The Next 15 Science Fiction Books I’m Going to Read

[@stevezeidman7224]

“Pebble in the sky” is a pre Galactic Empire novel. “Trantor” is a major player. Written in 1950, It may be the first actual Foundation prequel. The others are “The Stars, Like Dust”, and “The Currents of Space”. I’ve read all the Asimov. These are enjoyable.

[@mediumjohnsilver]

Also, _Pebble in the Sky_ has one of Asimov’s best opening chapters, “Between One Footstep and the Next”.

[@stevezeidman7224]

@@mediumjohnsilver Right!

[@reginaltkoralewski2944]

Nawet u nas przetłumaczyli wszystko Asimowa ...dla mnie wielkie wrażenie z książek wywarła powieść Koniec Wieczności ?- mam wydanie z lat 70 tych teraz kupiłem wydanie w pięknej oprawie luksusowym wydaniu i przeczytam jeszcze raz pierwszy raz jak czytałem miałem ok 19 lat i byłem zafascynowany teraz mineło pól wieku i ciekawe jak ta powieść po tylu latach odbiorę ..Pozdrowienia z Polski Regi ( Asimova mam wszystko co zostało u nas przetłumaczone )- Miłośnik literatury nie tylko SF 👍📚📚📚📚

[@musicalneptunian]

Roger wants to know what the best science fiction stories were when he was born... Somehow those stories would be written on papyrus.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Definitely

[@Henri79]

Yes! The Anubis Gates! That's a great read. Powers doesn't get the recognition he deserves. I always get the feeling Stephen King was "inspired" by a certain clown character in The Anubis Gates....

[@tyghe_bright]

Yes. Powers is definitely under-recognized.

[@GentleReader01]

That book caught me off guard, and I’ve been a Powers friend ever since. His approach of secret magical history is pretty distinctive and so good.

[@LiterateTexan]

The Time Ships looks like a fun one. I just read The Time Machine again last year, too.

[@donaldb1]

I've never been into Stephen Baxter, but I thought _The Time Ships_ was very good. It takes Wells' novella and turns it into a big rollicking adventure, but also continues with his themes and develops them in interesting ways.

[@LiterateTexan]

@@donaldb1 I'm going to read it!

[@MediaDeathCult]

Let's call it 5 books, I insist you also read The Urth Of The New Sun, trust me

[@charliedogg7683]

Wolfe's series is a true classic of SF/Fantasy, I think you'll really enjoy these books. Among many high points, they have awesome titles. SF, Fantasy and Horror anthologies were my entry point to the work of great authors and I still buy old ones whenever I find them. Sadly publishers seem to no longer be interested in releasing them. Judging by the cover, "The Human Termites" could so easily have been a b/w 1950s SF movie along the lines of "Them!". Dr. Keller had a long career as an author.

[@jimlewis9704]

Book of the New Sun is available in a new printing with better and larger typeset...I recommend that version...and get Lexicon Urthus to use as a reference with it...trust me!

[@MasterMalrubius]

What? Are you suggesting no one knows what an arctother is?

[@tyghe_bright]

Tim Powers is one of my absolute favorite books. I don't remember the Anubis Gates, but his book Declare is in my top 10 all time favorites. (WWII spies alternate history with a supernatural element.)

[@tyghe_bright]

And for that Big Book, I would just read a couple of stories at a time in between other books. No way I'd be able to just read it cover to cover.

[@bigaldoesbooktube1097]

The Anubis Gates 😅 this has been on your TBR forever 🤓

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

It has!

[@centy64]

Book of the New Sun is also on my pile of shame I haven't read but should have. I'll get round to it eventually... probably...

[@MasterMalrubius]

Once you start it is difficult to stop. But sometimes hard to get through.

[@GholaMuadDib]

I’m obsessed with Frank Herbert’s Dune series and all it’s weirdness. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Children of Dune.

[@stretmediq]

My wife's read all the Dune stories even the later ones she doesn't like very much. I've only read the first one

[@gavinmcintosh5716]

I believe envy is a deadly sin, oh dear, I'm toast then. 😊

[@freelivefree7221]

When Gene Wolfe set out to write what became the Book of the New Sun he thought it would be a short story for one of the Orbit anthologies. (Or maybe a novella) He decided that the world he created was worth a novel. And he kept writing until he thought it might be a trilogy. So it turned out to be four books. And they are brilliant. It is science fiction with a fantasy flavor. The main character is a bastard, but an interesting one. The Anubis Gates is also a great novel. In it Powers takes several plots that would be books themselves and weaves them into a single whole. I also like Drawing of the Dark by him. I have a copy of Dangerous Visions (and Again, Dangerous Visions) but haven't read it.

[@yuleeyahoo]

The stories of Severian the Torturer are a treat. I hope you enjoy. Daybreak 2250 is one of Norton's better coming of age stories.

[@MasterMalrubius]

BotNS is incredible. Daybreak was one of the first novels I read when I was a young teen. I really enjoyed it and it led me to read more.

[@scottpearson5644]

Daybreak 2250 A. D. was the 1st science fiction book I ever read. Followed by The Chessmen of Mars. It is the perfect book for a young reader. It has the "gathering old knowledge in a post-apocalyptic world" setting. And the cover is excellent. It is still one of my favorites. A huge fan of the book wrote a Norton Estate endorsed sequel (Star Man's Saga by Ralph F. Couey) that wasn't bad.

[@alancarr7718]

Good afternoon Michael Great trawl through some some early classics SF Titles. Those anthologies contained some great legendary names. I began on my SF journey at about 10, hardly ever read a bad book, and I have indeed read Pebble in the sky, Isaac's first novel in fact. Very entertaining and a great mix Cheers Al The Goldleyfourcolorkidownunda

[@davebrzeski]

I have the Arkham House edition of David H. Keller's Tales From Underwood (1952). I always pick his stuff up on that basis.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I’ve never read that one. I’ve never even seen it, actually.

[@jackwalter5970]

Dangerous Visions is great. The Gene Wolfe books will blow your mind.

[@yelisieimurai]

Your videos are so entertaining! Thank you! I also have to read all these:) ps.except this Big Book of SF. It’s too big book. Huge.

[@austinmorris981]

You recently mentioned "Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar" by ERB. This reference keyed an old memory of mine. At or near the middle of the 1960s, there appeared a paperback by one "Barton Werper" called "Tarzan and the Silver Globe," which was a blatant rip-off of "Tarzan & the Jewels of Opar". In this novel the German bad guy from the original, is replaced by an alien from Venus, who comes to Earth in the "Silver Globe" of the title. The ER Burroughs Estate had not given permission to this author to use the Tarzan character, so this cheap paperback was quickly pulled. What I remember from the book was that the High Priestess La, of Opar, was always topless, and she was in love & was hopelessly goo-goo-eyed for Tarzan! Yes, it was trash! And it was a lot of fun!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I’ve heard of that book!

[@robertdavenport7802]

Daybreak 2250 AD - read that as a kid and loved it! Don't remember much about it though...

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

Keller wrote the story The Revolt of the Pedestrians which I read at college. Loved it. I’ll have to look for a The Human Termites. I read Dangerous Visions last year with David Wiley. Nothing too shocking for modern readers. I have dipped into a few stories from The Big Book of Science Fiction. I doubt I’ll read the whole thing.

[@LivingDeadEnby]

I own the Big Book of Science Fiction but don't read it in one go, I just can't. I've read the foreword and the first five stories so far (The Star by H.G. Wells is SO good! And I had to get more of Karl Hans Strobl and Paul Scheerbart, whose stories were so fantastically weird, I needed more). 2-3 stories at a time inbetween longer books is the best way for me.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

It just seems like an insane challenge to read the whole thing in one go. Like some mad ultramarathon.

[@Robbo_C]

I read The Human Termites/Ambassador from Mars earlier this year, in January. The Keller novel is pulpy for sure, but it's also a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be.

[@DavidWiley7]

What a wonderful list! I need to get to that first volume by Gene Wolfe, too so that I can determine if I need the second (let's be honest, I know I will). I'll have to look into doing the same reading for my birthyear, as that sounds like an excellent idea. If you want to chat Dangerous Visions, let me know as I read it all in December of last year. I *need* to get myself that Big Book of Science Fiction...it has been on my radar for a while I just never seem to remember when I'm not on a book buying ban. A year from now, when it fades away into the past and we move on, maybe I'll pick it up and read it when you get to it!

[@wburris2007]

1971, the year I started reading sf. In that Andre Norton book, he probably has a psychic connection with the cat.

[@GentleReader01]

When you read the Book of the New Sun, have a web browser handy. Wolfe expected that readers would want to look up obscure words, what names mean and what they imply about the characters, and so on. The Book of the New Sun exists in the infinite library that is the universe; make use of it. :)

[@MasterMalrubius]

The library of Nessus is the same library which exists in the House Absolute. Severian: "Huh?" 😧

[@GentleReader01]

@@MasterMalrubius Can’t tell that boy anything. :)

[@Yellowblam]

How long it’s taking you to read Stephen King is making me feel better about my own reading lists. 😂

[@conradledebuhr1765]

I don't usually comment here, but I feel the need to point out something on the World's Best Science Fiction: they collect stories from the year before the cover year. So for example, if Donald Wilhelm has a 1971 collection, it's actually collecting 1970 stories. At least, that's how my later seventies edition yet - maybe check the copyright dates of the stories before reading.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Ah! Thanks!

[@rickcantrell5302]

I just came across the same thing in the Best American Short Stories of the Year for my birth year, 1954. I was a kind of excited to receive the book in the mail, and found there was a story by B. Traven in it. I read it, I liked it. Then I realized all the stories really came out in 1953. So then I had to track down the volume for 1955. Did you know that series has been ongoing since 1915! Talk about a collecting challenge! Not to mention the associated storage challenge!

[@BookBlather]

Yes! I was wondering if the Time Ships was going to be in this list! Can’t wait to see what you think of it. Damn you… now I have to go hunt down that Daybreak 2250 A.D. You just made me buy City at World’s End. You need to stop doing this to me.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Sorry !

[@dqan7372]

That's some great reading you have ahead of you.

[@wbbartlett]

The Anubis Gates is supernatural victoriana overlaid with sci-fi and a dash of magical realism. It is AWESOME! How many of the stories in the Big Book have been published as their own individual books? It could be a cheat code - read that one Big Book & count it as however many individual books its comprised of. Read a dozen Big Books and bam! 500 book challenge is done.

[@DDB168]

I'd forgotten about the 500 challenge. I read an anthology last year and the Simak story (Huddling Place) stood out as the best amongst them.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Eventually everyone will forget! 🙄

[@CoffeeCatsandKing]

I started Big Book of Science Fiction at the beginning of 2020 and read it off and on until finishing it in December. Good luck, sir. Good luck.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I’ll need it!

[@LeoniFermer-vi4dc]

My oh my! do you ever have time to eat and sleep? Great video as ever!!😊

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Well, eating yes.

[@rickcantrell5302]

I've been having fun tracking down anthologies lately, too. I started with the Asimov book of the Great SF Stories from my birth year, 1954. Then I ended up getting the rest of that series, from 1939 - 1963. Then I spiraled out of control. I got the Robert Silverberg book for 1964, then DAW and Terry Carr together did 1965 to 1971, then from 1972 to 1990 DAW did his own picks and Carr did his own picks from 1972 to 1987. I didn't really realize what I was getting myself into at first. Now I have to read all of those short stories! I remember reading The Galactic Trilogy (The Stars, Like Dust, The Currents of Space, and Pebble in the Sky) back to back and really liking them in my late teens or early twenties. I loved The Shadow of the Torturer when it first came out and then never read another one in the series. I also really liked The Anubis Gates and the first four Dune books. (I still plan on finishing my Garbaugust read of The Butlerian Jihad, even though Garbaugust is over.) I'm looking forward to your comments, in a year or two, on Needle and Time & Again. Thanks for your awesome channel. It amazes me how similar our tastes are, though I do like Henry James; at least his early stuff. I'm reading him in order. I'm betting I don't last long enough to get to his later works!

[@JBDebtFree]

Just make the "500 Book Challenge" retroactive starting from 2020! Maybe that will help.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

You are a genius.

[@daybertimagni4841]

Not sure if you have covered it previous, but what are your thoughts on Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion? I loved them. Although, I really didn’t like Endymion and The Rise of Endymion - it is like the two final books in the series were written by a completely different author. Take care.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Hyperion was really good but I read it shortly after it came out…so it’s been a while. I never did read the second book.

[@wildmanz8233]

MKV, If you're reading the Book of the New Sun, you need to read the follow-up, Urth of the New Sun...it caps off the 4 book series nicely

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Okay! Thanks!

[@mediumjohnsilver]

Asimov’s story for _Tomorrow the Stars,_ “Misbegotten Missionary”, also called “Green Patches”, was a story I enjoyed for Cosmic Horror week of a recent BookTube event.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

That sounds promising!

[@rondemkiw4492]

Try reading THE REVOLT OF THE PEDESTRIANS by David H. Keller - it is in Project Gutenberg somewhere - and NEEDLE by Hal Clement was loosely adapted as a SF movie THE HIDDEN starring Kyle MacLachlan.

[@rickcantrell5302]

I loved the film "The Hidden"! I'm not saying it is good...just that I loved it!

[@DamnableReverend]

Some really interesting reading times ahead! For the Chrononauts podcast, we've been going through some 1930s fanzines this month. Not the actual pulp zines -- but fanzines, which this time period really marks the beginning of. Anyway, in one, which I forget the name of, David H. Keller (MD!) gives his thoughts about science fiction and his own writing. He very happily points out that he writes about more babies than any other science fiction writer. he really was proud of his baby representation! it's so funny. I remember Pebble in the Sky being pretty good. it's an important book for Asimov in a way as i think it was his first published novel, as in, with a major publishing deal/outside of Astounding and the other magazines, which of course he'd been operating in for just over ten years by then. I don't remember a lot about the book; must have been a kid when I read it. Now I'm off to watch the horror books video. Somehow missed that one.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Baby representation! Ha! I can see why that is a point of pride.

[@lindachurch4555]

I vowed to not buy any books this year. I have just tallied up my total and I have spent $350 on books this year!🤣 I did manage to hold out for four months!

[@sgriffin9960]

I see you have the same affliction as me! 😂

[@unstopitable]

I remember my first encounter with Gene Wolfe. I was just in awe. You don't just read him. You gotta drink him in. Happy imbibing. Can't wait to hear about The Human Termites. I found VanderMeer's The New Weird to be frustratingly uneven.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

The New Weird is a different book, I believe. I never read that one.

[@unstopitable]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 You have trouble recalling the exact title, but you mention The New Weird in the video. Forgive me if I sound pedantic. I don't mean to be. Happy reading.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

@@unstopitable I mentioned “The Weird “. Different book.

[@unstopitable]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 My apologies. I thought you were mentioning The New Weird, an anthology Jeff VanderMeer edited along with Ann VanderMeer.

[@nealm2562]

New subscriber here. I'm really enjoying the content!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thanks!

[@sgriffin9960]

Oh, I want to read those Gene Wolfe books too. First I have to finish the Elric Saga! READ ANUBIS GATES! You would look just fine in that gear on the cover of Tomorrow, The Stars! Human Termites?! LOL Great stack of books! Would you mind doing a review of the Book Of The New Sun series when you’re done?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I will definitely do a video on it one of these days.

[@Wabin22]

Im currently reading Children of Dune and though it's different.. it's still good and has that original Dune vibe.

[@beermarshal2070]

Good stuff as usual, Michael and Roger (why so quiet Roger?). The only books I've read of those 15 are The Time Ships (pretty good, but awfully different from Wells and I guess trying to be), and The Book of the New Sun, which I've read twice - first when the books were more or less new in pb in the mid-80s while I was in college. And they were published in hardcover first; I think the only books by Wolfe that were pb originals were his first, Operation Ares, and The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories. I've been collecting him for a long time - though I have to admit I've only read TBOTNS and a couple of other things. Someday... I have the Andre Norton, in that same edition, and I have Dangerous Visions and have read a couple of stories from it, and I have The Anubis Gates which would probably be the first thing I'd read from your list. My next SF reads will probably be Heinlein's two Hugo winners from the 60s - Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which are GAPING holes in my SF reading, and Bester's The Stars My Destination. And a re-read of Dune which I read first close to 45 years ago. I like your focus on anthologies - I have a bunch myself and want to go through some of them before long. Currenly reading Tales Before Tolkien, the subject of which I think is self-explanatory.

[@DanielsBibliophagy]

I didn't know Wollheim had collections prior to the Annual World's Best SF series starting in 1972. I have most of those but none of the previous years. More things to hunt down.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

There are always more things to hunt down.

[@robertlynn7746]

That's a lot of reading! The anthology edited by Robert a Heinlein came out the same year I did!

[@PaperbackJourneys]

Would you believe, I still haven’t read the Dune series? You mention that you’re reading all of the Stephen King books too? Are these rereads or are you diving back in?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I’ve read most of King’s 80s and 90s books…back in the 80s and 90s. Every book I’ve reread has seemed very different.

[@arekkrolak6320]

when you said 1 book but 2 but 4 I thought - it is just like that Shadow of the Torturer thing I saw in my friend's appartment :)

[@ToddsBookTube91]

Todd here. Nice set of books

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Hi Todd!

[@justinecooper9575]

David Keller wrote “The Himan Termites”!?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Yes

[@denisadellinger4543]

If you read Varney the Vampire, you can read that clunker. The small writing is the worst. I really would go through the stories and eliminate the ones I've already read. Any one at any time in my life, I would not read it. but the rest, partake away. It might be something good to read before bed. One story a night. It may take you a year to read but you could still read your fifteen books.

[@thekeywitness]

The Big Book will take at least 6 months but probably longer if you’re reading other stuff too, which with you will certainly be the case. The Book of the New Sun alone will eat up a couple of months. Anubis Gates is long. Children of Dune is long. Stephen Baxter is long. 😂 This will be a challenging TBR!

[@glockensig]

1.) How many books have you completed for your challenge? 2.) Please ask your wife if that is gigantic.....or just big...😂

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

71 books so far

[@glockensig]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Outstanding!!! I have bought two Max Brand books in anticipation of next year's June on the range. But I may self-impose a 100 book challenge on myself shortly!

[@davidadams6863]

Hopefully one of those books is going to be America Judge Dredd

[@brenm8]

Hello Mike, great TBR but I still don't see any Stargate books (Rebellion, Retaliation, Retribution, Reconnaissance, Resistance) by Bill McCay. But maybe one day, right? :)

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

What an unforgivable omission!

[@justdon6288]

Michael, Been curious about a video you made a few weeks ago about a huge book unhaul. Did you include any sci-fi or western s in that unhaul? I just did a minor unhaul of James Patterson books. My shelf looks relieved now🐕.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Actually, no SF or westerns left the Manor.

[@stretmediq]

So when you made that vow were there ancient Egyptian incantations involved? Because, and you can confirm this with Roger, it doesn't count unless there's ancient Egyptian incantations involved

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Really? Excellent!

[@timmeyer9191]

Wasn't there a different Gene Wolfe book you were going to read? Some historical vampire thing? I wish I could remember what it was called, but I'm probably wrong anyway. Currently, I'm reading Huxley's Brave New World and plan on reading Gibson's Neuromancer soon.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

No…. But an historical vampire thing sounds awesome.

[@louise4159]

The Anubis Gates might be steampunk? It's a good story whatever it is! Enjoy!

[@tonette6592]

We're not forgetting, however, I think the 500 Book Challenge is cruel and unusual for a bibliophile, and I, personally, are concerned with its effect on you, as it would be horrific for me, (and impossible for my husband, who walks in every week with more. | I would release you from your vow, as little as that may matter.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

The 500 Book Challenge is certainly cruel and unusual.

[@horacioaugustofilho6487]

Is that a dilithium refinery?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Yes.

[@inanimatecarbongod]

I read Book of the New Sun maybe 10 years ago. Found it kind of difficult to penetrate, good but wilfully difficult at times. Plus I thought it peaked in the third book and the fourth was comparatively weak. I would consider it fantasy, though every now and then something happens to remind you that it actually *is* SF. I suppose that's the thing about "dying Earth" fiction, it technically is the latter but it behaves more like the former. Dangerous Visions is certainly worth reading (I read it about ten years after you did) but I found I preferred the follow-up. The original DV felt to me like it was too self-conscious about its envelope-pushing, it may have felt and maybe even been radical at the time but it seemed like it was trying a little too hard... whereas Again DV felt to me like it wasn't trying to prove anything, the point had been made in the first book and the second one could accordingly relax a bit.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I do have Again Dangerous Visions, thanks to David Wiley.

[@ellesse3862]

How long to read The Big Book of SF .. six weeks give or take I reckon, you scoffed Blackwater quickly and that was a chunky book. I hope that man on the raft with the cat, doing his best Kamandi impression, features in the story, misleading cover art is such a rotten trick.

[@QuietExplorations]

I'm sorry, I can't get over the fact that you are 52! I hope I look half as good at that age, lol.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

You are too kind.

[@slothrob]

I'm curious to see how much you hate The Book of the New Sun and whether Heinlein is as bas at editing others as he is at editing himself (thou, I suppose he did not do any actual editing for that volume). I imagine it is callEd My Best Science Fiction Story because Lawrence Block's best stories are not SF. Dangerous Visions is spectacular. The Big Book of SF is an unusual book because it is more of a history of SF book than a "best of" collection.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I suspect I’ll like Book of the New Sun.

[@slothrob]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 That would be ideal, since I prefer positive reviews. It doesn't seem like your kind of thing, but, perhaps, I misjudge your preferences.

[@redwawst3258]

😊

[@ThisJustInBookTube]

Is this the third time you’ve pulled out The Anubis Gates in a video and threatened to read It? Ha! We’ll see about that… if you read The Anubis Gates, I’ll… I’ll… uhhh… I’ll make another BookTube video! HA!