Woohoohoo! A Peter Hamilton virgin. Can't wait to hear your take! And Charles Stross, too!! I've read Accelerando when I was a kid and LOVED it. I can't wait. Fun year to come!
I love the initiative with short stories. I always enjoy the compact story with only essential things that are happening. Unpopular opinion: not all books needs to be 600 pages with 10 parts to be considered great books🙈
Peter F. Hamilton! My favorite of all time. Pandora’s Star is really just part 1 of the story concluded in Judas Unchained. But the later books in the same Commonwealth Universe are also great. Accelerando is very good and the ideas have stuck with me since I read it almost 20 years ago. My favorite Baxter is The Time Ships. A very cool official sequel to Wells’ Time Machine.
nice to see so many UK authors in your reading plans! For PFH I'd recommend going with Pandora's Star (which you'd need to follow up with Judas Unchained). enjoy!
I’m British, but so far I’ve failed to find myself a favourite British sf author. I’m still fond of Colin Kapp’s “The Patterns of Chaos” although it dates back to 1972. John Brunner, yes, “Stand on Zanzibar” was worth reading, and “The Shockwave Rider”, but I rarely feel the urge to reread them these days. John Wyndham, his novels seem dated these days; I still like and reread a few of his short stories. I liked a few of James P. Hogan’s books, in particular “The Proteus Operation” (1985), which I still reread. But I have a happier time with British authors outside the sf genre: in fantasy (Terry Pratchett, Ben Aaronovitch), or mundane fiction. For sf I mostly rely on the Americans. Jasper Fforde tends to be difficult to categorize, writing books that mix sf with eccentric fantasy.
Amazing reading-plans. So many of your books also waiting for me on my pile of shame (and on my shelf). But I switch between Fantasy and Sci-Fi and 2024 was definitive more a Fantasy year for me.
I had a similar experience to you with the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, I didn't hate it exactly, but I couldn't figure out why it was considered to be good. Then someone suggested to think of it as an anthology of short stories on the same subject and that warmed me towards it. Then I read the book a couple of years back after avoiding it for years due to my perception of Clarke's writing being a bit beyond me, yeah I read the book in a week and a half, couldn't put it down, much better than the film. :) I read The Midwich Cuckoos last year and loved it. :D
Many of the books in your TBR for 2025 are in mine as well; such as Raft, Ammonite, Shroud, Creation node and Revelation space. Also I'd love to read the Daniel Suarez duology because you speak so highly of them in many videos and you've convinced me :)
You're inspiring me to read Peter F Hamilton and also finally pickup Use of Weapons! In also intrigued to check out one of your readalongs or short story reads...
Stross' Accelerando sounds interesting but I really love the Laundry Series and would recommend starting there. Math equations and ender gods, a winning combination.
I started Visions of Glory, Volume 1 of, The Last Lion, the three part biography of Winston Churchill. It's HUGE! I'm only on page 17, but already I need some little flags to mark some bits. So far, it seems like it will be one of those bios that's not just dry names/places/events/dates. I hope that's the case. We'll see. If I can finish even up to half this year, I'll call it a win. Yikes.
Greta list Whitney. I will be interested to see what you think of Eversion as I think its a very clever book. It starts like a historical novel, then jumps into other genre's including steampunk, before brining everything back to a great SF read where all the previous bits make sense. Very clever. And may I suggest you add Bob Shaw to your list of English authors. Often overlooked, but he has written some classic SF novels along the lines of 'if I changed one thing how would that impact our society'. Try Vertigo which is a great example and a quick read. Happy 2025.
Such an exciting time ahead! And so many I want to read too! Really really looking forward to The Algebraist soon. But it’s also great to hear there are many more we could potentially read together after :)
I’m starting off the year with K B Wagers first book Pale Light In The Dark and enjoying this one! Happy New Year and always looking forward to your insights and thoughts 🎉
You are a dangerous person to listen too, i'm trying to shorten my TBR but you just made it a bit longer with this video. Currently i finished re reading the three body problem, i had forgotton all about it's content and i loved it. Up to the next 2 books in the series. Happy new year.
Great video Whitney. I like the idea of seasonl TBR's. It's hard to keep up with the yearly ones. I'm wanting to read Shards of Earth and Revelation space this year at some point. Shards is such a chunker it's intimidating lol.
Well done with your goals! I like how seasonal TBRs give you a bit more choice, freedom and chance to focus on specific things. I love Pandora's Star-Judas Unchained. The tech, immersion in the world, cast of characters and scope of the story are amazing, though it's a bit long and has a couple of less interesting distractions. I'm also a big fan of Revelation Space for the imagination and believability. Eversion is a great choice if you want a quick and intriguing read. It's a clever idea, though multi-genre with a sci-fi core. I really like Adrian T but can't keep up. He's probably written 2 books while I wrote this comment :) The sci-fi books I hope to read soon are Singularity Sky (Charles Stross), Exodus - The Archimedes Engine (Peter F Hamilton), Titanium Noir (Nick Harkaway) and Cryptonomicon (though I've said that for the last 6 years). Good luck with your British authors and all the best for the new year!
Thanks!! I really liked titanium noir and its a fast fun read. I started revelation space so that is starting me off! Thanks for ur thoughts, and your support!
I only have one planned TBR for 2025. I want to read one notoriously difficult book and my choices are Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, or Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. I think Les Mis is the easiest of the three, but it's a biggun... I have all three on my shelves so I'm ready to start! For the rest, I'm going to try to read 2 or 3 of the books I already own each month, and I've just been grabbing them off the top of the pile. They tend to be SF, fantasy, or mystery. And then I'll read whatever catches my fancy in between. I always have 3 books going at a time, one ebook, one physical book, and one audiobook, so I should be able to keep up lol.
Happy NY! Great to hear your opinion on Perdido Street Station, bought it last year and it's going to be my first Mieville novel, looking forward to reading it. I'm going to finish the Culture series this year (2,5 books to go) and will definitely start reading the Expanse. I also want to read the Earthsea books by LeGuin. And a few classics (non SF) books too, if I get to it. Same thoughts on Tchaikovsky, that dude is a machine 😂
Great review! I'm reading 'Consider Phlebas' now and I love it. I hope to read all of The Culture novels this year. Warning: Accelerando is a tough read, very technical. I only just re-read it again last year, and it was just as tough as the first time. Thanks, and Happy New Year.
I read tons of Sci-fi short stories when I was young and trying to find authors that appealed to me. I've still got all the short story collections on my bookshelf...Dangerous Visions & Again, Dangerous Visions (Harlan Ellison, editor, and one of my favorite authors who wrote mostly short stories and essays), The Future I (all the stories are from the first person point of view), and many others. It is weird when I pull one off the shelf now and struggle with the tiny print!
@@secretsauceofstorycraft That's why I now "read" primarily via audiobooks. I'm currently listening to the Witcher series of books and Peter Kenny is doing an awesome job with all the varied characters (his profane dwarf voice is my favorite).
UK authors must reads: Adam Nevill “All The fiends Of Hell”. Great end of the world invasion story. Tense with awesome characters. What I found best was that this Sci-Fi/horror story is beautifully written. He crafted every sentence. And Yes, 2001 is a fun book. Not a movie bogged down by Kubrick’s overblown direction
Project Hail Mary and Death’s End are at the top of my sci-fi list for 2025. I also want to read Eversion, Sun Eater, A Fire Upon the Deep, and Peter Hamilton at some point
I enjoyed Hamilton's Salvation trilogy a few years ago that it launched me into reading more sci-fi. Finished Reynold's House of Suns recently, but Eversion is on my TBR (staring at me from the shelf too lol). This year I want to read more women sci-fi writers so I added some of your recs, thank you! Currently reading To Each This World by Julie E. Czerneda. Your content and videos are great. =) Happy new year!
I know you have a full TBR, but for targeted writers I’d highly suggest “Aurora” by Kim Stanley Robertson. A generation ship story with great character studies,AI, and space exploration.
I quite enjoyed 2312 but not because of the plot. I just really loved all the scenes on Mercury, the traveling and the characters even though or maybe because they were unlikeable. I plan on reading Red Mars in 2025. Hopefully I like it.
2001 was one of my favorite books in my younger years! There's a certain line where I remember feeling my heart skip a beat, in wonder wonder at what was happening! I wish I had marked the date and time because it's one of those things where I could pinpoint the exact moment. I only saw the movie many years later. I just... wanted to die. WILL THIS MOVIE EVER END?! The book also starts off slowly, but it does add more and gets better. I have since reconciled myself to the movie and ended up loving it, in a different sort of way. I need to re-read the Rama books. I'm not sure if I only read the first one. It's been years. He's such a strange writer. I end up with "memories", as if I've been to the places he describes. Yet ask me to remember plot details and characters and I draw a blank. Not sure how much of that is me and how much is his writing style.
The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos are good, relatively short, and don't have sequels. They might make a nice change from reading long books and series. The Atrocity Archives is the first book of a 13 book series called The Laundry Files. The books aren't long and are entertaining. I didn't like the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey but surprisingly I did enjoy the book. Pandora's Star and its sequel Judas Unchained are good but they are very long. There is one really annoying character but the villains are spectacular. There are other books set in the same universe, but I haven't read them. In 2025 I plan on reading more of the Bank's Culture series. I have read the first four. I also want to read Fall of Hyperion by Simmons, Golden Son and Morning Star by Brown, and MaddAddam by Atwood.
I liked The Ferryman; I think you will as well. Eversion was fun as was Revelation Space. 2025 is going to Awesome! ⭐️ I also should get to Hamilton at some point…
As a Brit, I would say you should definitely look at some of the classic 60s writers who helped define a new direction for SF. The list should include JG Ballard - any of his early disaster novels, but probably The Drowned World or The Crystal World. Also Brian Aldiss' Hothouse. Keith Laumer's Pavane is a beauty, too. Perhaps Bob Shaw's Other Days, Other Eyes, and DG Compton's The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe. I think the list you have is too contemporary and doesn't do justice to the breadth and depth of the best writing. Hamilton and Reynolds are fine, but very shallow compared to the best. Also, give 2001 a miss if you've already read other Clarkes - Childhood's End is probably the best, but 2001 was originally a short story (Sentinel) before being blown up into a novel *after* Clarke had worked on the film script. So it's not even a 'proper' novel!
I have read several of j g ballard- drowned world and the drought. I own aldiss’ non stop but havent been able to find hothouse…. But i do own pavane! Thanks for reminder
Neal Stephenson and Iain Banks are my two favourite authors. Stephenson's best works (not including Snowcrash which everyone knows) and the ones I would highly recommend are the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, Confusion, System of the World), Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, Anathem, and The Diamond Age. I also enjoyed Termination Shock. I am less enamored of the Dodge books (Reamde and Fall), and his collaborative novels (D.O.D.O., and the Mongoliad) can be hit and miss. But anything in that first bracket is really high quality. As for Banks I rate all of the Culture novels but I think they really pay off in the later novels, particularly Excession, Matter, and the Hydrogen Sonata. Excession is my favourite ever SF book. His non-Culture SF is also fabulous, particularly Against a Dark Background. He wrote a lot of non-SF books as Iain Banks (as opposed to Iain M. Banks), all of which are great, with the absolute stand out being the Wasp Factory, which is really macabre and weird. Transition is also a great SF novel, but isn't marketed as one. Charles Stross - Accelerando completely blew my mind - great book. The Laundry Files books suffer from the law of diminishing returns as the series goes on, and really jump the shark after the seventh or eighth novel, but the first three or four are really good, particularly if you are a Lovecraft fan.
Ken MacLeod wrote a short story called “Sidewinders” that’s good fun, one of my favourites; I found it in “The Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories”. Encouraged by that, I went on to read his novel “Learning the World” in 2011, and thought it well conceived but not very well executed. Not a horrible experience, but disappointing.
Space Odyssey is written after the film, I found it a great little story but from what I remember of the film it the same maybe told better but it been years since I watched the film which I like but not love it a strange film but going luck yo your list 👍
HAPPY NATIONAL SCIENCE FICTION DAY! Doors of Eden was *a bit much* for me, but Shards is top 5 of all time Space Opera. #Priority Still going to Adrian's BBQ that you were invited to at the con last year? I have to get Dogs of War and Alien Clay off the TBR in 2025. The Unworthy (Agustina Bazterrica) is the #1 book I'm looking forward to (March 4th: Pres. Rachel will let you know the genre). Love the channel. #1Q84
I also bounced from Red Mars and was disappointed, not sure about reading the other two in the trilogy. One of very few books so highly regarded that disappointed me as much in SF. Doomsday Book was the other.
@@secretsauceofstorycraft I read “Red Mars” in 1998, decided that Robinson isn’t my kind of author, and haven’t read anything else by him. I read to please myself and have low persistence with authors who don’t please me.
Don't Consider Phoebus, it gets way too bogged down in repetitive action. It lacks Culture, imo. Your followers in Deal salute your choice of TBRs from our little islands. Happy New Year!
Sorry to bring you more Ken MacLeod trauma, but the image you've used of him is of the Tibetan translator and not our Ken! And Doors of Eden is very good!
Morning Light Mountain is waiting for you to finish at least 66% of Pandora's Star. Someone on youtube adapted the prologue. th-cam.com/video/3q6OOn7819E/w-d-xo.html The Prefect is a fun cops in space one from Alastair Reynolds. (It got renamed to Aurora Rising but I'm pretending it didn't happen.)
Woohoohoo! A Peter Hamilton virgin. Can't wait to hear your take! And Charles Stross, too!! I've read Accelerando when I was a kid and LOVED it. I can't wait. Fun year to come!
Yaya!!! I am kinda excited too
I love the initiative with short stories. I always enjoy the compact story with only essential things that are happening. Unpopular opinion: not all books needs to be 600 pages with 10 parts to be considered great books🙈
Hah yes!!! 👍🏻
Peter F. Hamilton! My favorite of all time. Pandora’s Star is really just part 1 of the story concluded in Judas Unchained. But the later books in the same Commonwealth Universe are also great.
Accelerando is very good and the ideas have stuck with me since I read it almost 20 years ago.
My favorite Baxter is The Time Ships. A very cool official sequel to Wells’ Time Machine.
nice to see so many UK authors in your reading plans! For PFH I'd recommend going with Pandora's Star (which you'd need to follow up with Judas Unchained). enjoy!
I am glad u mentioned this! Im hoping to get to it soon!!
I’m British, but so far I’ve failed to find myself a favourite British sf author. I’m still fond of Colin Kapp’s “The Patterns of Chaos” although it dates back to 1972. John Brunner, yes, “Stand on Zanzibar” was worth reading, and “The Shockwave Rider”, but I rarely feel the urge to reread them these days. John Wyndham, his novels seem dated these days; I still like and reread a few of his short stories. I liked a few of James P. Hogan’s books, in particular “The Proteus Operation” (1985), which I still reread. But I have a happier time with British authors outside the sf genre: in fantasy (Terry Pratchett, Ben Aaronovitch), or mundane fiction. For sf I mostly rely on the Americans.
Jasper Fforde tends to be difficult to categorize, writing books that mix sf with eccentric fantasy.
This is a good perspective-- thank you!
Amazing reading-plans. So many of your books also waiting for me on my pile of shame (and on my shelf). But I switch between Fantasy and Sci-Fi and 2024 was definitive more a Fantasy year for me.
I had a similar experience to you with the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, I didn't hate it exactly, but I couldn't figure out why it was considered to be good. Then someone suggested to think of it as an anthology of short stories on the same subject and that warmed me towards it. Then I read the book a couple of years back after avoiding it for years due to my perception of Clarke's writing being a bit beyond me, yeah I read the book in a week and a half, couldn't put it down, much better than the film. :) I read The Midwich Cuckoos last year and loved it. :D
Many of the books in your TBR for 2025 are in mine as well; such as Raft, Ammonite, Shroud, Creation node and Revelation space. Also I'd love to read the Daniel Suarez duology because you speak so highly of them in many videos and you've convinced me :)
Hahaha i hope 🤞 u find some good ones!! (Esp the suarez duology) looking forward to ur thoughts
You're inspiring me to read Peter F Hamilton and also finally pickup Use of Weapons! In also intrigued to check out one of your readalongs or short story reads...
Use if weapons has a crazy structure- hope u like it !!! Yes to peter hamilton!
Accelerando was one of the best books I read in 2023. I really enjoyed it. I hope you like it too.
You're making me want to get it now!
@secretsauceofstorycraft it's very interesting and clever in some way. And I enjoyed it more than Neuromancer.
Stross' Accelerando sounds interesting but I really love the Laundry Series and would recommend starting there. Math equations and ender gods, a winning combination.
I started Visions of Glory, Volume 1 of, The Last Lion, the three part biography of Winston Churchill. It's HUGE! I'm only on page 17, but already I need some little flags to mark some bits. So far, it seems like it will be one of those bios that's not just dry names/places/events/dates. I hope that's the case. We'll see. If I can finish even up to half this year, I'll call it a win. Yikes.
Wow that is….ambitious. Sounds like something i would dnf…. But hope u like it!
Greta list Whitney. I will be interested to see what you think of Eversion as I think its a very clever book. It starts like a historical novel, then jumps into other genre's including steampunk, before brining everything back to a great SF read where all the previous bits make sense. Very clever. And may I suggest you add Bob Shaw to your list of English authors. Often overlooked, but he has written some classic SF novels along the lines of 'if I changed one thing how would that impact our society'. Try Vertigo which is a great example and a quick read. Happy 2025.
Thank you!! I will see if i van find any shaw-- ive had a hard time finding any of his well known work at my local store. Eversion i hope to get to
Such an exciting time ahead! And so many I want to read too! Really really looking forward to The Algebraist soon. But it’s also great to hear there are many more we could potentially read together after :)
Haha 🤣 anytime!!
Oh, boy, I do love that music intro! Happy New Year! 🎉
I may have been dancing around a bit.
Awwwww 🥰
I’m starting off the year with K B Wagers first book Pale Light In The Dark and enjoying this one! Happy New Year and always looking forward to your insights and thoughts 🎉
Happy New Year to you too!
Thank you for another great video, Whitney, and all the best for 2025. 🎉
🔥 thank you for watching!! And same to you for 2025
You are a dangerous person to listen too, i'm trying to shorten my TBR but you just made it a bit longer with this video.
Currently i finished re reading the three body problem, i had forgotton all about it's content and i loved it. Up to the next 2 books in the series.
Happy new year.
🔥 haha 🤣 i totally get that. I have a video coming out soon about what to read after the 3bp also… so better not look 👀
Great video Whitney. I like the idea of seasonl TBR's. It's hard to keep up with the yearly ones. I'm wanting to read Shards of Earth and Revelation space this year at some point. Shards is such a chunker it's intimidating lol.
U can do it dale!!!!
Bless you. Great move on the short stories.
🔥 hope they go well
Well done with your goals! I like how seasonal TBRs give you a bit more choice, freedom and chance to focus on specific things. I love Pandora's Star-Judas Unchained. The tech, immersion in the world, cast of characters and scope of the story are amazing, though it's a bit long and has a couple of less interesting distractions. I'm also a big fan of Revelation Space for the imagination and believability. Eversion is a great choice if you want a quick and intriguing read. It's a clever idea, though multi-genre with a sci-fi core. I really like Adrian T but can't keep up. He's probably written 2 books while I wrote this comment :) The sci-fi books I hope to read soon are Singularity Sky (Charles Stross), Exodus - The Archimedes Engine (Peter F Hamilton), Titanium Noir (Nick Harkaway) and Cryptonomicon (though I've said that for the last 6 years). Good luck with your British authors and all the best for the new year!
Thanks!! I really liked titanium noir and its a fast fun read. I started revelation space so that is starting me off! Thanks for ur thoughts, and your support!
I liked the Ferryman
Good to know thanks!! 😊
I only have one planned TBR for 2025. I want to read one notoriously difficult book and my choices are Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, or Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. I think Les Mis is the easiest of the three, but it's a biggun... I have all three on my shelves so I'm ready to start!
For the rest, I'm going to try to read 2 or 3 of the books I already own each month, and I've just been grabbing them off the top of the pile. They tend to be SF, fantasy, or mystery. And then I'll read whatever catches my fancy in between. I always have 3 books going at a time, one ebook, one physical book, and one audiobook, so I should be able to keep up lol.
Wow that sounds like a fantastic awesome plan!!
Happy NY! Great to hear your opinion on Perdido Street Station, bought it last year and it's going to be my first Mieville novel, looking forward to reading it.
I'm going to finish the Culture series this year (2,5 books to go) and will definitely start reading the Expanse. I also want to read the Earthsea books by LeGuin. And a few classics (non SF) books too, if I get to it.
Same thoughts on Tchaikovsky, that dude is a machine 😂
Oooh 😲 hope u enjoy perdido it is… so fresh! And congrats on culture im just jumping in
Great review! I'm reading 'Consider Phlebas' now and I love it. I hope to read all of The Culture novels this year. Warning: Accelerando is a tough read, very technical. I only just re-read it again last year, and it was just as tough as the first time. Thanks, and Happy New Year.
🔥 thank you!!!
Happy New Year!
Same to you!!! 🥳
I read tons of Sci-fi short stories when I was young and trying to find authors that appealed to me. I've still got all the short story collections on my bookshelf...Dangerous Visions & Again, Dangerous Visions (Harlan Ellison, editor, and one of my favorite authors who wrote mostly short stories and essays), The Future I (all the stories are from the first person point of view), and many others. It is weird when I pull one off the shelf now and struggle with the tiny print!
Haha 🤣 thats awesome but gotta say some of these books have waaay too small a font
@@secretsauceofstorycraft That's why I now "read" primarily via audiobooks. I'm currently listening to the Witcher series of books and Peter Kenny is doing an awesome job with all the varied characters (his profane dwarf voice is my favorite).
UK authors must reads:
Adam Nevill “All The fiends Of Hell”. Great end of the world invasion story. Tense with awesome characters. What I found best was that this Sci-Fi/horror story is beautifully written. He crafted every sentence.
And Yes, 2001 is a fun book. Not a movie bogged down by Kubrick’s overblown direction
Ooh thanks for the recs! Scary front cover….I’ll add it to my list.
I'm hoping to read more Wyndham as well. Day of The Triffids was one of my favorite books of 2024 :)
That’s great! 😁 I really liked trouble with lichen. Hope u find some time to read- but sleeping is important with your new baby girl!!
Project Hail Mary and Death’s End are at the top of my sci-fi list for 2025. I also want to read Eversion, Sun Eater, A Fire Upon the Deep, and Peter Hamilton at some point
🔥 loved phm!!! Sounds like u will have a good 2025
2001 is great! And the sequels as well
I enjoyed Hamilton's Salvation trilogy a few years ago that it launched me into reading more sci-fi. Finished Reynold's House of Suns recently, but Eversion is on my TBR (staring at me from the shelf too lol). This year I want to read more women sci-fi writers so I added some of your recs, thank you! Currently reading To Each This World by Julie E. Czerneda. Your content and videos are great. =) Happy new year!
Thanks for the kind words!! Happy New Year to you, too! 🎉 i love julie’s stuff. Her survival series was great. 👍🏻 would also recommend snow queen.
Cool!
❄️ ⛄️
I know you have a full TBR, but for targeted writers I’d highly suggest “Aurora” by Kim Stanley Robertson. A generation ship story with great character studies,AI, and space exploration.
Added!!! Thank u!🙏
I quite enjoyed 2312 but not because of the plot. I just really loved all the scenes on Mercury, the traveling and the characters even though or maybe because they were unlikeable. I plan on reading Red Mars in 2025. Hopefully I like it.
I hope you do too!! I wish i had. Maybe others in series will b better
2001 was one of my favorite books in my younger years! There's a certain line where I remember feeling my heart skip a beat, in wonder wonder at what was happening! I wish I had marked the date and time because it's one of those things where I could pinpoint the exact moment. I only saw the movie many years later. I just... wanted to die. WILL THIS MOVIE EVER END?! The book also starts off slowly, but it does add more and gets better. I have since reconciled myself to the movie and ended up loving it, in a different sort of way.
I need to re-read the Rama books. I'm not sure if I only read the first one. It's been years. He's such a strange writer. I end up with "memories", as if I've been to the places he describes. Yet ask me to remember plot details and characters and I draw a blank. Not sure how much of that is me and how much is his writing style.
Wow that sounds beautiful! He invaded your brain!!
short stories? Try my quirky collections, Stalking Kilgore Trout, and, Another Anthology: the Same But Different.
Added to my list! 🤩
@@secretsauceofstorycraft Great! if you like satire, a lot of my stuff leans in. I'd send you a copy if I knew where to send it
The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos are good, relatively short, and don't have sequels. They might make a nice change from reading long books and series. The Atrocity Archives is the first book of a 13 book series called The Laundry Files. The books aren't long and are entertaining. I didn't like the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey but surprisingly I did enjoy the book. Pandora's Star and its sequel Judas Unchained are good but they are very long. There is one really annoying character but the villains are spectacular. There are other books set in the same universe, but I haven't read them.
In 2025 I plan on reading more of the Bank's Culture series. I have read the first four. I also want to read Fall of Hyperion by Simmons, Golden Son and Morning Star by Brown, and MaddAddam by Atwood.
I liked The Ferryman; I think you will as well. Eversion was fun as was Revelation Space.
2025 is going to Awesome! ⭐️
I also should get to Hamilton at some point…
I am reading revelation space now! So glad! And wait… hamilton-- is that a buddy read i smell?
@ Maybe! Just may be. 🙌
Alien Clay was so gooood.
Yesss
You have to read "The Scar" - the follow up to Perdido Street. FFANTASTIC world building. ❤❤
It's on my list!! 🤩 im excited!!!!
Tchaikovsy is one of my favorite modern authors I read a novella can't remember the title but it seemed similar to the Service Model novel
Murderbot?
@@secretsauceofstorycraft Elder Race
I started The Passage a few years ago. I thought it was one thing and it turned into something else. I'm not even sure if I ended up finishing it.
Yeah i dont blame you
You are gonna love Iian M Banks….Phlebas & inversions & read house of suns by alistair Reynolds ❤
Cant wait!!!
As a Brit, I would say you should definitely look at some of the classic 60s writers who helped define a new direction for SF. The list should include JG Ballard - any of his early disaster novels, but probably The Drowned World or The Crystal World. Also Brian Aldiss' Hothouse. Keith Laumer's Pavane is a beauty, too. Perhaps Bob Shaw's Other Days, Other Eyes, and DG Compton's The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe. I think the list you have is too contemporary and doesn't do justice to the breadth and depth of the best writing. Hamilton and Reynolds are fine, but very shallow compared to the best. Also, give 2001 a miss if you've already read other Clarkes - Childhood's End is probably the best, but 2001 was originally a short story (Sentinel) before being blown up into a novel *after* Clarke had worked on the film script. So it's not even a 'proper' novel!
I have read several of j g ballard- drowned world and the drought. I own aldiss’ non stop but havent been able to find hothouse…. But i do own pavane! Thanks for reminder
Neal Stephenson and Iain Banks are my two favourite authors.
Stephenson's best works (not including Snowcrash which everyone knows) and the ones I would highly recommend are the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, Confusion, System of the World), Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, Anathem, and The Diamond Age. I also enjoyed Termination Shock. I am less enamored of the Dodge books (Reamde and Fall), and his collaborative novels (D.O.D.O., and the Mongoliad) can be hit and miss. But anything in that first bracket is really high quality.
As for Banks I rate all of the Culture novels but I think they really pay off in the later novels, particularly Excession, Matter, and the Hydrogen Sonata. Excession is my favourite ever SF book. His non-Culture SF is also fabulous, particularly Against a Dark Background. He wrote a lot of non-SF books as Iain Banks (as opposed to Iain M. Banks), all of which are great, with the absolute stand out being the Wasp Factory, which is really macabre and weird. Transition is also a great SF novel, but isn't marketed as one.
Charles Stross - Accelerando completely blew my mind - great book. The Laundry Files books suffer from the law of diminishing returns as the series goes on, and really jump the shark after the seventh or eighth novel, but the first three or four are really good, particularly if you are a Lovecraft fan.
Thanks for sharing your favorites - so many good books on your list!
Ken MacLeod wrote a short story called “Sidewinders” that’s good fun, one of my favourites; I found it in “The Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories”. Encouraged by that, I went on to read his novel “Learning the World” in 2011, and thought it well conceived but not very well executed. Not a horrible experience, but disappointing.
Oh no!! 😥
Anathem is Neal's best!
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For what it's worth, I LOVED The Passage, but I DNF The Ferryman. I hope you enjoy it more than I did, but it just did not work for me at all.
Thanks for sharing! I appreciate the heads up
Space Odyssey is written after the film, I found it a great little story but from what I remember of the film it the same maybe told better but it been years since I watched the film which I like but not love it a strange film but going luck yo your list 👍
Thanks for heads up
HAPPY NATIONAL SCIENCE FICTION DAY!
Doors of Eden was *a bit much* for me, but Shards is top 5 of all time Space Opera. #Priority
Still going to Adrian's BBQ that you were invited to at the con last year? I have to get Dogs of War and Alien Clay off the TBR in 2025.
The Unworthy (Agustina Bazterrica) is the #1 book I'm looking forward to (March 4th: Pres. Rachel will let you know the genre).
Love the channel. #1Q84
Happy Science Fiction Day! Shards is on my list and yeah Dogs of War is so good!! 🤩
If you haven't read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, pick that! It's one of his best.
🔥 thank you
I also bounced from Red Mars and was disappointed, not sure about reading the other two in the trilogy. One of very few books so highly regarded that disappointed me as much in SF. Doomsday Book was the other.
Oh, that's interesting to hear, I'm going to have to give rest of series a shot but im worried…
@@secretsauceofstorycraft I read “Red Mars” in 1998, decided that Robinson isn’t my kind of author, and haven’t read anything else by him. I read to please myself and have low persistence with authors who don’t please me.
If you are reading more Charles Stross, I'll vote for the Laundry Files book. :)
Ooh thanks! 😊
Daemon is just an archaic spelling of "demon" and it is pronounced the same way. And what happened to the Sci Fi Alliance?
Good to know! And The alliance is no more.
Don't Consider Phoebus, it gets way too bogged down in repetitive action. It lacks Culture, imo. Your followers in Deal salute your choice of TBRs from our little islands. Happy New Year!
I am reading xenocide now.
Ooh how is it?
Eversion was ok but you need to concentrate while reading.
Oh hmmm 🤔
👍👍👍📚🤖🚀🐲
🔥 🤖🦾🫵🤩
Sorry to bring you more Ken MacLeod trauma, but the image you've used of him is of the Tibetan translator and not our Ken!
And Doors of Eden is very good!
What!?! Oh no!!!
Doors of Eden was good.
Good! 😊 i have it already
Everything I've read by Kim Stanley Robinson while good stories seemed to be to preachy and would have been better served being shorter.
Probably true… yet i keep going back 🫠
Morning Light Mountain is waiting for you to finish at least 66% of Pandora's Star. Someone on youtube adapted the prologue. th-cam.com/video/3q6OOn7819E/w-d-xo.html The Prefect is a fun cops in space one from Alastair Reynolds. (It got renamed to Aurora Rising but I'm pretending it didn't happen.)