Three Older Sci-Fi Books Worth Knowing About [100 Book Challenge #1 & 2]

[@casualmajestic9223]

Finally another bookpill. I‘ve been on withdrawal.

[@tylerappel4847]

Bookpilled, if you read this, thank you endlessly for your recommendations and critical analysis. You've already led me to some of the greatest reading experiences of my life. Excited to keep digging in! Wishing you all the best!

[@Bookpilled]

@@tylerappel4847 Nice, appreciate hearing it Tyler.

[@Etherchannel]

I bought the Library of America edition of Joanna Russ that has all her major works purely based on your recommendations. So far, I am blown away. Thanks for introducing me to this amazing author.

[@braydenpresley1437]

I get a Bookpilled notification. I stop what I'm doing. I watch Bookpilled.

[@geoff2k]

Then, I attempt NOT to go to eBay immediately and purchase the latest recommendation.

[@zaprod]

I appreciate your unwavering respect for the genre and your viewers. And your candor is refreshing for younger viewers like myself. Thanks for such helpful videos, and good luck on the rest of the challenge!

[@AlienBigCat23]

Thanks Matt. Great shirt 👕. Better prairie. Excellent tree 🌳.

[@JakeFromMaine]

BABE WAKE UP WE'RE GOING TO THE PUNISHMENT PRAIRIE

[@disconnected22]

Agree with you about those Tanith Lee DAW covers. Those are what got the hooks in me. It’s a bit later and not one of the yellow spines, but I have a PB of The White Serpent (‘87) that is the most stunning thing on my bookshelves. Good to see you digging in again, my friend. We all enjoy it.

[@Gl1tch2263]

Hoping to try out The Female Man again in the New Year. Picked it up earlier as a casual read during work breaks and quickly realized in needs a bit more focus than that 😂

[@vdr3846]

Have you run into Cormac McCarthy's ghost while wandering the prairie?

[@fullmatthew]

Just found your channel earlier this year. Glad to see you uploading a video again! I really value your thoughts on science fiction novels, along with Outlaw Bookseller.

[@Warstub]

"The Punishment Prairie." Great Title! 😄

[@OmnivorousReader]

Yes! Don't Bite The Sun is fantastic. It has such fascinating insight into social pressure and alienation. And the Bee/Boo/Baa thing - totally foreseeing the mobile phone addiction.

[@supagremlin3274]

Bless, the Metaphor Man is back!

[@travisgardiner8997]

YOU FINALLY READ SOMETHING IVE READ OMG. (I only read it because of a review of another Tanith Lee book haha) I read "Biting The Sun" which is the omnibus with the sequel as well, they work wonderfully as one full book

[@asdfhjklacew]

Hi friend. I just found your channel between your last upload and this one, and since then I went back to watch most of your videos including all of your first 100 book challenge videos. You come at books in such a cool way. You have things you like in books but you appreciate being challenged. It makes you a great person to talk about books (in my opinion). I'm also jealous of your wonderful vocabulary. I have even started a list of words to remember/learn that I hear in your videos. I'm trying to learn one per week (the first two were lecherous and didactic). Anyway, overall, just so thankful for your content and feeling so grateful I found your channel in time to watch the new 100 book challenge live. Thanks for your content :) (sorry for the parasocial message btw lul)

[@Bookpilled]

Thanks very much, nice comment

[@SciFiFinds]

I read 4 Robert Silverberg books this year and loved them all so I dipped into his earlier work with 'To Open the Sky' and found it to be a much messier construction. I have Thorns too and I will give it a shot but I get that sense that he took a few novels to really fall into his style and substance. Enjoyed this interview.

[@samcarson8161]

@@SciFiFinds I think Silverberg writes at a highly consistent level of quality, he was SO prolific though, we couldn't keep up with him. PLUS my sense is that he was SO inquisitive & creative during his long streak from the '60's through the '90's, readers (including myself) couldn't latch onto some of his more abstract concepts. My GOAT will always be Jack Vance BUT I just ADMIRE Silverberg, his hardcore nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic, and the MANY absolute CLASSIC sci-fi novels he banged out during his peak years. "Dying Inside," "Tower of Glass," "This is the Road," "Majipoor Chronicles" are my personal faves, but I won't argue with anyone choosing "Nightwings," "Downward to Earth," "The Man Inside," or his many high-voltage short story collections instead. Silverberg is a Renaissance Man for our times, and UNDERRATED IMO just because he's been SO consistently brilliant for so long, we can't conceive of a world without him.

[@ralphmarrone3130]

After watching this video I excavated my Russ books from one of my bookshelves and found her Timescape imprint collection called The Adventures of Alyx. It contains Picnic on Paradise as well as the earlier Alyx stories! Needless to say I just pushed this onto the top of my tbr.

[@Cray2TheZ]

I'm reading The Sorrow of War right now and it is a BRUTAL book! I highly recommend it as it really immerses the reader into the sheer horror of war and WILL shake you to your core!

[@davidcastillo1683]

Always a good day when we get another BP post. I started reading We Who Are About To...per your recommendation. Your recs always deliver, so I'm fighting my trust in you with Russ' hard-charging, take no prisoners style. It's crazy. She's more velocity than verbiage, and I immediately fell into a like/hate reading of her material. I had to stop 22 pages in, but I'll finish it eventually. Not sure how what my bandwidth is on her work, but what a unique voice in the genre.

[@IISHOUTII]

Your reading comprehension and the ability to comprehend books along with your ability to articulate your opinions is unrivaled on the entire platform.

[@Bookpilled]

Thank you

[@AaronMFKing]

I loved Don't Bite the Sun, and I think it's even better when paired with it's sequel as a single book.

[@keithdixon6595]

I think DG Compton would have to be your fourth head, judging by your reviews ... I had all the Russ's back in the day but I couldn't get on with them. Perhaps now I'm old and have my trousers rolled I'd do better. 😔

[@jeffhidalgo8457]

Nice to see you outside.

[@jesusfreakster101]

Just purchased Picnic in Paradise, going to focus on Sci-Fi in 2025. Thank you kindly for your recommendations! Merry Christmas .

[@andrekuz]

Visiting Las Vegas and stopped in at Las Vegas Books per your much appreciated recommendation. Spent $100 on vintage SF paperbacks (from around the time of my youth which is ancient history now), essentially scanning for anything in bags, yum!

[@Bookpilled]

It’s such a good shop.

[@baron819]

A bookpilled video drop hits like nothing else.

[@barticle]

BTW I just saw that Barry Malzberg died today. :( Full obit on Locus mag website News section.

[@jonn8508]

The second book has elements of the graphic novel "Concrete". I wonder if that's on purpose or just parallel thinking

[@funkyfreshwizardry]

I live for the Punishment Prairie

[@chriswright9096]

Yes, Thorns is just a little too early to be classic Silverberg. It all starts with Nightwings in my opinion. I'm interested in your Rupert Murdoch comment, because that comparison certainly occurred to me when I read Thorns. Of course, Silverberg couldn't have imagined the full horror that was to come; the British tabloids, the twisted US propaganda TV channel, the lies, cruelty and hatred. He did a pretty good job though. Perhaps he can be credited with inventing the whole concept of predatory 'reality TV' in this very book?

[@adamlytle2615]

I bounced pretty hard off The Female Man a few months ago... yeah, stylistically difficult is how I'd put it. Maybe I'll seek out Picnic on Paradise before giving that one another shot.

[@Larkarran]

beautiful outfit 💙 I need to finally read Russ in the new year.

[@robcrowe11]

So very clear about these obfuscations. One thought, about endowments and federal funding. First, like federal loans, research grants go direct to scientists, though some institutions within u's.

[@maghurt]

Tanith Lee is in my Top 5 of all time, I love her. I'll check out Joanna Russ, I'm interested.

[@classicsciencefictionhorro1665]

Macroscope by Piers Anthony is a fantastic sci-fi masterpiece. It predicts the internet, albeit on a galactic scale and highlights super intelligence in a completely realistic way. Written in 1967-ish. Piers went on to write fantasy for the rest of his life.

[@Flappyjack-h4f]

Will sure read. Thank you fellow stranger.

[@bikemessenger7]

well, I hope the next three books are something to get excited about. Great idea for a channel.

[@khoops_gmz]

every time you hype russ it warms my heart.

[@cj1986x]

Came here to say, after seeing a comment from a butthurt YT commentor elsewhere over this video, thank you for talking about Joanna Russ, keeping talking about her, it gives me joy to see people who think they are the primary audience for SF and all SF content ought to pander to them getting mad over someone talking about Joanna Russ because they are fucking clueless and incurious about the actual history, evolution and scope of SF. And as someone who's long admired Silverberg's later works, no, no one reads his early stuff. I can confirm this to be true. I actually didn't even know he wrote early pulp stuff until maybe 20 years after reading Dying Inside back in the 1980s because no one ever talks about it. Also RIP Barry Malzberg.

[@gregoftheweb]

Have you read "Life During Wartime" by Lucius Shephard? It's freakin' awesome. A quasi-Vietnam Psi-enabled war story with dark Apocalypse now crossed with PK Dickian themes. I re-read it every couple of years. Highly recommended.

[@Bookpilled]

Haven't read it but I intend to.

[@davidwhite3598]

I just bought this on AbeBooks based on your recommendation. It sounds great.

[@meesalikeu]

whoa sounds great - fyi all its in sf masterworks so we can get it easily - thx 🎉

[@samcarson8161]

THORNS! Lona Kelvin! Minner Burris! Duncan Chalk! I'm a big fan of '70's sci-fi (when I did most of my reading), and Silverberg was King! (PLUS Jack Vance, Barry Malzberg, Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Sheckley.) Silverberg for me was a hypnotic page-turner, specializing in philosophical and allegorical yarns for modern reflection. Even when churning out a big obligatory fantasy "trilogy," (Majipoor Chronicles) Silverberg still excelled, likewise Jack Vance with his "Lyonesse" series. I sure wish someone would attempt a "Dying Earth" film adaptation in my lifetime. I know that's a tall order. Silverberg faves: "Tower of Glass" "Dying Inside," "Majipoor" trilogy.

[@samcarson8161]

One other GIGANTIC Silverberg novella that really melted my face off was/is "This is the Road," the big closing piece I found in one of Silverberg's fat bug-crusher anthologies (I don't know what its original publishing habitat was). Very similar to "Nightwings," future humans & near-humans living in a troubled dystopia & striving to wring purpose & meaning from the danger & misery. Again, Silverberg is in full allegorical & philosophical flight, but this one REALLY blitzed me & still makes me shiver.

[@meesalikeu]

@@samcarson8161shoot i just saw that one at the strand should have picked it up - sounds good thx for the tip 🎉

[@tankytrash1281]

I want to read something like Roadside picnic again. Simple short dense atmosphere.

[@SciFiScavenger]

I read Thorns earlier this year, it was a mid rank Silverberg at best. The high water marks for me are A Time of Changes and Up The Line. I am yet to read Downward to the Earth or Dying Inside. 2025, perhaps.

[@meesalikeu]

matt han bookpilled solo unfroze from the carbonite for us utoobers 😂 - picnic sounds good and so does tanith lee maybe even more so. i have russ female man on the bedtable, but i cant get to it yet because i picked up the zelazny sf masterworks and have been dipping into that instead - its on deck. 🎉

[@braydenpresley1437]

Couldn't have been more perfectly timed. I JUST finished Don't Bite the Sun less than a week ago. I picked up the DAW because I remembered you mentioning how much you enjoy her writing. 1000% agree with your thoughts about her, having finally read her. She's wacky and weird and so compelling.

[@luhdemtaters]

tier video ranking mount rushmore clusters of sci-fi authors lol. i'm a relative noob but you talk about so many authors i've never read and many i've never heard of -- how do you pick your reading?

[@Bookpilled]

Rune scrying and experience

[@luhdemtaters]

@@Bookpilled ah yes le ol palantir lol

[@Izzboticus]

Biting The Sun by Tanith Lee is my #1 recommendation for anyone to read.

[@tectorgorch8698]

I have got to reread Mortonhoe. The first time -- a few years ago -- I absolutely hated it. It'll be a lot of fun to try to figure out what exactly I found so annoying about every aspect of that thing. Now on to Scott Bradfield, and later Ian Cattanach. Working toward my Lit. Phd from Google U.

[@gerrade71278]

Great reviews! I LOVE the book transition shots. But...Viddy me some slang in Clockwork Orange. It's real horrorshow stuff, ani't it?

[@tylerappel4847]

This was my question for Bookpilled as well! I feel like that slang must be the exception to the rule. I know I loved the use of slang language in that one. Anyway, cheers everyone! Happy book reading to you all.

[@danieljette8007]

It's the punishment prairie? Do the vegetation agree with you? As long as it's not a punishment library.

[@romanamelia]

I was just waiting to watch a cougar walk by..

[@arcitejack]

Joanna Russ 🙌🏼

[@angusmckeogh659]

Did that metaphor include the phrase "she lays out in her soil?"

[@eugenemurphy6037]

Stay in the car, kids. The Metaphor Man is here. It's not safe.

[@jayjunior5504]

“Lifes of leisure”

[@Nolimitscomedy]

Consider me, bookpilled

[@GoneWithTheCircus]

I see feminist science-fiction a sub-genre destined to the same fate as feminist music.

[@Bookpilled]

Fascinating!

[@GoneWithTheCircus]

@@Bookpilled 😁

[@chuckbridgeland6181]

"future slang is cringe" -- it is as you say

[@jnmortell66]

Kevin McDonald!

[@DKBiedron]

20:41 Noooooo!

[@bwiz6514]

Clear Ether!

[@rosem6124]

❤❤

[@ssatva]

Rushmortalization.

[@landholderferguson]

My god, your hair!

[@ania1414]

Bruh. I mostly enjoy your output but you should write this before you record it. Or at least think about it for 5 minutes. It´s getting harder to watch. Also, please don´t act like you are getting tortured. Nobody is forcing you to do it. I´m telling you this as a fan.

[@psychonaut5921]

Your 'Mount Rushmore" is pretty lame...

[@sphinxtheeminx]

Yawn.

[@ButOneThingIsNeedful]

Matt's moon & mine seem increasingly pulled toward different sources of gravity, yet still enjoy tuning in.🌓🪐