Which of These 4 Sci-Fi Books is UNDERRATED?
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- Here's a review for 4 classic science fiction novels and I compare my personal reading experience to their Goodreads metrics in order to decide which of them are underrated or overrated.
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00:00 - Introduction
00:53 - Earth Abides
03:44 - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
06:38 - Blood Music
08:36 - The City and the Stars
#ScienceFiction #Books
I was born the same year as Earth Abides was published. I didn't know that when I read it as a teenager in the 60s but it's always kept a place in my memory. One thing that sticks with me is when the father and son are looking for car tyres in a dilapidated dealership showroom but they've been flat for so long they are perishing. The son says, 'Why not use these ones?' pointing to the spare wheels that are mounted onto the rear of the vehicles (as they were in the 40s) and not sitting on the ground. The Dad was impressed, and I can remember 16 year old me thinking, 'Yeah, kids are smarter than their parents.' 😀
Haha kids sure can make adults look silly
My forecast when you announced you would read Blood Music was you would love it. I was right😇
Read Earth Abides a few weeks ago and found out my dad had read it in the 50ies. A gem when u have a new topic to talk about🥳
Haha well played!
I had a nice copy of Earth Abides over 40 years ago, and when I read it I didn't see it as slow-moving, which I think reflects the change in expectations we have these days, where moving fast is necessary. I haven't read Blood Music but I thought Darwin's Radio was brilliant.
I look forward to reading more from Greg Bear!
I agree about Blood Music being underrated. Bear had such an original idea here and then took it to a place I did not see coming. It's a good one; more people should read it.
I’m glad you enjoyed it too Bart!
I'm a superfan of blood music, I love biology so reading the descriptions of the procedures on the lab and the explanations to the phenomena that occurs are something that fits really well, and I have health and circulation issues that are pretty heavy on me, so his descriptions of the blood music itself almost make me cry. It's a piece of literature that resonates too much with me. I'm glad you read it and even more that you liked it!!
I’m glad you resonated with it! And hope you’re well!
Finished House of Suns last night, BTW. Wow. Truly was something very different that took me somewhere I never have been. Great rec.
Awesome! I'm glad you loved it too!
I've read the 2nd & 3rd titles on your list.
"Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" was one of Dick's lesser knowns, but I loved it.
Blood Music seemed to be unevenly written. I wouldn't compare Greg Bear to...Bob Shaw for example, if we're talking about wordsmiths.
But Bear's Blood Music surprised me after starting off as a basic medical or scientific thriller - the 2nd part of the book depicted events which turned everything we take for granted - inside-out.
& the ending was just prefect - you come out of it with a sense of wonder, like you would after reading a good supernatural story......
Yes, the two parts were very different but I found the ideas impactful!
I read Blood Music for a course in university and it just blew me away. It remains one of my favourites to this very day.
I’m glad you enjoyed it too!
As always, enjoy your videos; haven't read any of these and didn't really see a near-term candidate for my (always) lengthy must-read list.
Thanks John! And yes, the TBR is endless!
I liked what you said about Blood Music. Glad to see another Bear fan! I recommend Moving Mars, Forge of God, Anvil of Stars, and my favorite Eon/Eternity.
I’m looking forward to reading more from Bear!
Great recommendations Jonathan! The City and the Stars sounds quite good, and so does Flow My Tears.
I hope you enjoy the ideas!
I picked up a copy of Earth Abides in a second-hand bookshop recently and am really looking forward to getting to it. Seems like a book I can get immersed in and dystopias and dying Earth stories are my favourite sub-categories of SF. Thanks for your analyses👍
That’s great! Hope you enjoy it!
I've read all four of these books, I largely agree with your assessment of Earth Abides. While a trifle dry its commitment to it's exploration of it's themes is impressive.
I completely agree with the comparisons made between Flow my Tears and a Scanner Darkly. I'd suggest Ubik maybe instead of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldridge though they're both excellent reads, I think that Ubik is both darker and funnier (the sequence in Ubik where Joe Chip is arguing with the lock on his door is pure gold)
Blood Music is a fascinating novel, I read it... God's must be all of thirty years ago and found it utterly engaging, engrossing and somewhat frightening.
The City and The Stars is, without a shadow of a doubt, a truly underrated novel. It is not sci-fi as literature, nor does it wholly succeed as an adventure story, rather TCATS is an utter marvel in terms of Clark throwing idea after idea at you. I've long since lost count of the number of other books, screenplays and games that this novel has influenced. It is a phenomenon in and of itself and has some almost throwaway concepts which would go on to be entire sagas in the hands of other writers.
These are great descriptions! I’m glad you also enjoyed them. And yes, Ubik is great. It’s my favourite PKD book and Stigmata is number 2.
Thank you for the Reco on the PKD book. Added it to my library just now. Also really enjoyed Blood music. 😊
@@natiae8423 You are welcome.
Glad you enjoyed Earth Abides. Doesn't surprise me when people say that it's too slow. We're pretty accustomed to the idea that post-apoc = zombie-apoc. I kinda wish he'd made a series of it showing different groups making different decisions. There are hints of that already in EA, but I would have liked more.
Would be interesting to see different perspectives in that world.
Great video!
Thanks Cristian!
Great video. I've had Blood Music on my TBR far too long...
Thanks! I hope you like it too!
Could You do more videos on Clifford Simak? I just read him last year and he's amazing. Even his not so known books are amazing. I recognized a technique of his: getting close to the climax of his novels he plays with his prose in amazing ways, using poetry techniques in it, like rhyme and alliteration. He was really really good
Simak is great! I’ve talked about his books Way Station and City. I will have to read more.
@@WordsinTime 'Time and again' is simple and good. Then a decade later he riffed on some ideas from that again and wrote 'Time is the simplest thing', and that one is great . The second one is more pastoral and involves a weird time traveling plot about a pseudo religion being started. That one and Way Station has those poetry techniques closing to the end. That kind of prose and the pastoral quality really resembles a kind of tolkienian scy fy that I always needed. I Really recommend Time is the simplest thing
@@WordsinTime I read Way Station thanks to your channel, so thank You!!
I agree, Blood Music is great! And I think the comparison with Crichton is spot on. I'm currently reading Forge of God, which so far isn't as compelling as Blood Music but still interesting, and I thought the first 25% was like a slightly slower-paced Crichton thriller.
I’m glad you liked it too. Hope you enjoy the rest of Forge of God!
i still have some pkd books on my list, and I think i have one of this anthologies on my shelf, eventually I will get to more PKD
Hope you enjoy Drew!
We have about the same rating for Flow My Tears, but since it was my reintroduction to PDK (I went nearly a decade between reading Andriods and Flow My Tears), it will hold a speical place for me.
Nice, I’m glad you’re enjoying reading PKD!
May I recommend 'I am Legend' (although it may have been movied to death what with three of them that I know of, and each time messing up the ending) and 'Mission of Gravity'?
I own Mission of Gravity and I Am Legend is on my TBR. Looking forward to them!
The City and the Stars has been on my shelf to read for far too long - I need to get to it soon!
I think you’ll like some of the concepts!
The question I would have with your comment count metric is that, for example, with "Earth Abides" having come out in 1949, but the Good Reads metrics started in 2006/2007. I suspect this would tend to give newer books an advantage, and possibly newer, more popular books a double advantage. I have read Earth Abides and Blood Music and I would recommend both. As you said though, Earth Abides is a slower burn. For its age though, I didn't find it as dated as one might expect.
I did take that into consideration, but seeing as these 4 particular books are all classics, I didn’t think any of them were at a significant disadvantage due to their release date.
maybe I should go on goodreads more often but usually I just read the amazon reviews including the little blurbs amazon lists from the media and other writers. It's funny how much the amazon reviewers often have a completely different take on things that the major critics and reviewers and sometimes it's almost like these people are reading different books entirely. Amazon has also pointed out mistakes in books I didn't notice but it's spoiled the reading experience for me. Only one on your the list I've read is blood music and totally agree with the nine rating. It was a very creepy even depressing read for me at the time but maybe it was just me. The end result though is it made a huge impression and introduced me to new concepts and greg bear's work generally. Hope you are sailing bright eternity Greg!⚛😀
I’m glad you enjoyed Blood Music too! I like to check out a couple of reviews but not too many before I read a book so it feels fresh.
Lived Blood Music. About read my second Bear book next month, the very short ‘Heads’. Anyone read that one yet?
I haven’t read that one, but I’m looking forward to reading more Bear.
Thoroughly agree on Palmer Eldritch.
I’m glad you enjoyed it too!
I really liked Earth Abides. It has a different tone than any of the other post apocalyptic books I have read. Flow My Tears might not appeal to everyone. It depends on how much you like Philip K. Dick books with unlikeable characters. Blood Music is a clever book. I haven't read The City and the Stars but I plan to do it soon.
I’m glad you also enjoyed Earth Abides and Blood Music. I think I do sometimes struggle with unlikable characters. I tend to want them to either have some redeeming qualities, or for them to be more villainous.
I will have to check out Blood Music
I hope you enjoy it!
I've had the city and the stars in my list for at least a decade... I love clarke, i never read a book by him that I didn't like.
His books always have some cool ideas!
I don't really know why but I found Greg Bear to be the most over-rated science fiction author I've ever read. His writing style grated on me, I read about 1 and a half of his books DNFed the second one and moved on to authors I did enjoy. Having said that I do agree with your ratings on the other 3 authors. I am a huge fan of PKD but this book is not in my top 5 of his works - in fact many of his novels don't come close to the brilliance of so many of his short stories and novellas. Earth Abides was really thought provoking but also rather slow. The City and the Stars I can't remember reading but I went through a phase where I read everything he wrote and the only one that disappointed me was Rendevous with Rama.
I enjoy the fact that you are going back and looking at some of the old classics.
I’ve only read one Greg Bear book so far. Most people I know have liked Blood Music and I’ve heard mixed reactions on others. I’m glad you liked Earth Abides and enjoy PKD and Clarke!
got all 4 of these. read a few greg bear books, but not blood music, read a few philip k dicks, but not read flow my tears, read a few arthur c clarkes...and yes! ive read the city and the stars! not read the george r stewart. city and the stars may be my favourite clarke along with rendezvous with rama.
I’m glad you enjoyed The City and the Stars!
'Earth Abides' I really loved this book when I first read it - back in the early 1970's - maybe 1973 :-) Additional comment - You rating them out of 10 - but the reference ratings appeared much lower - until I realized they were rated out of 5 (not 10)
Glad you liked it! And yes, sorry, Goodreads uses 5 stars but I prefer to rate out of 10 to give me more options.
@@WordsinTime If you had doubled up the (out of 5) score - whether they had been under or over rated there would have been clearer. Thanks for the videos
Greg Bear! ❤
I’m glad you enjoyed his work too!
From these, I’ve only read Earth Abides (last year) and it sounded to me like one of those books in which an author with a background in hard sciences tries to play with humanities/social sciences (and fails), but I just checked the Wiki and Stewart was a Historian ? I’m astonished, I did not find much of interest in the ideas that he explores in the book, proof of which is that I barely remember anything (there was a rat invasion, that’s all I got, hahaha). Probably I just totally missed the point(s).
Haha that’s okay. Sometimes different aspects of books stand out to different readers. I remember the rats too haha
Problems with Goodreads ratings include 5 stars doesn't give much room for nuance, and so many people vote without reading - there's books yet to be published with multiple 5 star ratings...
Yes, there needs to be a system in place that books can’t be reviewed until they’re released. Also, I agree on the star system. That’s why I score out of 10.
@@WordsinTime I did notice! 😁 So many times I've finished a book, 2 stars too harsh, while really not deserving a 3.
Somehow any video referring to a PKD book is automatically good.
Haha makes perfect sense to me!
44th!
Unfortunately I can’t find a medal emoji with 44 on it.
Funny, I initially read this as OVER RATED :-)
Haha fortunately I enjoyed them
I thought your rating system was spot on (overall numbers/interaction). The majority of GR reviews are just Copy/Paste of the publishers' blurb.
Flow My Tears sounds like The Cosmic Puppets.
It will be interesting to compare when I get to The Cosmic Puppets!
🩸🎶 Blimey! I’m going to have to take another go at “Blood Music” aren’t I?! I’ve previously mentioned (a few times by now I suspect 😆) that I didn’t get on with this, but that was easily over half a lifetime ago, and perhaps I’ve changed in the intervening decades 🤔 I have already hauled “The City and the Stars” on your previous recommendations though, but, you know, TBR… 🫣
Haha the TBR is undefeated! Hope you enjoy Blood Music!