5 Mind-Bending New Wave Sci-Fi Books You Need To Read

Today, diving into the swirling vortex of mind-bending New Wave science fiction, offering up five you need to read.
Thanks for watching and don't forget to check out my sci-fi books below.
#scifi #newwave #mindbending
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MY STUFF
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MY SCI-FI NOVELS
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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.
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GOODREADS
You can stalk me on Goodreads to see what I'm currently reading. bit.ly/3rrcByD
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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.

[@SteampunkEngineering]

It can be a little strange to hear a modern opinion on the sci-fi of the 60s and 70s. I was in my teens through most of the 70s and, as an avid sci-fi nut, read pretty much anything that was available - certainly all those books in this list. I don't recall any sense of 'mind-blowing' though; it was just how things were at the time. 😎 I'm a little surprised that the 'Illuminatus' trilogy by Shea and Wilson is not on the list - that really was mind-expanding! Also rather more light-hearted (but still mind-expanding) was The Greenwich Village trilogy of 'The Butterfly Kid', T'he Unicorn Girl' and 'The Probability Pad' by C. Anderson, M. Kurland and T.A. Waters respectively. Keep up the excellent exploration of the genre! 👍

[@ElGato1947]

The Illuminatus Trilogy should get an entire episode to itself. I read it many years ago when I didn't know about conspiracy theories. Now, a couple of decades later, I'd enjoy it if someone put together a short essay showing which story lines spoofed which popular conspiracy theories. The Trilogy was ahead of its time.

[@Raiment57]

Goodness, yes, the Illuminatus trilogy was a true mind-fuck. It had a deep and lasting impact on my early 20s mind. Also formative for me were Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius novels (especially The Final Programme) and early J. G. Ballard such as Drowned World and Atrocity Exhibition.

[@SteampunkEngineering]

@@Raiment57 I think that Cornelius' character progression from 'The Final Programme' through to 'The Condition of Muzak' is one of the most remarkable in sci-fi. And it is quite telling that my Fleet Carrier in the space game Elite:Dangerous is named 'The Deep Fix'. 😉

[@subraxas]

Once again, thank you, Darrel. You are one of the best on YT!

[@mondostrat]

Dhalgren, Slaughterhouse 5, Lathe of Heaven ... some of my all time favorites in your list. My two favorite authors from that period are Samuel R. Delany and Roger Zelazny.

[@toydemon6265]

Roger Zelazny is one of the best and one of the most forgotten for some reason. For me he as good as Philip K Dick and he definitely qualifies as new wave sci-fi

[@ozymandiasultor9480]

If you like Samuel R. Delany you should read the novel "Hogg" written by him.

[@martinknapp7640]

A shoutout for Andrei Tarkovsky’s movie “Stalker” based on the Strugatsky brothers’ novel. And while it may be a bit outside your scope, one of the oddest sci-fi novels I’ve read lately is “XXX” by Rian Hughes

[@ElGato1947]

The Strugatsky brothers along with Tarkovsky wrote the screenplay for Stalker(1979).

[@aljawad]

Great list! 👍🏼 If I may suggest another one by PKD: “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said”?

[@meesalikeu]

good one, but that was an early pkd high water written in the 1950s i think, but technically before the new wave began.

[@richardseymour3399]

Strange coincidence. UKL and PKD graduated from the same high school in the same class, but they didn't recall if they ever met.

[@shumookerjee293]

I'm thrilled that you put Moorcock's "Behold The Man" at the top of the list! Here's a guy who hung out with the Rolling Stones, wrote lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult and partied with Jimi Hendrix. If anyone can be considered a rockstar among sci-fi authors, it's Michael Moorcock!

[@corack252]

Love these vids. Your passion for the genre is palpable 🤗 keep it up!

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Great video! Just added quite a few to my TBR list!

[@Greg_M1]

Lathe of Heaven. I was introduced to the story through the PBS/BBC dramatization decades ago. Was very cool.

[@everrit]

Love the art you use in all your vidios.

[@ragragrec1]

The aesthetics in your videos are just ❤❤

[@smb123211]

WOW! What a great video, one of your best. I never understood Dahlgreen, read Roadside in Russian (widely assumed the "forbidden" areas symbolized censored parts of society of the USSR - thought and location), Lathe showed that a one-answer-fixes-all-problem approach leads to more problems but (for me) it was repetitive. Scanner (the book) was so powerful. Behold the Man was exquisite ("Jesus Comes Again" by Vardis Fisher is a great non-sci-fi similar work). Dick's Radio Free Albemuth, VALIS and Divine Invasion were A++ (based on the same theme) but the last one, the Transmigration of Timothy Archer was just too "woo woo".

[@mario06457]

I would add the purple book by Philip Jose farmer and futurological congress by Stanislaw Lem

[@TexasRy]

Love it when "shit gets weird', great review THANKS for the video! I grew reading these books and were amazing and got me thinking in the early 80's that computers and cyberpunk technologies would eventually come on the scene, took a while but we have/are getting there!

[@DevonExplorer]

Excellent selection. I must admit I haven't read Dalgren but I love Samuel R Delaney's other books. He's a great world builder and if I had to choose an all-time favourite (which is almost impossible, lol) it would be his Babel-17. The Lathe of Heaven is in my top fave list and I would also add Inverted World by Christopher Priest (1974) and Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys (1960). Cheers, Darrel. :)

[@GentleReader01]

I need to go ahead and read Dalgren this year. I’ve let almost sixty others go by without doing so. :)

[@DevonExplorer]

@@GentleReader01 Yes, I keep meaning to as well. :)

[@kieranmajury9623]

Im kind of pleased that I've read most of these. Not a fan of scanner darkly but currently rereading Roadside Picnic, its great and Behold the man is super short too.

[@meesalikeu]

roadside is literally my fav scifi novel, or should we say novela really.

[@libertyauto]

Watching this great video, I kept thinking about Son of Man, by Robert Silverberg, published in 1971. I literally found this book (in a used car my dad bought) when I was in 8th grade. Scenes like the slow zone where it takes years to move one step, or another where the protagonist dissolves in a river to form into a carrot like vegetation, had me pondering its concepts years after I read it.

[@andyboofon]

Finally! Someone mentions stand on Zanzibar! Unbelievable how much the picture he paints looks like our world now! Amazing book that more people should read!

[@BenjaminsBookclub]

I loved Roadside Picnic! I havnt got to A Scanner Darkly yet, but I adored Ubik!

[@floeten-olm8396]

insanely inspirational video!

[@richardfox4803]

If you can can choose two from PKD; then for a second Moorcock I'd shout out the Final Programme and the other Jerry Cornelius books. A series of shattered, holographic narratives scattered across a string of interweaving 20th centuries. A very tasty world Mr Cornelius. Your failure mention J.G. Ballard is glaring omission, even if his name isn't a penile double entendre.

[@summerkagan6049]

Some New Wave books I remember and enjoyed for that period are The Son of Man by Robert Silverberg, The Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg, The Iron Dream and Men in the Jungle by Norman Spinrad, Dr Adder by K.W. Jeter, Ambient by Jack Womack.

[@meesalikeu]

loved all of these books. behold the man especially is like a way more eye opening twilight zone episode than tv would ever allow, so its a great read and the prose is perfectly on point.

[@marciosalerno9835]

A special on J. G. Ballard would be great!

[@jesseallerdings7050]

Slaughter House Five is so great. Something that makes it real compelling, I knew this already when I first read it, is the ww2 parts are based off of Kurt's actual experience, in essence those parts are a biography of his time in the war. He was captured by the Germans and was a pow in Dresden during the fire bombings.

[@vilstef6988]

Lathe of Heaven, the nearest LeGuin gets to PKD territory.

[@ml9aw]

The images are amazing. Would love to look up the artists - are they linked somewhere?

[@martinbarr9402]

I've read The Lathe of Heaven and A Scanner Darkly but will have to check out the others. BTW Public TV did a decent movie of The Lathe of Heaven and there is an animated A Scanner Darkly. Nice list Darryl.

[@Kim_Miller]

The Scanner Darkly movie looks animated but is made with Rotoscope. They make a normal movie and process it so that each frame is redrawn to look like animation. It's a great effect for a movie which deals with themes of hiddenness and deception . Thanks for the info of the Lathe of Heaven movie. I went looking and found two of them. One from 1980 and one 2002. Now to go looking for them.

[@thekeywitness]

“Shit got weird” indeed. Love New Wave SF

[@user-mc9sg9fw3w]

Great video!

[@darknewt9959]

For PKD, I think I would have gone with Valis in the main 5. For Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle. Good shouts otherwise!

[@jamesoliver6700]

great vid!

[@melaniechristina7361]

Thanks ❤

[@strawberrylemonadekristina]

If you really want your mind blown you need to read Son of Man by Robert Silverberg. It came out in 1971 and has to be read to be believed. It is totally emblematic of the wild time that was the early 70s. Son Of Man is an ultra psychedelic declaration of the wonder and infinite possibility of what it means to be human set against a far future Earth that is mythological in its splendor. Introspection, exploration, and sexual liberation abound and the characters are fascinating while at the same time being relatable. This book left a profound imprint on my 14 year old psyche when I read it many moons ago. Read it and thank me later.

[@Joe-lb8qn]

Just bought it. If its rubbish I'll send you a Venmo request for £0.99p 😂

[@strawberrylemonadekristina]

@@Joe-lb8qn I put my hand on my heart when I say that you won’t be asking for your money back. 😉.

[@meesalikeu]

oh and to add a new new waver to your list it would be the dark short story collection deathbird stories by harlan ellison.

[@carley4063]

Im surprised Harlan Ellison didn't make your list. If nothing else he came up with the best titles for his stories.

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

I read "Lathe of Heaven" when it was first published in 1971. I've fallen in love with everything by LeGuin ever since.

[@LanceKirby-es1xi]

Would Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land fit in.

[@palantir135]

Babel 17 by Samuel Delany is also great.

[@subraxas]

Babe: Pig in the City?

[@palantir135]

@@subraxas don’t know that novel

[@subraxas]

@@palantir135 🙂

[@kevinobrien2936]

What's the story on the art shown here? Especially 'Behold the Man'.

[@samdryden7944]

Are we to believe it was just a coincidence that you followed Dick with Moorcock?

[@allentheobold8133]

😂

[@Mestre_Beowulf]

Hey. Could you talk about Cosmic Horror in Science Fiction?😂

[@treefarm3288]

Thanks for the video. I gave up on Valis halfway through, I lost interest. When I read Lathe of Heaven after LeGuin's more famous novels, I found it a fun read, but it seemed like a YA novel. Perhaps I will reread it after your insights.

[@thepaxster1]

I am looking for a book I read more than 20 or maybe more years ago, it is a psychedelic/Sci-Fi type story, the only thing I remember was that if a character in the book smoked a Camel plain cigarette on the the wrong side they would turn into an actual camel or some such. If anyone perhaps remeber it, please, please, please let me know.

[@IRuinEvrything]

I'm surprised no Book of the New Sun (wolfe). Maybe because your short list is limited to single book stories.

[@ingo1947]

'Sheeps look up' by John Brunner, my all time favourite. Btw... From where are the pics you use?

[@thepaellaman]

Looks like midjourney. He could just paste in snippets of his text as a prompt.

[@Sci-Fi_Ai_DimArt]

I am a writer. Thanks

[@subraxas]

😀

[@epiphoney]

I just can't get behind Dhalgren. I can't not understand something and like it, unlike William Gibson who wrote the forward. A lot of it is more "slice of life" than scifi anyway.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I'm afraid you are way off beam as to what New Wave SF is when you include the Strugatsky Brothers and Lem. By default, New Wave SF was limited to the anglophone world and as Lem and the Brothers were behind the Iron Curtain and not even writing in English. Those authors come from different traditions to both the US and UK New Waves, which were also in themselves different.

[@jrpgnation6375]

That just your opinion man

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@jrpgnation6375 No, it's not 'just my opinion', it's an informed opinion based on study and evidence. If you've read any critical and historical writing about New Wave SF, then you'd have a clearer idea of what New Wave was. These critics speak from positions of knowledge and authority and can back up their theses with experience (John Clute, for example, who edited the Sf Encyclopedia with Peter Nicholls-who wrote the entry on New Wave- was house critic of 'New Worlds' magazine, which codified New Wave). Colin Greenland's book 'The Entropy Exhibition' published in the mid 1980s clarified even further what New Wave was and wasn't. I discussed New Wave numerous times with Christopher Priest (who applied the term to SF in the 1960s) and have been writing and speaking about it myself for decades (my book '100 Must Read Science Fiction Novels' covers many New Wave SF classics). If you'd read what real experts wrote about NW, then you'd know what it was and was not. What we're seeing here is an amatuerish tendency to assume that New Wave is a period that includes European writers when it does nothing of the sort. It's typical of misunderstanding perpetuated by poor and incorrect usage of established SF terminology on booktube.

[@mainstreet3023]

@@outlawbookselleroriginalthank you for your input. Darrell has mistakenly included Russian authors. I’m sure he’s duly chastised. Where would we be without Darrell? His well-worded, concise and insightful forays into everything sci-fi that are very under-appreciated. I can’t believe he made a mistake! It’s shocking.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@mainstreet3023 Not to be unkind to Darrell, he's clearly good guy, but to suggest he covers a lot of under-appreciated things doesn't hold water. I;d suggest looking at few more SF channels here. Just a thought.

[@mainstreet3023]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal thank you for your tip, but I am familiar with this channel that has a diverse range of reviews and discussions that anyone will tell you encompass such a broad net which are treated very eloquently and with much thought. I haven’t found a channel more to my taste though I have tried a handful.

[@jimlewis9704]

Sci-fi is a term invented by Forrest Ackerman in the 50's to describe crass mass entertainment featuring ray guns and bug eyed monsters. When discussing science fiction as art and literature, the correct term is SF.

[@qtr_ent1701]

🤓

[@ElGato1947]

Well, EX-CUUUUZE MEEEEEE!

[@joebrooks4448]

Well. Yes, the term did apply to the 1950s films, etc. And Ackerman was a fan of bad films, but also good films, and he represented Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, A E Van Vogt, and more. Hardly hack writers... From what I have read, he just shortened Science Fiction, as he had a penchant to do with a lot of terminology! He was a fan and quite a character, it seems. I have one of his anthologies.

[@SteampunkEngineering]

What's wrong with ray guns and bug-eyed monsters?

[@Kim_Miller]

One of the world's great coincidences is that the man who invented the ray gun was named Ray. Just think how silly it would sound if it was invented by somebody named George or Michael. 😀

[@thairob]

Your videos would be so much more interesting if you didn’t read off a script and simply talked about books like you would with friends. Now it’s like listening to someone read a wikipedia page. It’s the imperfections that are interesting to viewers, not flawless narrative.

[@captainaomaruvomexekutivko4919]

Valis ❤