(UPDATE): A TH-cam glitch caused this video to be dubbed with other languages instead of my original English audio, but fortunately that has been fixed! If the video plays in another language you can click on the Settings wheel and change the Audio Track to English (United States) Original.
TH-cam has a new automatic dubbing feature that apparently changed the audio language for some viewers. I have attempted to turn this setting off and I have reached out to them for help. UPDATE: The audio glitch has been fixed!
13 seconds of English, then Spanish. Sorry Jonathan this must be irritating for you. I figured it was a TH-cam thing. I hope they give you back control of your own videos as you do good work.
Only changed to Spanish and Italian from German, Spanish and Indonesian unfortunately. Hopefully they fix it by tomorrow cuz I'm very interested in this video
I've got no idea why but this video began in your regular Aussie voice and then suddenly switch to a German dub. I can't change the audio to English. Can anyone help please?
Same for me. There's a section in the description that I haven't seen before: "How this content was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated." Shame it didn't leave the original English audio track there :)
The Sparrow was inspired by the author being upset that Native Americans and others were criticizing Columbus Day. It's loaded with religious apologia, including drawing from hagiogaphic accounts of a Jesuit claimed to have been tortured and martyred by the Mohawk (accounts which were written by white Catholics and unsymapthe5ically paint the Mohawk as violent savages) and appropriates the Jewish spiritual struggles following Holocaust by reframing it as a Christian struggle (reminder the Holocaist was rooted in Christian European antisemtism so yeah, that's awkward). It would be a good and ethical thing for You Tubers promoting this book to acknowledge that, because some readers might find that all pretty vile.
Looks like some good reading ahead for you in 2025. I’ve read The Gone World, Titanium Noir and Planet of the Apes. I really enjoyed all three especially The Gone World. I have Synners on my tbr and am adding 36 Streets.
Interestingly there is another novel by that same title of Time and Again which my wife quite enjoyed by Jack Finney, who wrote The Body Snatchers -- which became the basis for the classic 50's sci-fi movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
@@ButOneThingIsNeedful I think there’s a few books named Time and Again, with the Jack Finney one having the most reviews on Goodreads. Glad your wife enjoyed it!
@@WordsinTime Thanks. By the way, guess what my name is . . . Jonathan! Anyway, so you liked Way Station better than City? I was considering them for my TBR.
@ Haha always good to meet a fellow Jonathan. I gave City an 8, and Way Station a 9, so they both have my endorsement but I particularly enjoyed Way Station.
A good solid reading list! I'm a huge fan of Clifford W Simak. Fun fact, Simak was a journalist and became an editor at the Minneapolis Star newspaper. My favorite Simak book is, "Destiny Doll" which is so original. Thanks Jonathan, for the best SF on the interwebs.
Varley’s writings get progressively stranger the further back you go. The Titan trilogy is good middle ground. The early short story collections, wonderfully weird. All of it produced, up to the present, very well written.
Definitely adding the Invincible to my TBR as I recently read Lem’s His Master’s Voice and Fiasco. Fiasco especially stuck with me. I can’t stop thinking about it.
I just finished 36 Streets and read Titanium Noir a few weeks ago. Both 4/5 stars from me. 36 Streets was part of Napper's PhD thesis on Noir and Cyberpunk literature and South East Asian history. He was also a diplomat in SE Asia. 36 Streets is a great read just for the story but Napper gives it a solid foundation on the history of Vietnam that gives the setting extra oomph. I found his thesis online and it's now on my TBR. Titanium Noir is another great read. An increasingly complex and confusing story until we see that he's hoodwinked us, and just as we figure that out he pulls the rug out from under us again and walks off looking smug AF. The Irish, mate. You just can't trust them. 😀
Quite a bit of cyberpunk there! In that vein, I think I'll be reading the rest of Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, as I've read Neuromancer and Burning Chrome now. I might even re-read the former too, as it's been a while. I haven't read Time and Again, though I do want to get to some more Simak next year - I have They Walked Like Men, the Cosmic Engineers and Why Call Them Back From Heaven on my shelf at the moment. I read City for the first time last month and was one of my standout SF reads this year. For Lem, I have 'Fiasco' which I'll hopefully get to soon as well, though The Invincible does sound very intriguing too. That guy was just on another level with his ideas.
Since you asked.... Please read Titan first--it's been off and on my TBR since forever (and if you like time travel stories, check out Varley's Millennium (1983))--speaking of your time travel author this time, Simak: I can't recommend enough his neo-psychedelic The Goblin Reservation (1968) featuring time travel, interstellar FTL travel, ghosts, cavemen, and so much more. Enjoy your reading!
I received The Goblin Reservation as a freebie with an online book haul. I thought I might let it go but as it's Simak I read it first...and no, I'm not letting it go as it's really good fun and much better than the title sounds. :)
I have Starfish! picked it up randomly at a thrift store years ago. unfortunately I already have 18 books on my Dec TBR and that's about the max I can do 😅 look forward to hearing your thoughts on it though!
I’ve read The Sparrow and the entire Gaea trilogy of which Titan is the first book The Sparrow didn’t entirely work for me, but it’s highly thought of by others The Gaea trilogy is among some of the first SF I ever read. John Varley was a big name back in the 70’s-80’s. I think you’ll enjoy the first book and can continue on with the rest of the series. It’s definitely a wild strange ride
Lots of great authors on that list! Need to read more Simak; He has become one of my favorites. The Sparrow, as I remember it, is quite a slow burn, but it builds and builds to the point where the "punchline" nearly knocks you out. Not humorous at all, very deep and harrowing. Titanium Noir, meanwhile, is pretty humorous. There are a lot of good ideas in there, but Harkaway doesn't take himself too seriously. Makes for a fun read!
I've read The Invincible, The Dreaming Jewels and Time and Again. The Invincible somehow failed to make much of an impression (but I'm sure it's good - I blame myself). Theodore Sturgeon was my favourite author when I was a teenager (in a previous era of the universe), and I loved The Dreaming Jewels so much and was so deeply immersed in it that when I finished it I immediately had to read it again. I recall it being very moving, like all of Sturgeon's books. I must also have read Time and Again when I was a teenager. I re-read it in 2020, and wrote: "It's well written, but a bit odd. I didn't remember the story at all, although I think this copy is the same one I must have bought as a teenager, at about the time it was published. Simak was never one of my favourite authors, and he still isn't, but I'm kind of impressed. There are elements that presage The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and at least one other very well-known later work, so much so that I strongly suspect that their authors must have read this."
the sparrow is good stuff. i can't believe the blurb says "a religious society" instead of: the jesuits. Like the entire point is to get the people that always did "first contacts" in colonial history to do an actual first contact. (BTW, that book has some TW that you cannot TW without spoiling it).
Currently reading and enjoying So Bright the Vision, four. short stories by Clifford D. Simak. I like his style and humour. Planet of the Apes was great. The Invincible by Lem soudns interesthing but have never read him yet. Nice video. Enjoy the books.
Interesting selection. I own three (Invincible, Time and Again, and Synners), and I've read The Sparrow. Might have Starfish too. And then were ones I've (seemingly) never heard of.
Well. I've read none of these. And I've only heard of two of them. Looking forward to your reviews before I add any of them to my vast tbr. I'm currently 2.5 books into The Expanse, so there's my SF tbr for the next few months 😅 But I'm also going to try to sneak in, not Starfish, but Echopraxia in December. The sequel, or sidequel? to Blindsight.
Synners sounds interesting. I don't really have a lot of sci-fi on my 2025 list currently 😅 I do want to read Octavia Butler though and Sabine Hein's Fermis Paradoks trilogy
I have only read 1 of the books on this list (Time and Again), so now I got a bunch more to add to my tbr. Thanks! IMO Time and Again was a bit forgettable compared to the other Simak I've read. Way Station and City caught me, but Time and Again released me back into the water. Simak will need better bait next time if he really wants to reel me in.
I enjoyed Planet of the Apes and The Gone World. If you want a book that mixes religion and science fiction, I think A Case of Conscience by James Blish is better than The Sparrow. I did not like The Sparrow.
@@janjohannsen9722 Interesting. I intentionally avoid giving spoilers as much as possible for my videos. In the case of a book haul/TBR video I give shortened descriptions based on the blurb of the book. If the publisher’s blurb has a spoiler in it, that’s a strange choice by the publisher.
(UPDATE): A TH-cam glitch caused this video to be dubbed with other languages instead of my original English audio, but fortunately that has been fixed!
If the video plays in another language you can click on the Settings wheel and change the Audio Track to English (United States) Original.
TH-cam has a new automatic dubbing feature that apparently changed the audio language for some viewers. I have attempted to turn this setting off and I have reached out to them for help.
UPDATE: The audio glitch has been fixed!
I can see Spanish and Italian as the audio tracks. Nothing else.
Me too. Italian and spanish, nothing else.
Still Spanish 🫤
13 seconds of English, then Spanish. Sorry Jonathan this must be irritating for you. I figured it was a TH-cam thing. I hope they give you back control of your own videos as you do good work.
Only changed to Spanish and Italian from German, Spanish and Indonesian unfortunately. Hopefully they fix it by tomorrow cuz I'm very interested in this video
I've got no idea why but this video began in your regular Aussie voice and then suddenly switch to a German dub. I can't change the audio to English. Can anyone help please?
Same thing happened to me
Mine is on indonesian, even worse...
Same for me. There's a section in the description that I haven't seen before:
"How this content was made
Auto-dubbed
Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated."
Shame it didn't leave the original English audio track there :)
I have a choice of German, Japanese or Indonesian, not English.
I can choose between German (Germany), Indonesian, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish (United States), but not English. I’ve never had this happen before.
He who dies with the biggest TBR wins! But the read books must be at least triple the TBR.
Now that’s a goal!
Haha, brilliant! I've just scored a bunch of early and little known Asimov books but I'm afraid they won't last unread for long. :)
The Gone World was an amazing read! I hope you enjoy it, it’s way less known
@@luanamendes4767 Nice! I’m excited for it!
Gone World absolutely ruled! Couldn't put it down.
Yesss the Sparrow! Love this scufi
@@Talking_Story Haha looking forward to it!
The Sparrow was inspired by the author being upset that Native Americans and others were criticizing Columbus Day. It's loaded with religious apologia, including drawing from hagiogaphic accounts of a Jesuit claimed to have been tortured and martyred by the Mohawk (accounts which were written by white Catholics and unsymapthe5ically paint the Mohawk as violent savages) and appropriates the Jewish spiritual struggles following Holocaust by reframing it as a Christian struggle (reminder the Holocaist was rooted in Christian European antisemtism so yeah, that's awkward). It would be a good and ethical thing for You Tubers promoting this book to acknowledge that, because some readers might find that all pretty vile.
@ Good to know!
Looks like some good reading ahead for you in 2025. I’ve read The Gone World, Titanium Noir and Planet of the Apes. I really enjoyed all three especially The Gone World. I have Synners on my tbr and am adding 36 Streets.
@@TheMike28212 Awesome! Hope you enjoy those two as well!
If you're looking for cyberpunk the two best are far and away "When Gravity Fails" and "Hardwired".
@@jasongrundy1717 Those are on my TBR as well!
just placed a library hold for The Gone World! it sounds so good! and one of my favorite authors blurbed it - Blake Crouch.
@@the_eerie_faerie_tales I’m a Crouch fan so I think I’ll like it!
36 Streets sounds AMAZING. Immediately adding to the TBR.
@@ianthereader It looks like it has a cool vibe!
Interestingly there is another novel by that same title of Time and Again which my wife quite enjoyed by Jack Finney, who wrote The Body Snatchers -- which became the basis for the classic 50's sci-fi movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
@@ButOneThingIsNeedful I think there’s a few books named Time and Again, with the Jack Finney one having the most reviews on Goodreads. Glad your wife enjoyed it!
@@WordsinTime Thanks. By the way, guess what my name is . . . Jonathan! Anyway, so you liked Way Station better than City? I was considering them for my TBR.
@ Haha always good to meet a fellow Jonathan. I gave City an 8, and Way Station a 9, so they both have my endorsement but I particularly enjoyed Way Station.
I don't know why but I cannot set this video in the original language... Great that you have Time and again in the list
It’s a new TH-cam feature that glitched. I’m trying to fix it!
@WordsinTime on the other hand, the translation seemed good and the voice wasn't horrible
A good solid reading list! I'm a huge fan of Clifford W Simak. Fun fact, Simak was a journalist and became an editor at the Minneapolis Star newspaper. My favorite Simak book is, "Destiny Doll" which is so original. Thanks Jonathan, for the best SF on the interwebs.
@@chromabotia That’s awesome. I’ll have to look up Destiny Doll. Thanks!
Varley’s writings get progressively stranger the further back you go. The Titan trilogy is good middle ground. The early short story collections, wonderfully weird. All of it produced, up to the present, very well written.
@@norb6492 Nice! Thanks for the info!
Thanks for this Jonathan! Titanium Noir sounds like a good one for me. I wasn’t aware that Planet of the Apes was based on a book.
@@BookishChas Titanium Noir sounds fun. And it will be interesting to see how the Planet of the Apes book compares!
Definitely adding the Invincible to my TBR as I recently read Lem’s His Master’s Voice and Fiasco. Fiasco especially stuck with me. I can’t stop thinking about it.
@@pyramidsong That’s great, I’ll have to look that one up as well!
right then. Time to buy a new bookcase for the TBR.
@@booksnphilosophy Haha the shelves are overflowing.
I just finished 36 Streets and read Titanium Noir a few weeks ago. Both 4/5 stars from me.
36 Streets was part of Napper's PhD thesis on Noir and Cyberpunk literature and South East Asian history. He was also a diplomat in SE Asia. 36 Streets is a great read just for the story but Napper gives it a solid foundation on the history of Vietnam that gives the setting extra oomph. I found his thesis online and it's now on my TBR.
Titanium Noir is another great read. An increasingly complex and confusing story until we see that he's hoodwinked us, and just as we figure that out he pulls the rug out from under us again and walks off looking smug AF. The Irish, mate. You just can't trust them. 😀
@@Kim_Miller Haha looking forward to that! 🇦🇺 🇮🇪
Quite a bit of cyberpunk there! In that vein, I think I'll be reading the rest of Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, as I've read Neuromancer and Burning Chrome now. I might even re-read the former too, as it's been a while.
I haven't read Time and Again, though I do want to get to some more Simak next year - I have They Walked Like Men, the Cosmic Engineers and Why Call Them Back From Heaven on my shelf at the moment. I read City for the first time last month and was one of my standout SF reads this year.
For Lem, I have 'Fiasco' which I'll hopefully get to soon as well, though The Invincible does sound very intriguing too. That guy was just on another level with his ideas.
@@DaBIONICLEFan Nice! Sounds like you have some good books on your schedule!
One of my favourite reads of this year was 36 streets
@@ianpitkin6324 Awesome!
I read The Sparrow, and am a fan. The other on your list that I've read is Titanium Noir & that was a fun read - I expect you'll enjoy it.
@@MuleFace100 That’s good to hear!
Since you asked.... Please read Titan first--it's been off and on my TBR since forever (and if you like time travel stories, check out Varley's Millennium (1983))--speaking of your time travel author this time, Simak: I can't recommend enough his neo-psychedelic The Goblin Reservation (1968) featuring time travel, interstellar FTL travel, ghosts, cavemen, and so much more.
Enjoy your reading!
@@PrivateIvan Titan does sound awesome! And The Goblin Reservation sounds fun too haha
I received The Goblin Reservation as a freebie with an online book haul. I thought I might let it go but as it's Simak I read it first...and no, I'm not letting it go as it's really good fun and much better than the title sounds. :)
I have Starfish! picked it up randomly at a thrift store years ago. unfortunately I already have 18 books on my Dec TBR and that's about the max I can do 😅 look forward to hearing your thoughts on it though!
@@the_eerie_faerie_tales Haha 18 is crazy!
I’ve read The Sparrow and the entire Gaea trilogy of which Titan is the first book
The Sparrow didn’t entirely work for me, but it’s highly thought of by others
The Gaea trilogy is among some of the first SF I ever read. John Varley was a big name back in the 70’s-80’s. I think you’ll enjoy the first book and can continue on with the rest of the series. It’s definitely a wild strange ride
@@clash5j It sounds unique, I’m excited for it!
Lots of great authors on that list! Need to read more Simak; He has become one of my favorites.
The Sparrow, as I remember it, is quite a slow burn, but it builds and builds to the point where the "punchline" nearly knocks you out. Not humorous at all, very deep and harrowing.
Titanium Noir, meanwhile, is pretty humorous. There are a lot of good ideas in there, but Harkaway doesn't take himself too seriously. Makes for a fun read!
@@RenkotheLibrarian Good to know, thanks!
I've read The Invincible, The Dreaming Jewels and Time and Again. The Invincible somehow failed to make much of an impression (but I'm sure it's good - I blame myself). Theodore Sturgeon was my favourite author when I was a teenager (in a previous era of the universe), and I loved The Dreaming Jewels so much and was so deeply immersed in it that when I finished it I immediately had to read it again. I recall it being very moving, like all of Sturgeon's books. I must also have read Time and Again when I was a teenager. I re-read it in 2020, and wrote: "It's well written, but a bit odd. I didn't remember the story at all, although I think this copy is the same one I must have bought as a teenager, at about the time it was published. Simak was never one of my favourite authors, and he still isn't, but I'm kind of impressed. There are elements that presage The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and at least one other very well-known later work, so much so that I strongly suspect that their authors must have read this."
@@Twirlip2 Thanks for the info! I’m looking forward to The Dreaming Jewels!
the sparrow is good stuff. i can't believe the blurb says "a religious society" instead of: the jesuits. Like the entire point is to get the people that always did "first contacts" in colonial history to do an actual first contact. (BTW, that book has some TW that you cannot TW without spoiling it).
@@elisabasta Thanks for the info.
Varley is great. I remember enjoying Titan and he has a book of short stories which I still reread.
@@Scottlp2 Awesome, looking forward to it!
Currently reading and enjoying So Bright the Vision, four. short stories by Clifford D. Simak. I like his style and humour. Planet of the Apes was great. The Invincible by Lem soudns interesthing but have never read him yet. Nice video. Enjoy the books.
Thanks for the kind words! Hope you enjoy Lem!
Interesting selection. I own three (Invincible, Time and Again, and Synners), and I've read The Sparrow. Might have Starfish too. And then were ones I've (seemingly) never heard of.
@@dqan7372 Hope you enjoy them if you try any of the others!
Update. I own four now. Found 36 Strade...I mean Streets.
Well. I've read none of these. And I've only heard of two of them. Looking forward to your reviews before I add any of them to my vast tbr. I'm currently 2.5 books into The Expanse, so there's my SF tbr for the next few months 😅 But I'm also going to try to sneak in, not Starfish, but Echopraxia in December. The sequel, or sidequel? to Blindsight.
@@TheLeniverse Nice! Hope you enjoy The Expanse and Echopraxia!
Synners sounds interesting. I don't really have a lot of sci-fi on my 2025 list currently 😅
I do want to read Octavia Butler though and Sabine Hein's Fermis Paradoks trilogy
Hope you enjoy those!
I have only read 1 of the books on this list (Time and Again), so now I got a bunch more to add to my tbr. Thanks! IMO Time and Again was a bit forgettable compared to the other Simak I've read. Way Station and City caught me, but Time and Again released me back into the water. Simak will need better bait next time if he really wants to reel me in.
@@ajaxdavis Haha fair enough 🎣
The Sparrow is GOAT tier
@@msgfree High praise!
Adding T. R. Napper. Need more Aussies on my list and defo time for some cyberpunk.
@@booksnphilosophy Nice! Hope you enjoy! 🇦🇺
Hopefully I can watch the video when fixed, no matter what I do it changes audio with no option to change back.
It’s a TH-cam glitch and I’m working with them to get it fixed!
The English audio track is AWOL for me too... I can only pick one of: Indonesian, Spanish or Italian!
It’s a new TH-cam feature that glitched. I’m trying to fix it!
Well, it was interesting to hear you in Spanish, you have a nice voice hehehe.
I need to read more French books, so Planet of the Apes in the original French is on my to read list.
@@fernbedek6302 Very cool! I can’t read it in the original French but I am looking forward to reading another French sci-fi author.
Omg, listening to this just to judge your foreign languages skills. 😂😂 Cheers!
@@oberstul1941 Haha TH-cam went wild with this new feature. Trying to get it fixed!
Planet of the apes mentioned❤
@@giulyblaziken268 Looking forward to it! 🦍
@WordsinTime then I'll be looking forward to your review 🦧
Read The Dreaming Jewels and Planet of the Apes way, way, way, way back when. Before the movie with Charlton Heston.
That’s cool!
I enjoyed Planet of the Apes and The Gone World. If you want a book that mixes religion and science fiction, I think A Case of Conscience by James Blish is better than The Sparrow. I did not like The Sparrow.
@@jenm8357 Thanks for the info! Blish is on my TBR as well!
Getting German audio for this video
@@phantasticflox TH-cam has a new auto dubbing feature. I’ll try to turn it off.
?Porque tu Hablas en Espanol?
It’s a TH-cam glitch and I’m working with them to get it fixed!
Planet of the apes is pretty good. Whatever you do, do NOT look at the last page!!!
@@NevsBookChannel Good to know! And luckily that’s something I would never do!
Why is this video in Spanish? Can you fix this?
@@advaitc2554 It’s a TH-cam glitch. I am working with TH-cam to get it fixed ASAP.
It's in Spanish and I am in India😅. WTH
It’s a TH-cam glitch. I’m trying to get it fixed!
@WordsinTime alright mate! 👍
What the hell⚛❤
It’s a new TH-cam feature that glitched. I’m trying to fix it!
¿¿Qué pasa??
It’s a TH-cam glitch and I’m working with them to get it fixed!
@@WordsinTime Muy bueno.
I read Titan and the trilogy that it starts (followed by Wizard and Demon) ages ago, and AFAIR your synopsis spoils a major plot point.
@@janjohannsen9722 Interesting. I intentionally avoid giving spoilers as much as possible for my videos. In the case of a book haul/TBR video I give shortened descriptions based on the blurb of the book. If the publisher’s blurb has a spoiler in it, that’s a strange choice by the publisher.
The Sparrow and Titanium Noir I did not like at all.
Thanks for the heads up