6 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books That SURPRISED Us
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- Today I'm joined by Tori Tecken from @ToriTalks2, author of the epic fantasy The Blood Stones, to discuss some science fiction and fantasy novels that we found surprising based on our expectations.
The Blood Stones is now available:
www.amazon.com/Blood-Stones-L...
My links:
Patreon - / wordsintime
Discord Server - / discord
Amazon Wishlist - www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls...
00:00 - Introduction
01:35 - Frankenstein
06:54 - Down Below Beyond
11:08 - More Than Human
15:03 - We Are the Dead
19:11 - Consider Phlebas
28:45 - The Long Price Quartet
#ScienceFiction #Fantasy #Books
The book that surprised me most was World War Z. I thought it was a horror/action novel. Instead, I got a fascinating anthology of stories with themes ranging from international relations to technology to psychology to media and propaganda. It's far more thought-provoking than I ever imagined it would be.
Also, I would highly recommend the audio book. The cast of voices they brought in to narrate is insane! Martin Scorcese, Alfred Molina, Mark Hamill, Simon Pegg, etc...
That’s good to hear! I have watched the film, but have heard the book is quite different. I will have to read it in the future!
I'll second WWZ. The movie they made really had nothing to do with the book, which was a fast read with some very well thought out scenarios. I wouldn't have thought zombies vs nuclear submarine might have been a contest, but...
This was a fun chat! One Sci-fi book that actually surprised me was Dune Messiah. I went in blind and did not know that Herbert was going that direction! And Pines by Blake Crouch is an obvious choice from me too.
Thanks Josh! I have only read Dune but I think I will try Dune Messiah next year!
I missed this when it was live! But thank you so much to Tori for the shoutout for Down Below Beyond!! So thankful for the love for it. 😁
Thanks for watching! I appreciate Tori recommending it and look forward to trying it!
Always good to hear someone sing the praises of "More than human" because author Theodore Sturgeon is rarely mentioned on some of the Science Fiction book tuber frequencies. Sturgeon was a master of the exploration of "inner space" and his stories are full of psychological insight and genuine concern for the human condition. And as you say, Jonathan, "a classic sci fi book...."
I’m glad you also connected with it! I’m looking forward to reading more from Sturgeon.
@@WordsinTime Very enjoyable chat with your friend Tori. She is delightful and she "almost" had me eager to read a fantasy novel, "almost." As you have stated, Jonathan, you are not a big short story reader and that was where Sturgeon excelled. I have read a couple of his novels and they are not as satisfactory as his short stories. Honestly, he could write about almost anything dealing with the human condition. Kind regards...
I'm with Tori. I can't do nihilism. If I want to be hopeless and depressed, I'll just open my news feed. Or social media. I don't mind struggles and darkness. But there has to be SOMETHING good to hold on to.
Yes, I don’t mind dark stories but it’s hard to enjoy something completely nihilistic haha
Ilium definitly suprised me the most, also excession is the culture novel i would recommend as a startin point
Ilium is a crazy experience haha. Glad you liked Excession!
I think you are my favorite book tuber. I don't always like the same books, but always like your take on them. Qapla!
Thanks for the kind words! I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos and to have you as part of the channel!
From my experience, Cultureheads really mean just don't make Consider Phlebas your first Culture read. We use skip rather loosely haha.
LPQ is fantastic!!! And Tori needs to finish it ASAP!!!
Haha fair enough. And I’m glad you enjoyed LPQ!
Unrelated to this particular video, but I finally did it Jonathan. I bought a copy of Permutation City.
Going to start 2024 off with it.
Yay! I hope I haven’t set the bar too high and that you enjoy it haha
Great video guys, and congratulations @ToriTalks2! One of the nice surprises I've had recently (which might act as a gateway for Tori) is Aliette de Bodard (many, many apologies for speeeeeelllling). Vietnamese / French author of In The Vanisher's Palace and On A Red Station, Drifting. Amazing blend of Viet mythology / social structures and space-based living, including organic AIs. The Vanisher's Palace is more on the sci-fantasy end of things (and an awesome inter-species queer love story!). I loved the projection of a family-based social structure projected into the far future.
Cheers Coleen! And thanks for the recommendation!
Oh i'm glad to hear such glowing review of Aliette de Bodard's Xuya series. Recently added it to my tbr after finding it from browsing my library and the The Tea Master and the Detective looked so interesting.
@@Zivilin I love the Tea Master and the Detective! Would love to gush about it, but hard without spoilers!
I find Frankenstein's monster to be the hero of a truly great story. From the same era, I see Dracula as nothing more than a waste of trees.
I haven’t read Dracula but Frankenstein is a fascinating character.
Setting the bar in the right place is always important.
Haha yes it helps to have reasonable expectations
I've read all ten of the Expanse books and The Long Price Quartet. The latter is by far the superior. You need to read it.
Interesting! Glad to hear you think so highly of LPQ!
I am definitely getting Down Below and Beyond........and probably We Are the Dead.
Nice! They both sounded pretty intriguing.
(Note: There will be spoilers after the spoiler space.)
I read FRANKENSTEIN just a few weeks ago for the very first time and I loved it! Going in, I knew I had to get the Hollywood ideas out of my mind. But I was not expecting it to be so beautifully written, philosophical, and emotional. The one weak spot that I thought it had was:
S
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There was zero explanation as to how, exactly, he got the monster to come to life. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking for gore / horror. I was relieved there was next to nothing of that. But it was just a hand-wavy thing as to how he actually did it. It felt like a bit of a cheat. Yes, the character didn't want people to learn the secret so it wouldn't be tried again. But the audience knows it was the author who couldn't figure out a convincing explanation. I don't blame her. I know that any explanation wouldn't have been fully convincing. (Especially in that scientific era. These days it would be so much easier to make up something about cloning and/or robotics and such.) But I thought there would be SOMETHING. I thought it was important to the plot. To be honest, this took me just a bit out of the story. But, hey, it's one of the most famous stories of all time. So what do I know?
I’m glad you also loved it! As a sci-fi fan I would have also enjoyed more of an explanation, but I don’t think it hurt the story too much.
I couldn't agree more about More Than Human being a Big surprise. The story was good, the prose, at times, sublime. It was my first Sturgeon, but certainly not the last.
Yes, I need to decide what to read from him next!
@@WordsinTime Same. I don’t own any Sturgeon, but I have heard good things about The Dreaming Jewels and also about his collections of short stories.
The 'hype train' question is interesting. I've been wondering of late whether inflated expectations end up spoiling a book in a weird way. Found myself disliking a few of the BookTube favourites recently as they just haven't lived up to the hype, but wondering if I'd have enjoyed more going in completely blind. E.g. really didn't enjoy Blindsight, Solaris, Use of Weapons, House of Suns - all very much loved on sci-fi BookTube. I'm even feeling a bit 'meh' so far on Hyperion.
It could be expectations, or it could just be those particular books. Something like Blindsight is polarizing and I wouldn’t expect everyone to love it. It only clicked for me towards the end. I hope you find something that you love soon!
@@WordsinTime oh plenty I love :) ...though oddly I think my favourite read of 2023 was not sci-fi. Need to look on everything I've read this year, but standout book of 2023 at the moment is Pet Semetary.
@@JohnG225 This is unforgivable. Jk I’m glad you liked it haha 😅
@@WordsinTime 😅 I will hang my head in shame
yes mary shelley was an interesting person her mother (victoria?) wollstonecraft was a pioneering feminist and just as fascinating⚛😀
Very interesting what she achieved at that age!
the same book cover would look better if it were hand illustrated rather than computer generated
It looks good to me, but thanks for the feedback!
This was very difficult to engage with. There were just far too many ads. When you are constantly interrupted by irrelevance, these vlogs, in particular, are ruined.
Thanks for the feedback Clive. CZcams places the ads, but I’ll see if I can manually change them.