I have read around 25 or so Hugo Award winners. I actually did a vote on which I should read next. I recorded 2 videos, one for the voting and one for the results!
I would like to see your take on American vs British sci-fi books and writers and which one is the best. My favourite British sci-fi books are Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and A clockwork orange and hoping to read a novel called something triffids, about alien plants invading the earth and I believe it was published in the 50s or 60s.
Thanks, that’s a good idea! I read A Clockwork Orange and really enjoyed it, even though it has dark moments. The Day of the Triffids was interesting and I liked the ending but post-apocalyptic isn’t my favourite sci-fi genre.
Great selection of titles from the three decades, Jonathan. My top five from each would include some of the ones you chose, but I think the 1990s would likely prevail as my favorite decade. The 80s had some terrific high points, but I think the 90s had more overall depth when matched up against the 80s. I like the best-of-five, team tournament/death match format you chose. The final round will be interesting to watch.
Thanks for the feedback, I’m glad you’re enjoying the series! It will be tough to pick winners in the final! What are some of your favourite 90s sci-fi books?
@@WordsinTime In no particular order, some of my favorites from the 90s include: Otherland (Tad Williams), To Say Nothing of the Dog (Connie Willis), Doomsday Book (Willis), A Deepness in the Sky (Vernor Vinge), A Fire Upon the Deep (Vinge), Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson), The Neutronium Alchemist (Peter F Hamilton), The Fall of Hyperion (Dan Simmons), Ilium/Olympos (Simmons), Permutation City (Greg Egan). My top five for the decade would definitely include A Deepness in the Sky, The Fall of Hyperion, and To Say Nothing of the Dog, but I'd have difficulty picking the final two from my potential list above.
@@thelibraryladder Thanks so much for the list! Those are all books I'm interested in reading so it's good to hear you enjoyed them! I'll likely be reading Pandora's Star (if I like the Commonwealth Saga I'll read Night's Dawn as well) and Permutation City in 2022, and Otherland, Doomsday Book, and Ilium are on my schedule for 2023!
@@WordsinTime I think you're going to enjoy your 2022 and 2023 reading lists. Also, I just realized I'm losing track of time in my dotage. Ilium and Oympus were published in the early aughts, so they wouldn't qualify for my best-of-the-90s list (but I'd put them on my candidate list for the 00s).
Oh my, I enjoyed this video sooo much. I did scream "PICK USE OF WEAPONS!" which startled my cats... So many good memories of Player of Games as well. I've also added some of the books you mentioned to my TBR. :-D
I'm glad you enjoyed the format! The other matchups are the 50s v 60s and 00s v 10s. I'll be making a grand final video with the 3 winners fairly soon. It's going to be tough to pick between those books!
I really love and miss the golden days of sci-fi. Great video btw! Is there any way I could interest you in reading a SFF novel I published titled A Gambit of Exiles?
I’m glad you enjoyed the video! I also made a video recently using a slightly different method to compare sci-fi decades. Congratulations on your novel! I get a ton of requests and I don’t have time for any additional reads at the moment, but feel free to share your novel in the Share Your Writing channel in my Discord server!
Some great Titles and recommendations here for the three decades my score was 3 to the 80’s 1 to the 70s and 1 to the 90’s The one for the 70’s being A Mote in God’s Eye and the one for the 90’s being A Fire Upon the Deep…in your number 5 yes Neuromancer is most well known and a Top 20 all time book influencer but not the best book as to me in this group as A Fire upon the Deep is deeper and richer in scope and story and would get the nod for me over Neuromancer…your number 4 four Replay would finish 3rd behind A Mote in God’s Eye which is a top 20 book IMHO and Use of Weapons for number 3 Player of Games easily over the other two…I like Vonnegut a lot but this is not one of his better books and certainly not over Player of Games…Hyperion easily wins the number 2 spot… A top 10 if not not top 5 all timer on my list…with Rendezvous with Rama and last Ender’s Shadow which was easily the worst of the three in that grouping…and your number 1 grouping was tough because I love Hyperion but found the 2nd book a step below the first book and so Ender’s game gets the blue ribbon in that grouping…The Culture as a series is greater than the sun of each of its books so I would like to let readers know the Culture as a series is a must read where none of the books may be in my top 20 the Culture as a series definitely is a Top 20 All Time Series for me…Great books mentioned in this video Thanks Jonathan
Thanks for sharing Bob! I'm glad to hear you love Rendezvous with Rama as well as the Culture series. I'll actually be posting the Grand Final matchup today!
A Fire Upon the Deep is WAY better than Neuromancer. I've read it several times, but I have zero desire to read Neuromancer again. For #3, The Player of Games is the only one I've read, but I liked it. I loved both Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.
I’m glad you loved A Fire Upon the Deep! I liked The Player of Games so I’m looking forward to reading more of the Culture series. Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow are both phenomenal!
Just wanna say that I started reading again about a month ago and your channel has been SO helpful in finding great stuff to keep in front of me!
That is awesome to hear! I’m glad the recommendations have been helpful. Welcome to the channel!
Also, I would like to see your take on sci fi novels that were winners of Nebula and Hugo awards and on your opinion about them.
I have read around 25 or so Hugo Award winners. I actually did a vote on which I should read next. I recorded 2 videos, one for the voting and one for the results!
I would like to see your take on American vs British sci-fi books and writers and which one is the best. My favourite British sci-fi books are Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and A clockwork orange and hoping to read a novel called something triffids, about alien plants invading the earth and I believe it was published in the 50s or 60s.
Thanks, that’s a good idea! I read A Clockwork Orange and really enjoyed it, even though it has dark moments. The Day of the Triffids was interesting and I liked the ending but post-apocalyptic isn’t my favourite sci-fi genre.
Great selection of titles from the three decades, Jonathan. My top five from each would include some of the ones you chose, but I think the 1990s would likely prevail as my favorite decade. The 80s had some terrific high points, but I think the 90s had more overall depth when matched up against the 80s.
I like the best-of-five, team tournament/death match format you chose. The final round will be interesting to watch.
Thanks for the feedback, I’m glad you’re enjoying the series! It will be tough to pick winners in the final! What are some of your favourite 90s sci-fi books?
@@WordsinTime In no particular order, some of my favorites from the 90s include: Otherland (Tad Williams), To Say Nothing of the Dog (Connie Willis), Doomsday Book (Willis), A Deepness in the Sky (Vernor Vinge), A Fire Upon the Deep (Vinge), Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson), The Neutronium Alchemist (Peter F Hamilton), The Fall of Hyperion (Dan Simmons), Ilium/Olympos (Simmons), Permutation City (Greg Egan).
My top five for the decade would definitely include A Deepness in the Sky, The Fall of Hyperion, and To Say Nothing of the Dog, but I'd have difficulty picking the final two from my potential list above.
@@thelibraryladder Thanks so much for the list! Those are all books I'm interested in reading so it's good to hear you enjoyed them! I'll likely be reading Pandora's Star (if I like the Commonwealth Saga I'll read Night's Dawn as well) and Permutation City in 2022, and Otherland, Doomsday Book, and Ilium are on my schedule for 2023!
@@WordsinTime I think you're going to enjoy your 2022 and 2023 reading lists.
Also, I just realized I'm losing track of time in my dotage. Ilium and Oympus were published in the early aughts, so they wouldn't qualify for my best-of-the-90s list (but I'd put them on my candidate list for the 00s).
Oh my, I enjoyed this video sooo much. I did scream "PICK USE OF WEAPONS!" which startled my cats... So many good memories of Player of Games as well. I've also added some of the books you mentioned to my TBR. :-D
Hahaha my apologies to your cats! But I’m glad you enjoyed the video. Let me know if you pick up any of these books!
This was a fun video! I enjoyed the format - I need to go watch the previous matchups!
I'm glad you enjoyed the format! The other matchups are the 50s v 60s and 00s v 10s. I'll be making a grand final video with the 3 winners fairly soon. It's going to be tough to pick between those books!
@@WordsinTime I also should have mentioned that I'm not as well read in this genre as others, so you gave me some great TBR fodder. So thanks!
@@RedFuryBooks I mostly read sci-fi so I feel the same way about fantasy haha. Let me know if you pick up any of these books!
@@WordsinTime Will do!
Excellent content! Thank you
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I am surprised that Kim Stanley Robinson's Martian trilogy was not reviewed as being representative of the 1990's.
I haven’t read it yet but definitely plan on reading it at some point, perhaps next year. I’m glad you enjoyed the trilogy!
I really love and miss the golden days of sci-fi. Great video btw! Is there any way I could interest you in reading a SFF novel I published titled A Gambit of Exiles?
I’m glad you enjoyed the video! I also made a video recently using a slightly different method to compare sci-fi decades.
Congratulations on your novel! I get a ton of requests and I don’t have time for any additional reads at the moment, but feel free to share your novel in the Share Your Writing channel in my Discord server!
@@WordsinTime I’ll definitely make sure to check it out! And thank you 😁.
Some great Titles and recommendations here for the three decades my score was 3 to the 80’s 1 to the 70s and 1 to the 90’s The one for the 70’s being A Mote in God’s Eye and the one for the 90’s being A Fire Upon the Deep…in your number 5 yes Neuromancer is most well known and a Top 20 all time book influencer but not the best book as to me in this group as A Fire upon the Deep is deeper and richer in scope and story and would get the nod for me over Neuromancer…your number 4 four Replay would finish 3rd behind A Mote in God’s Eye which is a top 20 book IMHO and Use of Weapons for number 3 Player of Games easily over the other two…I like Vonnegut a lot but this is not one of his better books and certainly not over Player of Games…Hyperion easily wins the number 2 spot…
A top 10 if not not top 5 all timer on my list…with Rendezvous with Rama and last Ender’s Shadow which was easily the worst of the three in that grouping…and your number 1 grouping was tough because I love Hyperion but found the 2nd book a step below the first book and so Ender’s game gets the blue ribbon in that grouping…The Culture as a series is greater than the sun of each of its books
so I would like to let readers know the Culture as a series is a must read where none of the books may be in my top 20 the Culture as a series definitely is
a Top 20 All Time Series for me…Great books mentioned in this video Thanks Jonathan
Thanks for sharing Bob! I'm glad to hear you love Rendezvous with Rama as well as the Culture series. I'll actually be posting the Grand Final matchup today!
@@WordsinTime looking forward to it 👍🏻
The notes in God's eye is literally the best how could you
Haha the moties are great!
A Fire Upon the Deep is WAY better than Neuromancer. I've read it several times, but I have zero desire to read Neuromancer again. For #3, The Player of Games is the only one I've read, but I liked it. I loved both Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.
I’m glad you loved A Fire Upon the Deep! I liked The Player of Games so I’m looking forward to reading more of the Culture series. Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow are both phenomenal!