5 Existential Sci-Fi Books You Need To Read

Today, we have a special treat for those of you who love to ponder life's big questions while journeying through the cosmos. We're diving into the world of existential science fiction!
Thanks for watching and don't forget to check out my sci-fi books below.
#scifi #existential #books
0:00 - Intro
0:36 - What is Existential Sci-Fi?
1:17 - The Lathe of Heaven
3:04 - The Sirens of Titan
5:10 - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
6:52 - More Than Human
8:34 - Light
___________________________________________________________________
MY STUFF
linktr.ee/scifiodyssey
____________________________________________________________________
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.
____________________________________________________________________
GOODREADS
You can stalk me on Goodreads to see what I'm currently reading. bit.ly/3rrcByD
____________________________________________________________________
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.

[@theinvestorstrategist]

Great Selection : The Hyperion Series meets all the criteria for this video

[@nishthagupta1357]

I'd add "three body problem" to this list too. Cixin Liu really forces us into existential crisis

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

"Lathe of Heaven" was my introduction to Ursula Le Guin, and it remains one of my favorite SF novels 50 years later. George Orr (or JorJor), in my opinion, is a great hero. He eventually realizes that *all* the realities he dreams up are real, and that the only way to deal with this realization is to "go with the flow." Dr Haber, on the other hand, is destroyed by his attempts to control reality and remake it into his vision of a perfect world. I know LeGuin said she was greatly influenced by Taoism, but I also wonder if she was influenced by the insights of quantum mechanics, since the entire story seems to imply a "double slit experiment" gone very, very wrong.

[@major_west]

PBS produced a well done TV version of the Lathe of Heaven in 1980 and it's available on YoutTube.

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

@@major_west Yes! I remember it well, and I agree. Itis very well done, especially considering that the budget was ridiculously low.

[@mateosimon4237]

Blindsight as a bonus track. I think it has become a very influential tale

[@nicholasszabo5954]

Always a good day when Darrel uploads. So glad you mentioned the Sirens of Titan, that book was an absolute trip. Those who have read know the absurd purpose of mankind...Spoilers ahead To build a bolt for an immortal robot who unalives himself.

[@major_west]

Thumbs up for Lathe of Heaven. It's a memorable read.

[@grahamsmith9462]

Now I have to read all of these!

[@bookspin]

Great video. Light sounds fascinating, definitely want to read that one at some point. I love a good existential read.

[@jor-el1298]

I remember The Sirens of Titan being weird, sad and entertaining at the same time.

[@treefarm3288]

Good video. I read The Lathe of Heaven as a light fun read many years ago but I must re-read after your comments. One of my favourite novels in the farther-out category is Blood Music by Greg Bear. The world is also transformed in it. You have to tell me if it has a deeper meaning.

[@ac-gp3kz]

Blood Music is a fantastic novel!

[@ac-gp3kz]

Thanks for this - 1st and last suggestions are now q'd on my kindle for reading.

[@creatancremanova7097]

great suggestions, especially the 1st and 3rd one. thank you!

[@gordonkent5371]

Great recommendations Darrel. Not sure that it's of a sort with the illustrious five you've selected but the active search for oblivion by the alien and the culture mind in Banks' Look to Windward seem to be a hard study of existentialism.

[@mondostrat]

Four of my favorites, the fifth (Light) is on my TBR.

[@michaeljdauben]

A great list of thought provoking books! I read the first four, but Light was a new book to me. I'll have to add it to my TBR list now. 😁

[@stevens-universe]

I would recommend Prison Planet as an existential read due the the grappling with with leaving a legacy for future generations that you will never see and having to come to terms with that.

[@mcburnski]

I've not read any of these but i think i might invest in them soon. Good reviews 👍. My top 3 in this kind of category would probably be Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlien, The Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card and The Truth Machine by James Halperin.

[@thekeywitness]

Great selection

[@WordsinTime]

I loved The Sirens of Titan and More Than Human. Three Stigmata happens to be on my schedule for this month and I’ll have to check out the other two as well!

[@ghostdreamer7272]

Great list

[@seanblackwood8382]

I was thinking of checking on your channel earlier today, thought maybe Algorithm had finally got you. Fear not We going strong, PKD in list, what else you want? 😤💪

[@holydissolution85]

Great video as always.. I strongly recommend short story " The Days of Perky Pat " by Dick. ( about strange game survivoors of WW3 play in underground shelters ) Some elements from the story were used in Palmer Eldriitch novel later. Unforgettable story..

[@travispardy8649]

Can I ask what the name of the music is at the beginning and end of the video? Sounds kind of harmonious. I've heard it elsewhere and have tried to find the name. Love this channel, I've gotten so many book recommendations from this, thank you!

[@snovid3306]

How I wish other bookTubers learned from you what a review is. But then again, there are things they can't learn... which is an existential problem, LOL. You be you, and let's hope others consider enhancing their skills

[@General_reader]

I’ve never read anything by Ursula K. Le Guin. First three books I should read?

[@bookspin]

Can't go wrong with The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

I’d agree with this 👍

[@General_reader]

@@bookspin thanks! I’ve heard people mention left-hand of darkness. But isn’t it part of a series?

[@bookspin]

@@General_reader Both The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed are part of a series of books set in shared universe called the Hainish Cycle. However, they are standalone novels and only very loosely connected to each other.

[@holydissolution85]

Also from Hainish Cycle : " Rocannon's World " , " City of Ilusions ", " Word for a World is Forest " , " Solitude" ( novella )

[@michaeldaly1495]

I'm not sure I get the definition of existential here. As I understand it, an existential work must describe the experience of being thrown into a godless, absurd universe, without meaning. Very few of the books here seem very existential to me although they are great books (I have not read 'Light') - especially PKD, who while I love him, was massively theistic. 'Nausea' and 'L'étranger' would be 2 non-SF existential fictional works - some works in SF that bear some relation to those might be 'The Stars My Destination' or 'The Man in the Maze'.

[@darrellee8194]

It sound like More Than Human could have been the basis for the NetFlix series "Sense-8".

[@duran9664]

Books r too long can’t read 😩 Pls movies 🍿 🎥