I don't agree with that. If I read and didn't like a book but haven't heard great praise and liking of it or heard mixed reviews of it, I wouldn't think of it being overrated.
I agree about the ones I've read (Ender's Game and Murderbot). What grinds my gears about Ender's Gane is that, as good as it is, Speaker for the Dead is so much better, and really does deserve to be seen as one of the greatest sci-fi books ever. But it gets a bit overshadowed by its more spectacle-focused predecessor.
Disagree. Speaker was a mess. It's a thousand years later, or something, and humans can't figure out this weird disease that ravaged this planet? The whole human colony is about studying these aliens but only two people are assigned to the task and they dare not record anything? Weak. Then Ender, the universe's most perfect man, arrives with his godlike AI in tow... It's an okay book, not great.
To me, the Murder Bot books - I've only read 2 so far, are just vanilla stories about a social noob, who happens to be robotic, and uses soap operas as an escape. However, the biggest complaint I have about them is the price versus content - Way too expensive for their length - in Any format - It takes me back to when Stephen King tried to do his Charles Dickens released books in serial form, with his Dark Tower paperbacks - full price but only containing a few chapters, and to possess the whole set cost, relatively, a hefty paperback fortune, and was also a mediocre tale.
My friend handed me Ender’s Game in 10th grade and told me I should read it. I didn’t even like science fiction books, but I read it that sucker twice in the week I had the book before giving it back. It’s the only book I’ve ever felt compelled to reread immediately. Speaker and Xenocide were also brilliant, and Children of the Mind was decent. I still reread the whole quad every couple years, and it’s been a good 25 years since. EG is one of my favorite books ever.
I loved the robot voice. Really like the power and the internal conflicts of the murderbot. Best robotic inner monologue to be written since Ghost in the Shell.
About half way through, I had to check to make sure I was reading the right book (based on the recommendations)... I pushed through it and it didn't get better. I felt lied to. Did everyone decide not to hurt the author's feelings?
@TerryFarthing I wish I had a good answer to that. But I’m pretty sure a lot of people legitimately liked this book. It’s like a Goosebumps book for stunted adults
you know, i started reading it because everyone on youtube praises it like its so amazing, and i got like 50 pages in and stopped. I just wasn't getting whatever everyone else was. Glad I'm not the crazy one.
I LOVE Enders Game. I read it as a teen shortly after it came out. For me, I think it is a perfect case of using SciFi to tell a human story. The SciFi is minimal. The humanity is epic. It is a top 5 for me.
Thanks for the heads-up on Dark Matter. I was going to pick that up after finishing Desert Places, which is pretty good (though it might suffer from the 3rd Act Blues, too, haven't finished yet), but I'll bypass that and look for something else.
Interesting! I just finished "Recursion", my very first book by Blake Crouch. I really liked it and was considering what to read next from him and decided to go with "Wayward Pines" instead of "Dark Matter", just because I like the premise of it more and DM is a bit too overhyped! 😁
Man... I dont understand how this channel doesnt have over 100k subs. Your energy, presentation and your eloquence lends to such professional and entertaining videos. Keep it up man!! You're truly great at this!
I'll defend All Systems Red on the grounds that Wells basically just popped off this idea as a novella at a time when no one thought it'd appeal to anyone and it did. Like, it really did. I remember when it came out, and it wasn't like a marketing gag or anything. Her publisher hasn't expected it to sell like it did. It hit a target with a then unseen audience and took off. And maybe you ought to ask why? Of the 7 (current) books, the first is probably the weakest, I'll give you that but like I said, Wells hadn't actually thought it was going to be anything like it ended up being. What is amazing is what she did with the series after that first book. Her kernel idea was, in her own words, a slave narrative. The whole series contends with autonomy and agency, which if you look around, is a big issue in our society right now. One can go as far as to say with the current state of tech and surveillance, we're facing a full blown crisis over our autonomy that we as a culture and society aren't even acknowledging. It's an extremely SF thing to explore and Wells did it her way, using conventions of SF that work for her and it speaks to readers.
This is something I've struggled with. I love British science fiction, I really like British humor and comedy. But when they're mixed together? It just never seems to gel for me. I have the same problem with _Red Dwarf,_ it just does not land.
I mean, on the "big list of stuff that's subjective", humour has to be at or near the top so I suspect it may split opinion more than many things. (FWIW, I find HHGTTG to be good but not utterly fantastic, funny but a bit cynical and personally prefer the _other_ great British SF&F humorist, Terry Pratchett. And re: Adams' stuff, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" is better IMO. In case it matters BTW - I suppose as defence against charges of "You don't get it" - i'm _from_ the UK, where we just call "British humour", y'know, "humour" :)
I had this with Terry Pratchett. Hhgttg is one of my all time favourite books, and I love British humour, but the couple of Pratchett books I read were very underwhelming to me. Sometimes pretty funny, but not much more.
I like hearing everyone's different opinions about things. I find it interesting that each person, being unique, has a unique way of looking at things. Personally I'm very hard to please because the older I get the more I feel like I'm wasting my time when I read something I don't like so much.
No enemies but I am one of those people who read Ender's Game and was just blown away by it. Perhaps it just fits so well into my definition of science fiction. It is so heavily based on science, still brings in aliens and brings in so many amazing themes and ideas. I do always tell people this is my favorite science fiction book of all time but I can understand how some new to SciFi might have trouble seeing past the alien buggers aspect of it which seems so unoriginal and easy to turn people off. Perhaps that is part of the brilliance of it though, that at first this is what it seems, just another silly humans killing aliens and then it just starts spinning and completely turns everything around on the reader. But I am curious, what is is that makes it not top 10 material for you? You say that it isn't but you don't really explain why!
I don't consider the Endymion books part of the Cantos :). But Hyperion with Fall of Hyperion is my number #3, they tell a complete story without needing the Endymion books.
I enjoyed this video a lot. I don't agree on most of it, but that's totally fine. But what I wanted to say: did you read the sequels to Ender's Game? Totally different in tone and style, and although Ender's Game is one of my favourite books, I loved the sequels even more. Card said that the sequels were the books he intentionally wanted to write, but the publisher wanted a more accessible entry into it's universe. So he wrote Ender's Game. The sequels are miles apart in tone an feel from Ender's Game and the better books for it imo. And maybe this is an interesting subject for a future video: sequels that took the story into totally unexpected places.
@@teccie I have read the 4 books in the main Ender series. I haven't read any of the prequels or shadow series. And I agree they shift dramatically once you hit speaker for the dead.
Was going to comme t exactly that. Maybe I can accept that enders's game itself is overrated, it's absolutely necessary to set the tone for both sequels quintet. My favorite is the shadow quintet and nobody can stop me. Its not for everyone of course but for me its a ✨️masterpiece✨️ and I won't shut up about it. I read the first volume when I was 12 and I'm 32 now and I still have big feelings about the series. 😊
@@rammelbroadcastingNot read speaker of the dead but liked the Ender's game and really liked Ender's shadow series. Admittedly it went in the direction that appeals to my sensibilities
Haven't finished the video yet, but I'm already on board with your Dark Matter pick. Really didn't like it. Was going to write off Blake Crouch, but I might check out Wayward Pines if it's that much better.
I’ve never understood all the hype with Ender’s Game. I can think tens of sci-fi books that are way above it when it comes to themes, prose, ideas. I saw the ending coming way too early and it exactly did what I expected. Speaker for the Dead is a massive step up! The true masterpiece of the Ender Saga and one of the best books ever written.
For his dark materials, I totally see where you’re coming from. I think of it like Harry Potter if you read it at age it was written for young adult. I understand the excitement because it’s probably a pretty formative series for a reader as they grow up. If somebody read this as an adult and they have that level of hype for either book series it’s like let’s calm down and read another book series.
@@RE-xv9fp I guess I had forgot about that I know I was an adult when I read the books, but it’s been at least 20 years since I have read them. I would say I would go back and reread them to refresh myself, but I don’t think I have that much interest in them and my TBR list isn’t getting any shorter lol.
I always struggle to recommend things to friends because i dont want to overhype, and I can get hyper aware of where things fall short when i consider if they would like it or not. As someone else mentioned, His Dark Materials I think was a product of when you picked it up. I was pretty young, so i was enchanted with the world and characters before i ever got hammered with the message. I think some books suffer from being overrated because critics and public latch on and what is good for general public consumption isnt always the cream of the crop. As you say, just because it is popular doesnt mean it is bad, it just gets in this position of being overhyped
I'm one of those weird people that read His Dark Materials trilogy as an adult and enjoyed it. Then again, I did some theologicsl studies and I dig this kind of metaphysical excavation. But I can fully understand how many people would be turned off by it. Notice that nowhere at any point do I disagree with your assessment of its heavy-handedness. It's kind of like dill pickle chips: you like them or you don't. And kudos to you for doing something like this. It seems like we're in an era of exteemes in everything, and battle lines are drawn everywhere about things that don't require them. Most things are not hills to die on, and it helps to hear others' opinions to help us shape our own with things we may not have noticed.
I agree about "Monster." It just didn't do much for me for the same reason you had. It felt contrived and too.. ?coincidental? There are just too many coincidences that happen that are written as just a thing that happens often.
What I loved about Ender’s Game was how it captured the feeling of being a late-numbered child. Ender was a third; I was a sixth. Like Ender, I was constantly threatened with murder by older siblings who were angry I existed, and it took me years before I knew whether they were actually capable of killing me. Spoiler alert: they were.
(1) Manga & Comics count as books, I think too many people associate comics with picture books for children and to them if feels like leveling down to great book reading ladder, instead of seeing how we can go from picture books to non-picture books to a synthesis of the two. To those people I recommend reading anything that had been published through Vertigo Comics, (the DC imprint crosses over with the superhero stuff so much that a reader cannot pull a "well I was talking about superhero books," because from Sandman to Watchmen you cannot get away from the superheroes & literary quality of the books. (2) Altered Carbon, I found that funny because I only read the first book because of Sword & Laser podcast, but I didn't realize there were more books until several years later. Thing is, I hadn't had anyone even mention the title in passing until the adaptation came out. Altered Carbon is up my alley as a fan of the Cyberpunk & Noir genres, and someone who loves William Gibson, and I still have not sought out those sequels--Kinda indifferent. I lived the first book, don't get me wrong. (3) the one that prompted this comment: His Dark Materials: Two points (a) It's YA, so I'm not expecting the most groundbreaking and edgy story with layers of subtlety--Though I'd argue there are plenty of layers when it comes to the books, just more extratextuality than we'd want when judging a book on its own merits (b) From my experience in creative writing workshops, being subtle tends to have a rather unhelpful result--Too often, people want to get in and understand what is happening as soon as possible and, (UNLESS they resonate with what they are reading and they want to stay in that world of yours,) then they want to get out. So, I do sympathize with a writer that struggles with the balance. (4) A lot of this list I must confess, have been on my To-Read lists for ages now, but I still have not gotten there--Specifically, The Blade Itself and Ender's Game. I can tell ya, Ender's Game has yet to be read specifically because of the hype.
People always talk about overrated or underrated books, but never the adequately rated books. (i haven't read any of these yet, but Hyperion and Abercrombie are on my tbr list)
I get it. Great video, as always. A couple of books that got a lot of shine on the Tube (that’s where I first heard of them) that was real bummer reads for me were Mire Than Human by T. Sturgeon and Ubik by PKD. That was my first by both and I will read more but man, those were just laaaaaaaame.
Omg I was few days ago thinking about Phillip Pullmans Dark materials and the soul-animal thing lol. I fully agree about it being too heavy so to speak, the animal concept is cool but thats about it. I remember reading it years ago when I was 19 and to me it was too, depressing I remember. I am not good with describing what was good or bad with a book in literature terms lol. But to me at that age I remember it felt like, this is an author who is not used to write books for younger audience. It was so boring too that I gave up after reading some from book 2. The tv-show adaptations especially the latest one tried so damn hard to follow the book to the tee, which was its downfall. The show too turned out extremely boring. Murder bot, I wrote once on a reddit post how underwhelming and mediocre it was and was downvoted so hard lol. So many reviews were raving about it So I went in expecting a badass robot sci-fi thing. Only to read on and on about this bot that in short has, anxiety issues. It became so irritating reading about its thoughts and emotions bc it was to me like, a normal anxious human thoughts. Then it went on to play a bit of a detective and whatnot and thats it. Not worth the hype at all!
Agree 100% re Ender's Game, also 100% re the lack of subtlety of Pullman's trilogy. With Ender's Game, the ending was telegraphed miles away. But the Murderbot Diaries are so much fun if you see that she's having fun with introverted personality types. My wife and I both love this series. So much fun. We even introduced our book club to the series (this book club does NOT do SF or fantasy) and they loved it too.
I loved it also. But I also haven’t read the Wayward Pines series yet. I think sometimes the order you read or watch something can influence your opinion. If it doesn’t live up to something, you’ve already read by that author, it might be a disappointment. I also really liked Recursion, but felt his newer book Upgrade was not as good. I can’t wait to get to Wayward Pines.
I agree with you on Murderbot Diaries. I've read All Systems Red and gave it 3 otu of 5 stars. It was OK, but the pacing was all wrong. It hasn't stopped me buying the next 2 books in the series though, maybe it will improve (hopefully)
For me, murderbot really got good in books two through four. The first one I thought was just okay but two, three and four are some of my favorite books of all time. But two, three and four are some of my favorite books of all time
Dark Matter is interesting. That book made me want to read Crouch’s other books and I also loved The Wayward Pines trilogy. But when I got to the third act of Dark Matter, it was right up my alley, but I was also surprised so many people liked DM despite the third act. Maybe everyone else are just weird like me.
I've been interested in reading Altered Carbon for a while now. I hope it won't be a disappointment for me like so many other modern sci-fi. Some overrated books and series in my opinion: The Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames The player of games by Ian M. Banks Children Of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice Bill Hodges Trilogy by Stephen King Babel by R.F. Kuang Ashes of Man by Christopher Ruocchio American Gods by Neil Gaiman Book of the Ancestor Series by Mark Lawrence
The only book I disagree with is Enders Game 😎 definitely in my top 10, best ever..... nope, but damn good and deep 😎👍I think most people overrate books because they're just not widely or well read, as individuals😎👍I agree with you about pretty much all your choices, but I've probably read a thousand genre books, definitely most of the critically appraised 👍😎 but I think a lot of readers today just don't read widely, and that's why they think Murder Bot or Dark Materials is the full stop best😎👍 it's facebookers that dip their toes into reading, and because they just haven't read enough, they think that what they got their hands on is the greatest thing since sliced bread 😜🤣
I *totally* agree with you about Recursion. I was really enjoying it until it went completely off the rails when the possible timelines became WAY too convoluted. I generously rated it 3 stars but should have gone with 2 at most. I also agree with you re. the Murderbot books. I read the first 4 and rated them all 3 stars because I thought they were all very “meh”.
I'm a huge fan of Naoki Urasawa, I love Monster and I couldn't agree more with you, the manga isn't perfect and many situations are too contrived like you said, I still enjoyed it, but it's definitely NOT perfect, I don't get why so many people call it a masterpiece, I think it has to do with expectations, or maybe some manga fans don't read many books and for them, Monster is peak mystery and philosophy. Don't get me wrong I love Urasawa I love his characters but he always drops the ball, same with 20th-century boys
I’m with you on Hyperion Cantos. Even Hyperion itself. The parts are greater than the whole. I know most disagree. 1st two are worth reading, but I would recommend many before them. 😬
As soon as I saw the title of the video, I knew Murderbot would be on it. 😂 I think for what it is it’s completely underrated. You have to know going in that it’s not serious. They’re the perfect palate cleansers after really long heavy books. There’s only one novel in the series, and the rest of them are really short, and even the novel is not that long. It’s just simple and fun. Don’t go in expecting some deep thought, mind bending experience. It’s the book series I recommend to my ,not as serious about reading, friends. Friends who only read action series and want to get into some light Sci Fi. But I can see where it might be overrated, If all you want to read is hard science fiction.
Ouchh I just finished Endymion and I so disagree with you. I was riveted and just delighted with his world building. The plot didn’t blow my mind but I have a little hangover now that I finished. The other thing that made it so good for me is that I started to grasp a little more about where he’s going with te technocore and AI stuff which was a bit murky to me when I finished The Fall. Also I just didn’t like the Fall of Hiperyon that much. The main character was boring and a bit annoying to me, the structure of the book was jarring. I am looking forward to finishing the Cantos. I agree with you that it’s Ender’s Game. I just don’t see what others think is so groundbreaking about that book. I had a bit of a problem with the protagonist being so young and being trained for war like that, I couldn’t get past it in my mind. I liked Speaker for the Dead a lot more but it’s a completely different book.
I really enjoy your channel, but dude, you nailed this one! Right on! Enders, Murderbot, Dark Matter - please. I will say that I did enjoy the Golden Compass, but I agree that the later books got a little to woo woo for me. I'm just not a yoga babble person. BTW: Dark Matter was nothing more than a screenplay. There was not one complete paragraph in the book.
I absolutely love Abercrombie, but I agree with you about The Blade Itself. I really liked it, but you are right that it’s the weakest of the three. I would even argue that The First Law on the whole isn’t as good as The Age of Madness trilogy either. I still love The First Law, but the second trilogy is better.
For time paradox lovers, I really recommend the movie "Coherence" from year 2013! Its so interesting and together with movie Triangle my first time paradox movies. Coherence was also an indie project and was shot literally in 1 or 2 nights total! Won several awards, one for best screenplay etc. I have seen several time paradox movies after Coherence but Coherence is the only one that stuck with me. Dark matter felt as it had in one specific part, taken inspiration from Coherence, only that Coherence was so so well done! Yes for sure I too was baffled at the last acts of Dark matter. Also the "must find my literal wife" story felt too strained to me but thats me. There were so many great storylines he could have followed from the first act of the book but he just past them lol
This is the first time you’ve come up in my feed, and I enjoyed the video. What I like is that you’re not just a hater, you’re a hater with reasoning behind your stance. That demands engagement from the listener, especially if they liked any of these books. Very helpful, thanks.
This entire video I was holding my breath that you were going to say, "The Lord of the Flies," was overrated. This is my favorite fiction book that I have read so far. I hope you at least ENJOYED this novel Rammel when/if you did read it. :)
To be fair His Dark Materials is not a series for everyone. If I am going to recommend people get into it, I'd recommend the TV series first and then recommend the books if they enjoyed it. As far as books I think are personally overrated regardless of quality. A part of me wants to give it over a little to Hunger Games. I read the first book back in middle School, and just kinda stopped after that. They're not bad books, in fact they're some of the better books from the Teen Dystopia craze, just not incredibly impressive either. It's more that I've grown up and found better books/adaptations of books with a similar premise. That are a lot more interesting, and do a lot more with their large cast of characters than just make 90% percent of them cannon fodder while only focusing on like a handful of them outside the protagonist. I.e Battle Royale and Junni Taisen: Zodiac war. But that's just me.
I wonder how you feel or would feel if you haven’t read them, Mickey 7. I would put them in the same category as Murder Bot, just a fun enjoyable read after a long novel. Maybe you would find it’s humor more to your liking.
I will agree with you about Dark Matter (I was so disappointed after reading other books by the author), but I liked MurderBot. I read Murderbot for enjoyment not really for that sci-fi zing I expect from hard/awesome sci-fi....just read the series for a good time. And it delivered. Plus, it was something different. I also enjoyed the Bobiverse books for the same reason. Brain candy....a sci-fi adventure just for adventure's sake. And I will add that I listened to the audio books -- the narrator really added something special to the story. That may be the difference. So not top tier "best book ever" list worthy, but I enjoyed the stories.
I said it in a different of your videos, but I love that I disagree with you. I bet you are a cool friend to sit and have a true disagreement with and both sides are just trying to understand each other. Where you aren’t trying to win, you are trying to gain a better understanding of yourself and your friend by learning how others think. Keep posting your POV
The Blade Itself is wonderful. I’m sorry it doesn’t fit your criteria of what a first book is supposed to do. Murderbot is wonderful too, I think you’re reading them expecting an experience like you get from Asimov or Dick. Not their point, they’re fun, light little books. Thanks for all your content, believe it or not, I’m a big fan.
Bless you. I've only read three of these, and I mostly agree with you on those. Ender's Game honestly was far too predictable. I read the first Hyperion book and, although you had it on your top 10, it just bored me to tears. But... not quite as much as the Murderbot books. With those, I was hoping for more of something akin to Adam Christopher's 'bot books but... nah, boring.
His Dark Materials is so good that the only thing I remember from the whole series is the Polar Bear, and I think that memoru comes more from the film than the book. Ender's Game was an ok book, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the series. The Altered Carbon trilogy were good enough that I got them as soon as they came out, but there was nothing new in them. I habe always read to escape, so my book collection has always been firmly rooted in the pulp fiction (the original concept, not the film) area of novels, quick reads with nothing to heavy, so the moment anything becomes a best seller or topping list, I have concerns. My Number one and Two overrated books/series have to be Harry Potter and The inheritance cycle
how is harry potter overrated? its a childrens book/christmas, and thats what it delivers, i dont think anyone called them masterpieces, its just a cute fantasy book series thats very popular with kids and people.
@Archonsx Sadly, quite a few people consider them masterpieces of modern fantasy. Now, I do enjoy the stories fairly well, and the character arcs are very well done; but I agree that they _should_ be considered far less perfect than they tend to be.
Hah, funnily enough the reason I partly agree with the video about "Ender's Game" is because "Speaker for the Dead" is much better IMO (and mentioned less). Haven't read the entire expanded saga though so I can't comment on those. Just underscores how subjective it all is really.
His dark material would belong on this list for me too. Ender*s Game is my favorite book. My main issue is the author, but I love the book. I also am a big Abercrombie fan. Naturally I have no problem with those books on someone else`s list.
I started out liking the Murderbot books, but by the fourth one, they all started to sound the same, to the point where if I had several of them on my Kindle, I wasn't sure which one I'd left off with.
I consider "Ender's Game" a personal favorite. I also find the series long message of empathy and the importance of valuing life in all its myriad forms... Being written by notorious bigot Orson Scott Card? Baffling. Just Baffling. It is like finding out John Lennon's "Imagine" was ghost written by Joseph McCarthy.
I 100% agree with you on The Blade Itself and that trilogy. Definite the weakest book, good trilogy, but the stand alone books following the trilogy are amazing IMHO. I loved the second book in the Altered Carbon book but it felt like more of a true scifi book the third book on the other hand was BAAAAAAAD.
I think Pullman wasn't subtle with his theming because it was a book intended for preteens. I'm not saying that preteens aren't smart but they are still learning their reading comprehension skills. I read His Dark Materials when I was like 11 or 12 and loved it, I wonder if I'd feel the same as an adult.....
I agree with the Dark Matter entry. Was super excited to read it, but it was just meh. Strong start, like you said, but the third act was strange and completely not where I saw it going. I nearly didn't finish The Blade Itself, because it felt like all character and no plot, but then pushed through. Thankfully, because it's a great trilogy.
I've read enders game dozens of times. I read it the first time as a kid, it was my first novel I ever read. It is a great book, but it's my best sci Fi book of all time mainly nostalgia and the times that has gotten me through. My wife knows the world's beating me up when I open it up.
I adore Ender's Game but have to agree that it's not the thing that people make it out to be. Now the rest of the universe... The rest of his series, the Bean series and the first formic war trilogy are all wonderful. Also, 100% agree on The Blade Itself. Before They Are Hanged is maybe the best in the series and it was a slog to get to it.
SPOILERS I think I’m an outlier but I was hoping to see empire of silence on this list, I really struggled with the first book - I didn’t really care about meidua/devils rest, his dad, his brother, when he gets mugged in the streets, I really didn’t care about Gibson (who is mentioned often!). Then the whole homeless arc, didn’t care about cat… and that’s half the book just about! It was only near the end things got interesting. Is it just me!? In saying that, the next 2 books are phenomenal! I’m 3/4 through demon in white and so glad I stuck with the series, all the stuff I didn’t like from the first book I can appreciate a bit more now but man it was a struggle for me.
Yep, I don't think I was as hard on it as you are, but I said a lot of similar things in my review of it. I did like Gibson but did not like the homeless section. When I reviewed howling dark, it got so much better I said something like we've com a long way from gladiators with daddy issues lol
People are different. Overrated, underrated, good, bad are all very subjective. I have read reviews of 'House of Leaves' that praise it to high heaven but based on the synopsis I have read I don't think I would enjoy it. Does that make it bad or overrated? No of course not not it's just something that I personally would not like.
1. Enders game is very good book but not sure I’ve ever seen it rated # 1 (usually dune 1 with Hyperion often top 5-10). 2. All 4 Hyperion/endymon books tell a single story which is incomplete without at least 2 nd book. I think people don’t like books 3/4 because of the romance (not popular with SF crowd) and today because of the age difference. Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children (fantasy) was wildly popular despite main female character being involved with male and then his ?father (time travel).
I thought HDM was overrated but for slightly different reasons. In "The Amber Spyglass" I think Pullman completely loses control of the plot. Too many strands, too many characters and the irony of course is that PP gets into his pulpit and preaches far too much.
"Endymion" is just extremely bloated. There is one decent book in the two. There's just so much nothing happening and explanations for things that we don't need explaining (like an entire page of how is a buckle working. No, seriously). But I like how the story goes full circle as a full picture.
I'll probably catch hell for this but the 2 books I think are really overrated are The Haunting Of Hill House (I enjoyed We Have Always Lived In The Castle much more) and Rosemary's Baby. With Rosemary's Baby, I read the novel, watched the movie twice, read the sequel and I still hated it. I've done my due diligence, and it just doesn't work for me. So I don't feel the need to give Rosemary's Baby any more of my time.
Repetition is for toddlers and that's what Blake Crouch does in the plot of this book. Repetition is amusing in Ground Hogs Day, it is boring in this novel and in Recursion. I am done with Blake Crouch.
I liked Dark Matter, but the TV show was so much better, and it's rare for that to happen. Better characterization and a much needed focus on a number of characters lacking in the book, and a better story overall, even though it hits most of the same notes. The ending was also fleshed out more.
I feel about Enders game the same way that I felt about The usual suspects, you know the ending way to fast. It took me like 15m to figure out who Keiser Soyze was in The Usual suspects, I figured it out pretty fast also with Enders game, which is why I like the second book in the series more. So when you know how it is going to end, it's a bit whatever because that whole reveal just falls flat. Hyperion, ooh, your touching holy ground here. I REALLY like the first two books (eventhough for some reason people don"t like the second as much as the first.) I felt that the second really put the whole storyarc together, aah, such joy. But I haven't read Endymion eventhough I want to, but everybody keeps saying it is very bad. So I guess I'll read Hyperion a third time and enjoy this fabelous book once more and pretend Endymion doesn't exist.
10:14 - Heathen! (If you are talking about the original novella; the novel is, as is usually the case, weaker.) 16:27 - Super heathen! I will refrain from explaining to you why this is a great series - I would say you were beyond redemption were there not some actually overrated books on your list. (To be fair, the series reaches "full strength" only with introduction of a "proper" AI, _Perihelion_ a.k.a. _ART_ ) 😀
Reading Hyperion I felt I could scream 'I get it, you like Keats'. But I don't, for me he's an average poet, please, get over making him that main point in book. It annoyed me so much and took away from story
Unfortunately I have to agree with the Endymion books. Loved the first Hyperiorn. I loved MOST of Fall of Hyperiorn. There were some pacing issues, but the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Endymion was such a mess I couldn't even bother with the last book. Boring, messy, amateurish, super creepy man and child dynamic. Dan Simmons is so odd. He has another serious of books (2). The first one, Illium, was awesome. Book two, Olympos, was unreadable. He should stop with sequels.
I agree with His Dark Materials. I thought it was a pretty good series, but nothing special. However, when I read it, I was already an adult. If I had read that when I was 12, I probably would have loved it. My guess is most people who love that series read it as a kid.
Complete agree on Dark Materials. First book good. Then he got on his soapbox and didn't even vother attempting to tell a coherent story. Can First Law be hyped any higher? Blade Itself was good and disagree about wanting a first book to be self-sufficient as they often have multi book arcs. An exception would be Locke Lamora. But I was disappointed at the rushed Perry Mason/Bond villain monologue ending. Hyperion was good. Did not care for Fall. The author seemed to be trying to be overly clever, like I feel Neal Stephenson does. It was also the same plot as the later Dune books which was really disappointing. Have Endymion and maybe at some point.
Murderbot series for sure, I don't understand so many awards or all this super recommendations, I already read the three first and is Meh!, you're completely right. Dark Matter was a letdown in the third act.
I feel like people who say they like The Blade Itself may actually like the series, and not the book itself. I tried to read it twice and can't make it past the 20% mark. It's so boring to start, with no obvious plot in sight, imo. Maybe I'm wrong - but I LOVE grimdark and will never understand the love for that book.
I'm not a big fan of the term overrated. More like, you did not enjoy the book as much as others. Doesn't make them bad. It just didn't work for you.. My list would be Dandelion Dynasty, Five Warrior Angels, Liveship Traders & The Talisman.
@@locolima279 Ok but shit is still shit. And we can all like different things, but thats not to say that just because someone likes something it's good.
*takes Hyperion out* Raise the pitchforks
"I mean the Cantos as a whole"
Lower the pitchforks
Every book is overrated to the people that didn’t like it
This. Times, like, a million :).
Actually you're not wrong
Immediately eleventy books came to mind, and then just mentally shrugged and just agreed with you.
Yes you're wrong cause you're a dumbass. People who aren't low IQ can not like things without making about them and their ego.
I don't agree with that. If I read and didn't like a book but haven't heard great praise and liking of it or heard mixed reviews of it, I wouldn't think of it being overrated.
I agree about the ones I've read (Ender's Game and Murderbot). What grinds my gears about Ender's Gane is that, as good as it is, Speaker for the Dead is so much better, and really does deserve to be seen as one of the greatest sci-fi books ever. But it gets a bit overshadowed by its more spectacle-focused predecessor.
Disagree. Speaker was a mess. It's a thousand years later, or something, and humans can't figure out this weird disease that ravaged this planet? The whole human colony is about studying these aliens but only two people are assigned to the task and they dare not record anything? Weak. Then Ender, the universe's most perfect man, arrives with his godlike AI in tow...
It's an okay book, not great.
I think the Bean books far surpass Ender's.
To me, the Murder Bot books - I've only read 2 so far, are just vanilla stories about a social noob, who happens to be robotic, and uses soap operas as an escape.
However, the biggest complaint I have about them is the price versus content - Way too expensive for their length - in Any format - It takes me back to when Stephen King tried to do his Charles Dickens released books in serial form, with his Dark Tower paperbacks - full price but only containing a few chapters, and to possess the whole set cost, relatively, a hefty paperback fortune, and was also a mediocre tale.
My friend handed me Ender’s Game in 10th grade and told me I should read it. I didn’t even like science fiction books, but I read it that sucker twice in the week I had the book before giving it back. It’s the only book I’ve ever felt compelled to reread immediately. Speaker and Xenocide were also brilliant, and Children of the Mind was decent. I still reread the whole quad every couple years, and it’s been a good 25 years since. EG is one of my favorite books ever.
I loved the robot voice. Really like the power and the internal conflicts of the murderbot. Best robotic inner monologue to be written since Ghost in the Shell.
Okay, I’ll say it for you. “Dark Matter” is a bad book. Just terrible. Cliched, stilted, and thoroughly dumb
YES!
About half way through, I had to check to make sure I was reading the right book (based on the recommendations)... I pushed through it and it didn't get better. I felt lied to. Did everyone decide not to hurt the author's feelings?
@TerryFarthing
I wish I had a good answer to that. But I’m pretty sure a lot of people legitimately liked this book.
It’s like a Goosebumps book for stunted adults
you know, i started reading it because everyone on youtube praises it like its so amazing, and i got like 50 pages in and stopped. I just wasn't getting whatever everyone else was. Glad I'm not the crazy one.
I LOVE Enders Game. I read it as a teen shortly after it came out. For me, I think it is a perfect case of using SciFi to tell a human story. The SciFi is minimal. The humanity is epic. It is a top 5 for me.
At no point in ALTERED CARBON, I had the feeling that it was dull. For me, this is one of a few modern day science fiction books that I really loved …
Thanks for the heads-up on Dark Matter. I was going to pick that up after finishing Desert Places, which is pretty good (though it might suffer from the 3rd Act Blues, too, haven't finished yet), but I'll bypass that and look for something else.
Interesting! I just finished "Recursion", my very first book by Blake Crouch. I really liked it and was considering what to read next from him and decided to go with "Wayward Pines" instead of "Dark Matter", just because I like the premise of it more and DM is a bit too overhyped! 😁
Man... I dont understand how this channel doesnt have over 100k subs. Your energy, presentation and your eloquence lends to such professional and entertaining videos. Keep it up man!! You're truly great at this!
Thank you so much!
I'll defend All Systems Red on the grounds that Wells basically just popped off this idea as a novella at a time when no one thought it'd appeal to anyone and it did. Like, it really did. I remember when it came out, and it wasn't like a marketing gag or anything. Her publisher hasn't expected it to sell like it did. It hit a target with a then unseen audience and took off. And maybe you ought to ask why? Of the 7 (current) books, the first is probably the weakest, I'll give you that but like I said, Wells hadn't actually thought it was going to be anything like it ended up being. What is amazing is what she did with the series after that first book. Her kernel idea was, in her own words, a slave narrative. The whole series contends with autonomy and agency, which if you look around, is a big issue in our society right now. One can go as far as to say with the current state of tech and surveillance, we're facing a full blown crisis over our autonomy that we as a culture and society aren't even acknowledging. It's an extremely SF thing to explore and Wells did it her way, using conventions of SF that work for her and it speaks to readers.
I'm honestly having this experience with the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series. Like it's solid, it just not the greatest
This is something I've struggled with. I love British science fiction, I really like British humor and comedy. But when they're mixed together? It just never seems to gel for me. I have the same problem with _Red Dwarf,_ it just does not land.
I mean, on the "big list of stuff that's subjective", humour has to be at or near the top so I suspect it may split opinion more than many things.
(FWIW, I find HHGTTG to be good but not utterly fantastic, funny but a bit cynical and personally prefer the _other_ great British SF&F humorist, Terry Pratchett. And re: Adams' stuff, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" is better IMO. In case it matters BTW - I suppose as defence against charges of "You don't get it" - i'm _from_ the UK, where we just call "British humour", y'know, "humour" :)
I look at this as more comedy with Sci Fi elements. It’s stupid funny. And if you like stupid funny, it’s great.
I had this with Terry Pratchett. Hhgttg is one of my all time favourite books, and I love British humour, but the couple of Pratchett books I read were very underwhelming to me. Sometimes pretty funny, but not much more.
I didn't like it, but comedy never holds up as well with time. But it's fine that people love it and the nostalgia of it helps it.
I like hearing everyone's different opinions about things. I find it interesting that each person, being unique, has a unique way of looking at things. Personally I'm very hard to please because the older I get the more I feel like I'm wasting my time when I read something I don't like so much.
No enemies but I am one of those people who read Ender's Game and was just blown away by it. Perhaps it just fits so well into my definition of science fiction. It is so heavily based on science, still brings in aliens and brings in so many amazing themes and ideas. I do always tell people this is my favorite science fiction book of all time but I can understand how some new to SciFi might have trouble seeing past the alien buggers aspect of it which seems so unoriginal and easy to turn people off. Perhaps that is part of the brilliance of it though, that at first this is what it seems, just another silly humans killing aliens and then it just starts spinning and completely turns everything around on the reader. But I am curious, what is is that makes it not top 10 material for you? You say that it isn't but you don't really explain why!
I found myself wishing Dark Matter would end about halfway through the book.
I don't consider the Endymion books part of the Cantos :). But Hyperion with Fall of Hyperion is my number #3, they tell a complete story without needing the Endymion books.
I enjoyed this video a lot. I don't agree on most of it, but that's totally fine. But what I wanted to say: did you read the sequels to Ender's Game? Totally different in tone and style, and although Ender's Game is one of my favourite books, I loved the sequels even more. Card said that the sequels were the books he intentionally wanted to write, but the publisher wanted a more accessible entry into it's universe. So he wrote Ender's Game. The sequels are miles apart in tone an feel from Ender's Game and the better books for it imo.
And maybe this is an interesting subject for a future video: sequels that took the story into totally unexpected places.
@@teccie I have read the 4 books in the main Ender series. I haven't read any of the prequels or shadow series. And I agree they shift dramatically once you hit speaker for the dead.
Was going to comme t exactly that. Maybe I can accept that enders's game itself is overrated, it's absolutely necessary to set the tone for both sequels quintet. My favorite is the shadow quintet and nobody can stop me. Its not for everyone of course but for me its a ✨️masterpiece✨️ and I won't shut up about it. I read the first volume when I was 12 and I'm 32 now and I still have big feelings about the series. 😊
I liked Speaker for the Dead more than Ender's Game, not sure how commons this is.
@@rammelbroadcastingNot read speaker of the dead but liked the Ender's game and really liked Ender's shadow series. Admittedly it went in the direction that appeals to my sensibilities
Would anyone recommend reading Hyperion as a stand alone? Or maybe just the first two?
Okay, can someone tell me what the messaging is in His Dark Materials? I've read the full series twice, and I still don't get it.
Haven't finished the video yet, but I'm already on board with your Dark Matter pick. Really didn't like it. Was going to write off Blake Crouch, but I might check out Wayward Pines if it's that much better.
@bluetycoon7 Well, it was definitely better than dark matter, that's for sure lol
I’ve never understood all the hype with Ender’s Game. I can think tens of sci-fi books that are way above it when it comes to themes, prose, ideas. I saw the ending coming way too early and it exactly did what I expected.
Speaker for the Dead is a massive step up! The true masterpiece of the Ender Saga and one of the best books ever written.
For his dark materials, I totally see where you’re coming from. I think of it like Harry Potter if you read it at age it was written for young adult. I understand the excitement because it’s probably a pretty formative series for a reader as they grow up. If somebody read this as an adult and they have that level of hype for either book series it’s like let’s calm down and read another book series.
I read the first and half of the second book at age 19 or so and it was so depressing and the writing felt like it was written by an adult, for adults
@@RE-xv9fp I guess I had forgot about that I know I was an adult when I read the books, but it’s been at least 20 years since I have read them. I would say I would go back and reread them to refresh myself, but I don’t think I have that much interest in them and my TBR list isn’t getting any shorter lol.
I always struggle to recommend things to friends because i dont want to overhype, and I can get hyper aware of where things fall short when i consider if they would like it or not.
As someone else mentioned, His Dark Materials I think was a product of when you picked it up. I was pretty young, so i was enchanted with the world and characters before i ever got hammered with the message.
I think some books suffer from being overrated because critics and public latch on and what is good for general public consumption isnt always the cream of the crop. As you say, just because it is popular doesnt mean it is bad, it just gets in this position of being overhyped
High expectations are always a big problem, and why I rarely recommend a book.
Me - didn't read a single book on the list
Also me - raises pitchfork after the name of the book I have heard many times comes
I'm one of those weird people that read His Dark Materials trilogy as an adult and enjoyed it. Then again, I did some theologicsl studies and I dig this kind of metaphysical excavation. But I can fully understand how many people would be turned off by it. Notice that nowhere at any point do I disagree with your assessment of its heavy-handedness. It's kind of like dill pickle chips: you like them or you don't. And kudos to you for doing something like this. It seems like we're in an era of exteemes in everything, and battle lines are drawn everywhere about things that don't require them. Most things are not hills to die on, and it helps to hear others' opinions to help us shape our own with things we may not have noticed.
I agree about "Monster." It just didn't do much for me for the same reason you had. It felt contrived and too.. ?coincidental? There are just too many coincidences that happen that are written as just a thing that happens often.
What I loved about Ender’s Game was how it captured the feeling of being a late-numbered child. Ender was a third; I was a sixth. Like Ender, I was constantly threatened with murder by older siblings who were angry I existed, and it took me years before I knew whether they were actually capable of killing me. Spoiler alert: they were.
(1) Manga & Comics count as books, I think too many people associate comics with picture books for children and to them if feels like leveling down to great book reading ladder, instead of seeing how we can go from picture books to non-picture books to a synthesis of the two. To those people I recommend reading anything that had been published through Vertigo Comics, (the DC imprint crosses over with the superhero stuff so much that a reader cannot pull a "well I was talking about superhero books," because from Sandman to Watchmen you cannot get away from the superheroes & literary quality of the books.
(2) Altered Carbon, I found that funny because I only read the first book because of Sword & Laser podcast, but I didn't realize there were more books until several years later. Thing is, I hadn't had anyone even mention the title in passing until the adaptation came out.
Altered Carbon is up my alley as a fan of the Cyberpunk & Noir genres, and someone who loves William Gibson, and I still have not sought out those sequels--Kinda indifferent. I lived the first book, don't get me wrong.
(3) the one that prompted this comment: His Dark Materials: Two points (a) It's YA, so I'm not expecting the most groundbreaking and edgy story with layers of subtlety--Though I'd argue there are plenty of layers when it comes to the books, just more extratextuality than we'd want when judging a book on its own merits (b) From my experience in creative writing workshops, being subtle tends to have a rather unhelpful result--Too often, people want to get in and understand what is happening as soon as possible and, (UNLESS they resonate with what they are reading and they want to stay in that world of yours,) then they want to get out. So, I do sympathize with a writer that struggles with the balance.
(4) A lot of this list I must confess, have been on my To-Read lists for ages now, but I still have not gotten there--Specifically, The Blade Itself and Ender's Game. I can tell ya, Ender's Game has yet to be read specifically because of the hype.
People always talk about overrated or underrated books, but never the adequately rated books.
(i haven't read any of these yet, but Hyperion and Abercrombie are on my tbr list)
I get it. Great video, as always. A couple of books that got a lot of shine on the Tube (that’s where I first heard of them) that was real bummer reads for me were Mire Than Human by T. Sturgeon and Ubik by PKD. That was my first by both and I will read more but man, those were just laaaaaaaame.
Omg I was few days ago thinking about Phillip Pullmans Dark materials and the soul-animal thing lol. I fully agree about it being too heavy so to speak, the animal concept is cool but thats about it. I remember reading it years ago when I was 19 and to me it was too, depressing I remember. I am not good with describing what was good or bad with a book in literature terms lol.
But to me at that age I remember it felt like, this is an author who is not used to write books for younger audience. It was so boring too that I gave up after reading some from book 2.
The tv-show adaptations especially the latest one tried so damn hard to follow the book to the tee, which was its downfall. The show too turned out extremely boring.
Murder bot, I wrote once on a reddit post how underwhelming and mediocre it was and was downvoted so hard lol. So many reviews were raving about it So I went in expecting a badass robot sci-fi thing. Only to read on and on about this bot that in short has, anxiety issues. It became so irritating reading about its thoughts and emotions bc it was to me like, a normal anxious human thoughts. Then it went on to play a bit of a detective and whatnot and thats it. Not worth the hype at all!
Agree 100% re Ender's Game, also 100% re the lack of subtlety of Pullman's trilogy. With Ender's Game, the ending was telegraphed miles away. But the Murderbot Diaries are so much fun if you see that she's having fun with introverted personality types. My wife and I both love this series. So much fun. We even introduced our book club to the series (this book club does NOT do SF or fantasy) and they loved it too.
Out of these books I’ve only read Dark Matter. I really enjoyed it. I think I gave it a 4/5 star rating.
@OoLaLaFrenchGirl Yeah I'm gonna see how this goes in the comments because that book seems to be pretty universally loved 🤷♂️ wish me luck lol
I loved it also. But I also haven’t read the Wayward Pines series yet. I think sometimes the order you read or watch something can influence your opinion. If it doesn’t live up to something, you’ve already read by that author, it might be a disappointment. I also really liked Recursion, but felt his newer book Upgrade was not as good. I can’t wait to get to Wayward Pines.
I agree with you on Murderbot Diaries. I've read All Systems Red and gave it 3 otu of 5 stars. It was OK, but the pacing was all wrong. It hasn't stopped me buying the next 2 books in the series though, maybe it will improve (hopefully)
I hope the series improves for you. I really love it. Always eager for the next book. I read so much hard science fiction, Murderbot is a nice break😂
I love Murderbot and want more! ❤
loved your honesty! suscribed :D
Thank you
The Only Good Indians suffers from the same momentum loss as Dark Matter.
I love Murderbot. As a slow reader, I read the first novella in an afternoon. It was like watching a fun movie. Fun escapism.
Off topic: What kind of mic are you using?
@@barrysmith3408 Electrovoice RE20
For me, murderbot really got good in books two through four. The first one I thought was just okay but two, three and four are some of my favorite books of all time. But two, three and four are some of my favorite books of all time
Dark Matter is interesting. That book made me want to read Crouch’s other books and I also loved The Wayward Pines trilogy. But when I got to the third act of Dark Matter, it was right up my alley, but I was also surprised so many people liked DM despite the third act. Maybe everyone else are just weird like me.
I've been interested in reading Altered Carbon for a while now. I hope it won't be a disappointment for me like so many other modern sci-fi.
Some overrated books and series in my opinion:
The Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
The player of games by Ian M. Banks
Children Of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Bill Hodges Trilogy by Stephen King
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Ashes of Man by Christopher Ruocchio
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Book of the Ancestor Series by Mark Lawrence
The only book I disagree with is Enders Game 😎 definitely in my top 10, best ever..... nope, but damn good and deep 😎👍I think most people overrate books because they're just not widely or well read, as individuals😎👍I agree with you about pretty much all your choices, but I've probably read a thousand genre books, definitely most of the critically appraised 👍😎 but I think a lot of readers today just don't read widely, and that's why they think Murder Bot or Dark Materials is the full stop best😎👍 it's facebookers that dip their toes into reading, and because they just haven't read enough, they think that what they got their hands on is the greatest thing since sliced bread 😜🤣
I *totally* agree with you about Recursion. I was really enjoying it until it went completely off the rails when the possible timelines became WAY too convoluted. I generously rated it 3 stars but should have gone with 2 at most.
I also agree with you re. the Murderbot books. I read the first 4 and rated them all 3 stars because I thought they were all very “meh”.
I'm a huge fan of Naoki Urasawa, I love Monster and I couldn't agree more with you, the manga isn't perfect and many situations are too contrived like you said, I still enjoyed it, but it's definitely NOT perfect, I don't get why so many people call it a masterpiece, I think it has to do with expectations, or maybe some manga fans don't read many books and for them, Monster is peak mystery and philosophy. Don't get me wrong I love Urasawa I love his characters but he always drops the ball, same with 20th-century boys
I’m with you on Hyperion Cantos. Even Hyperion itself. The parts are greater than the whole. I know most disagree. 1st two are worth reading, but I would recommend many before them. 😬
As soon as I saw the title of the video, I knew Murderbot would be on it. 😂 I think for what it is it’s completely underrated. You have to know going in that it’s not serious. They’re the perfect palate cleansers after really long heavy books. There’s only one novel in the series, and the rest of them are really short, and even the novel is not that long. It’s just simple and fun. Don’t go in expecting some deep thought, mind bending experience. It’s the book series I recommend to my ,not as serious about reading, friends. Friends who only read action series and want to get into some light Sci Fi. But I can see where it might be overrated, If all you want to read is hard science fiction.
Ouchh I just finished Endymion and I so disagree with you. I was riveted and just delighted with his world building. The plot didn’t blow my mind but I have a little hangover now that I finished. The other thing that made it so good for me is that I started to grasp a little more about where he’s going with te technocore and AI stuff which was a bit murky to me when I finished The Fall. Also I just didn’t like the Fall of Hiperyon that much. The main character was boring and a bit annoying to me, the structure of the book was jarring. I am looking forward to finishing the Cantos.
I agree with you that it’s Ender’s Game. I just don’t see what others think is so groundbreaking about that book. I had a bit of a problem with the protagonist being so young and being trained for war like that, I couldn’t get past it in my mind.
I liked Speaker for the Dead a lot more but it’s a completely different book.
I really enjoy your channel, but dude, you nailed this one! Right on! Enders, Murderbot, Dark Matter - please. I will say that I did enjoy the Golden Compass, but I agree that the later books got a little to woo woo for me. I'm just not a yoga babble person. BTW: Dark Matter was nothing more than a screenplay. There was not one complete paragraph in the book.
I absolutely love Abercrombie, but I agree with you about The Blade Itself. I really liked it, but you are right that it’s the weakest of the three. I would even argue that The First Law on the whole isn’t as good as The Age of Madness trilogy either. I still love The First Law, but the second trilogy is better.
I found Abercrombie to be very refreshing in a world full of bland fantasy
I love His Dark Materials, but I barely remember characters or plot points, so I get where you are coming from
Murderbot is a special case. If you listen to the audio book, it is outstanding. Perfect for that medium. However, reading it is a minor amusement.
For time paradox lovers, I really recommend the movie "Coherence" from year 2013! Its so interesting and together with movie Triangle my first time paradox movies. Coherence was also an indie project and was shot literally in 1 or 2 nights total! Won several awards, one for best screenplay etc.
I have seen several time paradox movies after Coherence but Coherence is the only one that stuck with me. Dark matter felt as it had in one specific part, taken inspiration from Coherence, only that Coherence was so so well done!
Yes for sure I too was baffled at the last acts of Dark matter. Also the "must find my literal wife" story felt too strained to me but thats me. There were so many great storylines he could have followed from the first act of the book but he just past them lol
This is the first time you’ve come up in my feed, and I enjoyed the video. What I like is that you’re not just a hater, you’re a hater with reasoning behind your stance. That demands engagement from the listener, especially if they liked any of these books. Very helpful, thanks.
@@skeller61 Thank you
This entire video I was holding my breath that you were going to say, "The Lord of the Flies," was overrated. This is my favorite fiction book that I have read so far. I hope you at least ENJOYED this novel Rammel when/if you did read it. :)
To be fair His Dark Materials is not a series for everyone. If I am going to recommend people get into it, I'd recommend the TV series first and then recommend the books if they enjoyed it.
As far as books I think are personally overrated regardless of quality. A part of me wants to give it over a little to Hunger Games. I read the first book back in middle School, and just kinda stopped after that. They're not bad books, in fact they're some of the better books from the Teen Dystopia craze, just not incredibly impressive either. It's more that I've grown up and found better books/adaptations of books with a similar premise. That are a lot more interesting, and do a lot more with their large cast of characters than just make 90% percent of them cannon fodder while only focusing on like a handful of them outside the protagonist. I.e Battle Royale and Junni Taisen: Zodiac war. But that's just me.
I wonder how you feel or would feel if you haven’t read them, Mickey 7. I would put them in the same category as Murder Bot, just a fun enjoyable read after a long novel. Maybe you would find it’s humor more to your liking.
I will agree with you about Dark Matter (I was so disappointed after reading other books by the author), but I liked MurderBot. I read Murderbot for enjoyment not really for that sci-fi zing I expect from hard/awesome sci-fi....just read the series for a good time. And it delivered. Plus, it was something different. I also enjoyed the Bobiverse books for the same reason. Brain candy....a sci-fi adventure just for adventure's sake. And I will add that I listened to the audio books -- the narrator really added something special to the story. That may be the difference. So not top tier "best book ever" list worthy, but I enjoyed the stories.
Hyperion was so good! I found the 2nd book hard to get through. I gave up on the series after that. Great list!
I said it in a different of your videos, but I love that I disagree with you.
I bet you are a cool friend to sit and have a true disagreement with and both sides are just trying to understand each other. Where you aren’t trying to win, you are trying to gain a better understanding of yourself and your friend by learning how others think.
Keep posting your POV
I couldn't get into The Blade Itself at all. Also, I think all of Murakami is greatly overrated.
@jackwalter5970 As much as I love Murakami, I completely understand why you would say that.
every time girls hype up an author, they are always overrated, sanderoson is perfect example of overrated
Murakami, Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson. I read them, I like some of their books, but some people refuse to accept criticism on any of them.
The Blade Itself is wonderful. I’m sorry it doesn’t fit your criteria of what a first book is supposed to do. Murderbot is wonderful too, I think you’re reading them expecting an experience like you get from Asimov or Dick. Not their point, they’re fun, light little books. Thanks for all your content, believe it or not, I’m a big fan.
@@Archonsx Overrated for you right? Cuz I love his books
Bless you. I've only read three of these, and I mostly agree with you on those. Ender's Game honestly was far too predictable. I read the first Hyperion book and, although you had it on your top 10, it just bored me to tears. But... not quite as much as the Murderbot books. With those, I was hoping for more of something akin to Adam Christopher's 'bot books but... nah, boring.
Could make a full list of books that start strong but the ending ruins it. Then one where the ending saves the book.
Please review Abandon by Blake Crouch, please.
His Dark Materials is so good that the only thing I remember from the whole series is the Polar Bear, and I think that memoru comes more from the film than the book. Ender's Game was an ok book, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the series. The Altered Carbon trilogy were good enough that I got them as soon as they came out, but there was nothing new in them. I habe always read to escape, so my book collection has always been firmly rooted in the pulp fiction (the original concept, not the film) area of novels, quick reads with nothing to heavy, so the moment anything becomes a best seller or topping list, I have concerns. My Number one and Two overrated books/series have to be Harry Potter and The inheritance cycle
how is harry potter overrated? its a childrens book/christmas, and thats what it delivers, i dont think anyone called them masterpieces, its just a cute fantasy book series thats very popular with kids and people.
@Archonsx Sadly, quite a few people consider them masterpieces of modern fantasy.
Now, I do enjoy the stories fairly well, and the character arcs are very well done; but I agree that they _should_ be considered far less perfect than they tend to be.
Hah, funnily enough the reason I partly agree with the video about "Ender's Game" is because "Speaker for the Dead" is much better IMO (and mentioned less). Haven't read the entire expanded saga though so I can't comment on those.
Just underscores how subjective it all is really.
His dark material would belong on this list for me too. Ender*s Game is my favorite book. My main issue is the author, but I love the book. I also am a big Abercrombie fan. Naturally I have no problem with those books on someone else`s list.
Although I did enjoy the His Dark Materials trilogy, I liked each book less than the one that came before.
I started out liking the Murderbot books, but by the fourth one, they all started to sound the same, to the point where if I had several of them on my Kindle, I wasn't sure which one I'd left off with.
Why did the chicken cross the road? 7:13
(Holds up Hyperion)
Me: HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!?
Lol, it's mostly because of the Endymion books it that makes it any better 🤷♂️
I consider "Ender's Game" a personal favorite.
I also find the series long message of empathy and the importance of valuing life in all its myriad forms... Being written by notorious bigot Orson Scott Card? Baffling. Just Baffling.
It is like finding out John Lennon's "Imagine" was ghost written by Joseph McCarthy.
I 100% agree with you on The Blade Itself and that trilogy. Definite the weakest book, good trilogy, but the stand alone books following the trilogy are amazing IMHO.
I loved the second book in the Altered Carbon book but it felt like more of a true scifi book the third book on the other hand was BAAAAAAAD.
I think Pullman wasn't subtle with his theming because it was a book intended for preteens. I'm not saying that preteens aren't smart but they are still learning their reading comprehension skills. I read His Dark Materials when I was like 11 or 12 and loved it, I wonder if I'd feel the same as an adult.....
I agree with the Dark Matter entry. Was super excited to read it, but it was just meh. Strong start, like you said, but the third act was strange and completely not where I saw it going. I nearly didn't finish The Blade Itself, because it felt like all character and no plot, but then pushed through. Thankfully, because it's a great trilogy.
I've read enders game dozens of times. I read it the first time as a kid, it was my first novel I ever read. It is a great book, but it's my best sci Fi book of all time mainly nostalgia and the times that has gotten me through. My wife knows the world's beating me up when I open it up.
I adore Ender's Game but have to agree that it's not the thing that people make it out to be. Now the rest of the universe... The rest of his series, the Bean series and the first formic war trilogy are all wonderful.
Also, 100% agree on The Blade Itself. Before They Are Hanged is maybe the best in the series and it was a slog to get to it.
SPOILERS
I think I’m an outlier but I was hoping to see empire of silence on this list, I really struggled with the first book - I didn’t really care about meidua/devils rest, his dad, his brother, when he gets mugged in the streets, I really didn’t care about Gibson (who is mentioned often!). Then the whole homeless arc, didn’t care about cat… and that’s half the book just about! It was only near the end things got interesting. Is it just me!?
In saying that, the next 2 books are phenomenal! I’m 3/4 through demon in white and so glad I stuck with the series, all the stuff I didn’t like from the first book I can appreciate a bit more now but man it was a struggle for me.
Yep, I don't think I was as hard on it as you are, but I said a lot of similar things in my review of it. I did like Gibson but did not like the homeless section. When I reviewed howling dark, it got so much better I said something like we've com a long way from gladiators with daddy issues lol
@ gladiators with daddy issues is a brilliant line!
People are different. Overrated, underrated, good, bad are all very subjective.
I have read reviews of 'House of Leaves' that praise it to high heaven but based on the synopsis I have read I don't think I would enjoy it.
Does that make it bad or overrated? No of course not not it's just something that I personally would not like.
Obviously, it is subjective, but House of Leaves is amazing. A synopsis of plot events would not do it justice at all.
1. Enders game is very good book but not sure I’ve ever seen it rated # 1 (usually dune 1 with Hyperion often top 5-10). 2. All 4 Hyperion/endymon books tell a single story which is incomplete without at least 2 nd book. I think people don’t like books 3/4 because of the romance (not popular with SF crowd) and today because of the age difference. Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children (fantasy) was wildly popular despite main female character being involved with male and then his ?father (time travel).
I thought HDM was overrated but for slightly different reasons. In "The Amber Spyglass" I think Pullman completely loses control of the plot. Too many strands, too many characters and the irony of course is that PP gets into his pulpit and preaches far too much.
"Endymion" is just extremely bloated. There is one decent book in the two. There's just so much nothing happening and explanations for things that we don't need explaining (like an entire page of how is a buckle working. No, seriously). But I like how the story goes full circle as a full picture.
I'll probably catch hell for this but the 2 books I think are really overrated are The Haunting Of Hill House (I enjoyed We Have Always Lived In The Castle much more) and Rosemary's Baby. With Rosemary's Baby, I read the novel, watched the movie twice, read the sequel and I still hated it. I've done my due diligence, and it just doesn't work for me. So I don't feel the need to give Rosemary's Baby any more of my time.
Repetition is for toddlers and that's what Blake Crouch does in the plot of this book. Repetition is amusing in Ground Hogs Day, it is boring in this novel and in Recursion. I am done with Blake Crouch.
I liked Dark Matter, but the TV show was so much better, and it's rare for that to happen. Better characterization and a much needed focus on a number of characters lacking in the book, and a better story overall, even though it hits most of the same notes. The ending was also fleshed out more.
I feel about Enders game the same way that I felt about The usual suspects, you know the ending way to fast. It took me like 15m to figure out who Keiser Soyze was in The Usual suspects, I figured it out pretty fast also with Enders game, which is why I like the second book in the series more. So when you know how it is going to end, it's a bit whatever because that whole reveal just falls flat. Hyperion, ooh, your touching holy ground here. I REALLY like the first two books (eventhough for some reason people don"t like the second as much as the first.) I felt that the second really put the whole storyarc together, aah, such joy. But I haven't read Endymion eventhough I want to, but everybody keeps saying it is very bad. So I guess I'll read Hyperion a third time and enjoy this fabelous book once more and pretend Endymion doesn't exist.
10:14 - Heathen! (If you are talking about the original novella; the novel is, as is usually the case, weaker.)
16:27 - Super heathen! I will refrain from explaining to you why this is a great series - I would say you were beyond redemption were there not some actually overrated books on your list. (To be fair, the series reaches "full strength" only with introduction of a "proper" AI, _Perihelion_ a.k.a. _ART_ )
😀
I mostly agree with this list. Except for Altered Carbon that I loved. But Endymion, Dark Matter, Murderbot, yeah, overrated.
Reading Hyperion I felt I could scream 'I get it, you like Keats'. But I don't, for me he's an average poet, please, get over making him that main point in book. It annoyed me so much and took away from story
The Keats thing wasn't that bad for me, but I could see how it could be.
Unfortunately I have to agree with the Endymion books. Loved the first Hyperiorn. I loved MOST of Fall of Hyperiorn. There were some pacing issues, but the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Endymion was such a mess I couldn't even bother with the last book. Boring, messy, amateurish, super creepy man and child dynamic. Dan Simmons is so odd. He has another serious of books (2). The first one, Illium, was awesome. Book two, Olympos, was unreadable. He should stop with sequels.
I was with you till almost the end.. Murderbot is great, we are all right, you have a problem...! :)
Me too put down Dark Matter after reading few pages
Agreed except for Ender’s Game. That one is special
I agree with His Dark Materials. I thought it was a pretty good series, but nothing special. However, when I read it, I was already an adult. If I had read that when I was 12, I probably would have loved it. My guess is most people who love that series read it as a kid.
Complete agree on Dark Materials. First book good. Then he got on his soapbox and didn't even vother attempting to tell a coherent story.
Can First Law be hyped any higher? Blade Itself was good and disagree about wanting a first book to be self-sufficient as they often have multi book arcs. An exception would be Locke Lamora. But I was disappointed at the rushed Perry Mason/Bond villain monologue ending.
Hyperion was good. Did not care for Fall. The author seemed to be trying to be overly clever, like I feel Neal Stephenson does. It was also the same plot as the later Dune books which was really disappointing. Have Endymion and maybe at some point.
the internet needs more of those honest type of videos
@@Archonsx Thanks
Yeah, if there's one thing the internet needs more of it's opinions :).
For how good Hyperion is (and also Fall of Hyperion), the Endymion books are indeed shockingly bad.
Murderbot series for sure, I don't understand so many awards or all this super recommendations, I already read the three first and is Meh!, you're completely right. Dark Matter was a letdown in the third act.
I feel like people who say they like The Blade Itself may actually like the series, and not the book itself. I tried to read it twice and can't make it past the 20% mark. It's so boring to start, with no obvious plot in sight, imo. Maybe I'm wrong - but I LOVE grimdark and will never understand the love for that book.
I'm not a big fan of the term overrated. More like, you did not enjoy the book as much as others. Doesn't make them bad. It just didn't work for you.. My list would be Dandelion Dynasty, Five Warrior Angels, Liveship Traders & The Talisman.
Except that some books are just bad 🤷
@@Mnnwerone person's shit is another person's fertilizer. It would be a boring world if we all agreed.
@@locolima279 Ok but shit is still shit. And we can all like different things, but thats not to say that just because someone likes something it's good.
@locolima279
Be honest, there are popular books that you hate and are dumbfounded by their popularity.
@@ladystoneheart8155 Ofc. I listed them above. I am definitely in the minority. Especially with Durfee & Hobb