Ranking All the Books from Every Top 15 Sci-Fi List

[@Cmdtheartist]

Dear Villagers, He's doing it again. Bring all the torches.

[@DillonTooley]

Being self aware of your influence on the book prices is admirable.

[@SciFiFinds]

A Fire upon the Deep made me feel emotional about a little plant alien in a motorised cart. Hope the pain eases up soon.

[@jerryB75]

While I am a huge fan of Book of the New Sun. I almost never recommend it. It’s not for everyone. I agree it’s not an acid test either. It is a story that gets clearer every time you read it.

[@GentleReader01]

The idea that any single book, or series, or author can be an acid test is just stupid. I say with my famous open-mindedness. :) And I am a huge Wolfe fan, though I don’t have a Terminus Est pillow. Yet.

[@jerryB75]

@@GentleReader01 the New Sun books are the first and only books that I have ever read where after I finished one book I immediately went back and started reading it again. I was tempted to do it with GGK, but he has so many books that I just binged his body of work instead

[@philgriffin8687]

I think it is a little unfair to treat Shadow as a seperate book for a review. The whole thing (1-4) was written as a single book then split up for publishing reasons. So it is really just the intro to The Book of the New Sun and is mainly setting up the rest of the story and an introduction to the world.

[@venturelord32]

Lots of books I've got to get around to reading, it's cool to see your thoughts change over time. Not to be a shill, but your patreon is insane value, an unbelievable amount of great discussion for a more than reasonable price. Hope the pain lets up, Peace Bookpilled.

[@Bookpilled]

Thank you, very much appreciated on all counts.

[@Etherchannel]

Glad this dropped. I was in dire need of another book pill.

[@billbez7465]

I'm reading "Fire Upon the Deep" based on your previous recommendation. Only about 100 pages in, but I am enjoying the book.

[@braydenpresley1437]

Same! Heard Matt talk about it as a masterpiece and had to give it a shot. I'm about 350 pages in right now and it is fantastic.

[@yelisieimurai]

Do you really like this tedious part about smart dogs?

[@Tokayd13]

I love it. I reread it about a year ago, and I still love it.

[@ARiversEdge]

Exact same here! I’m about 2 hours in. Loving it so far.

[@WordsinTime]

Frankenstein, Solaris, and Blindsight are S tier for me too 🤝

[@Zgembo121]

we.missed.u.myman

[@fantasytale4653]

Waiting for your Top15 Sci-Fi books this year! I am reading almost books from your recent top 15 Sci Fi books list. I think I am a hardcore Fantasy readers who has read over 300 fantasy books in English, but after watched your Sci Fi books channel I regularly read Sci Fi books now. A Case of Conscience and Downward to the Earth I think are particularly written for me. I also love City, Hothouse, Ice, Solaris, BlindSight. Exciting to know your next top15 Sci Fi books list!

[@superdrag65]

"Terminus Est waifu pillow". I mean c'mon, that's the sauce right there, the reason I keep coming back to this channel 🤣. As for Dune, God Emperor makes wading thru Children of Dune mostly worth it. The protagonist on God Emperor is among the best characters I’ve read in sci-fi.

[@Blitnock]

Yeah, I think God Emperor is the best of the Dune series, however that book is definitely not to everyone's taste.

[@Warstub]

(in my opinion) You still need to read Children of Dune to have a more complete critical picture. I think the writing develops more of the characters and the situation they are in with the third book, whereas the second feels more like static world building and (at least in the second half) set-up for the third.

[@Paulo-1999]

Love this, thanks! And I so appreciate the time stamps! 👍💙

[@JohnnyComelately-eb5zv]

HG Wells is a brilliant writer in his own way. Very interesting guy.

[@JohnnyComelately-eb5zv]

Anyone know if Ubik is any good? I've always wanted to read PKD but never got round to it. Not yet anyway.

[@TheAzure4]

Ubik is good. It's like if the film inception was written by a satirist on heaps of drugs, which is basically what it is

[@chrisw6164]

I read a dozen PKDs but I disliked Ubik. Yes I’m in the minority. I am rereading it before the end of this year.

[@sjorgen9122]

Ubik is great. It's kind of a "basic" opinion to have but PKD is my favorite of the SF novelists I've gotten too so far. None of his books are masterpieces, but they're all fairly consistently interesting, well paced, with a tinge of lightheartedness. If I had to take a stab at it they almost make reading SF feel more like playing a video game where you're having fun and while interesting and thought provoking ideas come up, they aren't at the expense of a fun novel and don't carry some of the sluggish weighty presence of highly literary or commentary-focused SF. They're just super fun, tight, well written stories. Ubik is great to get a feel for PKD and leans towards the fun side. 3 stigmata and Scanner Darkly are a bit more toward the middle, and Electric Sheep and especially Man in the High Castle are more towards the literary end, but all solid base hits and enjoyable reads.

[@Bookpilled]

It's good

[@GentleReader01]

It’s one of my 3-5 favorite Dick books, with the full reality breakdown but not his later Gnosticism. (I like those books too, but they’re not his own flavor I like.)

[@davidelyk4781]

Cordwainer Smith had an amazing life and it shaped him, and his stories in a truly unique way. His godfather was Sun Yat-Sen! As a young reader, I marveled at the strangeness of his writing and can't help but think his childhood in Asia influenced his style in a very unique way. And there's his other career writing for the military and his main career which I was never aware of until the internets dug into them. He wrote everything under a pseudonym and had an illustrious career outside of science fiction writing. Putting all of that aside Cordwainer had two very distinct traits in his writing. He never spoon-fed the plot and background story, he never over revealed or explained. It was a little Wolfean in that regard. He would casually mention some event or person or place and just move on. But reading another story would bring a revelation, an AHA moment, so that's what he was referring too! He had the same Wolfean love of words and researched them and applied them in ways to make the stories more wonderous and strange. Many of his characters were named after the number 56 in various languages. His various stories in his universe were very well researched and everything linked together.

[@Bookpilled]

He apparently modeled his fiction on Chinese literary forms more than traditional "Western" narrative structures, which is probably one of the reasons his stuff still feels different than most SF material in English. He also I think wrote poetry in this way and some of it wound up in his fiction.

[@DeepakVadgama]

I am so sad that Fire Upon The Deep is dropped from S to C tier. That book got me into reading SciFi. I read 10+ SciFi books this year including ones from the S tier and I haven't still experienced the same highs. Thanks for the warning. I don't plan to re-read it. The memories of reading that book are too special.

[@CasperHulshof]

Just reread the book. You may just find it S-tier for you. That's how these things work. (as a Gene Wolfe fan, I have my own issues but it's fine).

[@SteveHolthof]

Same for me…he had it at the top for several lists…bizarre….but then again, it’s just one persons opinion….don’t be sad, it’s still on our S tier (2 against 1).

[@thescrewfly]

Good to see you here again. The cliche of the tier-ranking video is made far less casts-eyes-pleadingly-upward-ish by the layer of re-appraisal, some of which is quite surprising. Good on yer, guv. Also intrigued to hear you are a fan of the electronic musics! I hope the pain is under control for keeps. See you around (para-socially).

[@waltera13]

It has been a while, I was worried. I wish you an improvement to your health. I love me juicy reviews, but still this was very nice of you it was nice to get some thoughts on how some of these things change.

[@sabalos]

This is the first video of yours I've ever seen, and the drive-by on The Sparrow is enough to make me a fan

[@keithdixon6595]

Just read Silverberg's Nightwings, which I preferred to Downward to Earth (though not as much as Dying Inside). Nightwings might be added to your list of religious SF, though for nine tenths of the book you wouldn't think so. It deals with both racism and class, and at the end the main character goes through a kind of transcendence that is beautifully rendered and very moving.

[@Warstub]

Downward to the Earth did not make much of an impression on me the way it did others - I just felt like the world building wasn't particularly convincing, and the characters not given enough depth. Dying Inside, A Time of Changes, and The Book of Skulls are the top-tier Silverberg novels for me.

[@SteveHolthof]

It’s hard to fathom the big drop for A Fire upon the Deep …at one point this book was on top and praised endlessly.

[@JohnnyComelately-eb5zv]

Have you read Orwell's essay on HG Wells? Very interesting.

[@Bookpilled]

@@JohnnyComelately-eb5zv Haven’t read it

[@chrisw6164]

Try Asimov’s essay on Orwell. Chock full of bad takes. I couldn’t believe it.

[@GentleReader01]

@@BookpilledIt’s as good as his essay on Gandhi - he observes that Wells is simply too reasonable to fundamentally understand the passions and fears of people in totalitarian movements, among other things.

[@JohnnyComelately-eb5zv]

@@GentleReader01 👍

[@JohnnyComelately-eb5zv]

@@Bookpilled Thanks for the response. 🙏 It's called 'Wells, Hitler and the World State.' I think Orwell said after he wrote the essay he felt guilty, felt it was a bit uncharitable and met with Wells and they ironed out their differences. Not sure how true this is but I hope so. I love both of them!

[@robhussell]

Currently converting star of the unborn to epub, hopefully everyone will be able to read it

[@ahmedalsadik]

I literally screamed at the screen when I saw you demote Fire upon.

[@bpuryea]

My favorites no particular order (I would put in S tier) The Forever War Dune A fire Upon the Deep Hyperion Childhoods End My least favorite (D or F tier) Roadside Picnic Beyond Apollo Neuromancer You have become my contrarian recommender! It's cool, we all like what we like!

[@BL-mf3jp]

Love Hyperion and dune. I should try fire upon the deep. Looking for a new space opera to sink my teeth into. 😊

[@ButOneThingIsNeedful]

Based on your comment, if you made videos on SF book evaluations I'd watch them (although I honestly found Childhood's End just all right, as I do other Clarke).

[@onurcaksu3145]

Always enjoy your videos. Listenin to your experience with Fire Upon the Deep... I recently tried rereading Hyperion, and felt a similar dissatisfaction. It did not grab me. After a few times trying to read the text I switched to audio, playing it on the bus rides etc. I still love the book, but been thinking maybe the idea/novelty books are not always ideal/novel for a reread. For SF, I guess Le Guin and Wolfe are alone so far, in that rereading their works I find endlessly rewarding.

[@edmondcristo]

I've read 24 of these over the last couple of years (many due to your great videos, thanks!) and largely feel the same about the rankings - though I of course would move some up (Clarke, Bester, Haldeman) and some down (Smith, Simak). I read A Fire upon the Deep based on your recommendation and was surprised to not like it all that much, so I do agree with your revised rating. And I definitely agree that Roadside Picnic and Solaris sit at the top. Now to find a copy of that elusive Palace of Eternity.

[@jakefromstatefarm1405]

I guess my taste is just off. I was completely bored by Solaris, almost didn't finish it

[@blaarfengaar]

It definitely gets extremely slow paced and bogged down in the multi page long descriptions of the planet at times, but honestly I think when you get to those couple of sections you can just kind of skim over them and not really miss out on much. The rest of the actual narrative and prose from the protagonist's perspective is very excellent imo

[@russ9117]

I just don't get the Hothouse love from everyone. I found the writing to be quite juvenile. 60s YA. I tried reading it twice and both times came to the same conclusion. But you discovered Downward to the Earth for me which is one of my favorites ever so I am forever grateful for that.

[@pennywise6672]

I watch these vids for two reasons: to hear where you'd place my favourite books and to learn about good ones that I haven't read yet. I was disappointed, however, to not find any Zelazny. Most of his novels are fantasy, I guess, but Lord of Light could have sneaked into the genre and it's epic. How has it never received a film treatment? I'm a big fan of the old timey pocket book. Writing a full and satisfying story in 200 pages is a lost art. In that category, I'd place Larry Niven's Protector very high. I've read and reread it many times for four or five decades and it always pleases. It surprises me that Niven's Tales of Known Space never seem to have the success or attention of his collaborations.

[@adamwoolf969]

Really great to hear from you again!

[@Painter19]

Agree with you. Solaris is great, really good writing.

[@gordonkent5371]

Really excellent collation. Of what I've read agree with you entirely. Will now be prioritizing those on your list that I haven't yet gotten around to.

[@ButOneThingIsNeedful]

It's funny rewatching this video, as I had just about narrowed down my next major sci-fi TBR books to A Fire Upon the Deep and Hyperion!😵‍💫

[@bee.smarty]

Found an old library copy of Star of the Unborn online for $30 which is being delivered today!

[@Bookpilled]

Nice nice

[@Faux_Rest]

I started into one of the previous lists with some of the bottom picks. The Inverted World was an expertly structured mystery. Blindsight was a struggle. The descriptive language can be vague and confusing, but it comes together like poetry. The themes and ideas shine through and it's one of my favorites now.

[@stmille]

Way Station is a good quick read. It felt much more representative of the "pastural" subgenre than City to me. It read like a Twilight Zone episode.

[@whamster27]

I read a Fire Upon the Deep after watching your previous videos about it, and I agree with your rating and thoughts about it here in this video. It was a little frustrating that the majority of the story takes place in the least technologically advanced zone, and basically reads as a fantasy political intrigue.

[@polaris6933]

It's interesting to see how different your takes are on the same books after time and other books have passed. Would be interested to hear what you think of The Mote in God's Eye if you reread that. I've read several books on your recommendation and while I didn't like some of them I could still see the value in them and what people could like about them. TMIGE, however, was just disappointing, to be frank.

[@Tokayd13]

I tried rereading it this year and DNF'd it. And space opera is my favorite subgenre. I think I'll hit up Rendevous With Rama again....

[@meesalikeu]

glad yr feeling a bit better to do this. i just picked up something you would like, the 1974 ballantine best of stanley g. weinbaum. havent read it yet, but it has a couple famous stories i recognized, a martian odyssey & worlds of if, so i grabbed it. russ the female man and priest inverted world are on deck for scifi novels on my tbr. 🎉

[@forinthemorning0400]

dreamt you uploaded a 14 minute guitar improv sesh this is good too

[@Cray2TheZ]

Great video, as always! I hope your chronic pain issues are under control! 🙏❤️ Quick question, if you don't mind: have you read Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky? I recently bought it (along with its sequels Children of Ruin and Children of Mystery) as the consensus online seems to be that it is brilliant and I wanted to pick your brain about it as your reviews have led me to purchase multiple books (FYI: Hothouse, A Fire Upon The Deep, The Mote In God's Eye, Blood Music, Inverted World and Solaris). Thanks in advance (from a Patreon supporter, hehe) for your time!

[@Bookpilled]

I have not read any Tchaikovsky. I will at some point. Thanks for being a patron, hope those books are hits for you.

[@Cray2TheZ]

@@Bookpilled Awesome! Thanks for taking the time, I really appreciate it! Your channel really inspires me to read all these awesome books. I just started getting seriously into reading as it was always something I wanted to do but something I found incredibly hard and you have NO IDEA how much I LOVE your channel and all your reviews! Cheers from Switzerland! THANK YOU!

[@dburgwin]

Do you think that JG Ballard will make a top 15?

[@Bookpilled]

It's possible

[@ButOneThingIsNeedful]

This video made the grueling fifteen-hour journey (three flights and a long taxi) back from the southern tip of Argentina more interesting and bearable. Praying about your struggle with chronic pain.😞 Genuine sympathy. - Re. H.G. Wells -- after reading & watching The Time Machine it was still the wondrous concept, more than the story's execution, that grabbed my soul. Another HGW book I think at least its equal (I liked it better) is First Men in the Moon (1901), but it seems almost forgotten. - I liked Childhood's End, but it was not the reading-epiphany I hoped it might be and evidently is for others. Hovering between B & C tiers is right, in my view.

[@robertmalinowski6804]

So now that you've updated your top scfi list, whats on the near future reading list? After you purchased a ton of books recently, you probably got a good selection to choose from.

[@Bookpilled]

I've narrowed it down to 500 titles.

[@robertmalinowski6804]

@@Bookpilled hahaha!!!!! 🤣🤣

[@blaarfengaar]

Curious if you've read anything by Neal Stephenson and if so, what your thoughts are on him? Personally he's my favorite author despite his foibles and Anathem specifically is my favorite book ever

[@AngryArgie]

Considering joining your Patreon (my first ever), wanted to know if you do spoilers there or is it spoiler-free

[@Bookpilled]

It depends on the book. Occasionally I do give spoilers but always with notice. In those reviews I also try to frontload with enough no-spoiler commentary that you get a good idea of what it's about and what it's like. Thanks for considering joining.

[@wesleyejackson]

Read Ice on your recommendation. Phenomenal book.

[@gregoftheweb]

I really enjoy your lists. In this world of pretty poor modern story telling (cough cough Sanderson et. al.) your efforts to resurface old great sci fi books is great. I don't agree with all of them, but I have enjoyed most of them. For example Nostrilla in my opinion kinda sucked, but Downward to Earth was quite excellent. Generally you provide me with an intriguing reading list that I've enjoyed working my way through. Thanks.

[@michaelknight_]

Hothouse was excellent. Thank you for these excellent recommendations. Beyond Apollo is next

[@jharohit]

would argue that the Somnium by Johannes Kepler was probably the first sci fi book (which sadly also might have been the work which allowed the govt to brand his mother as a witch). if we go really really back, technically, Jason and the Argonauts are also sci fi story about a giant robot automaton defending an island.

[@keithdixon6595]

I think it was Aldiss (him again) who placed Frankenstein as the first true SF story, having considered all the evidence, in Billion Year Spree. I don't know whether he changed this opinion when he reworked it as Trillion Year Spree, but probably not.

[@melonandfigg]

LOVED blindsight so much. Easily one of my favourite sci fi books. It really stayed with me too. Sometimes I lie awake at night thinking about it like 😳

[@CasualGamer36683]

Have you tried ‘shape of things to come’ by H G Wells? Interested in your thoughts on this one

[@Bookpilled]

Haven't yet, will eventually read all of his science fiction.

[@yrrep27]

But have you read Echopraxia?? Overall I found it a little less exciting than Blindsight, but no less dense with ideas. I think it's a must-read, however, because its ending recontextualizes the first book and offers a kind of "yes, but..." to the whole purpose of consciousness argument, that I found even more mind blowing.

[@amcmillion3]

I've read about 80% of these books and by and large I think you nailed it here. The only issue I have is that The Dispossessed by LeGuin is absolutely S tier. If you don't remember it you should give it a re-read. Also The Left Hand of Darkness not being on the list is crazy. Another S tier honestly. The last comment I'll make is that Solaris belongs in a tier above S.

[@Bookpilled]

Left Hand is great but not top 15 material for me.

[@braydenpresley1437]

Currently reading A Fire Upon the Deep, based on your recommendation. Have also started to buy/stockpile old sci-fi paperbacks to (hopefully) try to re-sell. You've changed my reading life, Matt. Thank you. UPDATE (no spoilers): I LOVED this book. It's nearly perfect in my eyes. But... I can totally see why you have the opinion of it that you do after reading it again. I think for now, I'll let it sit in perfection in my head and just cherish how beautiful and wondrous it was to read it for the first time.

[@onehandslinger1475]

I feel you favour the speculative science against the literary value. I lean towards the opposite. I bought A Fire Upon the Deep based on your recommendation. I didn't touch it yet, but now I see it's a dud. ☹ I did the same with The World Inside and I think it's a very enjoyable book, very well written, full of shrewd psychological insight and great world built. Probably an A if wouldn't be rather short. Dune is, of course, an icon for me and Stanislaw Lem is just pure art.

[@gustavoczobel5552]

I’m a hard sf fan… and Blood Music simply blow my mind…

[@dragonsandwarts5644]

A fire upon the deep is amazing. I read it based on bookpilled and glad I did.

[@eugenykhanchin862]

Maybe I missed a video about them, but have you read the next books? Anathem by Neil Stephenson Consider Phlebas by Ian Banks Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

[@uros.u.novakovic]

Have you read Adrian Tchaikovsky? Children of Time series or The Final Architecture trilogy?

[@sjorgen9122]

Your thoughts on Fire Upon the Deep are super interesting, I read it earlier this year and resonate more with the update. The ideas are genuinely incredible interesting. The zones of thought, the AI plot angle especially early, the skrodes, the packs, and the little news internet-forum along the story are very cool. But then it's all stitched together with broody Y.A. wolf intrigue that never really works. It's almost the quintessential book to enjoy only the first time totally blind; where the amazement patches over the stale fantasy plot, but that doesn't hold up to a re-read because without the novelty it has nothing much. I think even the very brief summary on your channel initiated me enough to end up not loving it.

[@Bookpilled]

Well put. It occurred to me after this re-read that yes, I probably unwittingly spoiled some of the magic for newbie FUTD readers by nutshelling a lot of its ideas. I remembered there being a lot more gas in the tank after describing the physics and the aliens.

[@mileshurtauthor]

I know I've put this out there before but any plans to read M John Harrison? Light would be my recommendation.

[@Bookpilled]

Yes, absolutely. I'm slightly intimidated. Light will probably be the first.

[@asmaloney]

I guess I was fortunate to find "Star of the Unborn" at my local second hand bookstore for $5... Canadian! It's on my TBR pile... Thanks for all the recommendations, thought, and insights!

[@Bookpilled]

Nice, congrats

[@rubenjacobo3919]

Roadside Picnic baby! Let’s go! (3:15)

[@TheRealCalPerr]

Good video; I appreciate your opinions. New to your channel here and when I you desribe a book as socialist agitprop and place it above two novels heavily based on christian worldviews I knew we have quite different tastes. You are cool about it though, so thanks for that

[@JohnnyComelately-eb5zv]

@@TheRealCalPerr Orwell said Iron Heel captures the reality of the world more than Brave New World or A Shape of Things to Come.

[@scp240]

Any thoughts on other books by Lem? Futurological Congress? A favorite of mine.

[@Bookpilled]

Have liked that one and all the others I've read

[@Rodrigo_Negrini]

Love your vids!

[@iSamwise]

A lot of people talk about The Sun Eater books by Christopher Ruocchio on KZbin. Have you read them yet?

[@Bookpilled]

Haven't read them

[@maxwellhavens425]

Contrary to the mob below, I really appreciate how honest you are about your opinion on these works changing over time.

[@dustinzieg1950]

Yes, excited for this vid

[@MrTree818]

As a long time viewer it hurts to hear you drag these books that you made me excited to read, but I get that tastes change over time. Would you still recommend A Fire Upon the Deep as a good introduction into SF?

[@Bookpilled]

It's hard to say. I can't say "no" because it launched my brain into hyperspace when I read it as someone new to the genre. Give it a go, see how the first few chapters hit you, and if you like it keep going.

[@paulallison6418]

Interesting review of your favourite works. I will read all of your S-Tier books as the one I have read are in my top 25 or so. Have you read Limbo 90? If not you might find this very interesting.

[@Bookpilled]

Haven't read it

[@Warstub]

I read Frankenstein last month and found it interminably boring. I get that it's a style of writing, a style of Gothic writing, but I could not stand the constant bemoaning of one's problems. And the entire story is telling, not showing, which I found frustrating. I did find it kind of interesting that it becomes a framing story within a framing story once the monster tells of his exploits to Frankenstein, who of course, is retelling this to Walton, who in turn is documenting it all in letters to his sister. People need to know, that if they don't find the story/writing engaging at least a quarter of the way through, it doesn't get more engaging further on.

[@crimmo54]

Folks, I'm trying to remember the name of a book, wheremankind is building a generation ship, to escape a calamity of some sort. It turns out the ship was never going to take off, but was done to keep the population in order, by giving them hope. I forget if there was an actual ship for the elite? Thank you.

[@waltera13]

"The marching morons" by CM Kornbluth

[@waltera13]

Wait, reading your comment more closely I had missed the part about never going to take off. That also rings a bell, but I can't place my finger on it!

[@chrisw6164]

Ascension tv show.

[@seanwinter4784]

I have reread a lot of old "favourites" this year, things I read 30 years ago and loved when I was heavy into cyberpunk in the 90s. Neuromancer is still S tier for me, one of the best books ever written. But I also reread Hardwired by Walter John Williams, Software by Rudy Rucker, and Dream Park by Niven, Pournelle and Barnes, and none of them aged well. I loved them as a teenager, as an adult they are meh (at best - Software I DNF'd). Agree on Johanna Russ, absolutely amazing writer, doesn't get the credit she deserves

[@jmhthe3rd]

A Fire Upon the Deep indeed feels YA. It has that cozy old school space opera charm. It gave me nostalgia for the sf I read in high school. Plus I love the skrodriders.

[@Bookpilled]

The skroderiders are great

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Loved Roadside Picnic as well!

[@frodo4627]

If you haven't read "First Men in the Moon" yet by Wells it's a gem.

[@CrimeFighterFrog]

Have you read Slaughterhouse 5?

[@joelchrono]

I wonder if Bookpilled has read C. S. Lewis Space/Cosmic Trilogy? Kinda wonder what he would think of them.

[@OmnivorousReader]

Interesting shuffle! I am scared to revisit Alen Dean Foster. Orphan Star was a lodestone of my teenaged years and I am really worried it will not hold up.

[@rajikkali2381]

Couldn’t get into blindsight. Delta V is my favorite hard SF. Daniel Suarez is an excellent writer.

[@travis1143]

You should read Star Maker if you have not, it's extremely original for when it was written and influenced many big name SF writers.

[@JackMyersPhotography]

Great list as always. I was hoping Neuromancer would make S tier, but I’m admittedly bias toward cyberpunk. I’ve owned “Ice” for years, I need to read it!

[@millerbyte]

Been a while! Good to hear from you. Something, something, comment without substance to feed the algo, something, something.

[@travisporco]

I'm with you on Gene Wolfe.

[@buddyb4343]

To me, Ilium/Olympos is much better than the Hyperion series. Both singularly and in total.

[@Tokayd13]

Completely agree. And having reread both series within the past 2 years, I still feel that way.

[@OXyShow]

Finally back!

[@disconnected22]

Was starting to wonder what you were up to, sir. I’ve scored a copy of Star of the Unborn recently. $3.00. It can still happen...

[@Bookpilled]

You love to hear it

[@disconnected22]

@@Bookpilled yeah it was a surprise. If you look back at your video on it, I tell my little story there.

[@disconnected22]

@@Bookpilled I wanted to ask you one question in regards to “Unborn”. I tend to read things in related groups of 2 or 3. Some space opera, or some 80’s hard SF, cyberpunk, etc. Can you think of another book or 2 I could pair with Unborn? Appreciate it.

[@dimitrikorsakov2570]

Missed you!

[@gitarherow]

BOTNS in B is a crime

[@BL-mf3jp]

Yeah, way too high 😉

[@andrewmcgrory9332]

Sladek! What did you make of John Sladek? A genuinely funny SF writer, which is the hardest trick to pull off.

[@ButOneThingIsNeedful]

Mr. BP, I am a new listener enjoying your content. I know you delight in tracking down obscure SF and wanted to suggest a couple titles (hope you see this). You may dislike them or you may feel they deserve better than their 'black hole' status. I believe both do earn the adjective "unique". Chronologically: A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay (1920) and The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison (1922). The latter is actually epic fantasy. I've read both and know you sometimes like efforts that are qualitatively different.

[@Bookpilled]

Read The Worm, reading Mistress of Mistresses at the moment.

[@Painter19]

Tried Roadside Picnic based on the recommendation. It was good, but dragged at bit 2/3rds the way in. Well written but not as good as Fire Upon the Deep.. But hey it’s great to have these rankings, everyone has different preferences often depending on what mood you’re in. Right on the mark on Dune. A bit overrated

[@chocolatemonk]

a reboot, oh i get it now it seems like for Oct at least most of his content is behind patreon

[@arvid_music]

What did you except, it's called Mid-World?

[@TheMaginor]

Huh, I liked Fire much more than Deepness. SPOILERS: Fire was decent, though I share your criticisms of it. Deepness was just difficult for me even to finish, and that doesn't happen that often. I think that after a fairly strong opening, I just saw where the plot was going and it was crawling along at a snail pace for several hundred pages with very little development. It was also jarring how the spider civilization was portrayed in a way that felt almost like 1950s USA and didn't feel all to alien. They explain later that the story we get of the spiders is portrayed as mediated through the humans that listen in on them, but these humans were also from a far future distant planet, so it still doesn't make that much sense. The aliens in Fire on the other hand truly felt like a different species.

[@Bookpilled]

Yeah, I recall thinking that the imagery of spider aliens taking motorcar tours through the not-english countryside was corny.

[@SpinFireOne]

more videos for the masses, my man!