I am amazed at your comments about The City and the Stars. I loved it. However I loved Childhood's End too but when I tried rereading it recently I gave up after a couple of dozen pages. I think that sometimes it matters (a lot) where you are in life at the time you read a book.
I really think it does, Paul. I used to be crazy about Arthur C Clarke when I was a teenager, but now I struggle with his writing. Maybe his books didn't age very well. Or I didn't, either...😂
@@luiznogueira1579 When I was a teenager (Early 70s) I discovered 'Titus Groan' I loved that book so much. The wonderful writing! I remember kicking my legs in the air and shouting "YES!" Counting the pages and worrying that the book would eventually end...but
@PaulSaether Paul, Titus Groan's been on my TBR for years now, haven't gotten around to reading it, for some reason. Maybe now, at 65, I'm finally grown up enough to enjoy it... thanks for the tip!
So many titles I had never heard of. A couple of authors new to me as well. Very fun video. I now have even more future reads to look forward to. Thanks to everyone that filled out the survey. Cheers all and thank you, SciFiScavanger.
Fantastic! There's a couple of other List videos on my channel the last couple of months, based on two different "100 Best" books covering between them 1949 to 2010. Plenty more to choose from there if you still feel short of reading material... Thanks for watching 👀!
Awesome, welcome! If you have a root around in the videos from the last couple of months you'll find a few different list videos like this one. Thanks for watching 👀!
Appreciate the list. But I must say I winced a little hearing so many Arthur C Clarke books get high scores from us - only to be regarded as 'boring'. The City and the Stars, Rendezvous with Rama, 2001, Childhood's End... all epic and influential for their time. And Clarke is still the kind of gentle, optimistic sci-fi author whose work we need more in our world now, than ever. But not every book can be as important as _Project Hail Mary_ I guess?...
Clarke is a funny one for me. I read loads (it seemed to me) when young and I recall liking them a lot back then. Not so much these days. I am almost afraid to re-read my faves of his in case now-me doesn't appreciate them in the same way. Anyway, certainly no criticism intended regarding anyone else's choices for their top 10, it's OK for us not to like the same things. In fact life would be very boring if we did. Just btw, I don't hold PHM in especially high regard, certainly not in the long run, it's a fun popcorn read and that's it, but I might point out it's fairly gentle and rather optimistic in some respects. All the best, and thanks for watching!
I was looking for his old ones to compare, they're not up on his channel any more. 🤷♂️ anyway, thanks for watching 👀!, hope it was a worthy successor.
There's also a couple of other big list videos: ua-cam.com/video/x0bPQA9SfjI/v-deo.htmlsi=upjqflgIO2jS8rAw And ua-cam.com/video/MZU_lH7Tk5g/v-deo.htmlsi=PTmlB0OUqnmzry8r
Happy to see my dear Hyperion at the top! Don’t agree with everything on the list nor with everything Mr Scavenger says, but I think it’s a great list that inspires me to explore new authors!
Great stuff putting this together 👍 Some predictable ones, some pleasant surprises. I think Aldiss' Non-stop is a better book than Hothouse, though the latter is still very good. Surprised to see no City by Simak; I always thought that was far and away his most acclaimed work. I've seen Way Station mentioned a few times on SF channels but strangely it's the one Simak book I've never been able to find in the wild. As for the PKD books, I'd say that neither the adaptations of Do Androids Dream or the Man in the High Castle have that much in common with the book. The latter is more a subversion of alternate history I think whereas the TV series leans more into that aspect. I enjoy the show for what it is, but it doesn’t address the same themes or grasp the point of the novel imo.
Totally agree with you about Non-stop. It was a real page-turner for me, and I had to fight off my siblings, who were also crazy about it! Yeah, City is definitely Simak's masterpiece, imo. Way Station's also very good, though. You're right about the PKD adaptations. I think there's like one scene in Blade Runner that's also in Do Androids... I'm firmly convinced that Ridley never read the book.
Fantastic list. I was very happy to see Children of Time highly ranked and agree with the top two and the order. I loved the entire Hyperion Cantos series and the way all four books tied up so well at the end. I've got a few books on the list already on my shelf waiting to be read, and I've added a couple more (Ender's Game and Neuromancer, although it sounds as though I shouldn't read them too closely together)
Ah great, glad you.enjoyed it. Later today, I'll be running through a cut of the same data, a top 50 focused just on books published since 2000. Thanks for watching 👀!
I appreciate all the time you’ve taken to compile this list. Your summaries really describe the plots and it’s very helpful. I was happy to participate. I could’ve taken bets on 1&2. Neither is my personal favorite but they are excellent books. I loved Dune but none of the sequels did it for me. Hyperion was something I liked but didn’t love.
Pretty surprised at Hyperion as number one. It's very good though. There is quite a bit I have read that I enjoyed more; Ringworld, Borne, The Martian, Snow Crash, Project Hail Mary, Neuromancer. Can't recall what my whole list was that I sent.
Yeah, normally Dune wins these things by a country mile. Be interesting to see how/if it changes when I repeat at the end of next year. Cheers Montie, thanks for watching 👀!
Great vid, and great list. I also think I preferred the second Hyperion book, although clearly not enough to include in my top 10 as I completely forget about it!
Such an interesting list! A lot of classics (understandably), but thankfully also some newer books. I’m happy Children of Time ranked so highly. I loved that book, both in terms of the concepts and the heart with which it was written. I never thought I’d be so emotionally invested in a colony of spiders.
I think I'll do a cut of this data focused on books published after 2000 so the newer books get more of a look in. Glad you found it interesting Sam, and thanks for watching 👀!
Children of Time is now on my want-to-buy list so I can educate myself a bit on what modern SF is like. Being an older guy I usually hunt for classic SF, but I have managed to acquire a taste for some of the more modern authors like Alastair Reynolds or Greg Egan. I also wanted to mention Sheri S. Tepper, because her novel Grass has been a relatively new discovery for me, but then I checked her bio and realized that sadly she has already passed away 😢.
Great list! I got in too late to participate in the survey, but I enjoyed every minute of this. Bit of trivia - the cover art on the edition of 'The Mote in God's Eye' you showed was also used to great effect in 'The Science Fiction Century' (1997, David Hartwell, ed.), a fantastic omnibus of 20th SF short stories. Keep up the great work!
Great video, thanks for the hard work pulling all that data into one list. I get a little tired of top sci-fi book lists that all include the exact same books, of course it is all subjective and I get it-it's kind of the point of the whole thing. But I wanted to do something different. I included books that really made an impact on me the past couple of years, but the same books are mostly overlooked and don't make most lists. Neuromancer is one of my favorite books, I re-read it every year...didn't make my list. Dune is an amazing book (not quite as amazing as the first time I read it many years ago)...didn't make my list. Just wanted to do something different. That being said a few of those did make the list. Great video as usual!
@@SciFiScavenger I do remember a few: Tau Zero: Poul Anderson Shipwreck: Charles Logan Stand on Zanzibar: John Brunner (Glad it made the list!) Farewell Earth’s Bliss: D.G. Compton Palace of Eternity: Bob Shaw Fiasco: Lem Can’t specifically recall the rest
Yes I much prefer them to the more recent yellow ones. I haven't progressed to collecting them, I'd still much prefer to have a vintage copy. Thanks for watching 👀!
Great job! I initially thought you were only going to mention the top 10, but you really exceded my expectations. Good thing, too, because the actual Top 10 I found a bit disappointing. Flowers for Algernon, really? And I was never a big Dune fan, I'm afraid. Hyperion? Never read it. But I did enjoy The Canterbury Tales...
OK I have now watched the whole of the top 100 books selection. I have 84 of them. I have read 15! Got some fun reads ahead, I guess. For some reason I don't think I'll ever get round to that DUNE thing.
Not that surprising a list, other than Dune not ending up #1. The three books I picked that I figured would make this community-created list are indeed on the list - Blindsight, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and A Fire Upon the Deep - so that played out the way I thought it would. I knew my PKD novel of choice would not make the list, but I knew he would be well represented with the usual suspects. Many of the books are books I love - Dune, Ender’s Game, The Mote in God’s Eye, Inverted World, Rendezvous with Rama, and more - but they’ve just been crowded out of my own Top Ten by, admittedly, some (mostly) highly regarded books that happen to be less well known. It was nice to see the list not get jammed up with books mainly from the last 5-10 years. Somebody, somewhere, still appreciates the old stuff. How many votes for “old stuff” were by younger readers - well that I don’t know. Nice to see The Martian Chronicles land, not just Fahrenheit 451. I’m a Sheep Look Up guy, not a Stand on Zanzibar guy, but neither are in my Top Ten. Le Guin is the massively popular SF author that lands cold for me, virtually every time; I live with that, I’m not sure I’m compelled to re-read her stuff, to try and align with the crowd. Heinlein won’t go away, and I’m fine with that; he’s got nothing in my personal Top Ten, but I have enjoyed many of his books…although most of my various favourites by him were not likely to make this video, except for Have Space Suit, Will Travel. Perhaps A Door into Summer showed up, in a parallel universe… Anyway, thanks for this. As a reading list for anyone wanting to roam the genre, it’s pretty solid, especially in terms of variety.
The distribution of publication year was interesting tho not hugely surprising. 60s to 80s was the sweet spot. I'll share some vital statistics over the next few days. Thanks for watching 👀!
Good stuff. I was curious as to how many of the books you have and read - most of both. Interesting that you’ve been slow to get to some of the classics. So many books right? Lastly, I loved your quip about “Project Hail Mary” “…Some people are a bit Sniffy about…” Perfect respectful British way of calling out the High-Brow’s. Hello Matt at Bookpilled and others.
My education as an SF reader is far from complete, but I'm catching up fast. PHM was just fun, popcorn stuff, but there's a place for that too. I don't consider my SF soul sullied by lowering myself to the gutter to read such lightweight popular fodder! And its sales figures speak for themselves. Cheers Tom, thanks for watching 👀!
If you prefer, the audiobook is also excellent. I believe the readers voice is perfect for the prose, the tone of the story, and the pov of the main character narrator.
“All The Fields Of Hell” Move to top of list now. It is not “a bit nuts” as you gleaned from the book blurb, however it is a wholly unique approach to an apocalyptic alien invasion. That would be enough to make the book good - but Adam Nevill’s careful, thoughtful, masterful writing style takes this novel to a top tier level that most Sci-Fi/horror writers do not attain, nor probably care to. The scene and characters are so well crafted and written, and the prose so considerate and descriptive, that I found myself constantly in wonder that I was reading an end of the world science fiction story.
Fascinating the titles that aren't even in contention, though the variety is nice too. Surprised to not see Ancillary Justice, Red Rising, Wool, The Expanse, Foreigner or even some more 'obscure' things like Richard Morgan, Christopher Ruochhio, John Scalzi, A Memory Called Empire, Ninefox Gambit, etc. Maybe they just haven't stood the test time enough to percolate into the public consciousness. IDK about Hyperion - kinda iffy on that, but I definitely agree with Dune and Neuromancer - those have got to be at the top! Lots of familiar classics of course. Definitely read H.G. Wells if you find the time - he holds up suprisingly well!
Yes, I've enjoyed many of those. They may well have appeared lower down, there was a long tail below 75. My audience seems to skew older in both age and taste in books. The majority of books chosen were from 60s to 80s. I might do a cut of this date focused on books published after 2000. Thanks for watching 👀!
Pretty much as expected. I would say I agree with 90% of the choices, and with 80% of _your_ personal taste 😀 Several books I would have added (I promise I will participate the next time; then again, perhaps npt: how can one select only *ten* favourites, and even rank them ?!?): _Ramnant Polupation_ by Elizabeth Mook, _Four Ways to Forgiveness_ (or _Five...,_ depending on inclusion od not of _Old music and Slave Women_ ) by Ursula K. Le Guin, Perhaps her _Always Coming Home,_ something by Greg Egan,_ preferably one of earlier novels or collections, something by Connie Willis, Blish/Kornbluth's _Space Merchants,_ Disch's _Camp Concentration,_
Love seeing Project Hail Mary so high on the list. Something to be said for good fun. Must say that I am surprised at not a single Delaney book - but pleasantly so.
I've read 50 on that list, so not as badly read in matters SF as I thought. Be interested to see if you run this next year and if/how fashions impact on viewers' choices.
So glad to see the Sturgeon's "More than human" is still regarded as a novel very worth reading. Not bad for a Science Fiction novel published in 1953 that does not feature space ships, time warps, and laser blasters! So very much enjoyed hearing your comments an observations!!!
Hyperion?! That was a surprise. I'm also surprised by how it's supposed to be an updated version of the Canterbury Tales. Having read that for school, many, many years ago, and hating it, I'm disinclined to read it. Oh well, perhaps if it came on sale...🤔😳😂🤣😛🐶
@ Well, in terms of Epic Science Fiction sagas, that I actually have a significant interest in, I recently completed purchase of the Galactic Core saga by Benford. That's more my style, of relentless hard sci-fi. 😉. As always, good and thoughtful content. I do appreciate it, even when we agree to disagree. Remember, I bought Operation Hail Mary on your recommendation alone. 🐶
I just started Blindsight by Peter Watts and I am on page 100 now. I didn't get into the story very much at this point, but I stay curious and try to figure out why it's #8 on the list.
Vamps in a spacecraft would die out pretty quick. I wonder if he could have survived feeding off those aliens? We’ve shared a few comments now about Bookpilled. In his review of Blindsight he actually said, “It’s about vampires…”., and he did not expound. I was aghast.
It was funny that I got through the whole video and then thought "Hey, wait, my number one (Slaughterhouse-five) isn't on here on all!" Lol, it's such a good list, so I'm not mad at all. Crazy to think that if I had seen this video in 2022, I would have read less than 10 of them. Now, I'm at 40 or so. Thanks for putting it together!
I always wonder why, when folks are reviewing “Blindsight”, they feel the need to point out that the book features a vampire? The captain is a great character who didn’t need to be a vampire, and the story arch would have progressed similarly had he only been engineered human like the rest of the crew. Might be I’m incorrect but is this fact really an important part of the story? It bugs me because revealing that tid-bit to the uninitiated with the novel might lessen the true greatness of what the story truly is, like it is some kind of “Dracula” in space. When it really is an intelligent first contact story that explores many deep subjects.
Great video. I thought it was just going to be a top ten, which is not enough! I lost the list i submitted, but it seems about 6 or 7 of the selections on it made it into the 75! I first read Childhood's End in the late 1960s, and again last year. That concept of evolution and the philosophy the novel seems to promote, and used so often since, does not seem realistic to me.
Hiya. I will be using the data from the responses to look at some different cuts of the data, so at least one or two videos still to come. Thanks for watching 👀!
Perhaps you should bag off the dice of destiny just for once and get Brave New World, The Time Machine, The War Of The Worlds, Frankenstein and Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep read, none of those are particularly long books and all are great. This list has motivated me to finally get Fahrenheit 451 and Flowers For Algernon read.
You didn't like Lord of Light, that's too bad I've read it countless times since it was published and learned something new with each reading. I also loved City and the Stars.
@summerkagan6049 yeah I'm in the minority it seems. I think the stage of reading is important. I think if I'd read them when younger I might have felt very differently, like you, but on reading now I bounced hard off both for some reason, just didn't work for me. Oh well. Thanks for watching 👀!
@ainstycastings1859 oh dear! There was a long tail behind the 75. I shall release tidbits and statistics from the survey in community posts over the next week or so. Cheers Andy, thanks for watching 👀!
I couldn’t see the thickness of the Neal Stephenson book, but from the fact that after a while you had to use both hands to hold it into the camera I assume it‘s one of his usual fat ones 😁
you should try watching the movie for "a scanner darkly" if you're not likely to read the book soon. it has a very strange relationship to the iron man movie of all things (iron man owes a key convention to ASD as well as being a rung on RDJ's revival in the industry). ending is shattering and amazing. hail mary was amazing. i was really shocked at how bold it was in making the protagonist SOOOOOOOO unlikable! as much as i hated him, i was mind-boggled that the writer decided to go for it like this! electric sheep is TREMENDOUSLY different. aside from the dick-ish motif of questioning reality, it has virtually nothing in common with the book. completely missing the nipo-phile angle and even the imagery of the book doesn't line up with the movie. heard dick liked the cuts of the movie he saw before he died (i think he died before release of the film) but i would imagine that was primarily due to his work getting the big budget hollywood treatment... however unrecognizable. i'm pretty sure algernon was one of the few sci fi books to ever extract tears from me. i really liked the first three books of dune but it's kind of remarkable how much of it is talking heads. it could be adapted (accurately) as a stage play. so much so that i wondered if herbert started off writing plays. the next 3 books i found increasingly ridiculous such that i consistently think of it now as "space nuns vs. space whores [featuring duncan idaho!]". hyperion really stands in for the series imo. i agree that the second was better and that the last two also are better imo. but the first one sets the stage. the priest's story is amazing but i felt like the cyberpunk story was far too "on-the-nose" for the genre it was going for. felt like a over-broad pastiche.
Great video, John. I read 55 of the listed titles. I was starting to despair because there was no Simmons entry and then there is Hyperion at number one. Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are actually one single novel, but were split into two tomes because of their size. To my great sorrow, some of the writers I admire didn't enter the list. No Stephen Baxter, no Paul Mcauley, no Simon Ings, no Adam Roberts, no M. John Harrison, no Thomas Disch, no Charles Stross, no Ian Mcdonald, no Chris Beckett, no David Zindell... Only one Egan and Priest and way to much Andy Weir. A little weird that Handmaid's Tale didn't made the list. But literary taste is a literary taste. So what can you do?
It was a fairly small sample (170 responses) and preferences skew 50s to 80s, judging by the results. If I do again next year, more responses. Probably.
In my defence this is a list of 75 books a couple of hundred strangers have recommended, I've read a significant majority, no point pretending I've read the others. 🤷♂️
Lol. Hyperion was #2 on my list, but Dune only made it to the honorary mentions. But you know, selecting 10 books from among the whole body of SF that I have read since my childhood was such an awfully difficult task, that this time I didn’t just go for the usual classic must-read stuff, but put also put stories in that were somehow influential for me or that I can‘t get out of my head. John Brunner‘s The Shockwave Rider, or Silverberg‘s Sailing to Byzantium (which being a novella is probably not even considered a book in its own right by many).
That was such a refreshing collection of books! There were so many titles that you usually don’t see on top SF lists.
Hi Laura, fab, glad you enjoyed it and thanks for watching 👀!
I am amazed at your comments about The City and the Stars.
I loved it.
However I loved Childhood's End too but when I tried rereading it recently I gave up after a couple of dozen pages.
I think that sometimes it matters (a lot) where you are in life at the time you read a book.
I really think it does, Paul. I used to be crazy about Arthur C Clarke when I was a teenager, but now I struggle with his writing. Maybe his books didn't age very well. Or I didn't, either...😂
I'm sure that's right. There are Clarke books I loved as a yoof that I fear I might think less of now. Cheers Paul, thanks for watching 👀!
@@luiznogueira1579
When I was a teenager (Early 70s) I discovered 'Titus Groan'
I loved that book so much.
The wonderful writing!
I remember kicking my legs in the air and shouting "YES!"
Counting the pages and worrying that the book would eventually end...but
@PaulSaether Paul, Titus Groan's been on my TBR for years now, haven't gotten around to reading it, for some reason. Maybe now, at 65, I'm finally grown up enough to enjoy it... thanks for the tip!
@@luiznogueira1579
Reading Mervyn Peake is like listening to Leonard Cohen for the first time. Lucky you!
So many titles I had never heard of. A couple of authors new to me as well. Very fun video. I now have even more future reads to look forward to. Thanks to everyone that filled out the survey. Cheers all and thank you, SciFiScavanger.
Awesome, glad you found it interesting, and thanks for watching!
Very valuable video for my future reading selections. I thank you!
Fantastic! There's a couple of other List videos on my channel the last couple of months, based on two different "100 Best" books covering between them 1949 to 2010. Plenty more to choose from there if you still feel short of reading material...
Thanks for watching 👀!
32:38 - Now, that's the proper attitude 😀
Great vid! Thanks for all the work that went in to it. I was surprised how many I'd read.
You and me both! Thanks for watching 👀
HYPERION, agreed
Hello! new subscriber here. Love this video so so much. Thanks for this GREAT list 🥰
Awesome, welcome! If you have a root around in the videos from the last couple of months you'll find a few different list videos like this one. Thanks for watching 👀!
Appreciate the list. But I must say I winced a little hearing so many Arthur C Clarke books get high scores from us - only to be regarded as 'boring'. The City and the Stars, Rendezvous with Rama, 2001, Childhood's End... all epic and influential for their time. And Clarke is still the kind of gentle, optimistic sci-fi author whose work we need more in our world now, than ever. But not every book can be as important as _Project Hail Mary_ I guess?...
Clarke is a funny one for me. I read loads (it seemed to me) when young and I recall liking them a lot back then. Not so much these days. I am almost afraid to re-read my faves of his in case now-me doesn't appreciate them in the same way. Anyway, certainly no criticism intended regarding anyone else's choices for their top 10, it's OK for us not to like the same things. In fact life would be very boring if we did. Just btw, I don't hold PHM in especially high regard, certainly not in the long run, it's a fun popcorn read and that's it, but I might point out it's fairly gentle and rather optimistic in some respects. All the best, and thanks for watching!
This was always my favorite video that Moid did-- and im so glad u picked it up!!! 😊
I was looking for his old ones to compare, they're not up on his channel any more. 🤷♂️ anyway, thanks for watching 👀!, hope it was a worthy successor.
Everyone loves a big old list!! I’ve read 29 of them, which is fairly fitting as sci fi makes up about 40% of my reading. Great vid!
Another coming on Sunday, the 21st Century cut of the survey data. Thanks for watching 👀!
@SciFiScavenger Amazing, looking forward to it!
There's also a couple of other big list videos:
ua-cam.com/video/x0bPQA9SfjI/v-deo.htmlsi=upjqflgIO2jS8rAw
And
ua-cam.com/video/MZU_lH7Tk5g/v-deo.htmlsi=PTmlB0OUqnmzry8r
@SciFiScavenger Ok nice, I'll check them out later for sure.
Happy to see my dear Hyperion at the top! Don’t agree with everything on the list nor with everything Mr Scavenger says, but I think it’s a great list that inspires me to explore new authors!
Awesome, glad you got something out of it. As you say, entirely subjective to choose a top 10. Thanks for watching 👀!
Very nice video! I will enjoy exploring some of the titles I’d never even heard of!
Me too! Thanks for watching 👀!
Great stuff putting this together 👍
Some predictable ones, some pleasant surprises. I think Aldiss' Non-stop is a better book than Hothouse, though the latter is still very good.
Surprised to see no City by Simak; I always thought that was far and away his most acclaimed work. I've seen Way Station mentioned a few times on SF channels but strangely it's the one Simak book I've never been able to find in the wild.
As for the PKD books, I'd say that neither the adaptations of Do Androids Dream or the Man in the High Castle have that much in common with the book. The latter is more a subversion of alternate history I think whereas the TV series leans more into that aspect. I enjoy the show for what it is, but it doesn’t address the same themes or grasp the point of the novel imo.
I'm super intrigued to read high castle now. His alternate history has an alternate history. Thanks for watching 👀!
Totally agree with you about Non-stop. It was a real page-turner for me, and I had to fight off my siblings, who were also crazy about it!
Yeah, City is definitely Simak's masterpiece, imo. Way Station's also very good, though.
You're right about the PKD adaptations. I think there's like one scene in Blade Runner that's also in Do Androids... I'm firmly convinced that Ridley never read the book.
Great video, loved seeing how your audience ranked these. So glad to see Downward to the Earth on this list.
Glad you enjoyed it! I really must track down a copy of D2tE (and read it!). Thanks for watching 👀!
Fantastic list. I was very happy to see Children of Time highly ranked and agree with the top two and the order. I loved the entire Hyperion Cantos series and the way all four books tied up so well at the end. I've got a few books on the list already on my shelf waiting to be read, and I've added a couple more (Ender's Game and Neuromancer, although it sounds as though I shouldn't read them too closely together)
Ah great, glad you.enjoyed it. Later today, I'll be running through a cut of the same data, a top 50 focused just on books published since 2000. Thanks for watching 👀!
I appreciate all the time you’ve taken to compile this list. Your summaries really describe the plots and it’s very helpful. I was happy to participate. I could’ve taken bets on 1&2. Neither is my personal favorite but they are excellent books. I loved Dune but none of the sequels did it for me. Hyperion was something I liked but didn’t love.
Hi Steve, glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching 👀!
Pretty surprised at Hyperion as number one. It's very good though. There is quite a bit I have read that I enjoyed more; Ringworld, Borne, The Martian, Snow Crash, Project Hail Mary, Neuromancer. Can't recall what my whole list was that I sent.
Yeah, normally Dune wins these things by a country mile. Be interesting to see how/if it changes when I repeat at the end of next year. Cheers Montie, thanks for watching 👀!
Top 75, whoa. Glad to see Christopher Priest ranked so high. Lots of interesting titles in unexpected places on here. Great video John.
Hi Mark glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching 👀!
Great vid, and great list. I also think I preferred the second Hyperion book, although clearly not enough to include in my top 10 as I completely forget about it!
Ha it's quite a job to come up with the right 10. Thanks for watching 👀!
Such an interesting list! A lot of classics (understandably), but thankfully also some newer books. I’m happy Children of Time ranked so highly. I loved that book, both in terms of the concepts and the heart with which it was written. I never thought I’d be so emotionally invested in a colony of spiders.
I think I'll do a cut of this data focused on books published after 2000 so the newer books get more of a look in. Glad you found it interesting Sam, and thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavengerI’d love to see that. Thanks for taking the time to compile these lists!
Children of Time is now on my want-to-buy list so I can educate myself a bit on what modern SF is like. Being an older guy I usually hunt for classic SF, but I have managed to acquire a taste for some of the more modern authors like Alastair Reynolds or Greg Egan. I also wanted to mention Sheri S. Tepper, because her novel Grass has been a relatively new discovery for me, but then I checked her bio and realized that sadly she has already passed away 😢.
Great list! I got in too late to participate in the survey, but I enjoyed every minute of this. Bit of trivia - the cover art on the edition of 'The Mote in God's Eye' you showed was also used to great effect in 'The Science Fiction Century' (1997, David Hartwell, ed.), a fantastic omnibus of 20th SF short stories. Keep up the great work!
There's always next year! Trivia always gratefully received. Thanks for watching 👀!
Great video, thanks for the hard work pulling all that data into one list. I get a little tired of top sci-fi book lists that all include the exact same books, of course it is all subjective and I get it-it's kind of the point of the whole thing. But I wanted to do something different. I included books that really made an impact on me the past couple of years, but the same books are mostly overlooked and don't make most lists. Neuromancer is one of my favorite books, I re-read it every year...didn't make my list. Dune is an amazing book (not quite as amazing as the first time I read it many years ago)...didn't make my list. Just wanted to do something different. That being said a few of those did make the list. Great video as usual!
Ooh now I'm interested to know what your choices were! The survey was anonymous so I can't tell from the data. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger
I do remember a few:
Tau Zero: Poul Anderson
Shipwreck: Charles Logan
Stand on Zanzibar: John Brunner (Glad it made the list!)
Farewell Earth’s Bliss: D.G. Compton
Palace of Eternity: Bob Shaw
Fiasco: Lem
Can’t specifically recall the rest
Nice to see those SF Masterworks editions with the black spine. I collect them - about 15 to go!
Yes I much prefer them to the more recent yellow ones. I haven't progressed to collecting them, I'd still much prefer to have a vintage copy. Thanks for watching 👀!
Thanks for that Jon. I must read "Hyperion" as I've got one of the others in the series.
You must, the people have spoken! Cheers, thanks for watching 👀!
Great job! I initially thought you were only going to mention the top 10, but you really exceded my expectations. Good thing, too, because the actual Top 10 I found a bit disappointing. Flowers for Algernon, really? And I was never a big Dune fan, I'm afraid. Hyperion? Never read it. But I did enjoy The Canterbury Tales...
Ha ha, glad I could redeem the lost for you Luiz! Thanks for watching 👀
OK I have now watched the whole of the top 100 books selection.
I have 84 of them.
I have read 15!
Got some fun reads ahead, I guess.
For some reason I don't think I'll ever get round to that DUNE thing.
84 is good going! 15 less so...plenty of work ahead of you. Thanks for watching 👀!
Not that surprising a list, other than Dune not ending up #1. The three books I picked that I figured would make this community-created list are indeed on the list - Blindsight, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and A Fire Upon the Deep - so that played out the way I thought it would. I knew my PKD novel of choice would not make the list, but I knew he would be well represented with the usual suspects. Many of the books are books I love - Dune, Ender’s Game, The Mote in God’s Eye, Inverted World, Rendezvous with Rama, and more - but they’ve just been crowded out of my own Top Ten by, admittedly, some (mostly) highly regarded books that happen to be less well known.
It was nice to see the list not get jammed up with books mainly from the last 5-10 years. Somebody, somewhere, still appreciates the old stuff. How many votes for “old stuff” were by younger readers - well that I don’t know.
Nice to see The Martian Chronicles land, not just Fahrenheit 451. I’m a Sheep Look Up guy, not a Stand on Zanzibar guy, but neither are in my Top Ten. Le Guin is the massively popular SF author that lands cold for me, virtually every time; I live with that, I’m not sure I’m compelled to re-read her stuff, to try and align with the crowd. Heinlein won’t go away, and I’m fine with that; he’s got nothing in my personal Top Ten, but I have enjoyed many of his books…although most of my various favourites by him were not likely to make this video, except for Have Space Suit, Will Travel. Perhaps A Door into Summer showed up, in a parallel universe…
Anyway, thanks for this. As a reading list for anyone wanting to roam the genre, it’s pretty solid, especially in terms of variety.
The distribution of publication year was interesting tho not hugely surprising. 60s to 80s was the sweet spot. I'll share some vital statistics over the next few days. Thanks for watching 👀!
You like the following:
Lucifer's Hammer.
The Light of other Days
Rogue Planet
Echo Around His Bones
Am I right?
@@PaulSaether I loved Lucifer's Hammer back in the day, I'm a sucker for the end of the world. Have not read the others...
@@SciFiScavenger
Pull your socks up!
Good stuff.
I was curious as to how many of the books you have and read - most of both. Interesting that you’ve been slow to get to some of the classics. So many books right?
Lastly, I loved your quip about “Project Hail Mary”
“…Some people are a bit Sniffy about…”
Perfect respectful British way of calling out the High-Brow’s. Hello Matt at Bookpilled and others.
My education as an SF reader is far from complete, but I'm catching up fast. PHM was just fun, popcorn stuff, but there's a place for that too. I don't consider my SF soul sullied by lowering myself to the gutter to read such lightweight popular fodder! And its sales figures speak for themselves. Cheers Tom, thanks for watching 👀!
If you prefer, the audiobook is also excellent. I believe the readers voice is perfect for the prose, the tone of the story, and the pov of the main character narrator.
If I don't luck out for Xmas perhaps I'll burn an audible credit on it in the new year!
“All The Fields Of Hell”
Move to top of list now. It is not “a bit nuts” as you gleaned from the book blurb, however it is a wholly unique approach to an apocalyptic alien invasion. That would be enough to make the book good - but Adam Nevill’s careful, thoughtful, masterful writing style takes this novel to a top tier level that most Sci-Fi/horror writers do not attain, nor probably care to. The scene and characters are so well crafted and written, and the prose so considerate and descriptive, that I found myself constantly in wonder that I was reading an end of the world science fiction story.
Oooh you tempter you! That sounds even better, right up my alley. *adds to wishlist! Cheers Tom, thanks for watching 👀!
Fascinating the titles that aren't even in contention, though the variety is nice too. Surprised to not see Ancillary Justice, Red Rising, Wool, The Expanse, Foreigner or even some more 'obscure' things like Richard Morgan, Christopher Ruochhio, John Scalzi, A Memory Called Empire, Ninefox Gambit, etc. Maybe they just haven't stood the test time enough to percolate into the public consciousness. IDK about Hyperion - kinda iffy on that, but I definitely agree with Dune and Neuromancer - those have got to be at the top! Lots of familiar classics of course. Definitely read H.G. Wells if you find the time - he holds up suprisingly well!
Yes, I've enjoyed many of those. They may well have appeared lower down, there was a long tail below 75. My audience seems to skew older in both age and taste in books. The majority of books chosen were from 60s to 80s. I might do a cut of this date focused on books published after 2000. Thanks for watching 👀!
Pretty much as expected. I would say I agree with 90% of the choices, and with 80% of _your_ personal taste 😀
Several books I would have added (I promise I will participate the next time; then again, perhaps npt: how can one select only *ten* favourites, and even rank them ?!?): _Ramnant Polupation_ by Elizabeth Mook, _Four Ways to Forgiveness_ (or _Five...,_ depending on inclusion od not of _Old music and Slave Women_ ) by Ursula K. Le Guin, Perhaps her _Always Coming Home,_ something by Greg Egan,_ preferably one of earlier novels or collections, something by Connie Willis, Blish/Kornbluth's _Space Merchants,_ Disch's _Camp Concentration,_
Those would all be worthy editions. It's interesting to.see what floated to the top.. thanks for watching 👀!
Love seeing Project Hail Mary so high on the list. Something to be said for good fun. Must say that I am surprised at not a single Delaney book - but pleasantly so.
If I repeat next year hopefully we'll get.more responses. Cheers Joel, thanks for watching 👀!
I've read 50 on that list, so not as badly read in matters SF as I thought.
Be interested to see if you run this next year and if/how fashions impact on viewers' choices.
Yes I'm very curious to see how/if it moves at all over time. I think I've read about 50 of them as well. Thanks for watching 👀!
So glad to see the Sturgeon's "More than human" is still regarded as a novel very worth reading. Not bad for a Science Fiction novel published in 1953 that does not feature space ships, time warps, and laser blasters! So very much enjoyed hearing your comments an observations!!!
Hi Mike, glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for watching 👀!
Hyperion?! That was a surprise. I'm also surprised by how it's supposed to be an updated version of the Canterbury Tales. Having read that for school, many, many years ago, and hating it, I'm disinclined to read it. Oh well, perhaps if it came on sale...🤔😳😂🤣😛🐶
It has a lot less old English, I think you'll be fine! Thanks for watching 👀!
@ Well, in terms of Epic Science Fiction sagas, that I actually have a significant interest in, I recently completed purchase of the Galactic Core saga by Benford. That's more my style, of relentless hard sci-fi. 😉. As always, good and thoughtful content. I do appreciate it, even when we agree to disagree. Remember, I bought Operation Hail Mary on your recommendation alone. 🐶
I just started Blindsight by Peter Watts and I am on page 100 now. I didn't get into the story very much at this point, but I stay curious and try to figure out why it's #8 on the list.
I didn't find it an easy book. I think it may reward a re-read or two. Thanks for watching!
Vamps in a spacecraft would die out pretty quick. I wonder if he could have survived feeding off those aliens?
We’ve shared a few comments now about Bookpilled. In his review of Blindsight he actually said, “It’s about vampires…”., and he did not expound. I was aghast.
I need to re-read it. 🧛♂️
It was funny that I got through the whole video and then thought "Hey, wait, my number one (Slaughterhouse-five) isn't on here on all!" Lol, it's such a good list, so I'm not mad at all.
Crazy to think that if I had seen this video in 2022, I would have read less than 10 of them. Now, I'm at 40 or so. Thanks for putting it together!
That's great progress. I think I'm at around 50 of the top 75. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@RenkotheLibrarian Ohh, you're right. It's missing. I am sure I voted for it too.
Completely agree on Lord of Light. Didn't get it. Almost DNF.
it's funny what works for people and what doesn't. i know of plenty of folks that really love that book. thanks for watching 👀!
I always wonder why, when folks are reviewing “Blindsight”, they feel the need to point out that the book features a vampire? The captain is a great character who didn’t need to be a vampire, and the story arch would have progressed similarly had he only been engineered human like the rest of the crew.
Might be I’m incorrect but is this fact really an important part of the story? It bugs me because revealing that tid-bit to the uninitiated with the novel might lessen the true greatness of what the story truly is, like it is some kind of “Dracula” in space. When it really is an intelligent first contact story that explores many deep subjects.
Yebbut vampires, in spaaace! I take your point.
Great video. I thought it was just going to be a top ten, which is not enough! I lost the list i submitted, but it seems about 6 or 7 of the selections on it made it into the 75! I first read Childhood's End in the late 1960s, and again last year. That concept of evolution and the philosophy the novel seems to promote, and used so often since, does not seem realistic to me.
Hiya. I will be using the data from the responses to look at some different cuts of the data, so at least one or two videos still to come. Thanks for watching 👀!
Was his name Ish? I loved ‘Earth Abides’.
Yes! That's right.
Perhaps you should bag off the dice of destiny just for once and get Brave New World, The Time Machine, The War Of The Worlds, Frankenstein and Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep read, none of those are particularly long books and all are great. This list has motivated me to finally get Fahrenheit 451 and Flowers For Algernon read.
High Castle had its chance for December but blew it, as you'll see on Tuesday. They'll all get their chance one day. Thanks for watching 👀!
You didn't like Lord of Light, that's too bad I've read it countless times since it was published and learned something new with each reading. I also loved City and the Stars.
@summerkagan6049 yeah I'm in the minority it seems. I think the stage of reading is important. I think if I'd read them when younger I might have felt very differently, like you, but on reading now I bounced hard off both for some reason, just didn't work for me. Oh well. Thanks for watching 👀!
Well, we got to 51 without seeing any of my top ten picks, then I realised "Of course! my top ten will be THE top ten." Then reality struck.... Andy
@ainstycastings1859 oh dear! There was a long tail behind the 75. I shall release tidbits and statistics from the survey in community posts over the next week or so. Cheers Andy, thanks for watching 👀!
I couldn’t see the thickness of the Neal Stephenson book, but from the fact that after a while you had to use both hands to hold it into the camera I assume it‘s one of his usual fat ones 😁
yup it's pretty thick. 800+ pages i'd say.
you should try watching the movie for "a scanner darkly" if you're not likely to read the book soon. it has a very strange relationship to the iron man movie of all things (iron man owes a key convention to ASD as well as being a rung on RDJ's revival in the industry). ending is shattering and amazing.
hail mary was amazing. i was really shocked at how bold it was in making the protagonist SOOOOOOOO unlikable! as much as i hated him, i was mind-boggled that the writer decided to go for it like this!
electric sheep is TREMENDOUSLY different. aside from the dick-ish motif of questioning reality, it has virtually nothing in common with the book. completely missing the nipo-phile angle and even the imagery of the book doesn't line up with the movie. heard dick liked the cuts of the movie he saw before he died (i think he died before release of the film) but i would imagine that was primarily due to his work getting the big budget hollywood treatment... however unrecognizable.
i'm pretty sure algernon was one of the few sci fi books to ever extract tears from me.
i really liked the first three books of dune but it's kind of remarkable how much of it is talking heads. it could be adapted (accurately) as a stage play. so much so that i wondered if herbert started off writing plays. the next 3 books i found increasingly ridiculous such that i consistently think of it now as "space nuns vs. space whores [featuring duncan idaho!]".
hyperion really stands in for the series imo. i agree that the second was better and that the last two also are better imo. but the first one sets the stage. the priest's story is amazing but i felt like the cyberpunk story was far too "on-the-nose" for the genre it was going for. felt like a over-broad pastiche.
It's been so long since I read the hyperion cantos, I need to re-read it really, but so many books, so little time! Thanks for watching 👀!
Great video, John. I read 55 of the listed titles.
I was starting to despair because there was no Simmons entry and then there is Hyperion at number one. Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are actually one single novel, but were split into two tomes because of their size.
To my great sorrow, some of the writers I admire didn't enter the list.
No Stephen Baxter, no Paul Mcauley, no Simon Ings, no Adam Roberts, no M. John Harrison, no Thomas Disch, no Charles Stross, no Ian Mcdonald, no Chris Beckett, no David Zindell...
Only one Egan and Priest and way to much Andy Weir.
A little weird that Handmaid's Tale didn't made the list.
But literary taste is a literary taste. So what can you do?
Yes there were some eyebrow raising omissions. The audience skews older in its preferences, it seems. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger
Yeah, very true. Also, no Timescape and Blood Music.
Shocking, if you ask me.
… no Jack Vance, no Cordwainer Smith …
@herzbube102 don't shoot the messenger! 😀🤷♂️
I generally enjoy Clarke but City and the Stars didn't really land for me either.
It never took off for me! 😀
Speaker for the Dead and Moon is a Harsh Mistress are way too far down!
It was a fairly small sample (170 responses) and preferences skew 50s to 80s, judging by the results. If I do again next year, more responses. Probably.
@@SciFiScavenger You're saying that your audience is wrong? I agree 😁😁
I'm saying beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And that there's no accounting for taste!
Your catch phrase should be "haven't read it."
In my defence this is a list of 75 books a couple of hundred strangers have recommended, I've read a significant majority, no point pretending I've read the others. 🤷♂️
@SciFiScavenger Fair enough.
Rendezvous with Rama was underwhelming for me as well. So much better first contact stories in the same age. It's meh.
No Bob Shaw. Shame on this generation of readers.
Well to be fair, my audience is typically middle aged or older. So blame the old farts! Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger Love your channel.
Hyperion? Really? I liked it, but I must question the sanity of (at least some of) the rest of your viewers, elevating it above Dune. 😂
There wasn't much in it. I reckon it just got a couple 2nd and 3rd places. I'll do the maths!
Lol. Hyperion was #2 on my list, but Dune only made it to the honorary mentions. But you know, selecting 10 books from among the whole body of SF that I have read since my childhood was such an awfully difficult task, that this time I didn’t just go for the usual classic must-read stuff, but put also put stories in that were somehow influential for me or that I can‘t get out of my head. John Brunner‘s The Shockwave Rider, or Silverberg‘s Sailing to Byzantium (which being a novella is probably not even considered a book in its own right by many).