SMASH or PASS: 2024 Sci-Fi Book Releases (Buffy Edition)

Welcome back to Sci-Fi Odyssey for what has become a bit of a tradition on my channel. The annual merciless culling of the sci-fi we know is going to be released in the coming year.
Thanks for watching and don't forget to check out my sci-fi books below.
#scifi #2024 #books
Goodreads Can't Wait Sci-Fi/Fantasy of 2024 - / 181809.can_t_wait_sci_...
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MY STUFF
linktr.ee/scifiodyssey
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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.
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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.

[@rodneykelly8768]

Douglas Preston-Extinction, It's the ground sloths that are doing the killing.

[@winsomehax]

Brian Aldiss nicknamed a type of story the "cosy catastrophe", but I don't believe it was complimentary. No idea if related.

[@tishapatton7446]

The very first thing I noticed was the haircut.

[@subraxas]

18:20 - Darrel, have you ever passed on a book because of its blurb and later found out that it was actually a worthwhile piece of work? 🙂 Been just wondering and such . . . .

[@yw1971]

15:51 - This author may be related to the actress who plays Willow...

[@kufujitsu]

I like to read cosy SF myself on occasion -: it's the opposite to what J.G. Ballard, or Octavia E. Butler used to write. The books of John Wyndham, or Clifford Simak are good examples of cosy SF if you want to go back a few years - Cosy SF seems to mean you'll get a well written book that won't portray the main characters as being excessively flawed in any way, & you'll get nice vibes out of the book, regardless of how horrific the premise - not sure how far back the saying goes, but I remember an unimpressed Brian Aldiss using the term when talking about the books of John Wyndham - & I think it's also one of the main reasons why Wyndham is read so much in schools.....

[@PalimpsestProd]

"the trouble with lichen" was a good read so I guess I'm ok with the genre.

[@Starshooter216]

Have authors forgotten how to write, or did something strange happen in 2023? The only thing so far, is the the one by James S.A. Corey. Is David Webber gonna come out with something new this year? I miss some of those older authors. At least when David Webber puts something out, you can count on it. More Honor Harrington or Armageddon Reaf... Charles Stross probably has something. You should check it out, I think I will.

[@Spaceviking335]

Sofia Samatar is a brilliant writer who until now wrote fantasy, I wouldn't pass on the blurb alone. Would we be surprised if these blurbs are getting the AI 'assistance' treatment? Corey and Stross coming with the big epics, yes please.

[@nohbuddy1]

Back to back books about resurrecting Mammoths was funny

[@subraxas]

🙂

[@PageTurnersWithKatja]

I've noticed a rising trend of 'cosy' themes in the 2024 sci-fi and fantasy releases. Did it originate from the cosy mystery genre? 🤔. It feels overdone. It's also interesting how most new releases are being marketed with the 'X meets Y' approach for sci-fi. I've not noticed it as much with other genres, I find it lazy but a couple of people have told me they like it / find it effective. I'm not kidding when I say I'm excited about delving into the trio of hotel-themed books mentioned😂🤦🏼‍♀️ Additionally, I'm eager to explore those by Adrian T. and James S.A. Corey. On my reading list are some other promising titles: - 'Welcome to Forever' by Nathan Tavares, published by Titan Books, releasing on March 5th. - 'Lost Ark Dreaming' by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, from Tor, available from May 21st. - 'Jumpnauts' by Hao Jinfang, presented by Saga Press, coming out on March 12th. - 'The Mars House' by Natasha Pulley, published by Bloomsbury, set for release on March 19th, 2024. - 'Mal Goes to War' by Edward Ashton, releasing on April 9th. Plus, a few more that aren't new releases, including Howling Dark.

[@guillaumelagueyte1019]

I can't stand the X meets Y marketing tactic. But I suppose it must work. Then again I think I read more sci fi than the average person, so I may not be the target

[@smb123211]

Great video! I instantly skip any book in which, despite super- advanced AI, people live like the Middle Ages. Glad you smashed the Holy Trinity (Reynolds, Stross, Morgan). You can probably expand to a quartet with Czajkowski who apparently is tied to a chair and forced at gunpoint to write 24/7. I just hope he doesn't fall for the old quantity over quality predicament.

[@priscillamontoya]

Yes, cozy Sci Fi is a thing, and it's one of my favorite sub genres. ❤

[@thewriterstuff]

That was fun!

[@everrit]

Dafydd is also 'the only gay in the village' in the comedy series Little Britain.

[@subraxas]

Till he wasn't the only one. And then he got pissed off, because he was no longer unique. And everyone else in the village had thought that "a companion" would've made him happy. 😀

[@tishardnatthaniel8047]

I always come back for his yearly smash or pass

[@DubiousStory]

Living for the cattiness of the Passes.

[@mateosimon4237]

It's a great list, many great books📚 coming but very little time (as Zappa would say) You have to be picky on this

[@treefarm3288]

This was fun! I live thousands of kilometres from bookstores and the internet isn't all that useful. Last March I got 30 minutes in a bookstore while briefly in Sydney and bought a slew of books. I didn't have time even to read many blurbs, I just looked for what I knew and from my notebook. I agreed with almost all of your decisions. I guess you know while reading Gone Machine, Ghost Engine was also visible? I bought your Delphine Descends by post just to give it a go. No, I hadn't read the blurb. I have read single books by authors then haven't found a second one I liked, eg Adam Roberts. Well done, and I still love your lighting.

[@stevens-universe]

No, wait, that mammoth one sounds lit

[@faeryfetich]

Can everything be a Buffy Edition from now on and forever please!?!?

[@hyperdude144]

Ghost engine by Charlie Stross in a hard *hard* smash. Not even gona Wine and Dine it.

[@nicholaslewis862]

Wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of eco thrillers. The only "space hotel" themed sci fi story I've enjoyed recently is the Doctor Who episode Midnight.

[@frankie3010]

Midnight is more of a locked plane episode. God Complex is a hotel episode.

[@nicholaslewis862]

@@frankie3010 fair, but it's hotel adjacent. The bus was a tour organised by a hotel... Technically. But you're right, it's more of a plane story. Is God Complex any good? Or can you recommend any other good hotel sci-fi stories? I like the trope of a group of unlikely strangers trapped together while strange things unfold.

[@daxbashir6232]

❤

[@retronippon6427]

Dont get me wrong... I love your channel, and especially Smash or Pass, but I swear you are turning into Curtain from This Country!

[@nicholaslewis862]

That Toxxic synopsis... It's so tiresome.

[@mostafabinali7109]

oooh, i remember , i was there and watched the same video last year "smash .. & pass" by the way , is there any button to skip buffy's scenes here?

[@user-nr1py1xe9o]

why do you pass on one book because it doesn't tell you what you are reading (Deep Freeze) and criticize another one for telling it is about colonialism (Stardust Grail)?

[@ianmills5210]

I’d pass a book about colonialism too.

[@user-nr1py1xe9o]

@@ianmills5210 Fine, but it wasn't the point

[@ianmills5210]

⁠@@user-nr1py1xe9oI think the colonialism element is supposed to be a hidden metaphor within the book and the Deep Freeze synopsis was too vague?

[@bojovic78]

ohh yeah!

[@richardfox4803]

Your Alastair Reynolds Dreyfus blindness is becoming embarrassing; Smash, obviously. Alastair Reynolds can be a little uneven, but the Yellowstone books are excellent. Charles Stross; super-smash, even without the title or the blurb. The cosy eco-thriller in the space hotel, with added Mammoths. Pass, on the lot of them. I think a number of authors and publishers haven't been paying attention to how certain activist sermons have been floundering of late.

[@guillaumelagueyte1019]

Oooooh I read your comment before getting to that part of the video, a new Prefect story sounds great, I loved both books, they may be my favorites by Reynolds aside from House of Suns, just because I love the mix of sci fi and police procedural so much.

[@EhrgeizGod]

As this guy admitted to being gay or not yet?

[@frankie3010]

Oh, you like Buffy? So you're gay?

[@JuniperBoy]

Plenty of straight guys like Buffy. I'm not one of those. I'm your stereotype.

[@treefarm3288]

@frankie3010 I don't really know Buffy but am watching Veronica Mars, and it has many good lines which could be used similarly. Good writers are worth it.