Top 10 Science Fiction Books and Series Ranked!

[@bromeo3032]

It is nice to see the Honor Harrington series on your list. I recently found it myself, am on the third book, and really enjoy David Weber's writing, can't seem to put the books down. I will read The Calculating Stars very soon. Thank you for recommending.

[@BooksWithBrad]

Nice list brother. Its always nice to see books I've never heard of. Gives me something to expand my catalog with

[@melonandfigg]

Great vid, thanks for the recommendations! My fave sci fi series at the moment is the three body problem trilogy. Concept-driven and mind-blowing first contact hard sci fi 😄

[@beethoven2351]

My all-time favorites: 10. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon; 9. Gateway by Frederik Pohl; 8. Hyperion by Dan Simmons; 7. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card; 6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury; 5. A Canticle for Leiboitz by Walter Miller Jr.; 4. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin; 3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; 2. 1984 by George Orwell; 1. Dune by Frank Herbert.

[@jonathankoan]

Excellent list!

[@Scottlp2]

Excellent list. Only thing I’d add is that Brave New World may be hard to read for some (written long ago and perhaps 1st 50 pages were exposition setting up story). This Perfect Day by Ira Levin is 90% as good, but written more recently so easier read.

[@ethirajsudhan3693]

@@jonathankoan bro can suggest any scifi story which based on complete time dialtion concept..

[@bazoo513]

Much more like _my_ favorites. Add some Lem, perhaps Banks, Butler... It is practically impossible to cull the list of excellent books down to only ten.

[@Cesar82nd]

Dan Simmons best book is carrion comfort.

[@8020Alive]

Angel Mass - indeed a good one. Loaded with fun. Great list - happy new year!

[@nunyabizness6595]

You cant go wrong with either Zahn or Foster. Always great!❤

[@lissavanhouten6628]

Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary is a fine book with a great main character. It had the perfect ending!

[@apilgrim8715]

Zahn's Conquerors Trilogy is a great choice! Interesting for all three books.

[@shawnbergeson]

Really enjoyed this - Manta's Gift sounds like a must-read!

[@Kris_Terry]

Bro just watched your Saga of the Seven Suns video a few days ago and thats the first time ive seen your channel. Looking forward to your new videos!

[@soniciris]

Snaps for Angelmass! My favorite Zahn apart from his (middle grade) Dragonback series and Deadman Switch. My favorite otherwise are probably the Empire of Man series by Ringo and Weber (begins with March Upcountry) and CJ Cherryh's Chanur Saga. The former is my favorite military sci-fi and the latter a masterclass in anthropological/xenocultural sci-fi I also have a strong fondness for the Flight Engineer trilogy by Sterling and Doohan--highly recommended for being just plain fun and not afraid to be genuinely funny. Finally let me mention the Boundary / Portal series by Flint and Spoor, which is 2 trilogies: the first a near-future exploration and political series, and the 2nd of which is Swiss Family Robinson in space

[@mpetersen6]

Could not get into the Marduke books. But I did enjoy We Few.

[@dipanjanbiswas6580]

Quite a few new finds - thanks 👍

[@DaveSpacer]

Don't forget about my book Project Mind River : Techs Future Promise and Peril ;) (Science Fiction Action Adventure)

[@SciFiScavenger]

Solid list, with a couple i wasnt familiar with. I have Manta's Gift ln my shelves, sounds like i should bump it up my TBR. I reslly need to do a top 10 like this. 👍

[@sfwordsofwonder]

Thanks for doing this, great list. I really want to read Bova's Mars, just finished the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.

[@wburris2007]

Great list. With more than 50 years of reading sf, Dune is the only book on your list that I have read.

[@SpectacularWebHead]

I read Mantas Gift a few years before you did and I completely agree. It’s a masterpiece of a novel. I want a sequel, if possible.

[@kingzzz6509]

Unfortunately I haven't read a lot of sci-fi, however, from what I have read, Dune is my favorite. I really enjoyed Red Rising/Morning Star as well. I really want to read Ender's Game, Old Man's War, Suneater, Book of the New Sun, and The Expanse.

[@jonathankoan]

Excellent list. All of those are either on my TBR or I have read.

[@HannahSegullah]

Hi! I’m one of those who really like the hard sci-fi, and as such, I have a suggestion! If you feel Mars by Bova makes you want to see the forward movement in the space program, I think you would really enjoy (if you havent read it yet!) the series by Allen Steele that begins with Orbital decay, followed with Lunar Descent, and finally Clarke County, Space.

[@jonathankoan]

I haven’t read that series yet. I’ll have to look for it.

[@HannahSegullah]

@@jonathankoan omg you HAVE to try it! I rank the first one as one of the top 5 books I’ve ever read in my life. I’m 62, and I’ve grown up with the ABC’s (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke) of sci-fi and am an avid reader of both sci-fi and (Indiana-Jones-style) adventure (Think James Rollins, Kim Stanley Robinson and Michael Crichton). The characters are amazing. He’s written several other books which I guess are good sci-fi but didnt draw me in the way the folks in that series (the Clarke series) did!

[@stephenmorton8017]

an interesting list, all but three new to me and well presented. i'll keep an eye out for them. thanks and subbed.

[@BilalComputers123-yh7qc]

Nice list,beet....mostly agree....no Stigma?..... Oh well,may Eldritch forgive you.....

[@jdellabeat6245]

A really good video. It's unfortunate that you didn't like the other Dune novels as much I've had, but se la vie. I should check out Zahn's other sci-fi works since you mention them so much.

[@brandonharbeke8326]

The Conquerors books are very good. A few I might suggest based on your list are Ubik, Foundation, and Sphere.

[@BenjaminsBookclub]

Wow not often I come across a top sci fi list with so many books I'd never read, or even heard of! I have to read the Zahn books! I loved heir to the empire, I shamefully never went beyond that to look for anything else he wrote.

[@Amanda-fb7tv]

Solid list, a lot of these are my favorites too. As far as newer stuff, The Deep Man by Michael Mersault is super solid. There’s a second book that just came out too but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

[@mapasore11]

Some of my favourites are Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin and Recursion by Blake Crouch :) You should check them out, if you haven't already :) Have you read Andy Weirs short story "The Egg"? it's so good :D

[@lisadw499]

Great list! The Martian was definitely a 5 star for me, loved it! I recently came across new copy of Dune at a local thrift store for .25; crazy; right? Hoping to get to that early next year.

[@jonathankoan]

A new copy for 25 cents? That’s amazing!

[@stephenmorton8017]

ha! so did i, paid a dollar for a very recent copy. donated it to the corner box, after reading for the first time.

[@MG-bs5mr]

Have you read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir? It reads much like The Martian, great book too.

[@siisch46]

I also enjoyed Artemis lol. Great list!

[@valeriehazel4858]

Great to see TZ on this list - I really enjoyed the 2 stand-alones you picked (though not so much the Conqueror series). I’m one of the heretics who absolutely can’t stand Dune but I realise the consensus is against me. I liked the earlier HH books as well though eventually the series wore out for my tastes. Each book got longer and longer and the politics more and more convoluted so I stopped at some point. Thanks for your reviews.

[@randywilliams5628]

Always enjoy your videos

[@AcmePotatoPackingPocatello]

If you like Honor Carrington... The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell is pretty cool. Great space battles. Great political intrigue...that spans the 6 book series. Realistic characters- and plotting. Fast read exciting. Bone Silence, Chasm City, The Prefect by Alexander Reynolds Complex, great storyline, vividly potrayed far futures. MATTER, Excession, by iain banks. ....great stories, intelligent Ai spacecraft that are qwerky interesting. The Naked Sun...part of the classic robot series by Isaac Azimov with 2 robots you absolutely love, Giskard and Daneel, that form a partnership with human Elijah Bailey, a police detective sent from a future Earth to the Planet Aurora to investigate a murder. Absolutely relatable story. Easy reader, enjoyable characters. Additionally The Silent Warrior, Flash, Parafaith War by Modesitt A great writer/storyteller - centuries in future settings....puts you there Whipping Star and follow-up DOSADI Experiment by Frank Herbert (dune) complex and intense.....lots of aliens Mote in God's Eye Enders Game Just a few Sci - fi that i have read and re-read over the years.

[@jonathankoan]

Thank you for the list, now I need to add these to my tbr.

[@AcmePotatoPackingPocatello]

@jonathankoan Btw...your selections were very good. I've read a number of them and liked em. I just thought I'd add some selections. ...here's an interesting choice Midshipmans Hope...5 book series from late 80s- Fentuch is the author.

[@floogelhornzzz4770]

If you want a good dust jacket that isn't torn from those stickers, why don't you contact the publisher and ask them to send you a new one? Just explain what happened and I'm sure they'll send you a new cover. I've done it before. I once bought an LP that turned out scratched but I didn't open it until ages after I bought it so I couldn't take it back to the store, so I just wrote the record company and they sent me a new one. Easy. Once, there were two rotten kids talking during an entire movie, _Titanic,_ and there were no ushers to complain to to shut them up, so I mailed a photocopy of my ticket stub to the theatre with an explanation and they sent me two free tickets to their movies. (I chose _Armageddon_ and _The Truman Show._ ) Likewise a few other things. I'm sure they'll do it. People are nice. I'm sure they'll be flattered that their products are so important to you that you want a pristine dust jacket, and companies want to keep their customers happy. Their customers are their bread and butter. Do not be shy about contacting them. I'm sure when Elaine took Frank Costanza's _TV Guide_ and it got shredded, all he had to do was contact the publisher and they would have been glad to send him a free replacement. Who wouldn't be flattered that someone thinks so highly of their magazine that they collect them like vintage books or comics?

[@mpetersen6]

These types of lists are always personal bias. Here's mine. Inluding multi novel series 1) Dune, plus the additional books 2) Ringworld, plus the susequent Ringworld novels and the Known Space books 3) The Mote in God's Eye. One of the best first contact novels. 4) l, Robot 5) The Forever War 6) The Night's Dawn Trilogy 7) Red Mars and sequels 8) The City and the Stars 9) Rendezvous with Rama 10) In the Courts of the Crimson Kings Also rans. Triton, Protector, Miles Versogian series, Legacy of Hererot, Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy and nothing from Harry Turtledove.

[@HannahSegullah]

I posted a comment to the channel, but in case you dont see it, if you havent read these, i’d think you’d love them, based on your list. Allen Steele’s three books, in order: Orbital Decay, Lunar Descent, and Clarke County, Space. He has others, but those three really soar. I also really enjoyed the Rama books, and pretty much everything on your list!

[@marlinthecreative118]

You have probably read them but the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the best Mars exploration and settling with some pretty good hard science fiction.

[@jonathankoan]

I have the first book and intend to read it in early 2024.

[@razzamatas]

Zahn should acknowledge “call mr Joe.” As source of manta.

[@Joe-lb8qn]

The Martian is decent but end off the day its a standard space rescue thing. Project Hail Mary (same author for those that aren't aware) is better in all respects. More characters (one key one of whom we only get to know about third hand but is awesome, mystery, and a great underlying story. On the downside you haven't mentioned, well, a stack of awesome books of which I'll mention just two, the Hyperion cantos (aka series of 4 books) and Accelerando (public domain available for free), cyberpunk on steroids but readable unlike Neuromancer. Or for readable but still great cyberpunk, The Diamond Age.

[@jonathankoan]

I did read Hyperion, and really enjoyed it, I have the sequels to read eventually. It just didn’t make my top 10. However, I will add the other book onto my TBR.

[@epiphoney]

Pandora's Star is long but really good. The concluding book isn't as good though. The Stars My Destination is quick and mind blowing. The Prefect is classic.

[@doug2424]

Thank you for not including star trek or star wars During the resurgence in nineteen seventy two, there was a lot of single author books written.

[@авпавапвап]

Bro im not a avid reader of books in general but came across a audiobook called swallowed star been listening to it on youtube absoloutely would like to know if you have ever read it

[@jonathankoan]

I have not, is it science fiction?

[@Toospoonbig283]

Dune Messiah was weird but i LOVED Children of Dune. Sorry those sequels didn't work for you, because those are the good ones. After that, book 4 gets.... weird. And then books 5 and 6 are just bad bad. But I'm reading the House prequels now and so far I am loving them.

[@bazoo513]

Hmm, Interesting, unconventional list. Pretty wide selection, and practically none of "usual suspects" (except for _Dune_ and perhaps _The _Martian_ ), and very few of my favorites. If you liked _Honorverse_ books, by all means try _Vorkosigan Saga_ by Lois McMaster Bujold. When you said "first movie" in the context of _Dune,_ for a moment I was afraid you meant that travesty by Lynch. 😀

[@wesleyrodgers886]

Only read 1 Ben Bova novel, which i really enjoyed. EON.

[@jonathankoan]

Wasn't Eon by Greg Bear?

[@wesleyrodgers886]

@jonathankoan oops. Would age forgive me. And I guess it's over 20yrs ago.

[@jonathankoan]

@@wesleyrodgers886 I’ve done that before.

[@wesleyrodgers886]

@@jonathankoan 👍

[@balrog7252]

I'm sorry, but why is there no Remembrance of Earth's Past on this list, why is there no Hyperion, why is there no Foundation, has the host not read these books? I guess that's the only way to explain their absence on this list.

[@jonathankoan]

I did read the first Hyperion book and the first Foundation book and enjoyed them both, they just didn’t make it onto my top 10 list.

[@KennedyGoodkey]

Definitely a list without many of the standards that appear regularly on other lists. Dune of course is one of those that is on practically everyone's (and more often than not #1), and The Martian is in the bullpen for regular inclusion, but otherwise, this was refreshing for its unusual picks. I go to these lists to find something I haven't read. Not for affirmation that I've read all the stuff that everyone agrees upon. ...I'll be checking out that MRK series. Thanks!

[@ethirajsudhan3693]

should anyone pls suggest scifi book based on time dialtion

[@mirceapintelie361]

The forever war

[@henriklarsen1504]

The first dune film came out in 1984

[@jonathankoan]

You’re right. I meant the Dune Part 1 from the new series by Dennis Villeneuve.

[@rolandguidosteiner1]

Please. Please change that awful "music" at the very end - choose something classical, maybe film music, etc. But please remove that noise. Great compliments for your project.

[@jonathankoan]

I will look into that. I might just have it be silent at the end to be safe in the future.

[@nunyabizness6595]

You could take Kevin Andersons 7 books and make either a tv show or movie series and yet they keep doing the same things over and over like Dune or ruining Star Trek and Star Wars. Then again maybe i dont want them to ruin more properties. 😂😂😂

[@cu00dj]

Good video. But 😊 no Clifford Simak, Isaac Asimov, Harry Harrison, Poul Anderson, E. E. (Doc )Smith, Jules Verne or H.G. Wells. There is a lot of GREAT science fiction before the 1990s. Spread out you might be surprised 🎉

[@jonathankoan]

I’ve read some of them, like Asimov and Verne and have several of their books on my list to be read, but this was the stuff that I enjoyed the most. I do hope to read War of the Worlds soon.

[@cu00dj]

@@jonathankoan I would suggest Way Station by Clifford D. Simak also. I loved the premise of it. Journey to the Center of the Earth (original) by Jules Verne has great writing and is NOT at all like the cheesy movie. Those are two of my favorites, perhaps you'll like them,

[@pluralofsheep]

Your channel could is great but could be better and easier for me to watch more, I enjoy the content but putting chapter breaks in your videos would make them easier to navigate I don't like to watch on 1.5 or 2x so it makes it hard for me to consume the content when you talk about something I personally find interesting or not. Just some perspective from some random person on the internet.

[@jonathankoan]

It has been recommended before to put in chapter times. I’ve avoided that so far because I want people to watch the whole video if possible and chapter times encourage skipping. However, for ranking videos like this, I hold up the book or have it on the screen, so you can scroll ahead if you want to see the next book I talk about. But I’ll think about using Chapter titles. I do want people to watch and don’t want to turn people off if that’s a big problem.

[@epiphoney]

I heard Timothy Zahn say once in a Functional Nerds podcast that he doesn''t unnecessarily kill off characters just to create suspense.

[@psikeyhackr6914]

Star Wars is Not science fiction AT ALL! Your credibility took serious hit. Science Fantasy is an oxymoron. So "Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson has been stolen twice. Apparently you have not discovered the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Tsk tsk!

[@jonathankoan]

I’ll have to look into those series, I’ve been told good things about Lois McMaster Bujold. although I specifically did not include Star Wars on the list. But the other books on my list certainly should constitute Sci-Fi.

[@kaleishiacann8129]

Based on which metric? You would have to be credible to make judgements on credibility. Credentials? Context is important. In the context of a whole work of fiction and when used as a genre descriptor, Science Fantasy is NOT an oxymoron. On a concept-by-concept basis maybe, but not when used to describe a whole work which includes both scientific and fantastical ideas. Similar premises/plot/worldbuilding/ideas etc ≠ stealing. If it did, the world would have far fewer stories. I haven't read *insert thing everyone insists must be read in order to have a valid opinion*, and I'm not going to, honestly. They sound shit. Don't gatekeep.

[@psikeyhackr6914]

@@kaleishiacann8129 I tried posting a link but it was deleted. You can do an Internet search on "why SW is not science fiction". I consider it to be a waste of time to try to explain something that obvious.

[@deckiedeckie]

The Martian by Andy Weir an The Road by Cormack Mcarthy are the two mst overrated ever SF boks!

[@jonathankoan]

I haven’t read the Road Yet but I did love the Martian.

[@mostafabinali7109]

Nope

[@jonathankoan]

I’m assuming you have a different list? I’d be interested in adding more books to my TBR.

[@Cesar82nd]

The saga of plioceane earth, by Julian May. Armor, John Steakly. The mote in gods eye, Larry Niven and purnell.

[@brap7551]

I would put one I liked as a teen on that list> friday heinlein