No Asimov, no Heinlein, no Card? Hmm. Not much to see here apparently.

For me the disappointment of 2024 was Pierce Brown's Red Rising series. The whine, adults acting like children, children acting like adults dragged the series down. I was expecting to read a serious adult sci-fi series and this was not it.

Yo, Pol Rubio by Hector Lozano is the answer to your question

I’ve been diving into more books over the past three months, and so far, I haven’t been disappointed. Malazan has been a fantastic read, and once I finish all ten books in the series, I plan to explore more of the grimdark genre with titles like The Prince of Nothing and The First Law. I’ve never minded dry reads, as long as the core ideas are compelling and the author did not overly preach their perceptions of reality which I dont necessarily agree upon. It’s fine when such ideas are being brought up, but it becomes irksome when the author seems intent on convincing me that their perspective is the absolute truth. I mean of course it is subjective to each reader and it is for themselves to decide. What frustrates me even more is when a book shows a lack of understanding of the topics it attempts to explore, like Dark Matter, or when it reduces complex, real-life-inspired issues to shallow, superficial storytelling.

I'm catching up on some of your older videos and also fall into the camp of either Gunslinger & Wizard and Glass being my favorites out of the Dark Tower series.

How did Anthem by Ann Rand not make this list! WTF?

Wow! My sensibilities seem very similar. Cool you mentioned Cloud Atlas - I was hooked on David Mitchell’s style from the first page and it was my first book of his. Big fan of Alistair Reynolds and glad you mentioned ‘House of Suns’ the one I recommend to introduce him to new readers. Have you read Delany’s ‘Nova’? It has been presented as foreshadowing steam-punk. Haldeman’s ‘The Forever War’ is high on my list too.

So strange to me that these lists always have so many old books written 40-50 years ago. Dont get me wrong they are good books but it feels like there should have been some advances when it comes to writing that have enough quality to get into these lists more regulary.

I love the fact Stephen wrote himself into this book, it makes absolutely perfect sense. The whole story involves the connecting of his other books. He’s central to the whole multiverse idea. I thought that back on original release, and with every subsequent reread.

I read this series originally one book at a time, left waiting for each book to be written and published. Since then I have reread the whole series multiple times and enjoy it every single time. For me, though, this is always the book that feels like hitting a brick wall, completely stopping the story in its tracks. For me, the boredom I feel with this particular book is almost killing the story. I know many readers feel that this is their favourite book, but I just struggle with it. This is the only book in the series that makes me feel like this, but I always persevere to the end to ensure my rereads are always complete. I’ve just started another reread yesterday and aim to finish them all in the next month or so.

I don’t consider Roland a bad man, just a highly focused, committed person. He has a goal to accomplish and will let nothing and no one get in the way. He’s just as willing to put his life at risk as well as others’.

Reading this entire series answered so many questions I had from King's other books. Just having the ability to weave those characters through that many books over so many years is mind-blowing.

100% agree I prefer this to Demon in white

Seriously, shame on you ma'am. Who doesn't like flower for algernon? 😅 It's a great scifi book.

For me most of the books I read disappoints me. I have so many books this year where I left it at 70% into the book. I don't know what sources to trust anymore, goodread is crap, even those I follow there who seem to have same taste as me, its always hit or miss. I am not too picky, maybe medium picky. But I found I have many pet peeves (and the list only grows the older I get lol) and some I can't get past if the author has done too many or heavy "mistakes" etc. KZbin I can't trust either. This channel excluded, just found this channel some months ago and starting on House of leaves soon :)

Have you read the skylark series by E E doc Smith

I saw Annihilation when the movie came out years ago, then I read the book this year and rewatched the movie afterward. They are VERY different, but I still agree that it was a good adaptation. The book is honestly really simple and I think making it into a whole movie would be difficult, and the things they added were really great. I think the fact that they were able to change so much and still make it feel the same is really impressive

If anybody wants to to deeper on House of Leave, go watch a playthrough of myhouse.wad. It’s a custom Doom map based on the book and it’s WILD.

Who even knows if the movie we just watched(read) was made by a kid? Maybe it was made by a grown up director with snippets of his old kid movies. It's really interesting.

I agree with you about Dark Matter. The ending fell so flat for me and it was honestly just a stressful read. Wayward Pines is one of my favorite series. My most disappointing reads this year were The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers and Cryptid Slayer by Rick Poldark.

Ive had such a good year for books. Read more than I ever have in my life before and cannot think of a single disappointing or bad book although there were a few ones that stood out from the pack in a good way. Then again the ones I have read have all been pretty old and are widely or in a much more niche way regarded as classics at best or enjoyable at worst. Just started Titus Groan and its another fantastic book. The two that stood out for me for this year are The Worm Ouroboros because of the absolutely incredible writing on the micro level and A voyage to Arcturus which as someone who likes weird fiction I just found extremely enjoyable and intriguing. Hoping to get around to reading some Lord Dunsany, William Hope Hodgson and Clark Ashton Smith in the coming year among others.

Most disappointing to me has to be Kingdoms of Death (Sun Eater #4), still can't get over how weak it was from a worldbuilding, plot, and prose standpoint. Honorable mention goes to Green Mars/Blue Mars, totally bloated and uneventful duds after the brilliant Red Mars.

So glad I found your channel, you really do a great job, thank you for all this great information.

Get to the damn point and describe briefly about what each book is about rather than waffling on about writing styles and what else is on your wish list. Complete waste of time video.

My favorite of the year was The Stand, it was my first time reading it. So GOOD. My second favorite was Aniara or Gone Girl. Hard to pick.

Okay, can someone tell me what the messaging is in His Dark Materials? I've read the full series twice, and I still don't get it.

Haha idk why I keep watching your stuff. We have very different tastes! Love how you do content I guess

Finally someone who hates Dark Matter as much as I do. Like you have to really work to get all the science in a sci-fi thrilling wrong

I'm going to read Frankenstein in 2025, because I want to read Our Hideous Progeny, by C.E. McGill, which is a story about Victor's niece. And looks like it's a sort of Frankenstein meets Jurassic Park concept. Decided I should read Frankenstein first. Misery is a book I read in one sitting, so that's one you could get checked off your list very fast. It's a quick read.

I bought House of Leaves largely due to your recommendation (as well as some of the GoodReads comments). It’s on my TBR for 2025.

What a reader you are! Great respect for your perspective on stories, man. Indipendent and clear. I love it.

I’m with you brother “The Blade Itself” is overrated af. It was pretty boring to me and didn’t flow very well.

My biggest disappointment this year was Prince of Darkness. I heard so many good things and the prologue was epic and full of promise, but the rest just didn’t live up to it. I really wanted to love it!

I see we have a pretty similar taste in books. Roadside picnic is a masterpiece, metro series are one of my favorites,berserk is the goat, hyperion was just good, the fall of hyperion was really a fall. Im about to start ubik, i loved blade runner 2049 so im gonna read his do androids book and book of the new sun is pretty up on my tbr. So i whole-heartedly recommend solaris and the invincible by stanislaw lem, hard to be a god and the doomed city by the strugatsky brothers

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed the novel. There are multiple levels to the slow-burn I employed in these novels; the primary ones serves the novel in question, but other serve multiple novels and still others serve the series as whole. But each is constructed to achieve an emotional effect. I'm very patient when setting things up and sometimes ask too much of the reader's own patience. It's a tightrope to be sure. Hope you enjoy Memories of Ice. Cheers, SE

I have read almost every King book except a few and Revival is 100% in my top 5 King novels.

Great list and great year!! As a Malazan stan, I will say that the experience of the books getting better AFTER you read them is extremely common. I haven’t been able to figure out why exactly, but it’s a pretty cool and unique thing about them Speaking of which, can’t wait for the Memories of Ice review! You’re gonna love it 😍

Two big disappointments for me: Norstrilia, by Cordwainer Smith. A classic that is much beloved. I read "The Best of Cordwainer Smith" before this so I could learn about his universe, didn't like it. Some good ideas but he couldn't put them into stories I cared about. Norstrilia was just more of the same. Didn't buy what was going on and it just seemed silly. A couple good ideas but... meh. Friday, by Robert Heinlein. Been looking at this book and it's wonderful cover for decades. Finally got around to reading it. A genetically enhanced sci-fi spy? Sounds great. The first 50 pages were good and I wish the entire book was like that. Instead we got domestic drama with some "government is evil" stuff. (Imagine a James Bond film with a good pre-credits sequence, then an hour and half of Bond living his domestic life. Written by a libertarian.) It was a page turner but the story could have been so, so much more. Did I read Book of the New Sun early this year or the end of '23? Can't remember. But I dunk on that over hyped mess enough already.

Agree with you on Murakami. I LOVED his latest. Stayed with me for weeks. I don't care if it is him doing his greatest hits when his hits are so great.

Being a book is the defining feature of The Book of the New Sun.

I'd be curious to see what you make of Loop, it's an ever weirder shift from Spiral than Spiral was compared to Ring.

Well done sir! I never fully understood the ending until this breakdown. Thank you for this take and unpacking. The depression, the addiction wow! Truly appreciate this!

I agree with feast for crows!! I couldn’t get past the first 100 pages

One Second After is a good one.

Todd here. Nice video Rammel! I enjoy the fact you spoke your mind, and also keeping the video quick and tight you did not ramble on. Happy Holidays to you!

Ah yes, these are the lists I look forward to more than the good stuff.

I started The Blade Itself and dnfed after about 100 pages. I can see why people like it. It just wasn't for me.

good content

Memories of Ice is my favorite. Im an exclusive audible listener and they are so well read. I just read along with an ebook. There are 2 narrators. Although i do prefer Ralph Lister

I was beginning to worry about what you disliked until you got to Dark Matter, what an appalling book. I rank it as the worst book I've read this century. On the other hand, I ranked the Joe Abercrombie books in the reverse order, I liked them all but really loved The Blade Itself; meeting Logen Ninefingers for the first time was a huge buzz for me. The author ranks those books in the order you put them.