Love your list! Some other great sci-fi starting places are: Isaac Asimov - Foundation Trilogy Ursula K Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness; The Dispossessed George Orwell - 1984 Octavia Butler - Parable Series Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End; Collected Short Stories Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
Some really good classics here. For something that's a little newer but really easy to read, goes quickly and is very fun: The Bobiverse. The first book "We are Legion (We Are Bob)" is great.
It’s a shame I don’t hear more people talking about Ursula K. Le Guin. Her Hainish and Earthsea cycles are amazing, but several of her stand-alone stories and novellas are also beautiful. Paradises Lost is absolutely brilliant, and I never hear anyone mention it.
I just love your enthusiasm and excitement over the stories you like. I’m not even a big sci-fi reader (yet), but I’m on goodreads while watching clicking want to read on every single book you listed. Please do not moonlight on QVC because I will be more than BookBroke. 😂
I read Jurassic Park a few weeks ago for the first time and I was so surprised by how much I liked it! Thanks for all the work you do to bring us content! You are very appreciated. God bless!
I recommend reading Halo The Fall of Reach. It was released around the same time as the Halo game in 2001. It's a very good military sci fi story even if you've never heard of Halo. And thanks for the recommendations. Adding more books to my reading list.
When I walk into a bookstore and see Children of time books lined up with all the other books by that author next to it , it seemed intimidating, so I am glad to know it is easy to read. And Skyward was a great start for me I loved it !
I tried to read Adrian Tchaikovsky's books and, my god, I wasn't ready for all those looooong unwanted explanations about eveything. Every time there was a new planet/character/alien-race, a 2 pages backstory was there. The story was so slowed down by this. Very bad example of world building and prose in my opinion. Decent ideas from the guy, but bad execution
The Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is another great scifi starter series. The worldbuilding is amazing with a special emphasis on how new technology affects all aspects of culture as well as having some of the most believable interplanetary governments and organisations in fiction. The characters are some of the most memorable in any genre and Bujold's prose is simple yet elegant, conveying a lot through as few words as possible.
@@NateGifford Doing the Emperor's work 👍. Maybe we should call impsec on her 😁 It's such a shame that this series and Bujold's other work barely get talked about on booktube. Like, I get that's it's an older series so it probably won't draw many views but it's so so good goddammit! Bujold didn't win 7 Hugos for nothing.
Agreed! She does good fantasy books too. A series of hers That I don't hear enough about is the Sharing Knife books. Great characters and world building as per usual for her, with a very well thought out magic system.
"Frankenstein" is one of my favorite books of all time! I think people need to know what they're getting into when they start- a slow paced, atmospheric reflection on the nature of humanity and morality. If you're looking for fast paced thrills that fit more of the modern sci-fi aesthetic, probably not your jam, but if you're looking for a masterpiece that shows how insightful speculative fiction can be, it's the best!
Never thought I'd hear someone describe Fullmetal Alchemist as a chill, easygoing series. Man, I remember watching the 2003 anime when it first came out. I would have been around seven years old at the time, and the scene where they try to revive their mother and everything goes wrong is burned into my memory forever.
I was watching her most recent discussion on FMA and I was so impressed about the parts that I heard about that I want to start the series as soon as I can. Wow! Some of those scenes can give you goosebumps!
I just finished Project Hail Mary. Loved this book, especially from the second act and onward. It feels like old school hard sci-fi, but very accessible and full of humor and optimism. I loved The Martian as well. Currently reading The Left Hand of Darkness.
Thank you for posting videos. I’ve tried getting into reading more as an adult and I just finished my first novel since high school (I’m 26) and it was 754 pages of MMP enjoyment. I’ve been watching your stuff the past month and a half and it’s been keeping me motivated. I’m now on The Hobbit
@@britneynicole8903 Awesome.There are 8 of them. I'd love to talk about one or more of them after you read them if you're open to that. There's also a show on Amazon based on the books.
I’ve heard good things about the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. I never read it but some of my friends chose that for a book project where we got to pick our book as long as the group was good with it
Definitely a bit heavier sci-fi, but I would strongly recommend The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. I'm normally not interesting in sci-fi (there tends to be a shortage of magic and dragons imo), but I was completely taken by this book (and it's sequels). Plus I had never read a book translated from Chinese before, but the English translation was great.
I'm glad you and others liked it, but I feel the need to add my opinion in to just give a warning to others. I DNF'd Three Body Problem very shortly after starting because I felt the translation was horrendous and barely even English. I know that sounds harsh but just my two cents.
Cool list. I'd also like to add a couple of others: - for YA: the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. It's very easy to binge. If you like fairy tales, you'll probably like this series. - This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. It's a time travel story about these two characters on the opposite side of the war. They become pen pals. It's a fun light read. - the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. This one might not be for beginners, but it's one of my personal favorites. The first book is a little similar to the Hunger Games, but the rest is pretty much a space opera.
A +42 for Hitchhiker's Guide. The best novel ever written. Children of Time is excellent. Restored by faith in modern sci-fi. Oh, and I'm not sure I've ever seen you mention Pratchett on your channel. If you like H2G2 you should check out discworld. Fans of Douglas Adams often love Terry Pratchett (and vice versa).
When recommending sci fi to beginners, I always start with the classics. I, Robot and Foundation by Asimov are very accessible short fiction collections that weave a larger story. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein is a very easy story to become immersed in. The pacing picks up very fast and it's a super interesting read. I'd suggest Dune to Tolkien fans for the excellent world building. Sci fi is definitely a genre where the most famous works live up to the hype.
@@slothrob "The Door Into Summer" was NOT one of Heinlein's juveniles. It was published as an adult novel. The fact that I read classics such as "Ivanhoe" when I was a child doesn't retroactively turn them into "young adult"/juveniles.
Some of my favorites in no particular order are: “The Forever War” by Joe Haldeman, “Sirens of Titan” by Kurt Vonnegut “Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock “Neuromancer” by William Gibson “The Drowned World” by JG Ballard “Time is the Fire” by Connie Willis “Inverted World” by Christopher Priest “Ecotopia”by Earnest Callenbach “Blindsight” by Peter Watts “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy “The Kindred” by Octavia Butler “UBIK” by Phillip K Dick
If you haven't read the rest of Octavia Butler's work, her Xenogenesis series hooked me instantly. Dawn was by far my favorite, but I understand how it's not for everyone. I admire her and all her works, I think she's a brilliant writer.
A really good gateway is middle grade sci-fi because it's very easily digestible on the one axis and so it makes it easier to take in the sci-fi-ness of it all! I recommend 'the Random House Book of Science Fiction Stories', which is a short story collection that really helps show off the concepts sci-fi can do: the Randoms series by David Liss, which would be especially good for someone who isn't into sci-fi books yet but is a nerd generally: and the Dragonback series by Timothy Zahn, which is a fantastic introduction to sci-fi that has a more hard science underpinning while still being exciting well-plotted adventures (and a fantastic gateway into his hard sci-fi for adults!
Thanks for the video Merphy! Found you through your One Piece read through and your videos always make me smile. Love seeing your passion for narratives!
Loved your review of Hitchhikers Guide, Marvin the paranoid android being my favourite character. Not a sci-fi fan but there are a few you mention that I will add to my list. Thank you.
A good scifi read: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" AKA "Blade Runner" by Philip K. Dick I read it last year and I see why it's a classic. Great pace, settings, and themes.
AKA "Blade Runner"? No. There is already a perfectly good novel with that name by SF author Alan E. Nourse. Although that story has nothing to do with androids, the rights to Nourse's book were bought by the producers of Ridley Scott's movie simply because they wanted to steal the cool title. In Nourse's dystopian future, a "blade runner" is a smuggler of illicit medical supplies on the black market (blade = scalpel, get it?).
For an easy starting point for Sci Fi: Middle Grade: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (I still love this book, just finished rereading it actually!) Steampunk? Idoru by William Gibson (many of his books are great! This is the first one of his I read) Hard Sci Fi: The Expanse series by James S.A Corey Classics - maybe not as easy to read? but my favourites are 1984 by George Orwell Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
For the AIs in space fans: The Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie is crazy good and I think it would work well for fans of Murderbot. In the same general area, but funnier, there's the Bobiverse by Dennis E. Taylor. And down on Earth there's the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde - time travelling, jumping into classic books and meeting the characters, dry british humour..all the good stuff ♥
Douglas Adams got more ideas into the HHG than most writers get in a lifetime. He was a wonderful, witty, generous and tall man who had no sense of what writing for a living was supposed to mean ("I love deadlines - I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by"). HHG is a satire on British and American culture, and was first and foremost a radio show. If you like the books you really, really need to get the radio shows.
One of the earliest sci-fi books I read and loved was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. On goodreads it's shelved more often as fantasy, but I think it's more of sci-fi.
Ford Prefect. Best line from Hitchhicker's: "Do you know how much damage you'll do to that bulldozer? (when he's laying in front of it trying to save his house) "Absolutely none!" A great starter sci-fi book is Asimov's "End of Eternity." It deals with time travelers fixing dangerous trends in humanity with unforeseen results and a great twist at the end that brings it to our world. Also, I don't want anything to do with I Am Legend, because they hurt his dog! He was a good boy!
I Am Legend is an amazing book and he did not have a dog to be hurt. I Am Will Smith, on the other hand, sucked sick through a short straw and should have been sued for using the name.
Ford’s name is Ford Prefect, like the car. Have you read anything from Orson Scott Card? Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead both hit me especially hard when I read them in middle school, and I just did a reread of Speaker for the Dead. It holds up.
4:31 I read Jurassic Park on your recommendation last year. I always loved the movie; I really enjoyed the book. I realized while reading the book that the movie is really good at making you forget that there are other people on that island...there are a lot of other people on that island. Even though the book doesn’t spend much time with them, it does a knowledge that they are there. 🧡🦖 🧡🦕🧡🦖🧡🦕🧡
My go-to recommendations for sci-fi newbies are Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (absolutely gorgeous story and characters, and amazing worldbuilding for a standalone novel), or Murderbot Diaries (never empathised with a narrator more...), depending on what I know of their preferences. I also absolutely love The Expanse, but I'll generally only recommend that to people who've had some sci-fi experience or just want to jump straight into the sci-fi equivalent of a fantasy epic.
A great alternate introduction to Science Fiction is via short story anthologies, (1) because SF was built upon the SF magazines that printed short stories, and (2) because in short stories the central imaginative concept really comes to the fore. The anthology _Science Fiction Hall of Fame_ is a great place to start.
I was a fantasy/ya guy for the longest time when I was younger but one that really got me into sci-fi was Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, very engaging story with your common themes explored by the genre, after that one I was left wanting more science fiction and ended up head first into the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons and while that tetralogy (though it's more like 2 duologies) is not for beginners it's very very good.
@@juanmarodriguez6010 Yep, I would agree once you get past the deliverator portion of the book I think it really speeds along. The cyberpunk absurdism is pretty great. For beginner's I would recommend his 'Diamond Age' book, while for intermediate I'd say Seveneves or Anathem are perfect.
For people that love old school scifi (Asimov etc) I recommend 'The Three Body Problem' (triology), a modern scifi that still has some of the feel of old schfi books. Would love Merphy to talk about it!
Hitchhiker's is peak sci-fi to me. I really liked the Invisible Man. From A Certain Point of View was a cool collection of Star Wars short stories. After those, I've been reading a bunch of short story collections an old coworker used to find at yard sales for me. That old 1940s sci-fi hits different.
I would like some book recommendations that are easy to get into. I don't read books (only have actually read 2 in my whole life), but I want to start getting into them just don't know where to start. I want to read books like Game Of Thrones and Lord Of The Rings, but people tell me those are difficult to get through for someone who doesn't read. The two books I actually enjoyed were: Halo: Fall Of Reach - Based on the video game series My Bloody Life - NonFiction story about someone who has actually lived as a gang member in Chicago
You could start with The Hobbit instead of Lord of the Rings. I find it much easier to get into. Or some YA, they are often easier to get into. Sabriel by Garth Nix The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (the first book in the series) is a good starting point as well. It's based off of the Red Dwarf t.v. series and really fleshes it out. [Watching the show is not required]
One I'd recommend is the Martian Chronicles. It's an anthology of stories about the rise and fall of first Martian and then human civilization on Mars. It may feel a little dated if you're not used to older sci fi and it starts a little slow but picks up as it goes Bradbury's prose is pure poetry.
Ford Prefect. Loved HHGttG, but I haven't read past the first book. John Scalzi is probably a pretty good choice for beginner SF. He has a very readable writing style, no massive tomes, and a few sub-genres to choose from. I remember the Vincent Price version of I Am Legend (Last Man on Earth) being the closest to the original story.
I'm mostly a vintage guy, but this is a great review of contemporary SF. I thought you might have mentioned "Axiom's End," but glad you gave a nod to "Frankenstein."
LOL, its Ford Prefect. Nice mostly contemporary list. A couple notes; I think you'd enjoy Anne McCaffrey (decision at Doona has a similar concept to the children of time and another Author who got the simpler answers to heavy science and readers can feel ... smarter... thinking they know more. ) Also add in Dennis Taylor's Bobiverse. We are Legion (we are bob) similar to Hail Mary.
Children of Time is great first sci fi book! I would suggest The Player of Games, House of Suns, The Birthday of the World (Le Guin), a bit of Tales of a Dying Earth, Star Diaries (funny), either Leckie or Martine are probably easier to get into than Cherryh who is must read and influenced them.
Was looking for a Culture recommendation. "Player of Games" is a great one to start the Culture series with, but I think "Matter" might be a bit more up Merphy's alley. Luckily they aren't really sequels to each other so one can start in anywhere.
@@Cavman I haven't read Matter yet! Yeah my favorite is Excession, but I think The Player of Games is more tightly written and less quirky. Look to Windward has the most gravitas. I like Use of Weapons a lot and Surface Detail but they are a bit too intense to recommend generally I think. Banks is an absolute must read though. There is no better space opera, and he's actually funny in a smart way unlike a lot of authors who are more like you spent 4 hrs writing this one sentence to sound clever. If you know what I mean, ha.
@@bbdeffect Oh yes, there is so much to dive into! Personally, I would hold off on a "Excession" recommendation as well, if we are considering like "Surface Details" to be a bit to extreme, but if she can get through "Matter" and "Player of Games" with interest intact, then "Use of Weapons" and "Consider Phlebas" might be good next stops.
I think science fiction is one where it makes sense to also consider the classic cannon books. Frankenstein is from that classic cannon, and I guess maybe Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy also could be, and maybe a couple of the others (Jurassic Park and Kindred, maybe?) but most of the others, while good, are probably more recent entries and thus not yet part of the core, or at least not really in what I'd think of as the core cannon for beginners to the genre. One of the reason to consider some of the earlier core books is because science-fiction being so idea driven many of the more modern books, more so than many other genres, build off and react to these core ideas from the original big books. So I'd recommend considering something like some of the following 10 choices/categories: Isaac Asimov: the obvious choice is Foundation, and that's not wrong, but I'd actually recommend the robot novels (Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn) as the idea of the laws of robotics and the class of story that comes out of that is worth becoming familiar with, and the novels are very approachable as Asimov has a very straightforward writing style. Robert Heinlein - I'd recommend The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress as probably the most approachable of the obvious choices for him (Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land are also possible obvious other choices). Politics, colonization, ai, economics is all mixed together in this story. Arthur C Clarke - 2001 is the obvious most famous choice, partially due to the movie, (with HAL 9000 as a classic AI in fiction), but Rendezvous with Rama would be another worthy choice. Ursula K Le Guin - need to read some Le Guin. Could be the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", could be Wizard of Earthsea (what I was taught in my sci-fi lit class), or the most standard recommendation would be The Left Hand of Darkness. Philip K Dick - tons of science fiction ideas and films and what not come from Dick's work. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (inspiration for Blade Runner) or The Man in the High Castle (alternate history with Axis winning WWII) are possible intros to Dick's work. Dune by Frank Herbert. One of the main inspirations for for everything from Star Wars to some of the best real-time strategy games, this political epic covers many themes and is well worth engaging with. There is also enough action for plot and enough characters for character based readers, so it is fairly approachable. Early Dystopian - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and/or 1984 by George Orwell. These are classic stories referenced directly and indirectly all the time, and again are fairly approachable reads. Classic YA Sci-fi: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and/or Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Both are very approachable reads largely before YA was the thing it was today, but both are well worth the read. Maybe throw in Animal Farm by Orwell especially if you haven't/aren't going to read 1984. Later core Dystopian - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and/or Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Both are recent enough that in many ways they are scary predictions with some of the events we see today, and also get referenced both in fiction and in real life by people. Both are also extremely readable and approachable books. Neuromancer by William Gibson which kicks off the whole cyperpunk/cyberspace and this whole branch of science fiction. My bonus suggestions for things past the 10 classic core choices could be: If you like or want to try hard sci-fi: Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars/Blue Mars/Green Mars). Simple and approachable great upbeat character driven story: The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Incredibly great AI main POV stories: Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie (Ancillary Justice is the first) and/or Murderbot diaries by Martha Wells I'd also re-endorse your recommendation of Children of Time which is an incredibly good read.
Pretty good list, I'd say Heinlein's Friday or Door into Summer are other great entries, with Door into Summer being a bit more YA while Friday is all around great. I would also suggest trying out Neal Stephenson, for beginners/YA I'd say 'Diamond Age', for intermediate I'd say Anathem or Seveneves.
Philip Dick was a mid-tier author and never considered a seminal SF writer. He became famous in the mainstream as Hollywood's go-to guy for science fiction plots after Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" became an underground hit, and also because of his propensity for "what is real/what is perception" themes which happen to suit the tastes of Hollywood and literary circles.
Of these recommendations I most want to read Hitchhiker's Guide. Right now, I'm reading another Sci Fi, "A Talent for War" by Jack McDevitt. Sort of an archeological mystery set far in the future. Very good so far.
Best intro for sci-fi in my opinion is probably A Princess of Mars, its a seminal text and about 110 years old but it holds up and its really easy to follow while also introducing so many things that we all know today
For concept sci-fi I'd recommend Spin(time slowing bubble, self replicating spacecraft, etc) or Vorkosigan Saga for character focused sci-fi (while still playing around with different political systems and concepts like artificial wombs, genetic engineering, truth serum, etc)
I've read some of these books, Jurassic Park and Kindred being my favourite (I've read Kindred thanks to you and your channel, so thank you). Project Hail Mary (I've read The Martian and am currently listening to Artemis audiobook), The Children of Time and Skyward trilogy are on my TBR list. I gave chance to sci-fi literature quite late (in my early thirties), but it's never too late to start and I'm glad I did, because there are so many amazing books that I've discovered. I would recommend The Expanse series, Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Karel Capek's War with the Newts, those might not be for beginners, but definitely worth reading. Also Jules Verne is good sci-fi read.
Animorphs was so formative for me back in the day, and now I get to look back on it and just be absolutely horrified for these children dragged into a brutal war. Plus it kick started my love of body horror, so that's a thing.
I love the fact you started with HHGTTG. I first read it when I was ten having been brought up on the TV series and the radio series (there is no other version and anyone who says different is wrong).
I really enjoy H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Invisible Man in particular. Not sure if it’s a good starting point for Sci fi but it’s my favorite.
Hi Merphy, I love your list! I have a sci-fi rec of my own. Since you're entering more into the anime/manga sphere of reading, I wanted to recommend some good visual novels that aren't dating simulators like people think, but actual really well written stories, known as the Science Adventure series (that Visual Novel series the popular Steins;Gate anime comes from as it adapted one of the entries.) SciADV for short, it's a sci-fi conspiracy thriller series where each entry is set in a different part of Japan, with a different cast of teenagers who find themselves trapped in the midst of a conspiracy against an evil organization that is trying to rule the world, and the overarching plot of the series is how they fight to try and escape the clutches of this evil organization, while also dealing with their personal issues. Each entry has a good core balance of character focus and development, along with really cool and mindscrewy science fiction concepts as well as conspiracy plotlines, it's really fascinating and I've never found another series quite like it (that places such a huge emphasis on character writing and not letting the science fiction overpower the characters, but rather complement them and be an equal focus with them!) I'd highly recommend it. The first game is known as Chaos;Head NoAH, and Steins;Gate is the second. Would recommend it to anyone!
Wait your the person who introduced Tim to children of time, literally changed the course of my life there. Hearing so much about that book got me to read it and get back into books
Sci fi is my favourite genre. I like books with big, challenging ideas and that's what my favourite science fiction delivers. A couple of things that I really like: The Culture Series by Iain M Banks - The Culture is a society where pretty much everything has worked out alright. It's an anarchist utopia overseen by benevolent and extremely powerful AI where nobody has to work, or indeed do pretty much anything else, if they don't want to. The books are about what happens when the Culture decides to deal with other societies and civilisations. The Player of Games is a good starting point. It's about a very skilled Culture board game player who is induced to travel to an empire where a person's skill at playing a particularly complex game determines their place in society. The short stories of JG Ballard - Ballard dabbled in a variety of genres, but is best known for his science fiction and postmodern transgressive work. His short fiction is very varied but generally returns to his preferred themes of psychological breakdown and how societies can be influenced by technology.
Great list and another fab video! I've become an avid viewer of your content in the last couple of months and your passion for books and reading is a joy to watch. My TBR has somewhat exploded due to the amount of recommendations I take from you, but that's no bad thing at all - until recently I was very narrow in my fiction reading in terms of genres (pretty much all horror and thriller) but I'm trying to remedy that by trying some fantasy and Manga, and you've been super helpful in finding stuff that isn't too overwhelming/intimidating to start with as a noob to those types of book! And have been wanting to get into Sci-Fi so this list is perfect for me, all the books sound really interesting. Plus I really appreciate your discussions on things like gatekeeping and audiobooks (my book consumption is 85% audiobooks these days, which is the reason I've got through more books this year than I have in the last 10 years put together!). Thanks for the great recommendations, all the best 🙂
I would recommend “the illuminae files” as a ya sci-fi. The books are really different to normal ones since they consist of military files, documents etc (I can’t describe it as great as it is but please trust me). These books also described war in a really realistic way (although I’m not an expert in wars)
Fantastic list. Personally I would DROP The Counting Stars, The Fifth Season and Kindred from it and ADD The Expanse, Murderbot, and maybe some classics like Dune, The Time Machine and Book of the New Sun
Science fiction is an existential metaphor that allows us to tell stories about the human condition. Isaac Asimov once said, "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinded critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all." - Dad of Boy's old stunt double spray-painted silver, 2006
If you haven't, check out Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's technical and difficult at times, being a "hard sci-fi" novel, but it has a thrilling plot with a hook at the beginning that makes you want to get through any difficulties. It also brings up interesting philosophy surrounding human conditions, particularly, whether consciousness is truly special, important or even the highest form of cognition we perceive it to be, or merely a hindrance. It's the best alien invasion thriller I've read.
My Classic Sci-fi recommendations are Frank Herbert's Dune Series, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and just about anything from Robert Heinlein (particularly Starship Troopers).
For me, a perfect entry-point into sci-fi is Spin by Robert Charles WIlson. It's very accessible for readers who are either less familiar or comfortable with the genre's tropes. (Full disclosure: Spin is one of my favourite books so I am biased)
I'm really enjoying Blake Crouch and Recursion. I've been exploring novels about implants, transhumanism and time. Writing my novel. I just loved Jurassic Park as a teenager. Amazing book. Do you like philosophy in science fiction? I'm writing a 400 page novel about sci-fi, fantasy and computer fiction.
So far my favourite N K Jemisin is actually The City We Became. It's such an evocative book, with plenty of queer, POC and generally diverse characters, and there's just something about the fundamental idea that has been living rent-free in my head ever since I read it. Can't wait for the sequel!!
I love Battletech because it was inspired by Japanese anime mecha toys in the 1980s. But its lore seems inspired by Dune. No worms or spice, just giant robots. And pilots of these robots, called mechwarriors, are like knights, but they ride robots instead of horses. It started as a tabletop "chess like" game with RPG expansion, but developed into novels and videogames. May be this will not be super high culture like Don Quixote, but it is fine as a novel with adventures, Flash Gordon type.
Those are all great. I would also recommend a couple of Heinlein's 'The Door into Summer', 'Friday' and 'The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress'. Also by Neal Stephenson 'The Diamond Age' would be a good beginner, for intermediate I'd go with 'Anathem' and 'Seveneves' are excellent; if you want something a bit future sci-fi with a heavy dose of absurdism then 'Snow Crash' (just get past the deliverator section and it really takes off). For a couple series I'd recommend either the Serrano Legacy or the Vatta Universe both by Elizabeth Moon.
Merphy's excitement about books never fails to make me want to read
Same here! She has the best reviews!
fr. made me get into books.
Love your list! Some other great sci-fi starting places are:
Isaac Asimov - Foundation Trilogy
Ursula K Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness; The Dispossessed
George Orwell - 1984
Octavia Butler - Parable Series
Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End; Collected Short Stories
Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
Is 1984 really sci-fy or just sci now?
Ursula K Le Guin’s work is terrific
Cat's Cradle is hardly sci-fi...
Some really good classics here. For something that's a little newer but really easy to read, goes quickly and is very fun: The Bobiverse. The first book "We are Legion (We Are Bob)" is great.
It’s a shame I don’t hear more people talking about Ursula K. Le Guin. Her Hainish and Earthsea cycles are amazing, but several of her stand-alone stories and novellas are also beautiful. Paradises Lost is absolutely brilliant, and I never hear anyone mention it.
I just love your enthusiasm and excitement over the stories you like. I’m not even a big sci-fi reader (yet), but I’m on goodreads while watching clicking want to read on every single book you listed. Please do not moonlight on QVC because I will be more than BookBroke. 😂
I read Jurassic Park a few weeks ago for the first time and I was so surprised by how much I liked it! Thanks for all the work you do to bring us content! You are very appreciated. God bless!
I loved Jurassic Park!
Oh, and the Martian is still worth a read. It's a very quick read, and Whatney is a really fun character.
I recommend reading Halo The Fall of Reach. It was released around the same time as the Halo game in 2001. It's a very good military sci fi story even if you've never heard of Halo. And thanks for the recommendations. Adding more books to my reading list.
When I walk into a bookstore and see Children of time books lined up with all the other books by that author next to it , it seemed intimidating, so I am glad to know it is easy to read.
And Skyward was a great start for me I loved it !
I tried to read Adrian Tchaikovsky's books and, my god, I wasn't ready for all those looooong unwanted explanations about eveything. Every time there was a new planet/character/alien-race, a 2 pages backstory was there. The story was so slowed down by this. Very bad example of world building and prose in my opinion. Decent ideas from the guy, but bad execution
Luckily Children of Time doesn't have that issue. Very focused in on a certain cast of characters across the two main storylines
The Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is another great scifi starter series. The worldbuilding is amazing with a special emphasis on how new technology affects all aspects of culture as well as having some of the most believable interplanetary governments and organisations in fiction.
The characters are some of the most memorable in any genre and Bujold's prose is simple yet elegant, conveying a lot through as few words as possible.
Yes! I sent her The Warrior's Apprentice 2-3 years ago and have been attempting to get her to try it since. Some day.
@@NateGifford Doing the Emperor's work 👍. Maybe we should call impsec on her 😁
It's such a shame that this series and Bujold's other work barely get talked about on booktube.
Like, I get that's it's an older series so it probably won't draw many views but it's so so good goddammit!
Bujold didn't win 7 Hugos for nothing.
Bujold is such an underrated author these days her sci-fi is great but so is her fantasy! Well worth reading.
@@michaelbodell7740 I know. Curse of Chalion was my intro to her works and it's one of the best slow-burn political intrigue fantasy books ever.
Agreed! She does good fantasy books too. A series of hers That I don't hear enough about is the Sharing Knife books. Great characters and world building as per usual for her, with a very well thought out magic system.
"Frankenstein" is one of my favorite books of all time! I think people need to know what they're getting into when they start- a slow paced, atmospheric reflection on the nature of humanity and morality. If you're looking for fast paced thrills that fit more of the modern sci-fi aesthetic, probably not your jam, but if you're looking for a masterpiece that shows how insightful speculative fiction can be, it's the best!
Never thought I'd hear someone describe Fullmetal Alchemist as a chill, easygoing series. Man, I remember watching the 2003 anime when it first came out. I would have been around seven years old at the time, and the scene where they try to revive their mother and everything goes wrong is burned into my memory forever.
I was watching her most recent discussion on FMA and I was so impressed about the parts that I heard about that I want to start the series as soon as I can. Wow! Some of those scenes can give you goosebumps!
I just finished Project Hail Mary. Loved this book, especially from the second act and onward. It feels like old school hard sci-fi, but very accessible and full of humor and optimism. I loved The Martian as well.
Currently reading The Left Hand of Darkness.
Thank you for posting videos. I’ve tried getting into reading more as an adult and I just finished my first novel since high school (I’m 26) and it was 754 pages of MMP enjoyment. I’ve been watching your stuff the past month and a half and it’s been keeping me motivated. I’m now on The Hobbit
That is such a good book!
Merphy should read The Expanse series. Excellent sci-fi. I bet that Daniel Greene has told her about those books.
That sounds like a great series! Who is the author?
@@britneynicole8903 It's awesome. They're by James S.A. Corey.
@@CancelledPhilosopher How many books are in the series? I am going to put it on my reading list!
@@britneynicole8903 Awesome.There are 8 of them. I'd love to talk about one or more of them after you read them if you're open to that. There's also a show on Amazon based on the books.
@@CancelledPhilosopher That sounds awesome! I would really like that!
I’ve heard good things about the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. I never read it but some of my friends chose that for a book project where we got to pick our book as long as the group was good with it
Definitely a bit heavier sci-fi, but I would strongly recommend The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. I'm normally not interesting in sci-fi (there tends to be a shortage of magic and dragons imo), but I was completely taken by this book (and it's sequels). Plus I had never read a book translated from Chinese before, but the English translation was great.
I read those books recently after Quinn did his videos about them and man, fantastic books, well written sci fi, utterly terrifying on top of it all.
I'm glad you and others liked it, but I feel the need to add my opinion in to just give a warning to others. I DNF'd Three Body Problem very shortly after starting because I felt the translation was horrendous and barely even English. I know that sounds harsh but just my two cents.
Recently read it as my first hard Sci fi and I found it disappointing
Cool list. I'd also like to add a couple of others:
- for YA: the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. It's very easy to binge. If you like fairy tales, you'll probably like this series.
- This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. It's a time travel story about these two characters on the opposite side of the war. They become pen pals. It's a fun light read.
- the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. This one might not be for beginners, but it's one of my personal favorites. The first book is a little similar to the Hunger Games, but the rest is pretty much a space opera.
Childhood's end by A. Clark is a good starting point, it was for me at least and it still among my favorite Scifi books
I'm not a big sci-fi guy at all. So this is really helpful. Thank you!
A +42 for Hitchhiker's Guide. The best novel ever written. Children of Time is excellent. Restored by faith in modern sci-fi. Oh, and I'm not sure I've ever seen you mention Pratchett on your channel. If you like H2G2 you should check out discworld. Fans of Douglas Adams often love Terry Pratchett (and vice versa).
When recommending sci fi to beginners, I always start with the classics. I, Robot and Foundation by Asimov are very accessible short fiction collections that weave a larger story. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein is a very easy story to become immersed in. The pacing picks up very fast and it's a super interesting read. I'd suggest Dune to Tolkien fans for the excellent world building. Sci fi is definitely a genre where the most famous works live up to the hype.
I would also suggest Friday and 'Door into Summer' by Heinlein, both are fast paced although 'Door into Summer' might feel more YA sci-fi.
Door into Summer was a favorite of mine as a child. It was in a category called "juvenile", which was essentially what we now call "middle grade".
@@slothrob "The Door Into Summer" was NOT one of Heinlein's juveniles. It was published as an adult novel. The fact that I read classics such as "Ivanhoe" when I was a child doesn't retroactively turn them into "young adult"/juveniles.
Some of my favorites in no particular order are:
“The Forever War” by Joe Haldeman,
“Sirens of Titan” by Kurt Vonnegut
“Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock
“Neuromancer” by William Gibson
“The Drowned World” by JG Ballard
“Time is the Fire” by Connie Willis
“Inverted World” by Christopher Priest
“Ecotopia”by Earnest Callenbach
“Blindsight” by Peter Watts
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
“The Kindred” by Octavia Butler
“UBIK” by Phillip K Dick
I love that you added FMA!! Such an amazing story.
If you haven't read the rest of Octavia Butler's work, her Xenogenesis series hooked me instantly. Dawn was by far my favorite, but I understand how it's not for everyone. I admire her and all her works, I think she's a brilliant writer.
A really good gateway is middle grade sci-fi because it's very easily digestible on the one axis and so it makes it easier to take in the sci-fi-ness of it all! I recommend 'the Random House Book of Science Fiction Stories', which is a short story collection that really helps show off the concepts sci-fi can do: the Randoms series by David Liss, which would be especially good for someone who isn't into sci-fi books yet but is a nerd generally: and the Dragonback series by Timothy Zahn, which is a fantastic introduction to sci-fi that has a more hard science underpinning while still being exciting well-plotted adventures (and a fantastic gateway into his hard sci-fi for adults!
Thanks for the video Merphy! Found you through your One Piece read through and your videos always make me smile. Love seeing your passion for narratives!
If thats your home, that massive bookcase behind you is beautiful. Im impressed by most booktubers bookcases.
Loved this list. Jurassic Park and The Lost World are some of my favourite sci-fi books (and I love the first film, too).
Loved your review of Hitchhikers Guide, Marvin the paranoid android being my favourite character. Not a sci-fi fan but there are a few you mention that I will add to my list. Thank you.
A good scifi read: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" AKA "Blade Runner" by Philip K. Dick
I read it last year and I see why it's a classic.
Great pace, settings, and themes.
AKA "Blade Runner"? No. There is already a perfectly good novel with that name by SF author Alan E. Nourse. Although that story has nothing to do with androids, the rights to Nourse's book were bought by the producers of Ridley Scott's movie simply because they wanted to steal the cool title. In Nourse's dystopian future, a "blade runner" is a smuggler of illicit medical supplies on the black market (blade = scalpel, get it?).
For an easy starting point for Sci Fi:
Middle Grade:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (I still love this book, just finished rereading it actually!)
Steampunk?
Idoru by William Gibson (many of his books are great! This is the first one of his I read)
Hard Sci Fi:
The Expanse series by James S.A Corey
Classics - maybe not as easy to read? but my favourites are
1984 by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
For the AIs in space fans: The Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie is crazy good and I think it would work well for fans of Murderbot. In the same general area, but funnier, there's the Bobiverse by Dennis E. Taylor.
And down on Earth there's the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde - time travelling, jumping into classic books and meeting the characters, dry british humour..all the good stuff ♥
Frankenstein is a very underrated work of fiction for people who aren’t familiar with sci-fi
Douglas Adams got more ideas into the HHG than most writers get in a lifetime. He was a wonderful, witty, generous and tall man who had no sense of what writing for a living was supposed to mean ("I love deadlines - I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by"). HHG is a satire on British and American culture, and was first and foremost a radio show. If you like the books you really, really need to get the radio shows.
One of the earliest sci-fi books I read and loved was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. On goodreads it's shelved more often as fantasy, but I think it's more of sci-fi.
Ford Prefect. Best line from Hitchhicker's: "Do you know how much damage you'll do to that bulldozer? (when he's laying in front of it trying to save his house) "Absolutely none!" A great starter sci-fi book is Asimov's "End of Eternity." It deals with time travelers fixing dangerous trends in humanity with unforeseen results and a great twist at the end that brings it to our world. Also, I don't want anything to do with I Am Legend, because they hurt his dog! He was a good boy!
I Am Legend is an amazing book and he did not have a dog to be hurt. I Am Will Smith, on the other hand, sucked sick through a short straw and should have been sued for using the name.
Ford’s name is Ford Prefect, like the car.
Have you read anything from Orson Scott Card? Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead both hit me especially hard when I read them in middle school, and I just did a reread of Speaker for the Dead. It holds up.
4:31 I read Jurassic Park on your recommendation last year. I always loved the movie; I really enjoyed the book. I realized while reading the book that the movie is really good at making you forget that there are other people on that island...there are a lot of other people on that island. Even though the book doesn’t spend much time with them, it does a knowledge that they are there.
🧡🦖 🧡🦕🧡🦖🧡🦕🧡
I love Dark Matter, Children of Time and Project Hail Mary! I'll be reading Jurassic Park next month, looking forward to it!
You should read “I am number four”. It reminds me of Percy Jackson and the books just get so good
My go-to recommendations for sci-fi newbies are Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (absolutely gorgeous story and characters, and amazing worldbuilding for a standalone novel), or Murderbot Diaries (never empathised with a narrator more...), depending on what I know of their preferences. I also absolutely love The Expanse, but I'll generally only recommend that to people who've had some sci-fi experience or just want to jump straight into the sci-fi equivalent of a fantasy epic.
"Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
I would love more videos like this. I find fantasy super easy to navigate, but finding the right sci Fi books is alot harder for some reason.
A great alternate introduction to Science Fiction is via short story anthologies, (1) because SF was built upon the SF magazines that printed short stories, and (2) because in short stories the central imaginative concept really comes to the fore. The anthology _Science Fiction Hall of Fame_ is a great place to start.
I was a fantasy/ya guy for the longest time when I was younger but one that really got me into sci-fi was Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, very engaging story with your common themes explored by the genre, after that one I was left wanting more science fiction and ended up head first into the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons and while that tetralogy (though it's more like 2 duologies) is not for beginners it's very very good.
I finished Snowcrash yesterday and it was so interesting ¡ I wouldn't recommend it to everyone but it is a great read if you are into cyberpunk
@@juanmarodriguez6010 Yep, I would agree once you get past the deliverator portion of the book I think it really speeds along. The cyberpunk absurdism is pretty great. For beginner's I would recommend his 'Diamond Age' book, while for intermediate I'd say Seveneves or Anathem are perfect.
Frankenstein was one of my first sci fis too and I loved it! Definitely belongs on this list imo.
That edition of Frankenstein is so pretty! I’m def not a beginner, but love there recs Merphy!
For people that love old school scifi (Asimov etc) I recommend 'The Three Body Problem' (triology), a modern scifi that still has some of the feel of old schfi books.
Would love Merphy to talk about it!
Hitchhiker's is peak sci-fi to me. I really liked the Invisible Man.
From A Certain Point of View was a cool collection of Star Wars short stories.
After those, I've been reading a bunch of short story collections an old coworker used to find at yard sales for me. That old 1940s sci-fi hits different.
It's really a mathematical concept book. But the short, short book Flatland is excellent.
So happy you mentioned Dark Matter! I loved it so much and I'll read another one of his books(Upgrade) in the near future.
I would like some book recommendations that are easy to get into. I don't read books (only have actually read 2 in my whole life), but I want to start getting into them just don't know where to start. I want to read books like Game Of Thrones and Lord Of The Rings, but people tell me those are difficult to get through for someone who doesn't read.
The two books I actually enjoyed were:
Halo: Fall Of Reach - Based on the video game series
My Bloody Life - NonFiction story about someone who has actually lived as a gang member in Chicago
You could start with The Hobbit instead of Lord of the Rings. I find it much easier to get into. Or some YA, they are often easier to get into.
Sabriel by Garth Nix
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (the first book in the series) is a good starting point as well. It's based off of the Red Dwarf t.v. series and really fleshes it out. [Watching the show is not required]
One I'd recommend is the Martian Chronicles. It's an anthology of stories about the rise and fall of first Martian and then human civilization on Mars. It may feel a little dated if you're not used to older sci fi and it starts a little slow but picks up as it goes Bradbury's prose is pure poetry.
Ford Prefect. Loved HHGttG, but I haven't read past the first book.
John Scalzi is probably a pretty good choice for beginner SF. He has a very readable writing style, no massive tomes, and a few sub-genres to choose from.
I remember the Vincent Price version of I Am Legend (Last Man on Earth) being the closest to the original story.
I expected her to mention Old Man's War. Scalzi is fun.
I'm mostly a vintage guy, but this is a great review of contemporary SF. I thought you might have mentioned "Axiom's End," but glad you gave a nod to "Frankenstein."
Dropping the one book out of excitement for another LOL I loved that.
The Fifth Season trilogy was amazing and one of my first Sci-Fi reads, would love more recommendations like it 😊
LOL, its Ford Prefect. Nice mostly contemporary list. A couple notes; I think you'd enjoy Anne McCaffrey (decision at Doona has a similar concept to the children of time and another Author who got the simpler answers to heavy science and readers can feel ... smarter... thinking they know more. ) Also add in Dennis Taylor's Bobiverse. We are Legion (we are bob) similar to Hail Mary.
Children of Time is great first sci fi book!
I would suggest The Player of Games, House of Suns, The Birthday of the World (Le Guin), a bit of Tales of a Dying Earth, Star Diaries (funny), either Leckie or Martine are probably easier to get into than Cherryh who is must read and influenced them.
Was looking for a Culture recommendation. "Player of Games" is a great one to start the Culture series with, but I think "Matter" might be a bit more up Merphy's alley. Luckily they aren't really sequels to each other so one can start in anywhere.
@@Cavman I haven't read Matter yet! Yeah my favorite is Excession, but I think The Player of Games is more tightly written and less quirky. Look to Windward has the most gravitas. I like Use of Weapons a lot and Surface Detail but they are a bit too intense to recommend generally I think. Banks is an absolute must read though. There is no better space opera, and he's actually funny in a smart way unlike a lot of authors who are more like you spent 4 hrs writing this one sentence to sound clever. If you know what I mean, ha.
@@bbdeffect Oh yes, there is so much to dive into! Personally, I would hold off on a "Excession" recommendation as well, if we are considering like "Surface Details" to be a bit to extreme, but if she can get through "Matter" and "Player of Games" with interest intact, then "Use of Weapons" and "Consider Phlebas" might be good next stops.
I think science fiction is one where it makes sense to also consider the classic cannon books. Frankenstein is from that classic cannon, and I guess maybe Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy also could be, and maybe a couple of the others (Jurassic Park and Kindred, maybe?) but most of the others, while good, are probably more recent entries and thus not yet part of the core, or at least not really in what I'd think of as the core cannon for beginners to the genre. One of the reason to consider some of the earlier core books is because science-fiction being so idea driven many of the more modern books, more so than many other genres, build off and react to these core ideas from the original big books. So I'd recommend considering something like some of the following 10 choices/categories:
Isaac Asimov: the obvious choice is Foundation, and that's not wrong, but I'd actually recommend the robot novels (Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn) as the idea of the laws of robotics and the class of story that comes out of that is worth becoming familiar with, and the novels are very approachable as Asimov has a very straightforward writing style.
Robert Heinlein - I'd recommend The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress as probably the most approachable of the obvious choices for him (Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land are also possible obvious other choices). Politics, colonization, ai, economics is all mixed together in this story.
Arthur C Clarke - 2001 is the obvious most famous choice, partially due to the movie, (with HAL 9000 as a classic AI in fiction), but Rendezvous with Rama would be another worthy choice.
Ursula K Le Guin - need to read some Le Guin. Could be the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", could be Wizard of Earthsea (what I was taught in my sci-fi lit class), or the most standard recommendation would be The Left Hand of Darkness.
Philip K Dick - tons of science fiction ideas and films and what not come from Dick's work. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (inspiration for Blade Runner) or The Man in the High Castle (alternate history with Axis winning WWII) are possible intros to Dick's work.
Dune by Frank Herbert. One of the main inspirations for for everything from Star Wars to some of the best real-time strategy games, this political epic covers many themes and is well worth engaging with. There is also enough action for plot and enough characters for character based readers, so it is fairly approachable.
Early Dystopian - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and/or 1984 by George Orwell. These are classic stories referenced directly and indirectly all the time, and again are fairly approachable reads.
Classic YA Sci-fi: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and/or Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Both are very approachable reads largely before YA was the thing it was today, but both are well worth the read. Maybe throw in Animal Farm by Orwell especially if you haven't/aren't going to read 1984.
Later core Dystopian - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and/or Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Both are recent enough that in many ways they are scary predictions with some of the events we see today, and also get referenced both in fiction and in real life by people. Both are also extremely readable and approachable books.
Neuromancer by William Gibson which kicks off the whole cyperpunk/cyberspace and this whole branch of science fiction.
My bonus suggestions for things past the 10 classic core choices could be:
If you like or want to try hard sci-fi: Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars/Blue Mars/Green Mars).
Simple and approachable great upbeat character driven story: The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Incredibly great AI main POV stories: Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie (Ancillary Justice is the first) and/or Murderbot diaries by Martha Wells
I'd also re-endorse your recommendation of Children of Time which is an incredibly good read.
Pretty good list, I'd say Heinlein's Friday or Door into Summer are other great entries, with Door into Summer being a bit more YA while Friday is all around great.
I would also suggest trying out Neal Stephenson, for beginners/YA I'd say 'Diamond Age', for intermediate I'd say Anathem or Seveneves.
Philip Dick was a mid-tier author and never considered a seminal SF writer. He became famous in the mainstream as Hollywood's go-to guy for science fiction plots after Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" became an underground hit, and also because of his propensity for "what is real/what is perception" themes which happen to suit the tastes of Hollywood and literary circles.
Of these recommendations I most want to read Hitchhiker's Guide. Right now, I'm reading another Sci Fi, "A Talent for War" by Jack McDevitt. Sort of an archeological mystery set far in the future. Very good so far.
Best intro for sci-fi in my opinion is probably A Princess of Mars, its a seminal text and about 110 years old but it holds up and its really easy to follow while also introducing so many things that we all know today
For concept sci-fi I'd recommend Spin(time slowing bubble, self replicating spacecraft, etc) or Vorkosigan Saga for character focused sci-fi (while still playing around with different political systems and concepts like artificial wombs, genetic engineering, truth serum, etc)
I've read some of these books, Jurassic Park and Kindred being my favourite (I've read Kindred thanks to you and your channel, so thank you). Project Hail Mary (I've read The Martian and am currently listening to Artemis audiobook), The Children of Time and Skyward trilogy are on my TBR list.
I gave chance to sci-fi literature quite late (in my early thirties), but it's never too late to start and I'm glad I did, because there are so many amazing books that I've discovered. I would recommend The Expanse series, Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Karel Capek's War with the Newts, those might not be for beginners, but definitely worth reading. Also Jules Verne is good sci-fi read.
I love Children in Time! Looking forward to the third installation in January
Animorphs was so formative for me back in the day, and now I get to look back on it and just be absolutely horrified for these children dragged into a brutal war. Plus it kick started my love of body horror, so that's a thing.
She always has the best recommendations!
I love the fact you started with HHGTTG. I first read it when I was ten having been brought up on the TV series and the radio series (there is no other version and anyone who says different is wrong).
I really enjoy H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Invisible Man in particular. Not sure if it’s a good starting point for Sci fi but it’s my favorite.
Hi Merphy, I love your list! I have a sci-fi rec of my own. Since you're entering more into the anime/manga sphere of reading, I wanted to recommend some good visual novels that aren't dating simulators like people think, but actual really well written stories, known as the Science Adventure series (that Visual Novel series the popular Steins;Gate anime comes from as it adapted one of the entries.)
SciADV for short, it's a sci-fi conspiracy thriller series where each entry is set in a different part of Japan, with a different cast of teenagers who find themselves trapped in the midst of a conspiracy against an evil organization that is trying to rule the world, and the overarching plot of the series is how they fight to try and escape the clutches of this evil organization, while also dealing with their personal issues. Each entry has a good core balance of character focus and development, along with really cool and mindscrewy science fiction concepts as well as conspiracy plotlines, it's really fascinating and I've never found another series quite like it (that places such a huge emphasis on character writing and not letting the science fiction overpower the characters, but rather complement them and be an equal focus with them!) I'd highly recommend it. The first game is known as Chaos;Head NoAH, and Steins;Gate is the second. Would recommend it to anyone!
Wait your the person who introduced Tim to children of time, literally changed the course of my life there. Hearing so much about that book got me to read it and get back into books
I got started with Sci-Fi reading all of the classics in the 1970s, Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, and so on
This is a great video for beginners in the genre like me, PHM and a few others are on my tbr
Merphy, you would absolutely adore the Wayfarer series (Becky Chambers). Found family trope at its best imo ❤️
Sci fi is my favourite genre. I like books with big, challenging ideas and that's what my favourite science fiction delivers. A couple of things that I really like:
The Culture Series by Iain M Banks - The Culture is a society where pretty much everything has worked out alright. It's an anarchist utopia overseen by benevolent and extremely powerful AI where nobody has to work, or indeed do pretty much anything else, if they don't want to. The books are about what happens when the Culture decides to deal with other societies and civilisations. The Player of Games is a good starting point. It's about a very skilled Culture board game player who is induced to travel to an empire where a person's skill at playing a particularly complex game determines their place in society.
The short stories of JG Ballard - Ballard dabbled in a variety of genres, but is best known for his science fiction and postmodern transgressive work. His short fiction is very varied but generally returns to his preferred themes of psychological breakdown and how societies can be influenced by technology.
I needed this video! Thank you, perfect timing
Great list and another fab video! I've become an avid viewer of your content in the last couple of months and your passion for books and reading is a joy to watch. My TBR has somewhat exploded due to the amount of recommendations I take from you, but that's no bad thing at all - until recently I was very narrow in my fiction reading in terms of genres (pretty much all horror and thriller) but I'm trying to remedy that by trying some fantasy and Manga, and you've been super helpful in finding stuff that isn't too overwhelming/intimidating to start with as a noob to those types of book! And have been wanting to get into Sci-Fi so this list is perfect for me, all the books sound really interesting. Plus I really appreciate your discussions on things like gatekeeping and audiobooks (my book consumption is 85% audiobooks these days, which is the reason I've got through more books this year than I have in the last 10 years put together!). Thanks for the great recommendations, all the best 🙂
I really really want to read Hitchhikers, Project Hail Mary, and Kindred! Thanks for the reccs!
I would recommend “the illuminae files” as a ya sci-fi. The books are really different to normal ones since they consist of military files, documents etc (I can’t describe it as great as it is but please trust me). These books also described war in a really realistic way (although I’m not an expert in wars)
Fantastic list.
Personally I would DROP The Counting Stars, The Fifth Season and Kindred from it and ADD The Expanse, Murderbot, and maybe some classics like Dune, The Time Machine and Book of the New Sun
Science fiction is an existential metaphor that allows us to tell stories about the human condition. Isaac Asimov once said, "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinded critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all." - Dad of Boy's old stunt double spray-painted silver, 2006
Jurassic park is such an awesome book. Crichton has quite a few good ones
a good starting point for a divergent peak at Sci-fi is to read my anthology, Stalking Kilgore Trout
I continuously make the mistake of thinking sci-fi is only “space stuff” and tend to keep forgetting books like Jurassic Park and I am Legend.
If you haven't, check out Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's technical and difficult at times, being a "hard sci-fi" novel, but it has a thrilling plot with a hook at the beginning that makes you want to get through any difficulties. It also brings up interesting philosophy surrounding human conditions, particularly, whether consciousness is truly special, important or even the highest form of cognition we perceive it to be, or merely a hindrance. It's the best alien invasion thriller I've read.
My Classic Sci-fi recommendations are Frank Herbert's Dune Series, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and just about anything from Robert Heinlein (particularly Starship Troopers).
I can't wait for you to review Hyperion of Dan Simmons! It's one of my favorite books of all time!
I love the way you move from one book to the next by just dropping the book or tossing it aside. Lol
Book 3 of Children of Time comes out end of this year or early next year- I forget the exact date
I love hithiker! funniest scifi book I have read
For me, a perfect entry-point into sci-fi is Spin by Robert Charles WIlson. It's very accessible for readers who are either less familiar or comfortable with the genre's tropes. (Full disclosure: Spin is one of my favourite books so I am biased)
I'm really enjoying Blake Crouch and Recursion. I've been exploring novels about implants, transhumanism and time. Writing my novel. I just loved Jurassic Park as a teenager. Amazing book. Do you like philosophy in science fiction? I'm writing a 400 page novel about sci-fi, fantasy and computer fiction.
So far my favourite N K Jemisin is actually The City We Became. It's such an evocative book, with plenty of queer, POC and generally diverse characters, and there's just something about the fundamental idea that has been living rent-free in my head ever since I read it. Can't wait for the sequel!!
I hope you have Space Brothers 宇宙兄弟 on your next manga to read list.
I'm not a SF newbie, but I want to read so many of these, especially Children of Time!
I love Battletech because it was inspired by Japanese anime mecha toys in the 1980s. But its lore seems inspired by Dune. No worms or spice, just giant robots. And pilots of these robots, called mechwarriors, are like knights, but they ride robots instead of horses. It started as a tabletop "chess like" game with RPG expansion, but developed into novels and videogames. May be this will not be super high culture like Don Quixote, but it is fine as a novel with adventures, Flash Gordon type.
You have to read The Breach by Patrick Lee. It is the first in a trilogy and it is fantastic. Part Sci Fi part espionage. Great read.
4:08 The third book comes out in January. "Children of Memory"
Those are all great.
I would also recommend a couple of Heinlein's 'The Door into Summer', 'Friday' and 'The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress'.
Also by Neal Stephenson 'The Diamond Age' would be a good beginner, for intermediate I'd go with 'Anathem' and 'Seveneves' are excellent; if you want something a bit future sci-fi with a heavy dose of absurdism then 'Snow Crash' (just get past the deliverator section and it really takes off).
For a couple series I'd recommend either the Serrano Legacy or the Vatta Universe both by Elizabeth Moon.
My favorite sci-fi book is Christopher Paolini’s To Sleep in a Sea of Stars.