Ranking the 11 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books I've Read Recently
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
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![I Convinced Myself To Read 5 Fantasy Books [100 Book Challenge #20-25]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WjWzsPuJzMQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I was too uncharitable to The Crystal World. I'd like to revise the list to bracket it between Fellowship of the Ring and The Genocides. The book is weighed down by slow narrative and the intrusion of unsubtly rendered metaphors but the prose is way too strong for it to have been as low as I put it.
Glad to hear that. The Crystal World is not his best novel - it just has the best cover! It's probably hard to understand nowadays the impact of Ballard's writing seemed in his early years, so odd and obtuse. In some ways I prefer his short fiction, where his peculiar insights seem less like actual obsessions (compared with something like Crash, say). The Four-Dimensional Nightmare and The Terminal Beach.are interesting collections.
I enjoyed the hallucinatory imagery the most. Ballard’s prose makes even weaker material readable.
Good to see you’re among the living. Been wondering we’re ya been.
I was around when Tolkien arrived and you have to understand the state of Fantasy at that time to understand why it was such a phenomenal book. Fantasy then was like Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, in that the characters leave present time and place, go have an adventure then come home. Tolkien was the first to take us to a completely other world. Compleat with histories, languages and cultures. The heros weren't mighty warriors. They were ordinary, stay-at-home Hobbits with an internal fortitude to finish the quest. This trilogy was unique and different and we took it to heart.
Since then we have been inundated with fantasies that are much more interesting to read. When Jackson came out with his Trilogy movies I reread the books and had a hard time reading them. I couldn't even finish the last book as they were stodgy and slow. Personally i feel they should be considered as young adult, a first exposure to fantasy/ sci fi. Then on to a whole lifetime of adventure in all genres.
I guess I wanted you to understand why we of the 60's went so ga-ga over books that weren't as readable as a lot of other genre books since then.
As someone who always gets mass shit for their take on these books, It's really gratifying to find someone else who isn't a huge fan of Hitchhikers Guide and Fellowship of The Ring!
It sucks when you feel like you're the only one lol
I couldn't even make it past Bilbo's birthday with the descriptions of connections to family. Good grief!
I wasn't a huge fan of Hitchhiker's Guide either, and while I'm an LOTR fan I can't say I blame you for having a hard time getting into the Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien didn't really know where he was taking the story at first and that definitely shows in the beginning of Fellowship.
Awesome to see you back! Also great call on the sci-fireplace as the new backdrop. Great video as always!
Good to see you back, one of my favourite book channels on UA-cam, always interested in your takes
Great video. More like this since you are reading lots this year and last. Share all the new stuff you experience. Keep it up!
Happy 2022!
Nice to see you back, Matt! Have to add Solaris to my TBR, sounds awesome.
Really good reviewing. I like how you get to the point quickly and dont waffle. Good to call out boring books too.
Really enjoy your review videos, keep em coming.
The Blue World was the first Jack Vance book I ever read. It immediately started me on my Jack Vance obsession. I'll never forget it was my weed guy who gave me the book when I mentioned I preferred science fiction from the 60s and 70s. That was back in the 80s. I still have the copy he gave me!
Good weed guy.
@@Bookpilled indeed
@@ernestschultz5065lol never seen a boomer with a doge profile pic 😂
I just stumbled across your channel as I was deciding what to read next. Great content for a bibliophile. Subscribed and lining up Solaris next. Thanks!
Thank you for the reviews. I have read blood music and enjoyed greatly and am now enjoying the boat of a million years. I would not know of them without your recommendation. Thank you!!
Blood music was really good. Couldn’t put it down
Dude! I'm beyond happy you mentioned this channel in your latest clothes haul video. I watch that to learn more about reselling clothes but I basically resell books (scifi & Fantasy in particular) and movies! Anyway, I agree with your take on Hitchhiker's Guide. I got thru the first book but flat out stopped reading the second one. They were wildly popular in the UK in the 70s as you're probably aware. My most favorite poul Anderson book is "The High Crusade" (actually one of my most favorite books period). Look forward to watching this channel now too!
Welcome. Genre books are fun + easy to sell.
Hitchhiker's was a revelatory experience to read as a teenager, wildly inventive and I appreciated the satire of British culture. Also it needs to be placed in the context of the time it was written.
Poul Anderson is like Robert Silverberg: incredibly prolific in several genres over a long career and it's all golden. They really deserve the title of Grandmaster of SFF!
Ive had Boat of a Million Years for awhile but I was sleeping on it, I'd assumed it was a generation ship novel from the title. Your synopsis has inspired me to read it now haha
I had the same thought re: Silverberg. Seems like there were many authors from that era who were prolific without sacrificing their talent
I agree! They completely deserved the honor of Grand Master, and I am glad they were recognized as such.
Good to have you back…I really like your detailed insights on the books and the authors without ever giving away too much of the story…I learn a lot from your perspective on those books and authors and because of that it seems to either steer me closer to or further away from said book or author but I always feel like I am making an informed choice based on your reviews…I agree with you about Solaris it’s a top 1 percenter in the genre and it really deserves to be there…I have only read one Poul Anderson book and that was Tau Zero which I really liked…May give more of his books a try in the future…Really liking the SciFireplace idea looks great and gives the channel a nice feel when watching your videos…Pleasure to have you back…
Keep up the good works…👍🏻
Thanks Bob, much appreciated
Awesome reviews! I haven't read any of these but I own Tau Zero by Poul Anderson, and Hitchhiker's Guide and Solaris are both on my TBR.
You gotta read Malazan: Book of the Fallen, you will love it my dude!
While I don't always agree with the conclusions you reach, your reviews are earnest and thoughtful. One note on Jack Vance - I always wondered if his characters "all talking like college professors" was the idea that of course people many thousands of years from now would just be better educated across the board, because education methods continue to improve because the body of knowledge the average person has to learn increases and increases.
Great video. I love Hitch Hikers but humour is very personal and if it didn’t hit then there’s nothing you can do about it. I always like how honest but considered you are in your reviews. I like Alice being called nutritious and charming. Good to see you back on UA-cam.
I discovered your channel recently and was so happy to see that my favourite sci-fi book of all time landed in your top 3 - Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. If you enjoyed it I suggest you read a few other Stanislaw Lem books. Lem tackles very often the topic of the inability to communicate during first contact. Books like Eden, Invincible or Fiasco all have the same shared idea, but in the end, each book is different. In each book, aliens are weird and incomprehensible and they don't want to speak to humans. Highly recommend to you these books! I am sure you will love them!
This was great, but maybe do a video for every 5 books next time. I missed you. No homo.
~ 3:00 - Exactly! It contains adventure, but adventure is not what it is about.
I have that same copy of The Crystal World, love the cover, it's beautiful
very good review, totally agree with you on Lem and Vance 👋but i urge you read the Dragon Masters
The Hitchhiker books are the funniest thing ever - if you're a Monty Python fan. Douglas Adams was, and all of his books are essentially written in Graham Chapman's voice. If you can hear that cadence in your head, or at least get an english accent from the audiobook, AND you enjoy Monty Python, it's hilarious. If not, well, it probably won't work for you.
It is interesting to see someone discover so many of the books and writers that I have loved for years. He gets it mostly right. Not Tolkein of course. Nothing boring there.
I always enjoy your takes on books, especially when you depart from prevailing opinion. Also, you have convinced me to read Jack Vance.
Had pretty much the exact reactions to The Crystal World, and Hitchhiker’s Guide, as you did. I found a scattering of various other SF/Humour efforts much more entertaining than what I got from Douglas Adams.
Eyes of the Overworld is one of my favourites, too. The best time I’ve had with Jack Vance, so far - not sure how he could top it.
That Poul Anderson novel bored me, so we split on that one. Too long for me, and I was wishing it was over probably before the half-way point. Glad you had a better time with it, but that ‘even-keel’ thing, for me, needed to get shaken up.
I loved all the LOTR books, but my hardest time with them was the first section of Fellowship. Once the journey was under way, and got dangerous, I was hooked and happy.
Solaris was one I got to late last year; I can tell you liked it more than me - but it was impressive, and haunting, and unique.
The Eyes of the Overworld is among my top 5 books of all time. It gets better with every reread.
I love hearing about all these books.
For some reason I'm reminded of a little-known book I read many years ago. It was called Preferred Risk (1955) by Edson McCann. It wasn't a great novel, but it was a fun read.
Fun fact; Edson McCann was a pseudonym. (The initials spell Einstein's equation E=MC^2.) It was actually written by Lester Del Rey and Frederik Pohl. Lester was also the editor of Del Rey Books, and he often used pseudonyms for his early novels.
This book had a clever dystopian future where the world was run by insurance companies. The MC was a guy who investigated insurance fraud, and he was after a guy who had suffered traumatic amputation of limbs in accidents, over and over. Turns out the guy was a mutant with the ability to regrow limbs, and he was intentionally throwing himself in front of vehicles just to stick it to the insurance companies.
Sounds pretty good, appreciate the recommendation
Your one-liner about the Lem ("I'm outclassed by the book") is classic-and happens to fit me as well. (Calling it a ghost story was another winner.) I haven't read all that much science fiction but I could still tell that "Solaris" was special-in any genre. (Tarkovsky's movie of "Solaris" is also a masterpiece. While the American version was surprisingly watchable.) The closest to "Solaris" that I've found in another book is "Under the Glacier" by Halldor Laxness-also a slow-burner heavy on the atmospherics.
THHGTTG is very much a book of its time and place. I enjoyed it immensely 40-odd years ago on the radio and in print. But it has now been emulated to death. Also, I'm still trying to work out why on Earth I watch your videos.
Sci Fireplace!!!!! Love it!!!
Great video. What I like about your reviews:
1. You dip into the lesser known books and treat them with as much respect as the classics
2. You do not bow to hive mind opinions on the classics (Hitchhiker and Ring) and instead give your honest personal experience
3. You have subtly morphed from an Aaron Rodgers look to a Tommy Fleetwood (pro golfer) look.
Very funny to me as someone who once got a C in gym class that I only get athlete lookalike comparisons
Love the channel. Two quick recommendations. The first is in the Sci Fi arena. Author called Cordwainer Smith. Unlike anyone else in the genre. Start with his Instrumentality of Mankind series.
The second one is non sci fi. I heard you mention you liked the KLF. There’s an excellent book by a guy called John Higgs about them.
Keep up the good work man.
I have Norstralia on the sci-fireplace, it's high on the list. I think I've seen that KLF book on a friend's shelf. Appreciate the recommends.
Solaris is incredible. Lem can be hysterically funny, too, as in The Futurological Congress. Frank Herbert: Hellstrom's Hive. I'm of the generation that absorbed The Lord of the Rings as a pre-teen in the sixties, and it has taken a firm place in my mind up there with The Once and Future King in British fantasy.
Good work. Matt!
Thanks Mr. Kelso. Hope you're doing well.
I've said this already in some other comment section of one of your clips. But watching your channel has finally re-awoken in me, the drive to read again. That is about the biggest endorsement I can give, just from a personal POV. There are other channels who do what you do, even for the very same genre. But, I don't know, there's a difference. I think it is your vocabulary, haha..
Makes me wonder if you teach. In case you don't, you probably should.
Edit - now that I have been plowing through your top 15 all-time list, it makes me want to discuss various books in detail. (Well I've only gotten through 'Blindsight', 'The Dispossessed, so far'; working on some 'Nostrilia', 'Blood Music' and "A Mote..')
Thanks very much, high compliment indeed. Glad I could get you back to reading.
Ah, this is the channel I’ve been missing from my life.
"When the viewer is ready, the vlogger appears"
Hooray! You live!
Never read ‘ hitchhikers guide’ but I read the sequel restaurant at the end of the universe….It’s read like a xeno travellers memoir with waffling footnotes that have a social studies vibe. I think it’s very much inspired by Richard Dawkins early books. Fun read.
Wondered if you'd read Clive Barker's Weaveworld or if it was on any list. One of my favourite books.
Agree on fellowship of the ring.
Definitely have to add some of these books to my TBR. What app are you using to choose your books for you?
Random name picker
Years ago I picked up the Hitchhikers Guide omnibus and was excited to start, then after an hour or two put it down and never opened it again. Maybe someday.
In elementary school I read The Hobbit and In high school I read The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion (and even The Book of Lost Tales) and loved them. After the LoTR movies came out I went to reread the books and was amazed at how bad they are as books. Certainly not poorly written but that they don't feel like they're meant to be read as novels but instead feel like a historian publishing their translation of a mythic saga recently dug out of a ruin somewhere. When I was in the right mood for that it was amazing, but when I wasn't they were nearly unreadable.
Enjoying Anderson but finding Fellowship of the Ring to be dull suggests a book: The Broken Sword. Norse-style epic with elves, wars, and a cursed magical item at the center, coming in at about two-thirds the length of FotR.
Re: _Solaris_ : have you read _His Master's Voice_ and _The Invincible,_ (and to the lesser extent _Fiasco_ ) exploring pretty much the same topic of innability to communicate with anyone/thing different? Highly recommended!
I hope this quote does not qualify as a spoiler, but it is central, IMO, not only to this novel, but to most of Lem's opus:
"“We head out into space, ready for anything, which is to say, for solitude, arduous work, self-sacrifice, and death. Out of modesty we don’t say it aloud, but from time to time we think about how magnificent we are. In the meantime-in the meantime, we’re not trying to conquer the universe; all we want is to expand Earth to its limits. Some planets are said to be as hot and dry as the Sahara, others as icy as the poles or tropical as the Brazilian jungle. We’re humanitarian and noble, we’ve no intention of subjugating other races, we only want to impart our values to them and in return, to appropriate their heritage. We see ourselves as Knights of the Holy Contact. That’s another falsity. We’re not searching for anything except people. We don’t need other worlds. We need mirrors. We don’t know what to do with other worlds. One world is enough, even there we feel stifled. We desire to find our own idealized image; they’re supposed to be globes, civilizations more perfect than ours; in other worlds we expect to find the image of our own primitive past. Yet on the other side there’s something we refuse to accept, that we fend off; though after all, from Earth we didn’t bring merely a distillation of virtues, the heroic figure of Humankind! We came here as we truly are, and when the other side shows us that truth-the part of it we pass over in silence-we’re unable to come to terms with it!”
Lem, Stanislaw. Solaris (Kindle Locations 1170-1180). Pro Auctore Wojciech Zemek. Kindle Edition.
1:30 - _The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_ is better, IMO. Also _So Long and Thanks for All the Fish,_ but in a different way. But i agree, the humor is often just absurd. You probably won't like Adams' two _Dirk Gently_ novels, either. I did.
Come on, how could you forget "Infinite Improbability Drive" ?!? 😜
Thanks for being frank on your views of these books - but one thought - you mention one book as 'being on well travelled ground' (The Genocides - which I haven't read by the way) but then say it was published in the 1960's - so surely highly likely to have been written before this subject matter did become 'well trodden ground'. Did enjoy the video & your thoughts, thanks
Hey! You actually read Solaris :) ! Nice!
Cugel is pronounced koo gull. Long U hard G.
Hitchhiker's Guide is best experienced as the original radio drama.
Yes! I could never understand the praise and adulation for Hitchhikers Guide. Dumb, unfunny British humor (and I LOVE Monty Python). After 30 pages I was bored to tears but slogged through it, hoping it might get better. 2 hours of my life I’ll never get back 🥵
For LotR, I always recommend the movies to people that havent read it.
Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword came out the same time and is a lot more engaging imo
My opinion of Hitchiker's Guide is exactly same as yours :) depressed robot was funny, never finished the book
Have you read Roadside Picnic? It's got that cold, contemplative Eastern European quality, like Solaris. Philoscifi.
I haven't, but I have my eye out for it
Great job and comment on this book s, just great job yeah 👍 you have this one too
Nifft the master thief in NIFFT THE LEAN is modelled on Cudgel.
I have been stuck halfway into the LOTR series for years. Need to push through one day...
I've also tried and failed multiple times to read Hitchhikers Guide and LOTR, the latter cemented a lifelong reluctance to watching/reading anything fantasy 🙃
LOTR was meant as a mythology for Britain, hence all singing and long winded descriptions. I skipped most of them. Then it's a fun book
Why isn't there the series Sword Of Truth by Terry Goodkind in your fantasy ranking ?
Colin Greenland reviewed The Godmakers for Imagine magazine, and stated that "For all his ever-expanding cosmic perspective, Herbert still writes characters who look and sound as if they'd been cut off the backs of cornflake packets."
If you want a good counter point to Fellowship read "The Fionavar Tapestry" for a humor entry, consider Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon."
I think you can't really appreciate "The Hitchhiker's Guide" if you didn't grow up with it. It was not originally a novel, but a radio series on the BBC during the late 70s (when I was a teen.) The series was developed with specific actors in the key roles and the sound effects created by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop were integral to its appeal.
Okay, I guess I'm going to pick up Solaris on my lunch break tomorrow.
I thought the same thing about the Poul Anderson book.
Sci-Fireplace should be your new channel
There's a funny ordering of the reviews. Was it intentional? Hitchhiker's Guide: "I'm a hard sell when it comes to comedy." Next up, LOTR: "I liked it more than previous attempts ... it has an overwhelming sense of melancholy." The Genocides: "It's very dark ... I like it more than Handmaid's Tale."
The thing I love most in Jack Vance's work is that everyone is always negotiating. No matter how outlandish or bizzare the circumstances, everyone is constantly bargaining for advantage in every interaction. Deodand chasing you thru the forests of the Dying Earth? Explain to him why he shouldn't eat you...!
Haha, never put that in words, but yes, you're right
Vance cites P. G. Wodehouse as a major influence. That may seem surprising at first glance, but it you look at the extreme care they both take with language, it makes perfect sense.
@@michaelgarza6735 It does make sense. Vance has a similar droll humor and many of the characters feel similar.
@@Bookpilled Even more so if you read Space Opera or Ports of Call/Lurulu. Both of those feature intimidating Wodehouse-style Aunts. Howsabout doing a special all-Jack Vance post? There are a lot of great titles to talk about...!
Well, you're allowed to have wrong opinions re: Hitchhiker's Guide. I'm sorry you didn't love it. It's "the infinite improbability drive"
I will acknowledge, Tolkien really likes his own vocabulary, and is kinda melodramatic.
Hitchhiker’s Guide is so bad.
Fellowship of the Ring is God Tier. I relate to Hobbits so much, and I love rural ScotlandIrelandEngland. If you don’t, I can see why this series would drag.
"The most nutritious little bit of candy-floss reading that you could really hope for." (Can I steal that line)?
Cool, I had to walk away from The Jagged Orbit after discovering that it was a sequel to Stand On Zanzibar. So I’ll start Zanzibar some time after I move.
You have summed up Piers Anthony in a nutshell.
He is weird, sexuality and his books can get pretty weird, some of his ideas are very disturbing, but with all that said and any other negative things anybody can say about him there are ideas in his books and scenes in his books that stick in your mind for decades and decades. I am 63 years old. I started reading Pierce Anthony when I was 21 and some of those books are still stuck in my brain and the older I get the less weird they get and the more I actually see the reality of some of his ideas. But maybe that is because the world and reality has grown more insane than I ever imagined it could be??? But I warn you when you’re 63 you’re still going to be pondering some of the Piers Anthony stuff you’re just now getting into.
Great edition of The Crystal World. Too bad you didn’t like it that much. I love it and Ballard’s work in general. Literary SF is a good thing. I’m looking forward to reading the Disch, which I recently picked up. New Wave writers are my jam.
Improbability Drive!
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy is a PARODY. The jokes are the least part of it. I read it in the early 80s and it was mindblowing then. However many have revisited the themes and ideas since then to the extent that the original feels a bit hum drum.
After this, I am really curious to hear you review Gateway by Frederik Pohl.
Found it so-so
@@Bookpilled I guess it is one that is hit or miss. The rest of the novels are not much like the first, I guess as a programmer the first one is more interesting to me, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon and the rest might (or might not) be more to your liking.
Pohl's books of 1970s were amazing, I really enjoyed The Gate and The Man Plus. But sequel of The Gate, "Beyond the Blue Horizon", was boring
@@jsclilia6877 "The Gate"? I agree on any of the sequels, though there are some short stories from before that are good like "The Merchants of Venus". Was Gateway released in other countries under another title?
Godmakers, didn't like. Genocides, Crystal World didn't read. Boat, Alice, Hitchhiker's Guide, Fellowship of the Ring, Solaris liked. Eyes of Overworld, Cugel's Saga, Blue World, don't remember. Followed each recap, well detailed, although I don't think the same about a few of them, nice video! Read the Sheep Look up, liked it.
Brunner is excellent.
Ever read books by John Christopher? the death of grass, etc
You're right, _Alice_ doesn't have much to say about the nature of consciousness. But I think it does have a little bit to say about childhood, not all of which is obselete even now. Admittedly, much of the satire is of course incredibly dated. Carroll's poetry is now a lot more famous than the poems he is parodying.
Brenda Bruns sent me 😎
I at least found the God Makers interesting from the perspective of the federation or whatever it's called. It kind of felt like a strange corruption of the federation of Star Trek. "Join our glorious federation in peaceful co-operation or we'll Nuke your planet into glass".
I tried to read Fellowship of the Rings many years ago. Just could not get through it. Great story, horrible read.
Amoungus
Do you have a goodreads account?
No I just browse
@@Bookpilled i see. was wandering about your thoughts on delany, butler, russ and possibly china mieville. lmn
@@akvae2577 Haven't really read them. Will be reading Nova by Delany soon. Have read a bit of Hogg, which was a fun beach read.
I feel bad now because if you didn't like Fellowship of the Ring then I can't trust anything else you think now. 😞
As a Brit I have to say I wouldn't recommend Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy to any non-Brit as I do think its a very "British" sense of humour and probably doesn't translate as well for people outside of the UK (particularly in the second half of the 20th Century), maybe just self-depreciating projection of the peculiarities and the silliness of British people in to a Sci-Fi scene to make it more absurd.
My man on fellowship... but I gotta say, both books seem to be best consumed by a certain demographic that you may have passed.
I agree Hitchhikers...was a bore and not funny.
Very interesting reviews, although I do not understand or agree with your Lord of rings review.
When will you enter the Bobiverse ?
It's not vintage.
He will absolutely despise Bobiverse if he ever reads it. That book is “Reddit” in book form.
@@obscuracrimepodcast True 🤣 I think Philip José Farmer is more an author he would like to read.
I forced myself to read and finish Lord of the Rings and found it the worst and most boring book I ever read.
I read it about 30 years ago and it still holds both titles
Hitch Hikers sssssooooo over rated, Not sure if you read Macroscope by Piers Anthony, hidden gem, one of my all time favorite characters.
Tolkien is best served up in your teens. It doesn't travel well into adulthood. I'm disappointed in your reaction to Hitch Hikers....try the BBC television version. I have always hated Ballard.....he really is over-praised by non SF readers. Vance for God!
@2:45 GASP! 😮 You did not like lord of the rings, and you also did not like hitchhikers, Dude! your funny bone must be broken or something, jajajaja
I've never been able to get though more than a third of any Tolkien book. Yes...BORING.
Hitchhikers Guide is mediocre
It's not your fault you didn't think it was funny. It is British humour. American humour is quite different. Couldn't finish the Genocides.
I've consumed thousands of hours of British comedy, Adams just isn't for me.
I’m mexican and I prefer british humor to anything else. Red dwarf and monty python but not all, in general it’s much harder to make good comedy.
If you think fundamentalist religion isn’t a relevant problem anymore you need to travel a bit outside of California, brother. Or at least turn on the news.