4 Sci-Fi Books for Every Type of Reader
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- In this video I review 4 science fiction books from the military sci-fi, first contact, space opera, and dystopian subgenres and let you know which one was my favourite.
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00:00 - Introduction
00:20 - Steel World (Military Sci-Fi)
01:57 - Contact (First Contact)
03:56 - Excession (Space Opera)
05:58 - Wool (Dystopian)
#ScienceFiction #Books
'Excession' was my first Iain M Banks book. Loved the conversations between the ships/minds and the humour in the names of the ships/minds
The ship names are clever!
Sagan's book has some of the best flowing prose in sci-fi. As a writer I appreciate that there aren't any stumbling blocks in the reader's way. Sagan's prose is stellar. This is in my top ten books of all time.
I’m glad you connected with it Rachel!
Thank you!👍👍👍🤖🚀📚 Merry Christmas!🎄🎄🎄
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the review of " Contact " I read it many years ago, think i'll read it again...
You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy the re-read!
Thanks for the recommendations. I'll be checking out Wool sometime soon, but none of the others
Hope you enjoy Wool!
Love the Undying Mercenaries! Was wondering if anyone on CZcams would review these "World" books. So much fun.
Nice! Glad you’re having fun with the series Todd!
It was the very first thing I picked up for my new Kindle at the time, and I was giggling like a warm kettle by page 2. @@WordsinTime
Awesome video Jonathan! I’ve been wanting to watch the Contact movie, so I guess I should read the book too. 😂
Thanks Chas! I need to watch the movie too!
I love terraforming Sci-fi. New eden is on my tbr. Military is also a fav! Thanks for the recs
Nice! I plan to read Red Mars in 2024 and that’s supposed to dive pretty deep into terraforming.
@@WordsinTime I will be waiting for your review 😊
Great video , I’m gonna start the culture series and wanna love it, but I’m hearing mixed things about some of the books lol
Thanks! They’re all very different. Two out of four have hit for me so far. Hope you enjoy!
I definitely want to eead Wool soon, but Contact also seems interesting.
I hope you enjoy them if you pick them up Cindy!
Excession (Space Opera): I got it in a blind book haul, so I'm looking forward to reading it in 2024.
I liked some of the other Culture books more, but I hope you enjoy Excession!
I just finished listening to Contact last week. I love the movie, and it was criminal that I hadn't yet read the book. Definite differences to the movie, but both are great.
I’m glad you also enjoyed it Angela! I will have to watch the movie too!
@WordsinTime The complication of too many characters in the book was pared down for the movie.
There is an astrophysicist I follow on CZcams, Becky Smethurst, and she did a reaction video to the movie and I watched it last weekend. It was hilarious.
The only one of these I've read is Contact, many many years ago (loaned it to someone and then never got it back, of course). IIRC, there were SO MANY characters in the book, it did get a bit confusing. Overall I remember thoroughly enjoying it.
There were quite a lot of characters haha but I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Have you listened to Banks’s Excession on audio? Peter Kenney does a great job of conveying the ‘conversations’ between the ships’ minds in a way that’s engaging and easily followed, by giving each mind an accent, and hence an impression of personality, of their own.
I haven’t listened to the audio, I just read the paperback, but it sounds like the audio was done well!
I have a few Carl Sagan books and enjoyed all of them. I believe Mrs. Sagan was involved in the writing of Contact and maybe others too - not that that is a problem.
Have you read the Amtrak Wars books by Patrick Tilley? There are seven books in total (I believe) and I'd be very interested to hear your and other's opinions. Long read.
That’s cool!
And I haven’t read that series, I’ll look it up!
I have emerged from my hobbit hole. You reccommended Permutstion City to me a while back in a video and I never popped by to say:
I really enjoyed it, I loved the deeper ideas in it like their immortal universe. So you were right on point since the deeper ideas are what I enjoy most. Though I will admit the short elilogue confused me, and I haven't been able to find a source that clears it up a little.
On another book you've recommended multiple times: Hyperion. I've started it and I will admit I am overly sensitive about babies since I'm a new mom and need someone to spoil for me if the Shrike does his thing to the baby.
And from here there be spoilers, if others open my comment on the video.
I saw Contact, but never read the book. The movie could drag, but worth it for that ending "19 hours of static"
I need to pick up Banks eventually...
As for my own favorite recent read: Childred of Time. Holy crap 5/5 favorite book of 2023. The early reveal of the virus surviving, and that ending! SO satisfying
I’m glad you enjoyed Permutation City! I’ll have to look up the epilogue but in general researching Egan’s Dust Theory helped me understand more of the book.
Hyperion has some intense scenes but there’s a bit of a twist involving the baby in the second book so you might be okay.
I enjoyed the Contact book so I’ll have to watch the film!
Loved Wool. Just wrapped up the entire trilogy a few months ago. I wasn’t a fan of the 2nd book, and I hesitated on finishing the series. The show relit that flame for me and I’m glad I did because the 3rd book was pretty good.
I’m glad you liked the 3rd book! Hope I do too!
I love two of these books and two of these authors: Contact and Excession/ Sagan and Banks.
I’m glad you loved those two!
“Firstly, chill…”. Hahaha. Love it.
Relax guys haha
Didn't end up liking Wool :( , for some of the reasons you mentioned. Felt very middle of the road to me. I was interested in finding out where the story was going, but not enough to continue with the next ones. I could see it working well as a tv show though.
It was a little predictable but had some good moments.
Watch Silo which is based on Wool. Season 2 based on the next book is coming soon.
With very few exceptions the Undying Mercenaries series is as good or better in each succeeding novel as the first. I think theres about 20 of them by now. And there is good character development of not just the main character but some of the secondary ones also (some of them in later books, aliens) in that part of the fun comes from knowing what you expect them to do, be that good bad evil or plain crazy.
That’s good to hear Joe!
hope u had a great Xmas got contact right after it came out and loved it though know not everyone rates it as highly as I do but what a great man we lost when sagan left us too soon and even though I almost never read military sci-fi am into the light brigade by kameron hurley cause so many booktubers have praised it but I'm only part way thru so not going to fully endorse it now⚛😀
Merry Christmas Frank! I’m glad you also enjoyed Contact!
James McGill from Undying Mercenaries is one of my favorite character
I was rooting for him!
I’ve read Wool and really enjoyed it. I am a little worried the second and third in series may be less enjoyable. Not sure why, except I’m worried the reveal may lesson future contributions of their impact.
I’m looking forward more to the 3rd book than the 2nd book which is a prequel.
@@WordsinTime I loved all three but I found the second book a hell of a lot more fun than I was anticipating, given what people tend to say about it!
Excession was kind of meh. It felt too wordy and some of the Mind names were difficult to keep track of. Of the three Culture novels I've read, this was my least liked.
I didn't care too much for Wool. I liked the concept but I felt it really dragged. I wasn't interested enough to continue.
Steel World sound a little bit like John Ringo's premise for A Hymn Before Battle, which I loved.
Those are understandable reactions. I’ll have to look up A Hymn Before Battle.
Picked up a copy of wool for $1.25 at a thrift store. Seems like it might be worth the price😂
That’s a good deal!
So, funny story: I was just about to check Steel World out when I noticed it's just the 1st book in a series of 20 and I noped so hard out of there. On the other side, I've had my eyes on the Culture series for a whole while now. Thanks for the list and season's cheers!
Yes, it’s a long series haha. I don’t plan to continue but the first book was a fun read.
And two out of the four Culture books I’ve tried have been hits for me. I hope you like them!
The trouble with your videos is that you keep adding books to my eReader faster than I can read them. I've got to slow up. 🙂
Haha my bad Kim! It’s always one step forward two steps back in the fight against the TBR.
Word of the day. Didactic
Every now and again I learn something from all these books.
Oh so weary of travel....
It’s taken its toll!
I hated Wool. Found it incredibly predictable and rather boring.
That’s okay. I thought it was a little predictable but not too boring.
“Military SF you say?” 🙋♂️ Over here, me, me! 😆 I call mentioning this on Discord at the time it got picked, exclaiming shock at the 20 books on the series. I just finished 8 books worth of “Frontlines” by Marko Kloos, spread over very nearly 10y, so I am all over the Mil[itary]SF genre. FWIW I thoroughly enjoy my time with Kloos’ books, but I am *very* partial to this sub-genre. Pewpew to you too 🔫
🧶 Hey, guess who finished “Silo” S1 just last night? That would be this guy 🙋♂️ It has been almost 10y since I read the “Silo” trilogy, and oddly enough I was remembering events from the later books while watching parts of the 📺 show. Other stuff I had entirely forgotten. It was tense… the generator scene for example… 😱🫣😳
20 books is too many haha, but I enjoyed the first one. And I’m glad the show was tense, I’m looking forward to it!