5 First Contact Sci-Fi Books You Need To Read

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

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[@stevezeidman7224]

“The Mote” is one of my favorite books of all time. I read in the 70s. I felt the characters were kind of Star Trekian.

[@ionre24]

I like that on a list of First Contact books, the book you list first is Contact.

[@summerkagan6049]

I'd recommend Blindsight and Echopraxia by Peter Watts.

[@MallenBaker]

I love Childhood's End, and if you can only have one Arthur C Clarke book in the list, I guess that's the one. But of course 2001 A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama both gave very different takes on the same concept, and all the decades ago when I first read them they utterly captivated me.

[@jackkain7141]

High Crusade by Poul Anderson. Aliens invade a medieval village just as it’s preparing to leave for the crusades. It does not go as planned for them and keeps getting worse. Told from the perspective of a monk chronicling events, it’s an extremely funny book.

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Sounds awesome. I’ll check it out!

[@jaimeemmanuelalcala9735]

Haven't read Spin but this this idea of something isolating earth from outer space was, afaik, originally conceived in Egan's Quarentine as The Bubble, although is not entirely clear this was made by an alien civilization.

[@pyramidsong]

Great list! Definitely some books I’ve been meaning to read. My recent favorite first contact read was Fiasco by Lem. Then of course Blindsight for the creepy factor and Project Hail Mary for an optimism palate cleanser

[@lukewinch7928]

Fantastic list and a couple I haven't read yet. I would also throw in Rendevouz with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. It feels so authentic and grounded, yet eerie and weird.

[@ScienceFictionRetroactivis-j1w]

Great video, as usual. I have read many. The Mote in God's Eye and Eon quite some time ago. Starship Troopers - RAH - is sometimes overlooked as a first contact novel, I also suggest Storm Over Warlock - Andre Norton, and Martians, Go Home - Fredric Brown. There is a bunch.

[@Nic0maK]

I liked Vernor Vinge's Deepness in the Sky. In the far future, a group of humans, high tech space traders, picked up some radio signals from a weird star system and, assumeing some specy otherthere may be having their industrial revolution, they mount an expedition, hoping to find unconventional technologies or resources to use & trade. By weird, i mean their star goes bright and dark every few decades/centuries, yet somehow something intelligent lives there.

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Love Vinge!

[@jasperdoornbos8989]

First things first. Picard. No question about it.

[@theinvestorstrategist]

Here is a really great First Contact Book - Not well known but a brilliant read (IMHO): FADE-OUT by Patrick Tilley . Anybody who has read it, let me know what you think

[@Ipsifendis]

it always makes my day when i see you have posted a new video :D

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Thanks!

[@_berosus]

Great video as always - might I recommend as an honourable mention "Pushing Ice" by Alastair Reynolds - I rather enjoyed it. Another would be "Intervention" by Julian May, and the Galactic Milieu Series in general.

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Thanks for the recommendations. I’ll check them out!

[@goldenghostinc]

I second Pushing Ice. Really interesting premise.

[@goldenghostinc]

Cool list. Have read almost all of them (multiple times) including the recommendations, only exceptions are Spin and Excession. Reminded me to pick up the moties again soon for a reread. And as a bonus not to many things I needed to add to my buy / read list this time (only Excession perhaps, not sure yet) 😂

[@Paul_McSeol]

Fantastic list. I’ve been meaning to check out Banks for some time and this winter might be perfect for that. Thanks!

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Yes! Do it!!! Banks will make your life 90% better. Guaranteed! 👍

[@BertLaverman]

These lists are at the same time great and frustrating, because there are so many books to choose from. No Rama? Niven has lots of alternatives on his own as well. And if you really want to take "extraterrestrial" to the next limit, try Heinlein's "The number of the beast"! John Varley's Titan is a "first contact" that - in a sense - eventually turns out to not be the first. Just too bad most Jack Vance is already way past _first_ contact.

[@EvilTwinRC51]

Great recommendations thank you

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Glad you like them!

[@metalandwheel]

I recently read Fear the Sky by Stephen Moss. Great combination of first contact and spy thriller

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Awesome. I’ll take a look at it!

[@StevieFQ]

Kirk of Picard stopped being a good yardstick the moment STP came out :(

[@williamderkatzen8987]

Your description of Eon sounds like a direct cribbing of Rendezvous with Rama.

[@rachelthompson9324]

Contact is one of my all time top ten favorites

[@leafsonata]

4:07 reminds me of the "To Serve Man" Twilight Zone episode😍 thanks for all the great recs.

[@ryno_8848]

0:14 Those words is it possible to use them together in a sentence like that?

[@beauthestdane]

I have already read all of those except for Spin and Excession. All of them have been excellent reads. I started reading the culture series, but, just wasn't really getting into it. Will check out Spin soon.

[@kufujitsu]

"The Harvest" by Robert Charles Wilson, is another of his first contact books. Beautifully written - as you'd expect from Wilson. & it's a very bleak book, as you've probably gathered from the title....... It was inspired by a famous book & movie franchise which I won't mention, but it goes it's own way, & doesn't imitate at all. Probably my favorite first contact book.

[@sebwilkins]

Anything which is more cosmic horror?

[@Alkemisti]

I have read _Childhood's End_ and _Three-Body Problem._ I liked both (the TV adaptation of the latter was also great). I have had _Excession_ on my reading list for a while. I quit _Consider Phlebas_ after reading a quarter of it, wondering how can this author have fans. But everybody says, 'read Excession, read Excession!' so sure, why not.

[@ryohikoakiyoshi7835]

Best scifi first contact is men are from mars woman are from venus.

[@Ratzsa1]

No Rendezvous With Rama, disappoint. :< Then again, its sequels are terrible so far, and I'm halfway through them wishing they were never written. A Mote In God's Eye was a bit of a disappointment too. Might be the time it was written, but it felt a bit too sexist to me.