Top 10 Sci-Fi Books That Won The Hugo Award
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
- Today, we're exploring the pinnacle of sci-fi literature, counting down the Top 10 Sci-Fi Books that have won the Hugo Award.
Thanks for watching and don't forget to check out my sci-fi books below.
#scifi #hugoaward #books
0:00 - Intro
0:40 - 10: Neuromancer
2:22 - 9: The Man in the High Castle
4:03 - 8: Rendezvous with Rama
5:35 - 7: Stranger in a Strange Land
7:17 - 6: The Forever War
9:06 - 5: The Left Hand of Darkness
10:38 - 4:Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead
12:29 - 3: A Fire Upon the Deep
14:12 - 2: Dune
16:05 - 1: Hyperion
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MY STUFF
linktr.ee/scifiodyssey
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vvv MORE vvv
MY SCI-FI NOVELS
www.amazon.co.uk/Darrel-Willi...
DELPHINE DESCENDS
After her family is killed and her homeworld occupied, young Kathreen Martin is sent to the distant world of Furoris for re-education. She will live the rest of her life as a serf - to be bought and sold as a commodity of the Imperial Network.
When her only chance of escape is ruined, a chance mistaken identity offers her a new life as the orphaned daughter of a First-Citizen Senator and heiress to a vast fortune.
She vows to claw her way into power to sit among the worlds’ elite. Then, with her own hands, she will reap bloody vengeance on them all.
But to beat them, she must play their game. And she must play it better than them all.
BLACK MILK
Prometheus has the chance to bring his wife back from the dead, but doing so will mean the destruction of Earth.
Spanning time, planets and dimensions, Black Milk draws to a climactic point in a post-apocalyptic future, where humanity, stranded with no planet to call home, fights to survive against a post-human digital entity that pursues them through the depths of space.
Five lives separated by aeons are inextricably linked by Prometheus’s actions:
Ystil.3 is an AI unit sent back in time from the distant future to investigate Prometheus’s discovery...
The mysterious Lydia has devoted her life to finding a planet that the last remaining humans can call home…
Tom Jones (he’s a HUGE fan!) is an AI trapped inside a digital subspace, lost and desperate to find his way back to his beloved in real-time…
Dr Norma Stanwyck is a neuroscientist from 24th Century Earth whose personal choices ripple throughout time...
Prometheus must learn the necessity of death or the entire universe will be swallowed by his grief.
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GOODREADS
You can stalk me on Goodreads to see what I'm currently reading. bit.ly/3rrcByD
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IMAGE USE
The images in my videos are mostly licensed stock photos. However, occasionally I will use images found online. I always seek to properly credit artists and offer a link back to their amazing work but sometimes it's hard to find the original source of the work. If I've used an image you own and I haven't credited you, please feel free to get in touch as I am always more than happy to do so. - Zábava
Dune won the Hugo In the 60s. Not 1996
Slip of the tongue. Thanks for correcting 😄
All of these books deserved the award!
lol they all won the award in different years
Leaving off Foundation is an inscrutable decision, but your method of delivery is perfect - no music in an attempt to sound more important, a vocabulary not dumbed or slowed down, and exquisitely edited summaries of each novel's plot.
So very well done!
(One thing: I think Vinge is pronounced "vin jee.")
I loved the Foundation series as well.
Foundation didn't win the Hugo Award, unless you're thinking of Foundation's Edge. I actually prefer the latter Foundation novels to the earlier ones, but I don't think my opinion is common.
foundation never won the hugo. so how would adding a novel to this list be a good thing?
Nice job. I love Hyperion and most of the books that you mentioned. But I also love Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz and would put it ahead of some of the novels that you mentioned. I go back to it repeatedly and always find something new that makes me think about Miller's relationship with his conscience and religion. The book is brilliant, even though there are bits that bug me a little.
Read 7 of these so I guess I'm doing alright.
I would cut a couple of these to make room for two of my all-time favorites: Gateway (1978) and Startide Rising (1984.)
No one ever mentions or talks about the 1984 winner Startide Rising or the entire Uplift series. The book and series which brought me into high Sci-fi.
TOTALLY, GOOD SIR!
I adore those books. Very influential for me.
Those books are some of my favorite.
Sun Diver I believe is the first book in that series
I liked those books, but really felt they sometimes too big for any author to handle. Startide Rising felt like a sliver we never saw finish.
I am convinced Ursula K Leguin will be eventually recognized as the most important author of our time regarding her commentary on class politics and social organization.
Why? She merely re-iterates the same tired old socialist vs capitalist diatribe of every left-leaning university "academic"....
@@jackaubrey8614 What a weird way to say she is very based
Keep thinking socialism is based, I am sure if you get your wish that they won't line you up against a wall.
The Culture series and
Ian Banks are to me the greatest
Of all Science fiction literature.
He passed away to soon.
AI is caste as the great protector of
Sentient life, NOT the villiany that
works against biological life.
The drama takes place in one Galaxy
But, it is in close proximity to another
Galaxy.
Its great sub plot is very similar
To Babylon 5 and the Xtra sentient
Ancient races and Beings that
Are playing an endless political
Game of the Forces of Darkness
and Light with less evolved
Life and what VIOLENCE creates instead
of endless Peacetime and Order.
Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep is an amazing book - so are its sequels. As a retired computer science professor, his ideas are astonishingly forward thinking. All of Vinge's writing is brilliantly thought out.
It's a real shame he doesn't write more often.
I’m on the second and I loved A Fire Upon the Deep after I finished it but man did I struggle to read it. I had to take breaks because at times it felt nothing was happening but also other things where moving very fast and it was bad things after bad things after bad things and it stressed me out 🤣
@@maze4028 You need "focus" - if you're reading A Deepness in the Sky, you'll know what I mean. That concept stayed with me every since I read it.
After years of watching your contributions, I have concluded that you really Grok it!
I am of the perfect age (child of the mid 50's) to have collected the annual Hugo Winner compilations in their golden era (throughout my youth and young adulthood).
I don't think I've ever watched a mutiple book review where I had indeed read every entry until the 12 minute mark (I will be looking for Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" as soon as I have finished posting this comment. (Thank You!!)
Kudos on the economy demonstrated in reviewing 10 books in under 20 minutes, and still presenting a detailed summation of the stories. It was a masterclass in conciseness.
Despite the mysogyny inherent in novels of the 50's and 60's, Stranger in a Strange Land remains the book that most influenced my world view as I grew into the cantekerous old fart I have now become. I had hoped that I would see a cinematic, or television serialized adaptation before my final departure, but having seen how they destroyed my long time favourites (Foundation, I Robot, The Martian Chronicles, Brave New World (dear lord that was awful), and so many more), perhaps the fact that no one has had the vision to adapt it is a blessing.
Sci-Fi Odyssey is up to the task of bringing the best of the genre to the coming generation much more effectively than Hollywood anyway..
I am so impressed that you went more than 10 years back to find these truly seminal books. Too many of these top 10 lists only include material from the last 10 years as if material older than the author's adolescence never existed.
Kinda thought Hugo award was a one book a year thing?
True -- credit deserved there indeed.
@@Mr42Matt They have categories, so there are multiple awards, and one book per category I think. alanwatts5445 was referring to how impressed he was that someone on CZcams mentioned a book written before 2010 AT ALL. :)
@@bozimmerman truly weird thing to say. 2010 feel like a long time ago to you or something kid?
Interesting list, mate. Dune is my favorite. My list would have included Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh.
Great book. I also like Serpent's Reach.
Great list, I’ve read most of them, might have included Foundation and/or Riverworld.
I read all of these when I was in high school, except for Neuromancer, A Fire Upon the Deep, and Hyperion which came later. I was also reading an awful lot of Asimov, Heinlein, and Vonnegut at the time.
Stranger and Dune have always been very special to me and I have reread them several times, finding something new every time.
Having spent so many hours in the company of Kilgore Trout, I was overjoyed to see that you included Vonnegut, easily my favourite satirist within the Sci-Fi genre (Gore Vidal doing the same in a more general sense). From the day I completed Sirens of Titans, to the more recent (within the context of my age) tales found in Breakfast of Champions & Galàpagos, he became a novelist who's name on the cover made me purchase the book.
When it is time for me to go on my final adventure, I will lie back, dip my index finger in the Ice-9 snow, place my thumb on my nose, and wiggle my fingers at god (as I lick my index finger for all eternity).
Thanks for mentioning him. It looks like our highschool reading lists were quite similar.
Ah! Venus on the Half Shell. When that one came out under the byline Kilgore Trout we were all convinced that it was clearly Vonnegut. What fun!
Rendezvous With Rama pulled me into science fiction when I read it years ago. The overwhelming mystery and how existentially small it made me feel blew my mind. Surprised I've read all of these but necromancer!
Read it, it's there for good reason, you will like it, I promise.
Rama had a big impact on me too. One of my favorites.
Oh, are you ever in for a treat. There's well-loved books that start as well as Neuromancer does and go back to "only" really good after the first chapter, Gibson's on fire the whole way through.
I loved The Left Hand of Darkness. So original. So obviosely written by a woman and by that I just mean it has a different perpective.
I agree with Number 1. Hyperion is amazing.
Thank you for for this top 10. Great books.
Sad that McCaffrey didn't get one in the novel category.
She was nominated 4 times across 20 years but couldn't break through.
She won in the novella category with Weyr Search.
And Dragonrider would win the novella Nebula.
In 1972 Dragonquest lost to "To Your Scattered Bodies Go," which I think was wrong.
But Le Guin's "The Lathe of Heaven" was up that year and might have still edged out Dragon.
She was awarded the Grandmaster title 6 years before her death. 3rd woman after Norton and Le Guin.
I think that several other Hugo winners are better books then some on your top 10 list , like : " A Canticle for Leibowitz" " Lord of Light" " Stand on Zanzibar" " Downbelow Station" " Cyteen" " Gateway" " Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang " = top shelf, all of them
I agree and especially like Lord of Light and Canticle for Leibowitz.
Gateway has the best premise of any sci fi book. I hope it lives up to it!
I read Stranger in a Strange Land in high school. One of the first sci-fi novels I remember reading an I t hooked me on the genre to this day - read and loved all of Heinlein’s books. Orson Scott Card’s Ender novels were also a fantastic read - highly recommended.
Good list. I would have gone with The Dispossessed instead of The Left hand of Darkness. And I am not sure what I would have picked instead of the Card books. I looked at the winners. Ringworld - Larry Niven, much better book.. Or the Mars series by Robinson
A Canticle for Leibowitz and Stand on Zanzibar deserve honourable mentions, at least.
GREAT list! Can't believe I haven't ever read Rendezvous with Rama! Ever since reading Hyperion I've had trouble getting into any Sci-Fi: it's just so well-written!
Read Childhood's end, if you haven't. I adore Hyperion too.
Going from Hyperion to Rama may be a crushing disappointment. Rama is fine, but it's everything that's wrong with Hard SF. No characters you can remember or grab onto, just empty spectacle. If that's what you like, it's good. If it's not, it's pretty lame. Childhood's End is a better example of Clarke.
Great books, read almost all of them.
I would have put Babel 17 and The mote in god’s eye in it. Dune would have been my number one.
"Mote in Gods Eye" was great, I would also have added the "EON" series by Greg Bear 1985.
I just reread the mote in gods eye and still love it :-)
@@eliteakm there’s a sequel.
Also try James P. Hogan - Giant star series. The first three books are great. I never got through the fourth one but maybe you can.
@@palantir135 Yeah i found out two weeks ago and read it after the motes eye.
It was ok but the first one is far better in my opinion.
I read Ringworld by Larry Niven now and got Enders Game and Starship Troopers on my list.
When i run out of books i might give it a try (James P Morgan) but ty :-)
I’ve read all of these, but some so long ago I don’t remember all of the details
Stranger in a Strange Land and Speaker for the Dead were most impactful for me, and as such my faves. All are great.
Great video. Really enjoyed it all. Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing similar videos to this.
You did the right thing by adding speaker of the dead , great video
Hyperion this a true masterpiece.
I find this list very subjective (inevitably) but some of the entries confound me.
My favourite- probably ‘A Fire Upon The Deep’ but closely followed by ‘The Forever War’.
Brilliant and thought provoking as always.
I still cannot comprehend why Banks never got one.
Not that he would’ve cared less of course…
I don’t know if you can talk about The Forever War without mentioning Starship Troopers. The two books are both military sci-fi told in the first person. Starship glorifies war where Forever is anti war. Both great books.
Thank you for this. I'm an avid reader, have been for sixty years, but I never read science fiction. I'm going to remedy that this year, and I'll use the recommendations in this video to do so. I'm going to start with Hyperion and work back through your other recs. I enjoyed Simmon's The Terror enormously, so here's hoping...
The most prophetic work no 1 Neuromancer literally where we will be in 2030 - I have read 8 of the 10 - Also I may have chosen other works from the masters
On this list, I've read _Dune, The Forever War,_ and _Neuromancer._ _Neuromancer_ is probably my favorite.
I just read the four Hyperion books on the strength of your recommendation and was gripped through the whole experience, so very many thanks for that. I thought I'd give Cixin Liu's Three-Body Problem a go next, in English I might add.
My top four would be The Forever War, Dune, Enders Game and Rendezvous With Rama
I got into sci fi from Rendezvous with rama and foundation
Awesome list, thanks ❤ I have read almost all of them ❤
Thanks for the compilation. I love it! That being said, it seems to be more focused on classic sci-fi. Would love to see another list made from modern Hugo Award winners. I picked up the Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin a few years ago just because it had the "Hugo Award Winner" sticker and was completely blown away. She is the only author to win the Hugo award three years in a row, for each book in the series. I highly recommend it.
all 3 of the those books winning the hugo is what made me lose all respect for the hugo's. she's a twitter bully with a chip on her shoulder and her books are completely overrated with pretentious and mediocre writing. the hugo's have been a joke for a while now anyway.
Thanks for this list! I've read every one of these, and while I might quibble here and there for specific positions (Dune is better than Hyperion 😉), this is a terrific list of the best of the best.
In honour of this crazily brilliant episode I will bestow on you a crys knife I got while riding a maker when I was 16.
The other bit was a joke.
Great rundown. I’ll be busy for the next few months.
I guess I'll have to finally read Neuromancer. All the others are wonderful - great list!
I read Dune and Hyperion when they came out, re-read Dune recently so I guess I need to re-read Hyperion as only have vague memories of the story. Great list, I've read about 1/2 of them so I've got some work to do!
Speaker for the dead, is incredible. a must read.
I love you doing books, Darrel! And looking forward to your smash or pass! In case you do one. No pressure.
Having had the privilege of reading all of these I agree wholeheartedly with your list and ranking. I think Left Hand of Darkness and Speaker for the Dead should be required reading in every Political Science classroom.
This list is non plus ultra, flawless taste!
Really enjoy your channel! The whole Hyperion Cantos ( all four books ) is hands down my favorite.
A very solid list, these are all timeless classics in the genre. I would also put Hyperion at number 1
HYPERION!!! I was so happy to see it crowned on this list. I love all four books in the cantos, but my favorite was the most controversial--Endymion.
Yay a fellow enthusiast also ❤like it best.
I’ve read the Hyperion cantos probably 4/5 times now and it’s my favourite sci-fi series of all time, and YES Endymion and the rise of Endymion I enjoyed slightly better then Hyperion and the fall of Hyperion, I don’t actually know if I should say that because I enjoyed each book out of the 4 in it’s own way so there’s that to ponder about 🤔
Foundation definitely belongs on the list.
I'm so glad you put Hyperion at #1. I'll say Hyperion 1 and 2 are some of the most emotional rides I've had as a reader.
One day i may revisit Rama, I think I was to young for the science, however when Greg Bear's Eon came out I was right there like a ton of bricks, still love Eon and it's follow ons, doesn't matter if it didn't win a Hugo.
The whole Rama series is worth a read
My favorite the double bill Ender and the peerless Speaker For the Dead.
Agree 100% with #1. The entire series is fantastic
Good choices! I love Orson Scott Card.
A wonderful list and video
Interestingly, finding good science fiction and fantasy to read is quite a task. There's so much pulp on sale that is seems an impossible task to find a quality read. Both Hugo and Nebula awards are a really good source. You can find the full historical list of both awards quite easily online. It's not just the history, but each year, I go through the list of nominations and winners and that is where I find my best reads. For short stories, there are also annual publications of collected stories from the current leaders in the genre. Happy reading!
Many years ago during a speech at a science fiction convention, noted author (of More Than Human) Theodore Sturgeon shocked the audience by proclaiming “90% of science fiction is crap!” When the crowd finally settled down, he said “90% of everything is crap!” He’ll get no argument from me.
I would have liked to see Foundation as one of these books. Still, I enjoyed seeing your choices, and I still have Hyperion to experience, although I have read all the others many times each. Thank you!
Thank you, Darryl! 🕊️
Love the list. I have some books to read. I would have added Watchmen by Alan Moore.
Good list! My only quibble is that I would have included _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ in the top ten.
Good list. I've read all of these, and some more than once. I would place Neuromancer in the top 5 and replace Vinge with Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age.
Interesting swop out, mmmm.
I would have Stephenson's Seveneves on the list.
@@howardskillington4445 I liked Seveneves but it was a bit too heavy on the orbital mechanics for me. I thought the second half was great, would like to see a sequel. Which could also maybe explain what happened to the moon.
"Diamond Age" is horribly overlooked.
Between that and "Snow Crash", these are the only sci-fi books I've read and thought, "These things are definitely gonna happen."
Truly interisting and excellent list. Iain Banks? Or did he not win a Hugo? I enjoyed your list.
very good ... in competition though are le Guin's The Dispossessed, Niven's Protector and Ring World, Roger Zelanzy's The Lord of Light ... and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, even without a Hugo
I enjoyed that. From your list I would put The Left Hand of Darkness above Ender's/Speaker right away. I also wonder about the lack of female lead characters, the sexism in general, the racism, and classism which are present throughout the list. I often wonder how such forward thinking story tellers could have lacked so much humanity in the early days. Just an observation from many years; science fiction can be some of the most supercilious and condescending literature out there and I would say some of these fit that description. Not all of them.
Agreed. I loved Mote as a kid but reread this year. Wow it’s so male it is embarrassing now. Stilted as anything and a comfortable Royal Monarchy guiding us all! Moties should have won! They were Catholics as I recall 😂
I don't know why I haven't read Hyperion yet, it always gets my attention in the scifi section, but I have to go with Rendevouz with Rama, such imagination and intrigue!
My top 10 would look something like this. Keep in my mind I certainly haven’t read every Hugo winner yet…
Ender’s Game
Speaker for the Dead
Dune
A Memory Called Empire
Mirror Dance
Barrayar
The Vor Game
The Dispossesed
Starship Troopers
Forever Peace
Just my opinion but, Larry Niven's "Ringworld" and sequels. I think it won the Hugo in 1980.
Two of these Hugo winners had songs written about them by the metal band Iron Maiden, "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "To Tame a Land" about Dune.
Although I heard of all of these books, I've read only three, Rendezvous with Rama, Dune and Hyperion. But even between this three it's difficult for me to choose my winner. I also didn't read the follow-ups of any of those books, since they are pretty complete for me (yes, even Hyperion, which is only the prelude to the main story).
Since I read Dune more than 20 years ago, my freshest memories of that one are from the movies. It was a fascinating book back then but there is a little too much politics involved for my liking. That puts Dune slightly behind the other two.
Rendezvous with Rama is one of the rare Books, which I liked almost every sentence of. Arthur C. Clarke has the perfect tempo of storytelling for me, which is also tru for 2001 and Childhood's End. I will surely read more of his books in the future.
Hyperion works for me mostly as a collection of short stories, but oh my god, what a brillant collection. Every story comes with new ideas, that are groundbreaking on their own. Sure, I have my favorites and my least favorites, but the level overall is very high.
So, I have two winners: Hyperion for the fantastic concepts of the stories of each of the protagonists, Rendezvous with Rama for being enjoyable from start to end, the best flow I could wish for in a good book.
I have read all of them except the Ender's books. Hyperion is the best, and I am currently rereading it.
All excellent books. IMO, Neal Asher's Transformation trilogy should be up for awards aplenty in the current era.
Some great space opera or scifi has been written by E.E. Smith (skylark series) A. E Van Vogt, Larry Niven (ring world), Clifford Simak et al. There's lots of it out there.
A Fire Upon the Deep 🐐
Agree on Hyperion, wonderful story. Tragic and terrifying.
Good list, worthy!!!
I'd have moved Neuromancer much higher, far more significant both in the SF genre and the world at large. I'd have also introduced Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man and Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller.
I'd argue it's an important book, but not a good book.
It’s a bit restrictive to only nominate the winners of the Hugo for places in your top 10, when some of the runners-up in strong years are better than the winners of weaker years. I’d like to see a top 10 where the runners-up are also considered (Blindsight by Peter Watts is very highly-rated by many, but was only a runner-up in 2006, for example).
It's a great list, but of course it could be longer. I've read 6 or 7. Dune and Stranger are full meals indeed!
A Fire Upon the Deep lost me, I'm sorry to say. I'm still eyeballing Hyperion on my nightstand. I WISH they'd make Rendezvous with Rama into a movie already... or better yet a 10-part series.
My 2 all time favorite Sci-Fi books were Eon and A Deepness in the Sky. Eon would make a fantastic movie although it was more relevant during the Cold War with the USSR.
Awesome video. New subscriber
I've read seven of these books (including the two "Ender" books as one), and of those "The Left Hand of Darkness" is the one that had the most personal impact on me. It is, in many ways, a love story, and Genly Ai's exploration of his own binary attitudes is fascinating.
I've tried to read "Neuromancer" several times, but I've never been able to get very far. I recognize that it's a very important book, and possibly the most prophetic, but for some reason I just don't find it compelling.
It took me 5 attempts to finish Neuromancer. I can respect that it’s an important book, but not one I enjoyed.
When I was in high school, it seemed like everyone I knew was a huge fan of Stanger in A Strange Land. I tried. Several times, but I just couldn't get through it. I used to think there was something wrong with me.
Like you did with Ender's Game/Speaker For the Dead so you must do with Hyperion/The Fall Of Hyperion. I also think that Dan Simmons' Ilium/Olympos and Asimov's Foundation Trilogy should be in the Top 10 too! I looked it up and I see that Ilium just won the the Locus award, so I can see why you left it off!
A Fire Upon The Deep is truly amazing.
Also inspired an Adele song.
Probably.
Great List. Especially putting Hyperion on top spot. That book was an amazing ride and hooked me to science fiction.
I am always interested about comments on Forever War. It is my favorite SiFI novel even though it is a short book that doesn't have the lofty range of the space operas and world building complexities. It is now mostly viewed in the light of the author's anti war experiences but I have always seen it as an epic love story, one that can resonate with anyone who has found that one person who transends all the horror and crap that the world shoves on you.
The Forever War was the first book I bought. That was in 1976. I still have it and I read it every few years. The story line is excellect. The details are so well written that I can easily imagine every scene. I didnt know its an award winner but it is well deserving.
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
I've long thought that opening line of William Gibson's "Neuromancer" to be one of the most striking opening lines in all of literature. Unfortunately, it's turned out to be an opening line with an expiry date.
For anyone old enough to remember analog TV, that line conjures up an image of a static-laden blank screen, and thus of a dismal grey light-polluted sky. But for anyone who grew up with personal computers and digital TV, it likely conjures up an image of a nice, friendly blue screen of a sky, which isn't exactly the gritty grimdark image Gibson was going for.
I find myself wondering: Would I respect Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" more if I hadn't read Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" first? Because let's face it, Johnny Rico's gung-ho jingoism can be hard to take once you've experienced William Mandella's war-weary alienation. Given the latter, the former comes to feel too much like dancing on a soldier's grave.
Someone who read Dune wouldn’t call it a 1996 book…
Did Dune win the award in 1996, or 1966?
It won in 1965
Good list but I missed Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Greag Bear (the Eon series and others)
I've read 8/11 of these. I read 6 of those in 2023. It's been a great year.
شكراً جزيلاً ❤
Thanks!
Interesting choice on the Arthur C. Clarke book, also a favorite of mine. Clarke really has too many to chose from.
Clarke wrote short story The Sentinel which led to "2001"
Rendezvous with Rama forever will be my fav
Foundation and many like robot plus … at least some got Hugo … that is really great and sadly missed here.
@14:15 - "...Dune ...1996..." That just cannot be right because I read it at least a year (or maybe 30-ish but who's counting) before then.
It was nominated in 1996, not published. It was published many years before.
He misspoke. He meant 1960s.@@jameswebb3410
The Culture series and
Ian Banks are to me the greatest
Of all Science fiction literature.
He passed away to soon.
AI is caste as the great protector of
Sentient life, NOT the villiany that
works against biological life.
The drama takes place in one Galaxy
But, it is in close proximity to another
Galaxy.
Its great sub plot is very similar
To Babylon 5 and the Xtra sentient
Ancient races and Beings that
Are playing an endless political
Game of the Forces of Darkness
and Light with less evolved
Life and what VIOLENCE creates instead
of endless Peacetime and Order.
My favorite is Dune. I must have read it at the right time in my life. I recommend it to all thinking teenagers.
Hyperion seems to have missed the right moment. I didn't like it. I quickly dropped it and haven't returned to it yet. Maybe someday I will come back.
Foundation. For me it was a favourite in my teens, but after rereading it in my 60's, it has not aged well.
A great selection. Id miss out Dune but hey thats just me everyone else seems to like that. If it was me and thinking on my feet id swap Neuromancer with Accelerando and Dune with Pandoras Star but TBF they might not be Hugo winners.
I like your list. Hyperion belongs at number one.
But I've always thought Dune was overrated. "The pinnacle of world building"? If the spice makes interstellar travel possible, then how did people get to Arrakis in the first place? Also, just what did the sandworms eat before people came along?