5 Classic Sci-Fi Books for Your TBR
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- In today's video I share a book haul with 5 science fiction novels you might be interested in trying from Fredric Brown, Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, Christopher Priest, and Octavia E. Butler. Which ones have you read or are keen to read?
Check out Whitney at @secretsauceofstorycraft and her deep dive on Octavia E. Butler - • Why Octavia Butler is ...
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00:00 - Introduction
00:18 - What Mad Universe
01:38 - Dangerous Visions
03:26 - The Lathe of Heaven
04:37 - The Inverted World
05:51 - Dawn
#ScienceFiction #Books
![Three Sci-Fi Books That Moved and Unnerved Me [100 Book Challenge #40-43]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UkXlhmaQsXg/mqdefault.jpg)
3:58 - Heathen! _Left Hand of Darkness_ is an absolute masterpiece!
😝
Haha I hope to redeem myself with The Lathe of Heaven.
@@WordsinTime _The Lather of Heacen_ didn't quite click with me, but your next in your TBR pile, _The Dispossessed_ is my second or third most favourite by Le Guin. Be sure to also read _Four Ways to Forgiveness_ (or, even better, _Five..._ when the later written fifth novelette _Old Music and the Slave Women_ is included.)
And if you feel adventurous, try something completely different, _Always Coming Home._
@@bazoo513 Thanks for the recommendations!
The Lathe of Heave is a great book. Read it as a pair with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. They are both books about one man's ability to change history/reality, but each with a different twist. And in each book the character meets his wife from a previous/different reality and needs to figure out how to respond.
That’s cool! Will be interesting to compare!
I love The Lathe of Heaven! I can almost… guarantee you will like it more than The LHofD, though I also quite enjoyed that book.
Inverted World is a 5 ⭐️ read, finally no more fomo for you!
I’m curious about Dawn. I recently had heard some really positive reviews of it.
Happy reading!
That’s all great to hear haha. Looking forward to it!
Strange, _LHoD_ is my favorite Le Guin, who is my favorite author.
Since you’re looking at shorter works I highly recommend Octavia Butler’s short story Bloodchild. If you can go into this 30 page story blind. Simply stunning.
I’ll look it up, thanks!
Absolutely! And Le Guin's _Four Ways to Forgiveness_ (or _Five..._ with the latter added _Old Music and the Slave Women_ ) - a superb collection of related novellas.
The Lathe of Heaven and Inverted World are both fantastic, you're in for a treat! Of the five Le Guin books I've read, Lathe of Heaven is my favourite.
Can’t wait!
I seem to be in minority here, then. _Lathe of Heaven_ didn't quite work for me, unlike _The Dispossessed,_ _Four Ways to Forgiveness_ and especially _Left Hand of Darkness._
😆 Cannot deny I was giggling along with you at the vanishing books! 🫥
Haha technology has betrayed me
Hi Jonathan as you know I am an older reader started reading SF 52 years ago and it might not surpise you that I have read all of these. I really enjoyed Dawn and The Lathe of heaven and Dangerous Visions contains many great works - I loved Arena too but I read this long before The Hall of fame was published, great story.
That’s impressive! Glad you enjoyed them!
I'm just a bit younger.. having started reading SF 45 years ago, but absolutely love seeing the next generation's take on many of the books I loved.
They live in such different times than we had and it's interesting to see their take on these beloved books.
@@circa1890 You are absolutely right I am very impressed by Jonathan's channel and others like him such as Rachel from Shades ...
@@WordsinTime Thank you, in fact you have inspired me to re-read some of these, I read them so long ago. I am currently re-reading all 10 books from the culture series, #9 Surface Detail is so good!
@@paulallison6418 That’s awesome, I’m glad you’re enjoying the Culture!
Free books are always 5 Stars!
Haha they are much appreciated!
I recently got back into reading and coincidentally am about 25% through Dawn. It's quickly rising to become one of my favorites; out of the 10 or so sci-fi books I've read so far.
That’s good to hear, I’m looking forward to it!
Great list Jonathan. Whitney also put me on the book Dawn. I'll have to say it is disturbingly fantastic. The first Butler Whitney had me read was the short story Bloodchild. It is remarkable. You should check out that short read, as it is free on the Internet. Amazing how Butler can evoke such feelings in a short story. Great video
That’s great! Dawn sounds disturbing and intriguing haha
I'm adding The Lathe of Heaven to my list! I just started The word for World is Forest, it's really good. I only read The left hand of darkness by Leguin. Both are part of The Hannish Cycle. She's a really good writter!
I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
The Inverted World blew me away… Christopher Priest is such a unique author. Check out The Separation and The Gradual too.
That’s great! Looking forward to it!
Your friends gave you very good booke - good taste!
Haha I appreciate them!
I haven’t read lathe of heaven but watched the movie years ago and liked it.
Nice, I’m looking forward to it!
The Lathe of Heaven was the first Le Guin novel I ever read and I was impressed by it. It took me years to finally read The Left Hand of Darkness and it's a masterpiece to me. I haven't read the other novels on your list, but after reading "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison I stay away from him - he unnerves me. I would like to read the other novels you highlighted.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed Le Guin! Ellison only wrote 1 story out of 33 in Dangerous Visions so you could just skip that one. I’ve heard he’s a strange character haha
😊 I can’t wait to hear what you think about these books! And thank you so much for the shout out!! So kind!!
I’m looking forward to Dawn! I’ll let you know when I start!
Lathe of Heaven was great. Book 2, 4 and 5 have been sat on the shelves for a while. Must get round to read them soon,
Nice! And I hope you like them!
Cheryl is generous & has good taste.
Lathe of Heaven is my favorite Le Guin, Inverted World is beautifully written & how many times have I told you that you MUST read Dangerous Visions? It's chock full of brilliant SF short stories.
You have some wonderful reading ahead of you.
Haha agreed!
Dawn is pure horror. An awesome book. Inverted World is a masterpiece. His best.
That’s great to hear! Looking forward to them.
Great video Jonathan! Lathe of Heaven is definitely on my radar, and so is the Inverted World. I actually recently heard about that one on the Bookspin channel.
Thanks Chas, I’m looking forward to being able to talk more about them!
I've read the first three books and am meaning to read Priest and Butler. . . sometime.
Nice! Hope you enjoy!
Finished Inverted World a few days ago. A true masterpiece! It is interesting to see how the city is depicted on different covers. The two covers you showed were more city-like while the NYRB edition I own shows a metallic wheel-like structure.
While I think Left Hand and Dispossessed are great, they are really dense books. I loved Lathe of Heaven because it combined Le Guin brilliant writing style and world building with a tighter plot.
Good to know, thanks!
I have read Dawn and enjoyed it. I haven't finished the series yet though. I gave away my copy of Lathe of Heaven years ago before I was into science fiction and didn't quite know what I was giving up 😉 I bought the ebook of Inverted World just a few months ago and look forward to reading it.
Glad you enjoyed Dawn and hope you like The Inverted World and The Lathe of Heaven if you get another copy!
Great list! I have all of these, and aside from Dangerous Visions, they all have the virtue of being relatively short (>250pgs). All great choices for when you've been reading a lot of big books lately. Haven't read any of Dangerous Visions yet, but I'm looking forward to some short stories after a lot of chonkers.
Yeah, they can be good for breaking up some long reads!
The Lathe of Heaven was really great, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I'm slowly working my way through Dangerous Visions, dipping into it now and again. I am the same with you on Priest, saw the Prestige film and enjoyed it, but yet to read any of his books. Dawn sounds interesting. Nice video.
Thanks! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed The Lathe of Heaven, looking forward to it.
This is the first time that I have already read two books on your TBR. ☺ Strangely, I have not yet read Octavia Butler or Alistair Reynolds. Gaps that must be attended to!
Thanks so much Cheryl! Those are two great authors and a good combination of soft and hard science fiction.
I know the dangerous visions anthology had a huge influence on sci-fi generally and helped launch some very good writers although ellison has never been one of my faves either as a writer or a person. The lathe of heaven was actually made into a tv movie I believe on PBS but it didn't make much of an impression on me when I saw it but the book is probably a lot better so wish u a happy reading experience.⚛😀
Thanks for the info Frank, I’m looking forward to them!
Personally, I haven't cared for much of Le Guin's works, but I loved Lathe of Heaven! The Inverted World was another recent favorite read of mine. When I read it, I compared it to Mad Max Fury Road meets Snowpiercer, but having just finished Absolution Gap you're absolutely right in picking up some similarities (I preferred Priest to Reynolds, personally). Overall, pretty solid haul!
That’s good to hear. Haven’t seen Snowpiercer but I loved Fury Road!
Dangerous Visions is republished? I'm on it! Nice to finally see it on Kindle.
Seems like a cool edition!
Here's hoping you enjoy all these great novels and I can add my enthusiasm for LeGuin's "The late of heaven" which I read some 40+ years ago. As a bonus there is a very fine made for television version of this excellent novel that is available for free on CZcams. The producers appear to have spent very little to make this movie but everything just comes together and captures the message that LeGuin was trying to convey. Again, it is free on CZcams!!!
Thanks Mike! That sounds pretty cool!
Lathe of Heaven is really good and it is short. I think you will like it.
That’s great to hear!
The Parable of the Sower is pretty good and Kindred and The Lathe of Heaven are great. I read Dangerous Visions a long time ago, so I would need to reread it before giving an opinion. I haven't read the other books but they sound interesting. Arena was one of my favorite stories from the Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume I. The other two Hall of Fame volumes have novellas and some are really good.
Thanks for the info Jen, I’m looking forward to those!
You might also like The Word for World is Forest by Le Guin. Unlike many readers, I wasn't a big fan of The Dispossessed.
Dawn, and the entire xenogenesis trilogy was awesome. Really really good. It fell juuuust short of a 5/5 rating for me, though I do not give 5 stars easily, even to books I absolutely loved.
Haha tough critic!
@@WordsinTime Yeah, for me a book falling into 5 stars has to be almost perfect. Either I know I just cannot put it down and would rather keep on reading than, I dunno, go to the doctor. OR, a book that leaves a mark on me for a long time after reading it, and I just keep thinking about it.
A good example of the former was Project Hail Mary, a good example of the latter was Roadside Picnic.
To be fair, xenogenesis did both of those things to a degree, but it did have some very minor issues that kept me from awarding a perfect score.
The way I tend to think about this also usually means that the longer a book is, the harder it is for me to give it a perfect score.
The Lathe Of Heaven is pretty good.
Glad you liked it Brian!
@@WordsinTime I think you'll like it too LeGuin is awesome.
What, are you following me around?! I JUST got a 1977 The Best Of Fredric Brown AND a 1969 Dangerous Visions #3 and this past week I put Inverted World on my want list! 😳
Haha great minds!
Have had Dangerous Visions for decades (reading the Bloch entry first; I was a horror fan at the time), but only forced myself to read every story in order just last year. Some still hold up very well, some have gotten even more scandalous, and others have turned to complete snoozeville (PJ Farmer's "Riders" may have won the Hugo in the late-1960s. but its "cleverness" now makes it extremely cringeworthy, IMHO). I don't think it's a particularly good story, but I LOVE Norman Spinrad's Carcinoma Angels--it's awful but awesome....
Lathe of Heaven rules! Of the three LeGuin you mention, Lathe is the one I've reread several times, Dispossessed is the one I think is great (because the situation could be applicable on Earth--Unlike Left Hand which is often totally alien, and bogged down a little in worldbuilding for me.
Inverted World is on my shelf TBR.
Dawn--whew! This book is the epitome of body horror. Watch a bunch of Cronenberg to prep! For me, a horror novel--but certainly a great one.
BTW, "Arena" became that classic Kirk vs. Gorn episode of Star Trek (w/same title)--and I think some of that episode was filmed near Joshua Tree (T-shirt reference).
Enjoy your reads, and thanks!
Thanks for all the awesome info! I’ll try to prepare myself haha
Am i right that the harlan ellison antholgy is the one that contains the classics a boy and his dog and I have no mouth? I recall reading this in the early 70's. MInd blowing stuff.
That might be a different Ellison collection, as those two stories aren’t in Dangerous Visions.
@@WordsinTime thanks. Yes I've done a little googling and they were published in different anthologies. I can still recall those stories after 50 years. Plus another one repent harlequin said the tick-tock man probably just because of the title !
Those are two stories written by Ellison. Dangerous Visions is edited by Ellison but has stories by many different authors.
Dawn is very good, but stop there don't read the next 2 in the trilogy. They don't add much and they get very preachy. Stick with Dawn, it was fantastic.
Interesting!