piranesi is great. The beginning is vague and a bit slow. There is some deeper fantasy stuff going on, but the book isn’t really about that stuff. It is more about the feelings it inspires in the first portion. If the idea of a tone piece doesn’t interest you, or if the first couple chapters don’t grab you, I don’t think I would recommend it. More stuff happens later on, but it builds on the first few chapters so skipping those defeats the whole point of the book.
i read Foundation a long time ago, when i was quite young. i think it really formed the type of scifi i like now. i really like the sorts of stories that show a society through examples, and jumps around a lot. I'm not one to get attached to characters easily, so i often don't try to, or even want characters that im meant to get attached tho.
Have y'all read any Diane Duane or Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher)? Duane's "Young Wizards" series (and its Cat Wizards spinoff) are probably the single best "fantasy as science fiction" stories I've ever read, vibrant characters slowly growing up as they settle into careers as wizards - who are effectively the IT crew for the universe itself. First book is very much a children's book, but every entry in the series adds depth and complexity. Ursula Vernon won a Hugo for "Digger", and it's well-deserved. You can find that whole weird, philosophical, lovely webcomic online, but if you're in the mood for some very creepy American folk horror, "The Twisted Ones" and "The Hollow Places" just can't be beat. Extra appropriate as we're moving into spooky season!
Only kinda? It was published in a serialised format in the 40s, but more as chapters, not independent stories. And it doesn't present itself as an anthology in the text itself. ~ Tim
I was gonna suggest this before I saw your comment. Big agree; Red Rising and all it's follow-up is totally Game of Thrones in space, but actually hooked me in more for its brand of drama and spectacle. Hail Libertas!
Just discovered your channel with this video. As a fifty-something-year-old long-time SF reader, I was fascinated and delighted to hear your takes on the SF I grew up with. I hope more of your subscribers take a chance with these older works, because some of them are astounding. It’s interesting that some of the preconceptions you had about “classic SF” you applied across 40 years of SF history. Yes, very early SF suffered from the problem of weak characterization, but by the 1980s and 1990s, the genre had matured. I understand that it’s easy for young readers today to lump all those works into the same bucket, but even 40 years ago, the genre was already mature and its readers were demanding more from it than just cool ideas.
My biggest recommendation would be The wandering Inn. Not exactly outside the comfort zone of a lot of people here, but it is really great and relatively unknown.
YES! Someone else gets it! It's my favorite piece of fiction of all-time at this point. It's that enjoyable to read. I can't recommend it enough. More people need to read it!
I cannot agree less! You probably read all the books by now and love them, but the first 600 pages are such a boring slog with uninteresting characters and a world that is bland and unexplored. Yes, I know all the fans say eventually the world is one of the best (and I am willing to believe that), but for most readers it will definitely be too much of a hassle to reach that point.
I followed for a long time avidly, and then just stopped. I think I got tired of the innkeeper's blinkered view of the world? I didn't care about her after a while, and read for the many other interesting characters (like the courier). But these webnovel serials are often so bloated and I tend to quite them after several hundred pages. And I say that as a reader who loves long-ass books.
i get where your coming from with Foundation, usually I'm a characters guy as well. But what I like about the big leaps is it reflects my feelings about these hypothetical science concepts we have now. perhaps we will travel the stars-just not in your life time for me in the real world. It's this grand concept that at one point connects these characters across time but also leaves them behind. something beautiful and true about a story that isn't about a big event made of a few pivotal players but where the player is humanity itself. i hope this made sense lol
So, regarding the predictability of older books, I think what we forget is that it's these older books that INVENTED the tropes we think to be so predictable. The modern books that introduce us to these are, much of the time, simply trying to imitate what came before them... because it was done so well by the original authors! Don't get me wrong, modern books can pull these tropes really well, and expand upon them in new and different ways, but most readers (or future writers) will never truly understand every single thought, insight and belief that went into the original work; much of the time we just see that something works and try to replicate it.
Also most of their followers only copy the tropes on the surface. Like how elves in modern fantasy are done (especialy the elves and dwarves hate each other trope).
@@petrsevcik5044 Yeah exactly. It's like when we copy tropes we're relying on the lore and deep thought the original author put into it to support new books, but without putting any of the deep thought into the new books.
This is true not only for fiction but for texts in non-fiction. Past classics explored ideas and new texts will improve on that, but if you read the old stuff you can see them discuss ideas that didn't pan out, exploring tributaries of thinking, and it gives a greater depth. And sometimes you come across ideas that shouldn't have been forgotten. Same with fiction.
I'm genuinely curious whether you would like books 2 and 3 of the Foundation trilogy more. They have a much more continuous, linear story structure and focus largely around the impact of a single character, the antagonist of both books known as The Mule.
I absolutely loved Annihilation myself. I read the trilogy in a rush and while most reviews said the second book dragged, I found it excelled in atmosphere and character. Overall a very weird, very menacing and disconcerting experience. I can tell it isn't for everyone and it made me uncomfortable quite often but I absolutely loved the main character. I'd never read any other book with this kind of female protagonist and it was so refreshing that I marvelled openly at how the writer made me cheer for her. It's brilliant!
I'm disappointed you didn't speak at length about Iain M Banks' The Culture series despite showing Consider Phlebas as a prop. Use of Weapons and Surface Detail have the best endings ever, I had to sit there for a while after finishing those books processing what I had just read.
I often say that not enough people talk about The Culture then Tim sat there with a copy of Consider Phlebas right in front of him for an entire video and didn't even mention it 😑
I wasn't a huge fan of Consider Phlebas BUT I've loved his other books - I'm reading Use of Weapons now. It's so damn good! Such a profound world. Well deserved praise he receives. Lucky I have a friend who is a massive fan of his who pushed me and pushed me. ~ Tim
Since you enjoyed Card and are reading short stories, please PLEASE read his story Unaccompanied Sonata. It's both tragic and beautiful at the same time. Probably my favorite short story ever. Also if you like short stories, you have to read Harlan Ellison.
I was looking through the numerous video essays on ATLA recently and I can’t seem to find many VE on the aspects of aangs character. I think it be pretty awesome to hear your thoughts on him. Good and bad. Personally he’s my favorite character and I’m a little disappointed that I can’t find many videos talking about him unlike the rest of the gaang. I look forward to see your future video. You’re my favorite TH-camr. I hope you notice this comment.
Great book video. Gave me a lot to think about. I first read the Foundation Trilogy back in the 60s and I felt then about it much the same as you did. It's never been one of my favorites. I do agree with you about short stories, too. I've read some excellent collections over the years. Most of the books you discussed here I've already read or already have on my TBR list, but I did add Purgatory Mount to my Kindle before the video ended. Plus I just subbed to your channel. 😅
The problem with Foundation might be because you are looking at it as a novel. Foundation is not a novel, it is an anthology of short stories set in a shared universe.
Short stories are super underrated! If you want more recommendations: - Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House. It's a good blend of sci-fi's signature question-based plots, paired with solid character explorations. Who Am I This Time is an extraordinarily heartwarming love story, and one of my favorites. - I second Asimov. I, Robot has a fun logic puzzle sort of feel, and is great even for non-scifi readers. Also, his non-fiction essays are surprisingly compelling! - Also second Aimee Bender (I have her Willful Creatures collection). Her prose is consistently captivating, and she mixes in some great magical realism.
I always took that "Hemingway" short story to be about a family that got so many sets of baby shoes given to them at baby showers, etc. that they started selling off the extras.
Hyperion is amazing! It's one of my scifi favorites, but I have to warn: if you expect same kind of stories from rest of Hyperion-cantos, you're gonna get disappointed. They are very idea-heavy as Tim said.
Fun fact: the original Foundation trilogy is in fact a collection of short stories ;) They were published separately throughout the'40s and compiled into fix-ups in the early '50s (same as with I, Robot).
Reading Dune, Slaughter House Five, and Catch-22 in high school did a lot to shape how I view the world and events around me. And yes I did read all 6 of the Dune series in high school and no I don't think that made me any smarter. It just filled my head with different ideas.
Loved the video, particularly the bit about short stories! The short story that got me to “realize” how powerful the genre is was “the ones who walk away from Omelas” - if you haven’t read it, I absolutely recommend it! I don’t know if anything I’ve read has ever packed as much of a punch as that story
Probably the single best science fiction book ever written is "A Canticle for Leibowitz". I'd say it's the only work of sci-fi that is in the top five books ever written in the English language.
Ursula K LeGuinn is another great pioneer of sci-fi/fiction and she also wrote some pretty amazing essays, poetry and short stories. Very prolific and very diverse.
For SF short fiction, I'd strongly recommend SF Hall of Fame, Vol. 1 (which is short stories), and SF Hall of Fame, Vols. 2A & 2B (which is novelettes/novellas). Some very, very strong work from the early days of the genre. And the variety of styles of writing is an excellent primer for the subject as well as probably providing something for nearly every taste.
Excellent suggestion! "The SF Hall of Fame, Vol. 1" (edited by Robert Silverberg) is, in my opinion, the best overall collection of SF stories ever published, even though it only covers works before 1965. When reading the stories in that anthology, it's easy to see the profound influences they had on modern SF and pop culture in general. Another classic SF collection worth exploring is "Adventures in Time and Space" from 1946 (edited by Raymond Healy & J. Francis McComas). It was one of the first instances where SF was able to escape the literary prejudices of the publishing world and reach a wider audience in the general public when it was republished as part of Random House's Modern Library series in the 1950s. A few of the stories in it are also found in the "SF Hall of Fame" above. I'd also highly recommend the short fiction of Ray Bradbury, particularly "The Golden Apples of the Sun" (1953), "The Illustrated Man" (1951), or the broader collections "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" (1980) and "Bradbury Stories" (2003). Bradbury wrote some brilliant novels, but I think he was an even better short story writer. His lyrical prose style is lush and beautiful, but his steady barrage of lovely and creative metaphors can grow a little tiring at novel length. His short stories, though, are like polished jewels that never grow old or dim.
The feeling when your mother has more sci fi books than literally any other kind and therefore you read foundation when you were like, 10. I enjoyed it. Probably not gonna go back to it though. Also, Childhood's end broke me and that's that on that.
I usually don't recommend Foundation to people for Asimov. It usually depends on the person asking, but typically I'll suggest the Robot trilogy (Lije Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw books), Pebble in the Sky, or The Gods Themselves.
I'm surprised by how significant the differences are in our reading tastes and histories. Asimov and Gaimen are two of my favorite authors. I adore Foundation, Sandman, and American Gods. Short stories are what first got me into science fiction, and it's probably one of the reasons that I like the original Foundation trilogy so much. And, I did read Dune. In fact, I read it in my teens. You indicated a clear preference for fantasy, and that seems to fit with an interest in characters over concepts. But, I lean the other direction. I'm fine with impressionistically defined characters as long as there's a really interesting concept. But, if there isn't an interesting concept at the center of the story, then the book seems aimless and pointless to me.
![The 15 Best Sci-Fi Books I've Ever Read [Updated Again]](/img/n.gif)
did you know there are books outside fantasy and scifi? truly astounding stuff who woulda thunk it. What's the best book you've read in the last year?
~ Tim
wow, incredible
You should do a Collab with Quinn's ideas now.
The two genres have been around for so long, and still there’s regularly new authors and new books out. Huh… It’s almost like they’re the best two genres out there 🤔
Best book I've read this year is either Dante's Divine Comedy or The Ranger 's Apprentice.
You should read the metro trilogy by dmitry glukhovsky, those books are underrated. Everyone just plays the games, which are good, but the books are definitely better. Some of the best dystopia I've ever read and each book is extremely distinct but you never feel like any of them don't fit. Rupert Degas also does a really good Russian accent in the audiobooks.
No, Tim, you can reference Avatar the Last Airbender as many times as want!
Agreed
Yes, do it!
Honestly, I find it kinda tiring.
Litteraly the reason why i follow Tim's channel
@@Joenah5 honestly you've never seen avatar and if you did that's Just sad
Here's a tip I really like: if it's your birthday coming up, ask your good friends to gift you a book they cherish, their favourite book or a book that impacted them in an important way. You read out of your comfort zone and get to know your friends a little better.
This is a great idea!
~ Tim
@@drewwilson8756 Meh. Could be anything.
Now off to make good friends before my next birthday.. :)
I always feel bad for offering books but omg gifting your fave book is always like... such a cool thing like please we can even swap books I don't know, SHARE
Also with every other medium like film, series, music etc.
Fun fact: Asimov's Foundation trilogy was one of the reasons I decided to start writing sci-fi. I really enjoyed it, so different tastes, I guess.
I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote.
Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews
TH-camrs made of them.
They are hilarious.
One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist.
They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin.
I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt
hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer,
I'd go with Krimson Rogue.
But again: MANY reviewed those hilariously-bad and hyper-cringey books!
Whetever you like cringe (like Neckbeard-Stories on Reddit) or not: I warmly
recommend it still.
Foundation (the 5 books) that I read in th 90s were the reason I got hooked on SF.
I loved Foundation, except for the final book. It seemed like Asimov left it in a weird place. Maybe he wrote himself into a corner with it.
this guy has no business reviewing sci-fi at all. he;s a book nerd who doesn't understand the stories... he just sees characters and plots and the covers.. he doesn't get the authors..
@@agnidas5816 Yeah, how dare someone let the characters or the plot of a story get in the way of their enjoyment of the themes of certain books. After all, while themes and the author's vision is only part of what make a story, we should just ignore when we don't like the plot or the characters in a story, if the characters and or the plot of a story seem like they're only there to serve the theme of the story, everyone should just ignore their own feelings on a book, and if a book does things that break our suspension of disbelief, we should just ignore all that I guess. I guess that's how feelings work, if we don't believe the characters in a story act like real people, we should just pretend they do, for the sake of 'muh themes'. I guess that's what people mean by books stimulating our imagination. 'Good' books stimulate our imaginations, by causing us to have to pretend that we enjoy bland characters or a boring or non-sensical plot or whatever, so long as there is a theme. Because heaven forbid we define good writing in such a way that includes more than one element of the story actually be good.
But yeah, this guy has no business reviewing sci-fi at all, because opinions other than your own are somehow 'wrong' I guess, even if they do a much better and more thorough job explaining theirs than you did. Actually, he talked about what the stories were about, their themes, so what part of the stories could you possibly claim he didn't understand? Clearly he 'sees' more than character and plots, if he also talked about the themes and subjects of these stories. Also, he didn't even mention the covers, don't know where you got that one, just another empty claim by you.
Also, if you think this guy has no business reviewing books, maybe you should try and make a sort of gate, and try and keep him out of it. And definitely, definitely, get your knickers in a twist over either my comment, him having a different take on Foundation, or whatever it is that bothered you, or both. And just winge about it.
I'd tell you to also do jack about him reviewing books and talking about them, but you don't need to be told do that, you ain't doing a damn thing about him and his channel. Just let that sink in, that no matter how much you don't like him or his reviews, all you can do is complain on the internet.
I'm sorry I typed this comment, because I know it's a waste on you, and you'll probably just continue to ignore half or more of whatever people say, just to try and pretend you have a rebuttal.
Gaiman is the reason I have an interest in short stories. It is incredible how easily he can create a world, magic entities, and relationships within a few pages. Each story can explore new emotions, make you question your preconceptions about "normal" storytelling.
What I'm trying to say is, you just forced me to reread his short story collections.
Which of his short stories would you recommend? Gaiman is among my favorite writers, but I didn't really enjoy Fragile things.
@@Korilian13 Im looking at the "Trigger Warning" collection. Looking at the contents I'd recommend: "The Thing about Cassandra", "Adventure Story", "Orange" for the weird story telling style, "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" but in particular: "And Weep, Like Alexander".
Fragile things might be his weakest collection in my opinion. But it has a few bangers like "Other People" and "The Day the Saucers Came". "The Sunbird" had a very strong American Gods-feeling.
You can always expect some of the stories not to affect you or be difficult to understand but then you find a gem of comedy, horror or that makes you think.
Hyperion is incredible. The whole 4 book series is unbelievable.
i love how, instead of reviewing each book in order, you discussed them through these topics that tied some of the books together!
also i highly recommend the fifth season trilogy, it explores wonderful ideas AND has well-written and interesting characters
I love fifth season, shame nk has just lots of terrible takes outside her writing
I really enjoyed the first book of the trilogy. I saw the twist coming, but it was well done nevertheless.
The 2nd book is the typical case of a middle-book of a trilogy, I'd say. Progress was slow and the ideas didn't feel so fresh anymore as they did in the first one.
The third book, well, I don't know. I mean, obviously you want your climax to be well established. But I guess one can overdo it? When the finale came, it was so clear what must happen, that it didn't take me by surprise even in the slightest. It was inevitable. And I think N.K. Jemisin was aware of that, for the climax felt oddly short and kind of laconic to me.
So yeah, it's a good trilogy for all the ideas packed into it, like a magic system that is so unique in effect and foundational world building, that it would be worth to read the books just for it. And the characters excel as well, at least the main ones.
But in my opinion, the first book is by far the strongest of the trilogy. That doesn't make the other two a waste of time - at least I didn't regret the time spent. But they won't deliver the same "Wowzer" as the first one did.
While I liked the first book okay (haven’t yet read the others), I loved her Inheritance trilogy and Dreamblood duology much more
Just bought fith season looking forward to reading it. Just finishing off the Vagrant series
Ok, but grammar?
I read the Foundation trilogy for the first time in the last year, and I think I loved it - it remains my favourite book since I read it - for the exact same reasons that you couldn't enjoy it. Foundation, especially the first book, is a story that explicitly doesn't care about telling a character story. The closest thing it has to a protagonist is Hari Seldon, and he's been dead for hundreds of years by the end of the third novel. Foundation, to me, is a story about societies and systems interacting at a galactic scale, where the slightest movement can topple an Empire. I found it shockingly compelling for that reason, watching Asimov set up a domino and then knock it down from a star system away.
My favourite moment in all of fiction is when the protagonists of one of the novellas that makes up Foundation utterly and completely lose to an invading general - but win the day anyway when the inevitable political reality of the Empire that sent the general takes him out of the equation for perfectly understandable reasons. It's beautifully poetic.
(Asimov's prose does suck though - but I kind of enjoyed the wooden nature of it, kept reminding me I was reading something properly old).
Oh, wow. I love the 3x genre of videogames, so maybe I would like it. Quick summary of the genre: gameplay is made up of turn-based exploration and often galactic-scale interactions between players controlling one nation-sized group each. Most of 3x is staunchly sci-fi anyway, and even though I lean far more into character stories when deciding what to read, I enjoyed The Silmarillion to the point of it being on equal footing with The Hobbit and LOTR when it spends far more of its time building the world than building the characters in it.
I enjoyed Nightfall to the point of it being my favorite short story ever written, (for the past 6 years now) so I know that there MUST be more of his stories that I’ll enjoy… I just haven’t found them yet.
Yes! It is the life of a species, instead of of a character. For me the dry prose (especially in the early books) was a good choice. It gives it the feeling that you are reading an sociological paper of a culture yet to exist. It reinforces the idea that behavior prediction could be primarily quantitative data driven (sociology), instead of qualitative/anecdotal (like old school anthropology, and much of our day to day policy).
Yeah, the moment I realized Tim values character driven stories over plot or idea driven ones, I knew I probably won't have to worry about the books he doesn't like.
Foundation had such an awesome premise. I use it for most of my D&D settings to justify why there's ruins full of treasure everywhere.
The profound message that Tim is missing is that all societies are doomed to fail, even Terminus (The Foundation).
You know there are more than three books? Its been a while since I've read them but I think there are like seven in the series. He kept adding on after he wrote the trilogy. A couple of the books in the series have returning main characters but you are right in that the Foundation series cares much more about the story of the universe than a character story. I love the series but I can completely understand why some one wouldn't get into the series.
“Not LOtR?”
“No”
Picks up the hobbit
“NO!”
I read House of Leaves recently and it was a masterpiece. Very much a "you'll either hate it or love it" kind of book, but damn did I love it. Very weird, very gripping, very mind warping. One particular scene made it difficult for me to sleep.
House of Leaves will live rentfree in my head for the rest of my life. God I love it so much.
Agreed, I just read it recently & I love it too - one of the most unique books I’ve ever read in my life. It was extremely skin-crawling in its creepiness at times (there was one night I legitimately had to sleep with my light on because I was feeling too spooked to sleep with the closet in the dark behind me), and yet it had some very heartfelt moments and bits of writing, as well.
The Foundation trilogy is one of my most favorite sci-fi stories, so I’m afraid I have to disagree on that one lol. Having said that, I have had Hyperion on my list for years and am now even more greatly looking forward to it. Thank you for the book reviews!
Stay well out there everybody, and God bless you friends. :)
Foundation had some creative ideas but it was the most boring book to me, i had to painfully force myself to finish the first book.
Speaker for the Dead is actually where Ender's story started. Orson Scott Card already had the concept for the story thought out and then conceived Ender's Game in order to give his character a strong background heading into the book he was more excited about.
And those first 2 books are the only ones worth reading. Xenocide is a mess, and Orson Scott Card is a bigot.
@@Richard_Nickerson this. I tried reading Xenocide, but it was so bad and disappointingly horrible that I threw it in the trash and angry-cried for a bit. Then I decided to find out more about the man… I don’t enjoy spending time on social media, so I was extremely late to finding out that he’s actually an absolutely shit guy. I angry-cried some more, but at least I read Ender’s game from my local library and got a physical copy of Speaker for the Dead from a second-hand bookstore… I was gonna read the books when I was way younger; thank god I waited. I’ve had one childhood-forming author end up being horrible, and I don’t know if I could handle 2
OSC's really dangerous views and problematic religion shows up in so many of his books. It's vomit inducing. I still have to admit, he's a great writer, but his propaganda is gross.
Realy? Because Ender's Game started as a short story way before it became a novel.
Not overly concerned with your politics. Was discussing the book.
Noooooo I loved foundation! It reads a lot differently when you read the society itself as a character. Not for everyone for sure, but still a fantastic series.
Foundation is an amazing series with an amazingly layered story structure.
It was unclear if he read the full series. I agree with his assessment of the first book. It's essentially a collection of short stories like Robot. The story gets better, though the characters mostly don't.
edit: Ha got to the point where he says Asimov's short story selections are good. I feel like the first Foundation book definitely should be considered a short story collection and not a 'novel'
@@JediWreith, yeah, the Foundation series is nothing but short stories till you get to the 80's Foundation's Edge and beyond. They were compiled after they were written in to the books we have now. But I guess he didn't know that? They even READ like short stories, so I'm rather surprised he missed it.
So glad to find some others who enjoyed/appreciated Foundation*
I asterisk it because I can’t really speak to what reading just foundation would be like as I read all three series (robot, foundation, and.. empire? I always mess up the names) consecutively (not by publish date).
Perhaps Foundation itself is less then impressive by itself, wouldn’t know. Personally I loved each book, and the greater story they were telling. (Cosmere anyone?)
I actually got into those Asimov books after hearing Brandon Sanderson cite it as one of two main things that kind of lead to/motivated him to write the Cosmere (if you know you know.. gah I hate that phrase, so cocky, but seems best way to put it)
Yeah the first book is riveting for me. The first and second crises are so incredible, with Salvor Hardin’s masterful politicking weaving a thread through each that truly feels like the only possible solution. One mark of a great writer is to make their characters truly feel intelligent without breaking the internal rules of the novel, and many characters in Foundation feel like pillars of intellect in their world.
"Push myself" holds up The Silmarillion - I love The Silmarillion and I laughed so hard 🤣😂
That is a sign of a true nerd my friend he makes us all proud 🥲
I was looking away from the screen when I heard him say it and only barely saw him put a book down as I turned to see, and had a sly gut feeling🤔…I rewound to see what he picked up and my suspicions were put to rest.
Ha, I'm currently reading it. I haven't gone a single page so far without consulting the index of names at the back xD
His delivery and timing of that joke was brilliant 🤣
@@lukeb8526
Keep the pronunciation guide from RotK handy too. I find not knowing how to pronounce things correctly a big hindrance.
Foundation made me fall in love with sci fi ._. I've never really got invested in any characters in any stories I've read. Foundation treats states as characters, and you (or, I guess, me) get invested in the future of humanity. I couldn't care much for the mc in Dune, for example. I wanted to know more about its ecology though. The planet itself is a great character, and I wish there were more stories like foundation and dune, where small pieces of characters and situations create a bigger picture. Doesn't need to be profound, philosophical, and I couldn't care less about flowery language, I love it simple. This format of Foundation really helps me read a story about a whole galactic empire without unnecessary character development for characters that will be short outlived by the narration itself.
I loved your description of Speaker for the Dead. It's one of the books that I try to get people to read, but it's really hard to convince people to read a book at all, much less the second book in a series.
Exactly my worry - I'm perfectly happy reading both but, if the first isn't really all that and I can jump in to SFTD straight away and not be lost, I wouldn't be against that. Not planning on reading the rest anyways seeing as it seems to be that they got worse so, if only reading one is an option, I'm game.
@@kassimbabika I enjoyed all of them and think they are worth reading.
I really liked Foundations plot. I only had positive memories of it.
Dune = StarWars, Foundation = StarTrek. Depends which scifi consumer you are.
@@polishedpebble4111 ahhhh, that makes sense! I like Star Trek best.
I found that I liked foundation until the jester broke everything. Then it just became a dull "whoever speaks last wins!" situation. and the twist that the 2nd foundation was right where the first one was (or the capital, can't remember wich twist he went with) was a really boring twist that felt like he was self congratulating how smart he was.
i havent watched star trek, or most of the star wars movies for that matter (Since i am oh so very young) but i *have* read foundation just a month ago, and i had dune read for me like, 3 years ago? Point is, i liked Foundation better, so i am guessing i would like star trek.
Up until the 4th... I’d say. I liked it because it was so "upscaled". Asimov‘s prose was always a little wooden though.
It’s a different flavour of classic sci-fi but I absolutely adore Ursula Le Guin. The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness have never left me.
I second that.
Her short story collections are incredible as well. The Birthday of the World is one i keep returning to
Also Wizard of Earthsea is like if Steinbeck wrote Tolkien
@@truegrandhighwonko alright. Interesting idea, I guess.
About to dive into the Dispossessed for the first time. So far I’ve read from Ursula only non-fiction and Earthsea. Really looking forward to this.
I just finished Annihilation, and - oh, my.
The way Vandermeer uses this incredibly elegant phraseology to describe at times incredibly abstract concepts, it's fantastic. And that pacing! It knows exactly when to move from beat to beat, constantly keeping me engaged, never boring, never overwhelming (not in a bad way, at least).
Edit: Reading my own comment, i notice that what i've said so far is only a sliver of what i loved about this book, i - yeah.
Thank you so much for the recommendation, i'll certainly be passing it along to my friends!
I first read the Foundation books in my teens in the 80s. I re-read them during the last year. The books seem as relevant now as they were in the 1940s. Asimov wrote them as the social sciences (sociology, psychology, etc.) were becoming increasingly important in the world's increasing urban, industrial, and bureaucratic societies. He was playing around with the idea that sociology and psychology (combined with mathematics and advanced computing) could predict and direct the actions of large groups. I was intrigued by the idea when I first read the books. Is this kind of power good, bad, or neutral? Could that sort of power ever really be exerted with the level of control suggested by psychohistory. Re-reading it now, it's impossible not to see the parallels with our current world. We are the constant targets of big data, algorithms, and psychology. We're living in the world of the Foundation, but without a benevolent Hari Seldon trying to guide us toward a better future.
For Gaiman, you might want to read "Neverwhere", which is...loads of weird fun, and "The Ocean At The End Of The Lane", which is....well...just read it.
Neverwhere was originally a BBC miniseries that he later re-wrote into a book. Like a lot of BBC stuff, the production design is lacking, but the story is great.
I also found Anansi's Children a lot easier to read than American Gods
@@jasontankable Apparently it's more like a book that was adapted by the BBC before it was published. Gaiman had the story down, and then they kept changing bits and he kept saying 'That's fine, I'll put it right in the book,' until one day the producer came up to him and said 'we're cutting this scene, and if you say 'I'll put it back in the book' _I_ _will_ _kill_ _you_ .'
I think you will like Clive Barker's Abarat series and The Thief of Always
Neverwhere is amazing! Good Omens, that Gaiman co-wrote with Sir Terry Pratchett is also well worth a read (I also highly recommend the TV miniseries, Michael Sheen and David Tennant are absolutely brilliant).
Just going to point out that Foundation IS a short story collection.
I knew they were originally published like that, but they have long been reframed to be a single story nowadays. Even within the text, it does not treat them as short stories, but as a continuation of a single narrative. At no point does the text itself even refer to itself as an anthology or collection. But even if I talked about them as short stories (which I didn't because they aren't presented as that these days), in my opinion they pale compared to other collections I've read.
~ Tim
I came here to say that. Sure, that’s not how they are packaged, but it’s what they are: an anthology linked by a central conceit. If you look at each story, it is very much constructed like a short story. It’s hardly surprising as Isaac Asimov was a master of the form. From (distant) memory the later books might be more novel-ish in structure, but it’s been decades.
I'm not that avid of a reader, but "Rise of Kyoshi" really grabbed me. I read it in only two sittings, which is really weird for me since I mostly read in short bursts.
I read "The Magician's Nephew" like that. I can't remember if it was 2 o 3 am when I finish it.
I did something similar with rereading "the lost hero"
I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote.
Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews
TH-camrs made of them.
They are hilarious.
One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist.
They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin.
I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt
hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer,
I'd go with Krimson Rogue.
I can't understand how one can hate Foundation so much? It's a collection of shorter stories that portray the rise of a new empire through a number of crisis.
Yeah when I read them it felt like reading a connected series of short stories, and that wasn't an unusual thing. Ray Bradbury had done the same with the Martian Chronicles and several other books. And the as the Foundation series continued it seemed like he invested more into the characters he was developing for those books.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heilein was a great novel, and one of his most self contained and completed works.
That book and stranger in a strange land made me fall for Heilein
👍for both books!
Yes those two and starship troopers are my top three heinlein books
I picked up N.K Jemisin's The Fifth Season on a whim and absolutely devoured the entire trilogy faster than anything I've read before. Such a great story of resilience and cycles of pain and claiming the respect you deserve but aren't afforded
yes yes yes! such a good book, such a great trilogy!
Race baiting books. Black writers do not know how to write about something, without mentioning slavery and race.
Imagine being so fragile that a little melanin ruins your ability to enjoy a work of fiction
@@joshuaamy3010 I stated a fact, black writers do not know how to write book that doesn't include racism.
Ahh I Loved that trilogy too! Once I started, I couldn't stop
The Broken Earth trilogy is so incredibly good(i'm not even done with book three and im still recommending it hshsf)
nk jemisins writing makes it impossible to stop thinking about the world, the characters, and the many layers of the story
its a very pleasant mix of scifi and fantasy, done with a lot of commentaries in enthralling ways
definitely read it, you wont regret the decision
The world of broken earth is so frightening!
ugh yesssssss its so gooooodddd
It’s my absolute favorite series. What an incredible story!!
Another vote for Broken Earth! Fantastic series.
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison was the book that really impressed me this year. It's not a light reading, but it is very well written. It tells the story of an ex-slave and her children and the way they deal with trauma of their past. It really helped me dealing with my depression.
I left that on the page 25 more or less...not a "light" read at all...maybe, I picked that up a wrong time.
Will return to that maybe next year 😬
I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote.
Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews
TH-camrs made of them.
They are hilarious.
One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist.
They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin.
I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt
hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer,
I'd go with Krimson Rogue.
Whetever you like cringe (like Neckbeard-Stories on Reddit) or not: I warmly
recommend it still.
The foundation series is one of the best hard scifi ever written
Yeah, but all the cool kids say it's bland (no character development, yadda yadda yadda...), so I better hop on the cool train.
Now seriously, I was surprised when I started hearing these kind of critiques of Foundation. Did we read the same book(s)? I'd give anything if I could erase it from my memory so I could read it again for the first time (and all the rest of Asimov's work, for that matter). I have a theory of why people say (think?) this of this series (I mean, beside the fact it doesn't check the boxes of "proper writing" some fake guru invented and everybody accepted as gospel): they can't accept there's no 'character development' for example because it emphasizes the fact that any one person is completely insignificant on galactic scale of space and time and they just can't deal with that thought. Somewhat like why many people embrace religion even though their reason tells them it's a bunch of fairytales. If you just say "I didn't like it, it's not my cup of tea, it didn't click with me", that's perfectly fine. But no, they (the reviewers) usually start elaborating why it's 'objectively badly written', thus not good (not necessarily the author of this video, but you can see he's part of that pack). The story of Foundation spans several centuries in time and immense distances in space. People are not immortal in that universe. How can you expect any deep character development of particular persons when their lives are but a speck of dust in a dust storm? The Empire and the civilization is in some way the only constant protagonist throughout the whole story, beside (SPOILER ALERT!) that 'guy' from the Robot series after the universes merged.
And while we're talking about Asimov, why is no one mentioning "Gods themselves"? I've had some people who haven't read Sci-Fi before and to whom I recommended the book say that it's the best book they ever read, period.
@@DukePaprikar Yes the point of "Hard" ScFi is that the science *IS* a (the?) main character. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but many of us LIKE "idea" driven ScFI....
huh? it's not hard scifi at all. it based on the fantastical idea that some mutant can control the minds of people.
I'd really recommend A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. It's one of the true mind-bending scifi novels that I've encountered. It can be a rough start, but once it clicks, your own audience journey at understanding *alien thought* coincides with the other characters.
This book, along with A Deepness in the Sky are my favorite novels.
Ok that sounds amazing, I'm gonna look for it
@@bottlewishez7889 I generally agree, but I would put Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space there as well. I've heard similar things about Ian Banks The Culture (I just haven't read enough to have an opinion)
@@dauchande Of these, the Culture series was the hardest for me to really get into, even though I've read them all. The Vinge series is amazing, as is the multiple variations on Revelation Space by Reynolds.
@@tiskel2000 yeah, I've only read one culture novel so far, it's on my list to complete though
Respectfully, I disagree on Foundation and still really enjoy it. I'm glad you picked up Asimov's short stories, many are pretty great. Did you read any Heinlein?
As I said elsewhere, it's a short story collection. If you read it with that in mind, there you go.
I'm a lifetime fan of Asimov, and I swear by the Foundation series... I still wouldn't recomend it to somebody starting on SciFi, and I wouldn't fight any debate where I would need to defend how well written it is.
I love it because of both the premise and the story itself, but it's not really the best written novel out there (not even a well written one).
Now, if you put your brain in the right headspace, and have a general idea of what to expect from an Asimov novel series, you enjoy it A LOT more
I enjoyed Foundation as well, but I aggree with Tim here, that it's very mechanical, idea driven and not for everyone.
@@yoshienverde I know it’s not for everyone, but taking notes while reading his works really helped me understand them (at least to the point of not feeling totally lost), and it seems to only work for me with just Asimov’s works. I try doing the same thing with poetry and uni course material, but it’s somehow not working for me. I think it’s because his ideas are still very solid now; they’re this fascinating intersection of stretched, yet still instinctually understood reality and sci-fi’s surrealistic awe in my eyes.
There’s this awesome surge of feelings when one of Asimov’s short stories fully click in your head. I’ve unfortunately only experienced that with Nightfall so far, so if the Foundation series is similar - even if only in bits and pieces throughout - then I’ll pick them up. If not, I have a very short backlog.
I'm unsure if he read just Foundation (the first book), or the original Foundation trilogy, all of which were originally printed in serial in magazines. (Books 4 and onward are in an entirely different style and feature characters from other books he wrote.)
Borges is incredible. Everyone should just read every story he wrote. Also, I'm currently reading The Anthropocene Reviewed, and it's fantastic.
I’ve only read The Book of Sand, but that one alone was definitely super moving. I literally ended up writing a poem semi-inspired by it that same day haha
@@gracetopherkirk5742 That's really cool! I haven't read The Book of Sand yet, but I've read all his stories from the beginning of his career up until The Aleph, and I'm really excited to keep going.
The Library of Babel is in the running for the most thought-provoking piece of short fiction ever written.
@@xx99Username99xx Absolutely
Random fact: one of my professors at college studied under Borges, right before his exile.
As another short story collection suggestion: I’d recommend the Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian.
great book though i don't remember it being a collection of short stories, more like a web of personal tales that all tie into a single narrative of events but to provide context for each character. great fucking book though
Read that, didn't like it. The endless thread of fear of death never really chimed with me.
One of my favorite books of all time.
Oh dang, I read this one a decade ago. I wrote an essay about it for my college application, but I haven’t looked back on it since. It might be time to revisit it
@@mdeac48 pretty accurate vibe for a frickin Vietnam book though, wouldn’t you say? Some stories freaked me out too, especially “sweetheart of the song tra bong”, but i appreciated how real to the confusion and fear they were and how powerful that made the accounts
Please never take this video down I am going to have to come back periodically to go check what new books to buy.
I'm not sure if anyone wants my recommendation but here goes: I'd certainly recommend reading "The Apothecary" by Maile Meloy. A good blend of fantasy and magic with the reality of our world. Plus the sequel, "The Apprentices."
I read foundation when I was 15 years old, and it is the book that got me into sci-fi. Maybe I should try Parable of the Sower :)
You absolutely should, or anything else by Butler
Yes! I cannot recommend that series (or, really, everything by Butler) too strongly.
*might look into some of the very early works or George R.R. Martian especially the Thousand Worlds short stories and the ones in the Tuf Voyaging arc...there is an excellent channel here on YT run by Preston Jacobs who has audio book versions of these stories...think he reads some of these and his commentary on these worlds is very good and insightful...i really enjoy them*
Bruh, no need to highlight your comment
Dunes been sitting in my shelf for the last year, staring at me. This video convinced me to to read it. Thanks Tim!
I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote.
Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews
TH-camrs made of them.
They are hilarious.
One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist.
They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin.
I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt
hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer,
I'd go with Krimson Rogue.
But again: MANY reviewed those hilariously-bad and hyper-cringey books!
Whetever you like cringe (like Neckbeard-Stories on Reddit) or not: I warmly
recommend it still.
It took
Me three different tries to get through it. Stick to it it. In the end i made it through the whole series and really glad i did.
You won't regret it. It's SO good.
The feeling of visiting a classic everyone says is good and..... it's actually good, shouldn't be as surprising as it is
I really appreciated this video. I read pretty quickly but I do have a niche comfort zone I stick to and, while I'm still not great with darker stuff, I'll have to give some of these a try
@@waggyn Yeah, I definitely see that. It didn't help that my english teacher didn't allow me to critique misogyny/racism in the classics (brushing it off as 'just the time period') or making his interpretation of the work the only one we were allowed to write about
@@waggyn Oof I have to read that later this year for AP Lang lol hopefully I like it more than you did
There is this great video series "Extra Sci Fi" by "Extra Credits" that tackles a lot of classic Sci Fi and shows us what makes them unique and why they are great (starting with Frankenstein):
th-cam.com/video/DnSmGFmP8qU/w-d-xo.html
@@waggyn What's your problem with "grapes of wrath"? I'm genuinely curious, because I went into it not expecting very much and ended up finding it genuinely amazing, earth shattering, landscape defining...
I was surprised by your opinion on Foundation at first. I am a business/econ grad currently studying political science and also have some level of aphantasia... so my preference makes a little more sense now! If you like dry conversations dealing with power structures and can't picture scenery in your head- the foundation series is for you! haha Loved all your recommendations and discussion structure!
Not sure how Ursula K Le Guin didn't show up on your list, but I am pleased to see Childhood's End on it. Fantastic book. Hyperion and Dune are probably the best Science Fiction books ever written. In fact, Simmon's hyperion cantos is clearly the best series. There's stuff in the fourth book that finishes the story in the first book...how he plotted the story from the start is just astounding. Something G.R.R. Martin knows very little about...
I read Hyperion in a fugue state some decade or so ago and not too long ago had the unique experience of reading my favourite book for the first time *twice*.. Cannot recommend it enough, and there are three other books in the saga if you enjoy it!
If you liked Hyperion, you need to read Fall of Hyperion - it's the sequel, and is necessary to complete the plot of the first.
Hyperion is an EXPERIENCE. I cannot recommend it enough. I also thought it would make a really cool premise for a D&D campaign!
I love how you butchered Borges' name; by the way, he's the most famous argentinian writer ever.
I'm so sorry I panicked in the moment when I realised I didn't know 😅 and then that came out
~ Tim
Yeahhhh, came here to point this out. It's okay but FYI it's pronounced closer to HOR-hay Louise BOR-hays
@@HelloFutureMe I recommend the Stuff that Onision and Norman B. wrote.
Not the Books themselves, DUH, but the Book-Reviews
TH-camrs made of them.
They are hilarious.
One is a Famous Unhealthy Atheist, the other is a Famous Unhealthy Theist.
They are literally 2 Sides of the same Coin.
I never saw an Reaction- or Coverage-Video about those Books that isnt
hilarious. Its always a Blast; though if i had to choose one Reviewer,
I'd go with Krimson Rogue.
But again: MANY reviewed those hilariously-bad and hyper-cringey books!
Whetever you like cringe (like Neckbeard-Stories on Reddit) or not: I warmly
recommend it still.
@@HelloFutureMe
To be fair, it was a hilarious, entertainingly bad mispronunciation.
Boy, we are going to have a profound disagreement. I love the Foundation series. It's fantastic world building on a micro view. Favourite story was the Merchant Prince having a shield in essential a thumb drive. After that I read the whole series, his Robot and Earth series and most of the Foundation and Empire series....maybe I should go finish it. Also love the Dune series, except Chapter House Dune. Though that may have been fatigue.
What's a "micro view"?
@@Takejiro24 Think of it as building a world from the bottom up, a small detail or tech that exists in the world. The micro view/perspective then builds on that to answer the "who/what/when/where/why and how" this item, saying, tech, etc regarding this detail.
In Asimov's Foundation series
(SPOILERS)
the Thumb sized energy shield was a product of resource scarcity. They needed the item but couldn't produce the large ship generators, so they had to shrink it. Thus this society is clever, efficiently using limited resources and technologically advanced.
Hope that helps.
@@CuriousDeadCat Thanks
By the time he died, he had made his three main series into one series. I won't spoil how he does that though.
@@seanclodfelter4242 you got a book or two that I can read for myself?
I read a variety of genres. My sister-in-law, who is also an avid reader, got me "Educated" for Christmas. It's something I probably never would have picked up on my own. I loved it. Love your channel.
Speaker of the Dead is in my top-five favorite books of all time. Love that book. Interesting note: Speaker was the first book that Orson Scott Card wanted to write starring Ender/Andrew, but he didn't think that Andrew's character was believable. As a result, he wrote Enders Game to develop the character and demonstrate how/why someone could be as empathetic as Ender/Andrew is in Speaker.
kind of! but not exactly
he had already written the story of ender, but only as a SHORT STORY. he then had the concept for Speaker of the Dead in his mind but found it wasn't exactly working the way he wanted it to until he decided to make Ender the protagonist (or got that idea suggested to him by someone idr exactly)
this then made him go back and rewrite enders story into a whole book, the Enders Game we know and love today, so he could develop enders character and backstory to the point of making Speaker for the Dead work as a sequel!
Hearing your absolute passion and joy throughout this video was wonderful!
The last book to absolutely blow me away was the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin - a really fascinating and unique spin on fantasy and sci-fi all in one.
I tried N K Jemisin and second person present is just utterly inaccessible. Any recommendation of N K Jemisin--or any other second person novel, especially second person *present*--needs a disclaimer about it. It's so different and weird and hard to get into that readers need to know about it beforehand. I want content warnings for this narration style.
@@lunasophia9002 Would something like “Told In The Second Person” being present on the cover be enough of a warning? That narration frame is so incredibly rare to be in a published work, and it’s even rarer still to come across it by accident…
@@lunasophia9002 maybe try her inheritance trilogy instead? That series is really great too and a bit more accessible and conventional.
@@lunasophia9002 I can completely understand that - the 2nd person stuff is very difficult to get into. However, when it's revealed *why* the 2nd person is used, it makes it all so much better.
I really enjoyed foundation , I don't remember most of it , but it was trippy.
I read the initial Foundation trilogy last year. I loved the first book, but it certainly didn't conform to the flow I typically expect from a novel.
Books 2 and 3 weren't as good but still enjoyable.
Later in life Asimov added a number of additional Foundation books that tried to tie his entire universe together into one large story-arc. I haven't read those yet, but they were all penned something like 30 years later. As a result I think they're probably far less interesting.
@@colin1818 They're a mixed bag. There are some neat ideas, but the uninteresting character thing is exacerbated by the fact they follow single characters instead of multiple characters throughout time. The exception being Hari Seldon himself in the prequels, but it helps there's and undercurrent in Forward the Foundation of "the author was literally slowly dying while writing this, so the melancholy of it is applied very well in the book".
@@colin1818 Foundation's Edge + Foundation and Earth are great and the best titles of the series, I'd say. Prelude to Foundation + Foundation Chronicles are ALL about the character Hari Seldon and are very cool too; particularly to fill in blanck and explain stuff from how the Foundation came to be!
I highly recommend them. They are all for sure different than the Foundation Trilogy and also much more dynamic in the narrative, with a bunch of worldbuilding!
Foundation and Empire was the peak for me, I loved the Mule as a villain.
Foundation's Edge lost me though, I never read past it as I figured it was a sign of the spark going out. Good series but I don't think it deserves the enormous praise it received, but it came about in a different time.
@@MauroDraco - Planning on continuing through the series a bit later. Reading some other stuff now.
Read Neuromancer on the coach on a school trip when I was 11; excellent book. I love having to read between the lines without explanations being given to you on a plate - the main thing is not to worry about not understanding something right away and trusting that it'll click later; every concept is a potential reveal.
Yeah, sometimes you're not *supposed* to understand stuff. A very modern, "please spoon feed me" kind of attitude to expect that.
You are so beautifully full of life. As someone on a reading journey myself, this is highly encouraging.
Hard disagree on Foundation. It comes down to personal taste of course but for me sci-fi is all about grand ideas and Foundation is truly epic in it's scope and ideas. Yes it is not character driven or heavy on plot but the themes it tackles more than makes up for it.
It comes down to what you enjoy of course. For me modern sci-fi like the expanse feels like reading a detailed movie script rather than reading a novel. So it does not speak to me as much. But I can understand why Foundation would feel dry to such an audience.
Also like others said you must try Ursula K. Leguin. Left Hand of Darkness, Lathe of Heaven, The Dispossessed. These are all must reads im my opinion.
As always great video, I really appreciate your points.
if anyone out there enjoys short scifi horror stories: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
tbh not all of them are horror, but like- a good 90%
edit: they best compare to some of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories, which is... probably not a coincidence, since one is themed around the Fall of the House of Usher
I just paused Hyperion to watch this video and I can’t agree more. It’s my favorite scifi book of all time.
It's f****** excellent
Probably my favorite book I've read so far this year is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. On balance, possibly the most haunting and beautiful novel I've read in years.
I've been looking for an idea of what that book was about. Seems like this one review says more about it than most of the reviews online.
I picked up this book earlier this year and wasn’t immediately drawn into it. I think I may have just been too busy for it - did you find it pulled you in a little further into the book?
@@tonykirk8295 It's definitely one of those books you have to let pull you in and give it a bit of patience. And it does give you more the further in you go.
@@Kathywake23 I appreciate that. I feel like Piranesi sort of resists those "synopsis/here's what the book's about!" reviews somehow, you can't actually get the point of it without just reading the thing and the less said about it the better.
@@Kathywake23 Piranesi is great. The beginning is vague and a bit slow. There is some deeper fantasy stuff going on, but the book isn’t really about that stuff. It is more about the feelings it inspires in the first portion.
If the idea of a tone piece doesn’t interest you, or if the first couple chapters don’t grab you, I don’t think I would recommend it. More stuff happens later on, but it builds on the first few chapters so skipping those defeats the whole point of the book.
i read Foundation a long time ago, when i was quite young. i think it really formed the type of scifi i like now. i really like the sorts of stories that show a society through examples, and jumps around a lot. I'm not one to get attached to characters easily, so i often don't try to, or even want characters that im meant to get attached tho.
Have y'all read any Diane Duane or Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher)?
Duane's "Young Wizards" series (and its Cat Wizards spinoff) are probably the single best "fantasy as science fiction" stories I've ever read, vibrant characters slowly growing up as they settle into careers as wizards - who are effectively the IT crew for the universe itself. First book is very much a children's book, but every entry in the series adds depth and complexity.
Ursula Vernon won a Hugo for "Digger", and it's well-deserved. You can find that whole weird, philosophical, lovely webcomic online, but if you're in the mood for some very creepy American folk horror, "The Twisted Ones" and "The Hollow Places" just can't be beat. Extra appropriate as we're moving into spooky season!
also really loved the entire foundation series. I mean asimov does have a very specific style, but there is much to enjoy in there.
*Pulls out the Dune book- Oh, it's big brain time.
Read the entire series, that’s what I did for the first 7 months of quarantine. Actually enjoyed them a lot
Foundation is a collection of short stories! AHHHHH!
Only kinda? It was published in a serialised format in the 40s, but more as chapters, not independent stories. And it doesn't present itself as an anthology in the text itself.
~ Tim
Please give Red Rising by Pierce Brown, it has everything: amazing character writing, detailed and expansive world building, even Red Wedding moments!
I was gonna suggest this before I saw your comment. Big agree; Red Rising and all it's follow-up is totally Game of Thrones in space, but actually hooked me in more for its brand of drama and spectacle. Hail Libertas!
YES!!! It's my favorite book series for this reason and I'm not a huge sci-fi fan. I actually read Dune because so many compared RR to it.
Just discovered your channel with this video. As a fifty-something-year-old long-time SF reader, I was fascinated and delighted to hear your takes on the SF I grew up with. I hope more of your subscribers take a chance with these older works, because some of them are astounding.
It’s interesting that some of the preconceptions you had about “classic SF” you applied across 40 years of SF history. Yes, very early SF suffered from the problem of weak characterization, but by the 1980s and 1990s, the genre had matured. I understand that it’s easy for young readers today to lump all those works into the same bucket, but even 40 years ago, the genre was already mature and its readers were demanding more from it than just cool ideas.
My biggest recommendation would be The wandering Inn. Not exactly outside the comfort zone of a lot of people here, but it is really great and relatively unknown.
YES! Someone else gets it! It's my favorite piece of fiction of all-time at this point. It's that enjoyable to read. I can't recommend it enough. More people need to read it!
I cannot agree less! You probably read all the books by now and love them, but the first 600 pages are such a boring slog with uninteresting characters and a world that is bland and unexplored. Yes, I know all the fans say eventually the world is one of the best (and I am willing to believe that), but for most readers it will definitely be too much of a hassle to reach that point.
I followed for a long time avidly, and then just stopped. I think I got tired of the innkeeper's blinkered view of the world? I didn't care about her after a while, and read for the many other interesting characters (like the courier). But these webnovel serials are often so bloated and I tend to quite them after several hundred pages. And I say that as a reader who loves long-ass books.
0:48 who else really wants that spiny thing now?
@Suddenly huh
I read this as written: spiny, as in to do with the spine.
Spinny* is what you meant to type, and spinning* is what you should've typed.
The Expanse is much closer to Game of Thrones than Dune, IMO.
i get where your coming from with Foundation, usually I'm a characters guy as well. But what I like about the big leaps is it reflects my feelings about these hypothetical science concepts we have now. perhaps we will travel the stars-just not in your life time for me in the real world. It's this grand concept that at one point connects these characters across time but also leaves them behind. something beautiful and true about a story that isn't about a big event made of a few pivotal players but where the player is humanity itself. i hope this made sense lol
Yes! Appreciated. Both your perspective on the media you consume vs the content therein as well as specific book recommendations. Thanks!
So, regarding the predictability of older books, I think what we forget is that it's these older books that INVENTED the tropes we think to be so predictable. The modern books that introduce us to these are, much of the time, simply trying to imitate what came before them... because it was done so well by the original authors! Don't get me wrong, modern books can pull these tropes really well, and expand upon them in new and different ways, but most readers (or future writers) will never truly understand every single thought, insight and belief that went into the original work; much of the time we just see that something works and try to replicate it.
Also most of their followers only copy the tropes on the surface. Like how elves in modern fantasy are done (especialy the elves and dwarves hate each other trope).
@@petrsevcik5044 Yeah exactly. It's like when we copy tropes we're relying on the lore and deep thought the original author put into it to support new books, but without putting any of the deep thought into the new books.
This is true not only for fiction but for texts in non-fiction. Past classics explored ideas and new texts will improve on that, but if you read the old stuff you can see them discuss ideas that didn't pan out, exploring tributaries of thinking, and it gives a greater depth. And sometimes you come across ideas that shouldn't have been forgotten. Same with fiction.
I'm genuinely curious whether you would like books 2 and 3 of the Foundation trilogy more. They have a much more continuous, linear story structure and focus largely around the impact of a single character, the antagonist of both books known as The Mule.
That's certainly the most creative pronunciation of Jorge Luis Borges I've ever heard
I absolutely loved Annihilation myself. I read the trilogy in a rush and while most reviews said the second book dragged, I found it excelled in atmosphere and character. Overall a very weird, very menacing and disconcerting experience. I can tell it isn't for everyone and it made me uncomfortable quite often but I absolutely loved the main character. I'd never read any other book with this kind of female protagonist and it was so refreshing that I marvelled openly at how the writer made me cheer for her. It's brilliant!
I'm disappointed you didn't speak at length about Iain M Banks' The Culture series despite showing Consider Phlebas as a prop. Use of Weapons and Surface Detail have the best endings ever, I had to sit there for a while after finishing those books processing what I had just read.
I often say that not enough people talk about The Culture then Tim sat there with a copy of Consider Phlebas right in front of him for an entire video and didn't even mention it 😑
I wasn't a huge fan of Consider Phlebas BUT I've loved his other books - I'm reading Use of Weapons now. It's so damn good! Such a profound world. Well deserved praise he receives. Lucky I have a friend who is a massive fan of his who pushed me and pushed me.
~ Tim
Since you enjoyed Card and are reading short stories, please PLEASE read his story Unaccompanied Sonata. It's both tragic and beautiful at the same time. Probably my favorite short story ever.
Also if you like short stories, you have to read Harlan Ellison.
Me who reads Dune and Speaker on a yearly basis: What are you people reading?
Personally, I look at the Prometheus Awards, Nebula and sometimes Hugo winners
I was looking through the numerous video essays on ATLA recently and I can’t seem to find many VE on the aspects of aangs character. I think it be pretty awesome to hear your thoughts on him. Good and bad. Personally he’s my favorite character and I’m a little disappointed that I can’t find many videos talking about him unlike the rest of the gaang. I look forward to see your future video. You’re my favorite TH-camr. I hope you notice this comment.
Great book video. Gave me a lot to think about.
I first read the Foundation Trilogy back in the 60s and I felt then about it much the same as you did. It's never been one of my favorites.
I do agree with you about short stories, too. I've read some excellent collections over the years.
Most of the books you discussed here I've already read or already have on my TBR list, but I did add Purgatory Mount to my Kindle before the video ended.
Plus I just subbed to your channel. 😅
The problem with Foundation might be because you are looking at it as a novel. Foundation is not a novel, it is an anthology of short stories set in a shared universe.
Book recommendations, the weekend before semester starts? Well, guess I'm going to be going to class blind from power-reading.
The Ender series is such a beautiful and deeply personal story, especially Speaker for the dead!
Absolutely a must-read.
Short stories are super underrated! If you want more recommendations:
- Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House. It's a good blend of sci-fi's signature question-based plots, paired with solid character explorations. Who Am I This Time is an extraordinarily heartwarming love story, and one of my favorites.
- I second Asimov. I, Robot has a fun logic puzzle sort of feel, and is great even for non-scifi readers. Also, his non-fiction essays are surprisingly compelling!
- Also second Aimee Bender (I have her Willful Creatures collection). Her prose is consistently captivating, and she mixes in some great magical realism.
Let’s gooo! Love to see people talk about Hyperion, feel like I never see content on it.
I always took that "Hemingway" short story to be about a family that got so many sets of baby shoes given to them at baby showers, etc. that they started selling off the extras.
Definitely not the way I took it, bit of a gut punch when I heard that bit.
I've been into the Expanse series lately and I really enjoy. After I'm done with them I'll check out your recommendations.
Hyperion is amazing! It's one of my scifi favorites, but I have to warn: if you expect same kind of stories from rest of Hyperion-cantos, you're gonna get disappointed. They are very idea-heavy as Tim said.
Fun fact: the original Foundation trilogy is in fact a collection of short stories ;)
They were published separately throughout the'40s and compiled into fix-ups in the early '50s (same as with I, Robot).
We're gonna read Annihilation! Great video! Keep up the good work.
Reading Dune, Slaughter House Five, and Catch-22 in high school did a lot to shape how I view the world and events around me. And yes I did read all 6 of the Dune series in high school and no I don't think that made me any smarter. It just filled my head with different ideas.
Well, when you've collected enough of them (and reflected on them) that's one definition of smarter.
Was I the only one who laughed when hearing "Jorgen Louis Bourgois" in french? Is always funny hearing anglophones trying to pronounce latin names...
He's back, again!
Loved the video, particularly the bit about short stories! The short story that got me to “realize” how powerful the genre is was “the ones who walk away from Omelas” - if you haven’t read it, I absolutely recommend it! I don’t know if anything I’ve read has ever packed as much of a punch as that story
Saw the title and the intro and was like "Hyperion has to be in here..." and thankfully it was. One of the best books I've ever read. Great recs!
Probably the single best science fiction book ever written is "A Canticle for Leibowitz". I'd say it's the only work of sci-fi that is in the top five books ever written in the English language.
It's also a major inspiration for the fallout video game franchise!
Agreed. Phenomenal book!
Ursula K LeGuinn is another great pioneer of sci-fi/fiction and she also wrote some pretty amazing essays, poetry and short stories. Very prolific and very diverse.
Everyone gets smth different from the book. For me Foundation is truly a masterpiece.
Genuinely this is the first time I have heard of your second channel, and I have watched all of your On Writing videos and bought your book. 🤭
I'm 60 and I've read most of these. Yes, they're excellent.
"Why does this feel like a hill that I am slowly dying on?"😂😂😂
For SF short fiction, I'd strongly recommend SF Hall of Fame, Vol. 1 (which is short stories), and SF Hall of Fame, Vols. 2A & 2B (which is novelettes/novellas). Some very, very strong work from the early days of the genre. And the variety of styles of writing is an excellent primer for the subject as well as probably providing something for nearly every taste.
Excellent suggestion! "The SF Hall of Fame, Vol. 1" (edited by Robert Silverberg) is, in my opinion, the best overall collection of SF stories ever published, even though it only covers works before 1965. When reading the stories in that anthology, it's easy to see the profound influences they had on modern SF and pop culture in general.
Another classic SF collection worth exploring is "Adventures in Time and Space" from 1946 (edited by Raymond Healy & J. Francis McComas). It was one of the first instances where SF was able to escape the literary prejudices of the publishing world and reach a wider audience in the general public when it was republished as part of Random House's Modern Library series in the 1950s. A few of the stories in it are also found in the "SF Hall of Fame" above.
I'd also highly recommend the short fiction of Ray Bradbury, particularly "The Golden Apples of the Sun" (1953), "The Illustrated Man" (1951), or the broader collections "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" (1980) and "Bradbury Stories" (2003). Bradbury wrote some brilliant novels, but I think he was an even better short story writer. His lyrical prose style is lush and beautiful, but his steady barrage of lovely and creative metaphors can grow a little tiring at novel length. His short stories, though, are like polished jewels that never grow old or dim.
The feeling when your mother has more sci fi books than literally any other kind and therefore you read foundation when you were like, 10. I enjoyed it. Probably not gonna go back to it though. Also, Childhood's end broke me and that's that on that.
Yes! This is the book review channel I’ve been looking for. Thank you.
I usually don't recommend Foundation to people for Asimov. It usually depends on the person asking, but typically I'll suggest the Robot trilogy (Lije Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw books), Pebble in the Sky, or The Gods Themselves.
I'm surprised by how significant the differences are in our reading tastes and histories. Asimov and Gaimen are two of my favorite authors. I adore Foundation, Sandman, and American Gods. Short stories are what first got me into science fiction, and it's probably one of the reasons that I like the original Foundation trilogy so much. And, I did read Dune. In fact, I read it in my teens. You indicated a clear preference for fantasy, and that seems to fit with an interest in characters over concepts. But, I lean the other direction. I'm fine with impressionistically defined characters as long as there's a really interesting concept. But, if there isn't an interesting concept at the center of the story, then the book seems aimless and pointless to me.