Philosophical Science Fiction Novels You Should Read

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 มิ.ย. 2024
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    In this video, I’m taking about some books that I truly love. These are some of the best science fiction novels with philosophical themes. I talk about novels like Brave New World, a Chinese science fiction trilogy, and more.
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ความคิดเห็น • 482

  • @ScottCovers
    @ScottCovers ปีที่แล้ว +330

    For me Ted Chiang is the perfect blend of science and philosophy. He manages to step through ideas and new worlds in methodical ways that resemble the thought process of engaging with straight philosophy whilst still maintaining a satisfying narrative, it's strangely beautiful writing.

    • @natalies8498
      @natalies8498 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      For sure, he was one of the highlight discoveries I had in my SciFi course in university. The amount of thought put into his short stories make them stunningly beautiful.

    • @kushagrasachan8933
      @kushagrasachan8933 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Ted's works are so very good that it's rather become a sort of deadlock for me-having read Ted Chiang's work before almost any other speculative fiction works, the chasm of a want to read something at par remains so unsatiatingly unfilled. Stanislaw Lem is another gem, who created a similar chasm, and now I live groggy-eyed scouring for another good spec-fic read in the lands of fiction.

    • @ravitejagangineni9070
      @ravitejagangineni9070 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Then you should try Ken Liu too. He's not an imitation of Ted but I got that strangely beautiful type while reading him too.

    • @kushagrasachan8933
      @kushagrasachan8933 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@ravitejagangineni9070 The Paper Menagerie. Yaaaas. Has this video now become a colloquium of niche Speculative fiction readers just by virtue of its title now? Hahahahaha

    • @ScottCovers
      @ScottCovers ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@ravitejagangineni9070 The Paper Menagerie, right? It's been on my to read list for a long time!

  • @wadalapichu4873
    @wadalapichu4873 ปีที่แล้ว +520

    hi, if its too personal pls ignore it, but how is your cat?

    • @_jared
      @_jared  ปีที่แล้ว +430

      In and out of the vet, still, but there are signs of recovery. Thanks for asking!

    • @wadalapichu4873
      @wadalapichu4873 ปีที่แล้ว +150

      @@_jared glad to hear that, hope it keeps getting better! :)

    • @ankushds7018
      @ankushds7018 ปีที่แล้ว +134

      The audacity you have in showing concern for his cat. How dare you? Being this nice is so 12th century peasantry

    • @daenerystargaryen
      @daenerystargaryen ปีที่แล้ว +9

      Asking the important question ❤️

    • @rhabdob3895
      @rhabdob3895 ปีที่แล้ว

      You sick bastard.

  • @chiarasiano9422
    @chiarasiano9422 ปีที่แล้ว +65

    I'm a classical literature student going through exams season, and I've been feeling pretty burnt out lately, but discovering your channel was truly a turning point! Listening to people talk about literature and philosophy with competence and passion is truly inspiring, and a good reminder that I should be studying mainly for me and my own intellectual life rather than for the exam itself. Keep up the good work, greetings from Italy :)

  • @78TBGAMER
    @78TBGAMER ปีที่แล้ว +57

    One of my favorites that I haven’t seen mentioned is Flowers for Algernon. Themes of personal identity and disability ethics.

    • @natalies8498
      @natalies8498 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      One of my favorites that I wish more people read! It's also super short and accessible.

    • @vanlandings7466
      @vanlandings7466 ปีที่แล้ว

      I read it back when I was in high school.I cried so much after reading it.

    • @joshuazeidner8419
      @joshuazeidner8419 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      there was a great movie based on it called Charly. It was great, it's on YT for free.

    • @GiI11
      @GiI11 ปีที่แล้ว

      Oh my God, that book is so sad.

    • @ratsarehighinfats3132
      @ratsarehighinfats3132 ปีที่แล้ว

      at the end of the book, everything just hurts

  • @justhereprocrastinating
    @justhereprocrastinating ปีที่แล้ว +88

    I’m loving Stanislaw Lem, Polish writer. His most famous work is probably Solaris, but I really like The Star Diaries, short stories, easy to get through, with a blend of comedy, irony, thriller, politics, philosophy…

    • @vanlandings7466
      @vanlandings7466 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Star Diaries is amazing. I also really liked the Cyberiad.

    • @ColonelFredPuntridge
      @ColonelFredPuntridge ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Don’t overlook Lem’s novel FIASCO. It’s about first contact-with a planet whose inhabitants are so hostile to each other that the protagonists cannot get any reliable info about any of them.

    • @cthulusauce
      @cthulusauce ปีที่แล้ว

      Yes agreed. I actually wrote a small one pager in my Epistemology class about a bit in Solaris and received a high grade 😅 which is even funnier as I believe the epistemological theory I was writing about was published AFTER Solaris

    • @DrEmerson84
      @DrEmerson84 ปีที่แล้ว

      Lem wasn’t a real person. The works attributed to him were written by a composite committee of Communists, at least according to Philip K. Dick.

    • @ColonelFredPuntridge
      @ColonelFredPuntridge ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@DrEmerson84 That would surprise me very much, if it were true! Have you read him? Lem, I mean. His tone remains consistent, not shifting like you'd expect from a committee with different writers working on different bits of a book. His characters, too - except for natural growth-of-character, they don't change suddenly or abruptly or without reason. And his central themes are often subversive, about institutional failure and absurd misfortunes, not what you'd expect from a Stalinist committee which is blunt-edged heroes dedicated to a central authority. Also, his work is not formulaic as committee-written communist stuff often was. There are almost never trumpets of triumph, and on the relatively few occasions when things turn out well, it almost always turns out to be because of some lucky circumstance, not because of the protagonists' ingenuity.

  • @GreenPoison1848
    @GreenPoison1848 ปีที่แล้ว +85

    I love le guin and octavia e butler. I find that in a lot of modern scifi the focus is technology/exploration and the plot can sometimes be pretty flat with nothing to read into, but I find works by those two to be rich with commentary and are always fun to read into

  • @DannySabraArt
    @DannySabraArt ปีที่แล้ว +42

    The Cixin Liu books are fantastic. I’ve reread them and this is a great reminder I’d love to reread them again. One facet I missed the first time was the genius sense of humor in those books as well! There are many liu references that are common in my family now haha.

    • @elyse49
      @elyse49 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I'm going to re-read the series at some point this year and try to savour them (unlike previously, I basically binge read all 3 and then couldn't read anything else for weeks).
      Crossing fingers for the Netflix adaptation to come out soon.

    • @Rodrigoooous
      @Rodrigoooous ปีที่แล้ว +1

      after reading the trilogy i feel like i will never find another novel so amazing, and that makes me sad (yes i enjoyed it that much). I hope i find something on this video tho

  • @andrew_240
    @andrew_240 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    Le Guin is my favorite writer and your description of her Hainish Cycle is borderline word for word what I've said to friends while recommending it. Like scarily close. Great video!

    • @turntablesrockmyworld9315
      @turntablesrockmyworld9315 ปีที่แล้ว

      Do you recommend me to dive deep into the Earthsea series of books? I've gotten around to reading Le Guin.

  • @e.matthews
    @e.matthews ปีที่แล้ว +48

    "His hands were empty, as they had always been." - Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

    • @dreamer2260
      @dreamer2260 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Just commented about the Dispossessed. Truly a very impressive work. Not like anything else I've read.

  • @___.51
    @___.51 ปีที่แล้ว +49

    A Canticle for Leibowitz could have also made the list, highly recommend it, it is just as topically relevant today as it was fifty years ago.

    • @AndrewHarter579
      @AndrewHarter579 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      That book is never mentioned but is so good

    • @FGP_Pro
      @FGP_Pro ปีที่แล้ว

      Too bad it's the only book Walter Miller Jr ever wrote. If he had done more, it probably would have got more attention. That book is epic.

    • @e.matthews
      @e.matthews ปีที่แล้ว

      Canticle was one of my top reads of last year! Highly recommended! So much moral depth and confusion, so much loss... It was a masterpiece in the 60s and it's a masterpiece today.

  • @daviddesalvo623
    @daviddesalvo623 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Sir you convinced me to read Neal Stephensons anathem, and I am almost done, and now you hit me with this. I see how it is.

  • @momiriseni5320
    @momiriseni5320 ปีที่แล้ว +24

    No Stanislaw Lem? You can't get more philosophical than Lem.

  • @jenniferlee766
    @jenniferlee766 ปีที่แล้ว +37

    My favorites philosophical sci fis are
    ●Solaris by Stanislaw Lem,
    ●Novellas by Ted Chiang.❤️
    ( I hope you talk about Ted Chiang's novellas on your channel someday.
    Like, 'The story of your life' and
    'Exhalation' . To me, his novellas were eye-opening for scifi genre which I wasn't so passionate about. His works are most thought provoking and experiments of philosophical contemplation, connecting Science, humanity and even theology. It may sound more than any short story can bite, but if you once read Chiang's work, you can't get out of rabbit hole.😁)
    ●When we cease to understand the world by Benjamin Labatut.
    I heard Ashton Edward's Micky 17 fits for this category, which I'm very curious to find out about.
    Thank you for your video, love your channel.

    • @mikelpelaez
      @mikelpelaez ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I just started solaris a bunch of days ago

    • @spaceratjustlikethat7756
      @spaceratjustlikethat7756 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      My favorites philosophical sci fis are
      LEM - Almost everything he wrote

    • @ColonelFredPuntridge
      @ColonelFredPuntridge ปีที่แล้ว +5

      FIASCO is another great novel by Stanislaw Lem.

    • @kushagrasachan8933
      @kushagrasachan8933 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Oh goodness, all my attempts in life at staying away from confirmatory biases are broken at this comment-so wholly and strongly do I agree with everything here! Jennifer, you good good human, this listing is THE one!! I just came commenting the same stuff in the replies for the top comment.
      You might additionally wish to try out Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

    • @p-51d95
      @p-51d95 ปีที่แล้ว

      "Flatland"...
      More "Math-fiction" than "Science-fiction"

  • @jameswight6259
    @jameswight6259 ปีที่แล้ว

    This is the first of your videos that I’ve seen and I really like it. I find most sci-fi book channels pretty superficial in their analysis, but yours is a cut above. Thank you! And thank you for the recommendations.

  • @retropian
    @retropian ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Enjoyable post. When you got near the end and started talking up one author I was thinking “he better mean Ursula LeGuin.” And you did! I was delighted. My introduction to her was the 1980 PBS film of The Lathe of Heaven. I recently rewatched it and still think it’s terrific. The author, her son and husband have a cameo.

  • @reganzap187
    @reganzap187 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Love these suggestions, really like your colouring for your videos, and the thumbnail was top notch. Keep it up, thanks for the great content!

  • @CodyCannon11
    @CodyCannon11 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Very helpful. Thank you. I started and run a philosophy discussion group in English, in China. Many of the members have asked for some novels for us to read. This is very helpful and well timed on my end. Thank you. Loving the channel by the way.

  • @ev4252
    @ev4252 ปีที่แล้ว

    Very excited that you think so highly of Le Guincas well. Her books you mentioned were so thought-provoking they truly left me flabbergasted for weeks.

  • @e.matthews
    @e.matthews ปีที่แล้ว +22

    Blindsight by Peter Watts is a very heavy and very technical book, filled to the brim with ideas. It will force some incredibly strange concepts on you. Philosophy doesn't disturb as much as this does, and it's worth it!

    • @tap10lan
      @tap10lan ปีที่แล้ว +1

      And his follow-up prequel Echopraxia! Not quite at the same level, but still interesting!

  • @bivi_8747
    @bivi_8747 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    i just read solaris dont know if that categorizes as philosophical scie-fi but that left me amazed and speechless really great book

  • @Well_Earned_Siesta
    @Well_Earned_Siesta ปีที่แล้ว +58

    In some ways I feel like Le Guin is the inverse of Heinlein. Le Guin makes “small” changes and challenges you to think through the implications, while never saying, “now here’s the answer in the back of the book”. Heinlein rearranges the entire world order to make a point and spends a great deal of time showing you the “right answer”, and how clever he is.

    • @marklampo8164
      @marklampo8164 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      So was Heinlein a fanatic fascist or just being clever?

    • @yuckal
      @yuckal ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@marklampo8164 Heinlein was most definitely not a Fascist.

    • @ColonelFredPuntridge
      @ColonelFredPuntridge ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Robert Heinlein has been described as "the Norman Mailer of sci-fi."

    • @Well_Earned_Siesta
      @Well_Earned_Siesta ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@ColonelFredPuntridge 🤣

    • @mariag.8242
      @mariag.8242 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      He was imaginative about tech but his characters are incredibly shallow, are rah rah American individualists and he’s horribly sexist.

  • @natalie_kendel
    @natalie_kendel ปีที่แล้ว

    I truly appreciate your voice and how you present. It's calm, thoughtful, deep and not tacky; it stands in wonderful contrast to a lot of the other TH-camrs that are inflicted on us. Thank you for sharing, and really appreciate your content.

  • @payamgh5143
    @payamgh5143 ปีที่แล้ว

    Always quality content and subjects, thank you!

  • @geroni211
    @geroni211 ปีที่แล้ว +39

    I've never read any of these, so thanks!
    My biggest sugestion would be A Canticle for Leibowitz. Its a 3 part book on the regrowth of human civilization after a nuclear apocalipse and I consider it one of the most thought provoking books for their simplicity. They have a very pessimistic view on humanity, but the book manages to be filled with so many beautiful moments that I can't help but love it, I ended the book with a smile on my face.

    • @_jared
      @_jared  ปีที่แล้ว +7

      If I had been able to track down my physical copy of that book, it would’ve been on here. I love that book.

    • @TheChzoronzon
      @TheChzoronzon ปีที่แล้ว

      @@_jared Nice, but if you really want to turn up this game, I'd recommend Permutation City by Greg Egan
      Harder than the duel between Russell and the bishop :D

  • @kskgautam
    @kskgautam ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you for posting this. I too, was searching here and there for scifi books with deep philosophical meaning. Thank you for introducing me to Le guin.

  • @dunk1089
    @dunk1089 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    i would add We by Yvgeny Zemyatin! known as the forefather & inspiration for Orwell

  • @sylviaowega3839
    @sylviaowega3839 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Awesome video! The main reason why I started reading science fiction was become of it’s juxtapositions with philosophy starting when I was 14

  • @JnikaJ
    @JnikaJ ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Fantastic video. Remembrance of earths past left a huge impact on me and my approach to thinking through certain concepts. I would be interested in an Octavia Butler video.

  • @adibhanna
    @adibhanna ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This channel grew so fast! it's obvious why! it's just really good content.

  • @gregorde
    @gregorde ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Wolfe, especially Fifth Head of Cerberus and Book of the New Sun

  • @Gruso57
    @Gruso57 ปีที่แล้ว +129

    The Dispossessed is the kind of book that after you finish it, you wonder how its not talked about more. I think if it wasn't tagged with the label sci-fi, itd be considered one of the greats next to 1984 and Brave New World.

    • @CarrotConsumer
      @CarrotConsumer ปีที่แล้ว +20

      I can't imagine any American high-school making their students read a pro-anarchy book, lol. I'm not super surprised it's been given the short straw.

    • @dreamer2260
      @dreamer2260 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Absolutely. It's an intellectual, moral, political, philosophical masterpiece. Will have to read it again some day.

    • @heruilin4404
      @heruilin4404 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      The left hand of darkness had the same effect on me.

    • @Gruso57
      @Gruso57 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@CarrotConsumer It doesn't surprise me either, however its less controversial than 1984 is by a long shot and that's still being read in American high schools today. Also the book isn't necessarily "Pro-anarchy". Although the MC hails from an anarchist planet, he starts to see the issues with that way of life in itself through his friends and family. He sees the corruption still. Le Guin does a good job of weighing the pros and cons in a subtle way. You can't say she writes it as a bias in the novel in the same way you would for something like, Atlas Shrugged.

    • @martinstent5339
      @martinstent5339 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      We have a lot to learn from Odo. “The Creation of Pseudo-Species”, “Excess is excrement” Odo wrote in the Analogy. Isn’t that also in a way what we should be talking about in all this debate about anti-gay, gender inequality and the ecological damage of consumerism? If you know an author looking for a good project (someone who studied political science for example) give them all the Odo quotes from The Dispossessed and ask him/her to try and reproduce Odo’s works. I’m sure they would sell well. One thing Tolkien and LeGuin had in common is written on Odo’s grave “True voyage is return”.

  • @marcgoulding5230
    @marcgoulding5230 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I really appreciate your thoughts/suggestions. As a certain kind of reader (like, kid of the 80s), Gibson's Neuromancer leaps to mind. Thanks so much for focusing on the serious and weighty dimensions of sci fi.

  • @JLchevz
    @JLchevz ปีที่แล้ว

    Excellent! I'm loving the Sci-Fi recommendations. Sci Fi has the perfect mix of fictional devices and settings that it makes for excellent philosophical experiments.

  • @lancewilliams8382
    @lancewilliams8382 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I really enjoyed your video. I think you would love Stanislaw Lem. I think Solaris is a masterpiece...but His Master's Voice and Fiasco are also extraordinary. No other author gets inside my mind like Lem.

  • @gabrielvelasquez9423
    @gabrielvelasquez9423 ปีที่แล้ว

    Wow, just found your character and I love how you talk about this. Very fresh

  • @zingara76
    @zingara76 ปีที่แล้ว

    Just in time. I been looking for some new books to read, so I’m going to have lots of options to choose from. Thanks 🙏

  • @giacomobiagini9263
    @giacomobiagini9263 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you for these videos! 💓

  • @sxyker1221
    @sxyker1221 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Frankenstein is one of the og’s sci-fi and yeah is a big mirror on what make us humans and how we treat each other

    • @barrymoore4470
      @barrymoore4470 ปีที่แล้ว

      'Frankenstein' has got to be the single most seminal science fiction work ever written. So many subsequent efforts have been variations of Shelley's remarkable vision.

  • @paperythinideas
    @paperythinideas ปีที่แล้ว

    So glad you included Klara and the Sun, which would be one of my top three books!

  • @mvdrider
    @mvdrider ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you, love this topic in particular.

  • @thedebapriyakar
    @thedebapriyakar ปีที่แล้ว

    Man your audio is phenomenal, so soothing. Loved the video and recommendations, subbed!

  • @dkhosh7380
    @dkhosh7380 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for your videos man.

  • @elliotwalton6159
    @elliotwalton6159 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    If you like Huxley, you need to pair him with C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength. Lewis has accurately shown how the shift to Huxley's world will take place through academia, which is what we have seen progressively in the last thirty years. Both writers were responding to Technocracy, whose modern incarnation can be found in Klaus Schwab and the WEF. Rule by management.

  • @margaretinsydney3856
    @margaretinsydney3856 ปีที่แล้ว

    This is a great video, thank you. For once, I have read (and reread) everything on your list. Ken Liu, translator of the Three Body Problem, has also written some speculative fiction, which I really liked. I think it's more fantasy than SF, tho. Love your channel! 😍

  • @joyfacedown
    @joyfacedown ปีที่แล้ว

    Hi, I'm thrilled to have found this video! It encapsulates why I love science fiction when it is considered a lesser genre by many people who enjoy reading. I have been avoiding Klara and the Sun because I didn't like Never Let Me Go that much, but I might give it a try now as the topic seems more to my liking.
    What you said about the Three Body Problem and killing or dying really reminds me of Ender's Game, though it might be a bit more simplified in that book. I read the Three Body Problem for the first time in November and I'm taking a bit of time before I go onto the sequels, but I must say I hadn't felt so excited by a book in a few months.

  • @patoliterato
    @patoliterato ปีที่แล้ว

    Now I wanna read all of them👀. Thank you so much for the video!

  • @Sator69
    @Sator69 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard has always been one of my philo-scifi go-to's

  • @TheActiveMind1
    @TheActiveMind1 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    1) Love my flexispot chair I got for my office and 2) appreciate the recommendations! Adding these to my list!

  • @prometheus200
    @prometheus200 ปีที่แล้ว

    This is nice. Please make more of these.

  • @PhillipRhodes
    @PhillipRhodes ปีที่แล้ว +2

    If you haven't already, consider checking out:
    * Glasshouse - Charles Stross
    * Permutation City - Greg Egan
    * Daemon, and Freedom, both by Daniel Suarez

  • @huy_v_palto
    @huy_v_palto ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I think brothers Strugatsky books also would be a great addition to your list. "Roadside Picnic" is classic because it got film adaptation by one of the greatest film director of USSR - Andrei Tarkovsky. "The Doomed City" was very hard to understand from philosophical view but plot was very intriguing and i don't recommend to read it as first of your experience of brothers Strugatsky books. I think that every book that i read from Strugatsky collection questioned position and belief of a man facing the unknown, eerie or almost godlike force

  • @michaelvcelentano
    @michaelvcelentano ปีที่แล้ว +11

    I definitely still think about Parable of the Sower/Talents. There has also been a musical adaptation of it that I really want to see, if it ever gets revived

    • @melissabennett4328
      @melissabennett4328 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      The graphic novel of the first one is excellent, and I'm excited for the second.

  • @ulengrau6357
    @ulengrau6357 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Your take on Butler was wonderful and simply put. Thank you. I wish more people included Butler in their sci-fi lists. She gets overlooked by "lit fic" readers because she's sci-fi, and overlooked by sci-fi readers because she's not "sci-fi enough".. such a shame. Her character writing is incredible and I strongly suggest people delve briefly into just how incredible it is by reading "Bloodchild".

    • @embracethemystery
      @embracethemystery ปีที่แล้ว

      I tried reading the Earthsea series but found her exposition to be tedious and overly detailed about non-relevant plot points. I loved the girl's philosophy but I just couldn't get past the overly wordy exposition to continue. I might try some other reads of hers, just because I hear only great things about her as an author.

  • @Paromita_M
    @Paromita_M ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I love Ursula K Le Guin and Octavia E Butler's writing. Might have to retry the Three Body Problem book, it didn't work so well for me the first time.
    Great video.

  • @tobytalksabout5461
    @tobytalksabout5461 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    With regard to the prescience of Brave New World, 'The Machine Stops' by E. M. Forster is worth a read - it's a short novella so doesn't take long

  • @pabazafa3855
    @pabazafa3855 ปีที่แล้ว

    Nice video. I haven't read yet the main works of Cixin Liu, but I'm reading his book of short stories called "To Hold Up the Sky", and is truly amazing, Cixin Liu is unique in his way of writing, it's simple but also deep. You know that you are reading someone with a technical background but also connoseiur in literature and philosophy. Ursula Le Guin is amazing, with no doubt is my favorite female writer. For the people who loves the works of Ursula I would recommend reading Iain M Banks, he also wrote in his novels about similar topics in the "Culture Series".

  • @CookingWithJackDaniels
    @CookingWithJackDaniels 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I’m so glad Children of Time got a mention. I love that book. I think about it often

  • @scottclanton9597
    @scottclanton9597 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    A book that tends to fly under the radar, that actually changed my life and which I cannot recommend highly enough, is Too Like the Lightening by Ada Palmer. It's the single most important book in developing my love for philosophy. I don't think the back cover blurb does it justice, but every piece of the plot is built around a philosophical question. Rather than a dystopia, it explores a utopia and asks big questions like would you destroy this world for a better one. I would be putting the book down every few pages just to stew over what I just read. It's really beautiful stuff. I just want people to read it lol and for reference I have read Butler and Le Guin and Orwell and a number of others mentioned in the comments.

  • @dqan7372
    @dqan7372 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Great idea for a video. Well done.

  • @bigbiggoblin2873
    @bigbiggoblin2873 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    I’m rereading a Wizard of Earthsea right now, and I’m tempted to reread the Disspossessed. Her prose is beautiful.

    • @ColonelFredPuntridge
      @ColonelFredPuntridge ปีที่แล้ว

      The Earthsea trilogy is exceptionally good. CITY OF ILLUSIONS also.

    • @dreamer2260
      @dreamer2260 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      The Dispossessed is a masterpiece.

    • @marthaldyer
      @marthaldyer ปีที่แล้ว

      Read them all. Sadly, some are harder to find than others.

  • @robertprokop1649
    @robertprokop1649 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Last and First Men/Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon
    City - Clifford D. Simak
    A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
    Out of the Silent Planet/Perelandra/That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis
    Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

  • @sarahannsmith3129
    @sarahannsmith3129 ปีที่แล้ว

    Glad I came across your channel! Can't believe I've never read any Ursula Le Guin books.....is there one in particular that would be good to start out with?

  • @ansis8943
    @ansis8943 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Thank You for sharing. I have few books that keep me thinking … few of the biggest is Georges Orwells 1984 as well Frank Herbert Dune. Also among my favourites i can list “Road Side Picking” by brothers Strugatskij and Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Last two i read because of Tarkovskij movies Solaris and Stalker. And now i can add something more to my reading list.

  • @fernandoolivera7203
    @fernandoolivera7203 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Interesting and excellent recommendations!! I read some of those, especially the old ones. I totally agree with your opinion about Le Guin. However, one author was, in my opinion, deeper as far as philosophical investigations are concerned: Olaf Stapledon. If you haven't read it yet, he's great (a philosopher by profession like you) and considered by many to be one of the great writers of the golden age of sci. fi. In particular, the impressive cosmogony of the novel "Star Maker" contains many philosophical ideas.

  • @crystalc9216
    @crystalc9216 ปีที่แล้ว +18

    Definitely want to read Le Guin’s works! Definitely check out Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, an absolute philosophical sci-fi masterpiece

    • @beltenebrosgr1904
      @beltenebrosgr1904 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      "Solaris"! Amazing, one of my favorite books of all time... Stanislaw Lem is a legend!

    • @embracethemystery
      @embracethemystery ปีที่แล้ว

      Agree about Solaris! No answers provided, just exploring what an unknowable alien intelligence might be like for humans to experience.

  • @louisblackforester
    @louisblackforester ปีที่แล้ว

    100K subs party draws near.
    Subscribed btw. after watching this video, which is also the first of this channel.

  • @kelleyiswriting
    @kelleyiswriting ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for sharing this list!! I'm a speculative writer and I hope one day my writing can also be classified as philosophical sci-fi. I''m so glad to see that I've read at least 3 books in this list hahaha. I've read the Dispossessed and The Word for World is Forest, but never in any particular order. Brave New World is also fantastic, a must-read for everyone I think. I have added the rest of the books to my ever-growing TBR :)

  • @steved1135
    @steved1135 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    An interesting list. Yet, no such list is complete without anything by Philip K. Dick. Easily the most philosophical minded SF writer of all time.

  • @bujobyfilo
    @bujobyfilo ปีที่แล้ว

    This is so interesting! Half of those were already in my tbr but I had some doubts, now I can't wait to read them! Btw, you would love Barjavel's books! He was a sci-fi french writer, and if you have the chance, I recommend you read The immortals.

  • @pattube
    @pattube 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Cordwainer Smith (aka Paul Linebarger)! The Rediscovery of Man and Norstrilia. 😊

  • @mariareadsssf
    @mariareadsssf ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Octavia E. Butler is my top favorite author so far. I am slowly diving into SF. With Le Guin I plan to start with her Fantasy works and then go to her SF.

  • @farey3467
    @farey3467 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell is another that I personally love!

    • @susanhopkinswarneke2335
      @susanhopkinswarneke2335 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I read The Sparrow last month and I’m still thinking about it….

  • @zantigar
    @zantigar ปีที่แล้ว

    I absolutely concur with your comparison of Huxley and Orwell. The fact that Brave New World is first on this list alone earns you my subscription to your channel because it is one of my favorite stories of all time - not so much for the beauty of its prose (which is certainly brilliant enough), but for the profundity of its ideas and thoroughness of its projections. You're definitely a heavyweight!

  • @shouryachouray
    @shouryachouray ปีที่แล้ว

    Finally an original TH-camr who acknowledges cixin liu! Watched your other videos also

  • @isaacmitchell7488
    @isaacmitchell7488 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I absolutely adore the Three Body series , it’s mind blowing in scope

  • @literarystudies1861
    @literarystudies1861 ปีที่แล้ว

    I've read Klara and the Sun, and I loved it. My second read for Ishiguro after Never Let Me Go, which was also great.

  • @kacpercichosz465
    @kacpercichosz465 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    This list in incomplete without any Stanislaw Lem book. Solaris, Eden and Fiasco are masterpieces and it doesn't go any more philosophical than that.

    • @marklar9156
      @marklar9156 ปีที่แล้ว

      I found 'His master's voice' the most thought provoking and philosophical of his novels. 'Solaris' is of course a classic and if you survive the weak beginning of 'Futurological congress' you'll be amazed how good it gets in the end. Didn't care about 'Eden' at all and as 'Fiasco' has not been translated into my first language, so I guess I need to get it somewhere as English translation. I believe I have two or three novels that I haven't yet read from Lem, including 'Fiasco'.

    • @kacpercichosz465
      @kacpercichosz465 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@marklar9156 I can understand not being amazed by Eden. I was completely unsatisfied with Futurological Congress. I didn't enjoy Return from the Stars as well. However, another great book from Lem was The Invincible. I still have many Lem's satirical books to read like "Cyberiad" or "Star Diaries".

    • @marklar9156
      @marklar9156 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@kacpercichosz465 Stanislaw Lem rules in both serious and comical sci-fi: 'Cyberiad' has at least two stories that a extremely funny, I have read those at least 4 times and still ROFL while reading them. I read 'Star diaries' many, many years ago and quite liked that too. It was not as funny as 'Cyberiad' and quite chaotic if I remember correctly but there were some excellent short stories in that as well.

  • @phoebebaker1575
    @phoebebaker1575 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    I loved Klara and the Sun. Never Let Me Go was a bit more difficult for me, but I may re-read it in the future. Right now my two favorite philosophical series are the Murderbot Diaries books by Martha Wells (the audiobooks are amazing!) and the Ancillary Justice books by Ann Leckie.

    • @leovlogslife
      @leovlogslife ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Read Never Let Me Go not long ago. Found it tiring to read, but fascinating to think about afterwards. Would you recommend reading Klara and the Sun (i.e. did you find it a slog to read like N.L.M.G)?

    • @phoebebaker1575
      @phoebebaker1575 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@leovlogslife It’s much better/ easier to follow. But there is a bit of slowness to it, in the author’s signature style. You should be able to tell if you’ll like it or not within the first few pages. It’s another one to make you think. I love it.

    • @leovlogslife
      @leovlogslife ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@phoebebaker1575 Thanks for taking the time to reply, Phoebe. I may get around to reading it later in the year... once I finish reading the list of books I'm currently going through 😆

  • @LukeVilent
    @LukeVilent 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    "Left Hand of the Darkness" literally changed the course of my life once I have discovered it at the age of 15. It was a showcase of how you can blow up each and every pattern in both sci-fi and fantasy that looked like te dogma. That you can basically create a rich world - or at least an impression of it - from scratch.

  • @bignatesbookreviews
    @bignatesbookreviews ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Three body trilogy was 🔥🔥 and the dispossessed is a book I think about to this day. Need to read left hand of darkness asap

  • @loumiller21
    @loumiller21 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I apologize if someone already mentioned these, but "Odd John" and "Sirius" by Olaf Stapledon are two of my favorites. He was a philosopher who also wrote SF - rather than an alternate setting or world, these stories explored the experiences of the superhuman being born into current society.

    • @noroomforsquares4483
      @noroomforsquares4483 ปีที่แล้ว

      Odd John! I read it soooo long ago, but never forgot it.

  • @carbonc6065
    @carbonc6065 ปีที่แล้ว

    Nicely done.

  • @daniilmishyn2512
    @daniilmishyn2512 ปีที่แล้ว

    Just finished Brave New World! Fascinating!

  • @13strong
    @13strong ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Have you read The Absolute at Large by Karel Čapek? I haven't read it yet but a Czech friend highly recommended it to me.

  • @MariaTheMillennial
    @MariaTheMillennial ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Thank you for the great recommendations! I would also recommend Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky brothers

    • @milfredcummings717
      @milfredcummings717 ปีที่แล้ว

      Hard to Be a God th-cam.com/video/hRL4cXXX9Po/w-d-xo.html

  • @bobtimster62
    @bobtimster62 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    One that should definitely be on your list is "Neverness", by David Zindell. Lots of good philosophy, world building, and excellent writing style. There are several sequels which are also good.

  • @eyesonindie
    @eyesonindie ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I love this video so much, and all of these books and authors! Thank you so much. I don't love the term "low" or "soft" science fiction when applied to female authors. I understand how the term soft science fiction is used, from a marketing point of view. But those two novels, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, are so far from "soft!" Lol! Sometimes I get caught up on the marketing terms that have become common place. Thanks again for sharing!

  • @TimeSplitterChimp
    @TimeSplitterChimp 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Just finished Normalised Utopia by William Frazer, thanks for the recommendation it really opened my mind ❤

  • @mikevanoverbeek
    @mikevanoverbeek ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I also love the combination of Sci-fi and philosophy🔥 it’s great for worldbuilding and advanced character development

  • @St.Linguini_of_Pesto
    @St.Linguini_of_Pesto ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I definitely recommend Brave New World & Fahrenheit 451.
    Anything by Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke & Dick.. Heinlein is great as well.
    I've only just gotten into science fiction 3 years ago, always been more interested in horror, mystery, and the 18-19th century classics by Dickens, Wells, Doyle.

  • @macsnafu
    @macsnafu ปีที่แล้ว

    I suggested some books in your subsequent video about philosophical sf books. But talking about Klara and the clones harvested for body parts reminded me a short-lived comic book called OMAC that Jack Kirby created and wrote back in the 1970s. Kirby was intensely interested in different, unusual ideas, and in OMAC he was able to really come up with some wild stuff: molecular rearrangement to "improve" humans, robots (androids, really) as companions to humans or to assassinate people, and transferring the minds of old people into young bodies so they can live longer. The individual comics may be hard to find (unless you pirate them), but DC did publish a collection of the Kirby OMAC issues.

  • @madmartigan8119
    @madmartigan8119 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Just finished Ursula K. Le Guin intro in the left hand of darkness on audible after watching your video.
    I think I met my new best friend lol, ty for the recommendation
    The Narrator George Guidall also narrates all of Kafka's work, "The Trial" is his best preference in my opinion with Kafka

  • @jameskane8428
    @jameskane8428 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Man that boxset for the Butler books looks beautiful.

    • @allanc_me763
      @allanc_me763 ปีที่แล้ว

      I was about to comment the same thing

  • @averymello437
    @averymello437 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    This is a fantastic list. Have you ready anything by Samuel R. Delaney? He is by and far one of my favorite philosophical scifi authors. Babel-17 is my personal favorite, but his most famous book I believe is The Einstein Intersection

  • @henok
    @henok ปีที่แล้ว

    R. Scott Bakker's The prince of nothing series knocked me on my a##!! I am always surprised it's not talked about more. It´s a beautiful masterpiece.

  • @fahhhh7158
    @fahhhh7158 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    out of topic/ have you read omniscient reader viewpoint yet this novel truly change the trajectory of my life and i rlly wanna hear you thought on it , love your video btw❤️❤️

  • @john.premose
    @john.premose ปีที่แล้ว

    You said the word texts. I'm so impressèd.

  • @elyse49
    @elyse49 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I think you might enjoy the Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer 🤔 I'm terrible with words and resuming books, so here's the short of it from the author's website.
    "Science fiction often has asked contemporary questions of an imagined future. In the four-volume Terra Ignota novel series, author Ada Palmer has reflected this tradition back upon itself, exploring the questions the brilliant world of 2454 might ask when faced with its own unknowable future. After citizenship and religion, family and language, law and freedom have been utterly reformed over half a century of war and three centuries of peace, where do the denizens of a near-Utopia turn for answers when their world order faces upheaval? A notorious criminal genius is the historian of the world’s remaking; a mysterious spiritual counselor seeks truth in a world that has atomized religion; carnality and high politics join to preserve the old order as a rumored god, an omnipotent child, a celebrity assassin and a living myth struggle to shape the future as a rediscovered orator calls for inevitable war."
    Hope your cat is doing better 💛

  • @hellopaulyen
    @hellopaulyen ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I've really been enjoying your channel and subscribed immediately. I'm not a philosopher or anything but have always wanted to be a much deeper and more thoughtful reader so I'm looking forward to seeing what else you put out there. I've also been journaling thanks to you and look forward to seeing what else you have to offer there as well.
    Would be great to have some recommendations for some guilty pleasure non-fiction suggestions (whether it be sci-fi, fantasy, or even manga) as well as some suggestions on some thoughts or suggestions on books by Hemingway, Whitman, and the like.
    Thanks for your channel!

  • @howloudcansilenceget8884
    @howloudcansilenceget8884 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    My favourite kind of science fiction is the philosophical kind, like Le Guin said herself about her novel that, they are rather thought experiments. Thank you very much for this video and more recommendations