That was a great video, and I applaud your ability to go back, examine your previous choices, and make changes based on new perspectives gained from discussions with others. Very few people examine their own thought processes as intensely as you do. A lot of people don’t examine them at all. So I appreciate it seeing it happen.
One of my favorite game authors interacting with my one of my favorite philosophy/lit channels? Amazing! RUclips is an incredible place :) P.S. Tim I still hold out hope that Arcanum 2 (or even an Arcanum remaster) will grace this world one day.
It’s nice of you to boost him up, but everyone does self-reflect and evolve to some extent. It’s just internal and often imperceptible to those around them.
Jared you went from doing a phd in philosophy to working in a tech company. Could you make a video on how you made this transistion. Like did you do any tech related stuff while doing your phd or was it like a completely new jump. Would like to know how you made a transition from philosophy to tech. Would also help people who are considering of leaving academia after phd.
I have to thank you Jared for these videos. I have in the last 12 months picked up both Le Guin novels and Canticle after hearing you speak so highly of them. I myself loved them very deeply also. I read mostly classics but am now really enjoying dipping back into sci-fi every so often as a nice change of pace.
I've always felt that books read the reader. Listening to you and observing your all-time list gives me a feel, I believe, for your mind and worldview. Even though I don't feel there would be a lot of commonality with my own, hearing a video like this is still helpful in my selecting the books I will give the time to read.
Jared thanks for making this video . Your discussion points are excellent and I also agree with your reasoning as to why top ten lists can change over the years.
Would love hear more of your thoughts on your souring view on Three Body Problem. I read it several years ago, and while it definitely stuck with me, I too have found myself looking more negatively upon it. There are several reasons for this, from the misogyny (that is supposedly worse in the native text) to poorly written one-dimensional characters, and perhaps most importantly issues that I have begun to have with the entire concept of the "Dark Forest Hypothesis". I personally feel that Blindsight by Peter Watts far more effectively harnesses ideas of terror that may be lurking within the unknowns and indifference of our universe, a presentation of cosmic terror that holds beyond the alien species of this particular first contact novel. Where the unknowns of our universe could easily break down the assumptions and axioms of the dark forest hypothesis, the very fact of the unknown props up the core of Watts' Blindsight regardless of how that unknown actually manifests. I much prefer the terror induced by the cold indifference of our universe over the (far lesser) terror induced by the limit of logic that the human psyche has reached insisting that any sufficiently advanced civilization must become unwaveringly xenocidal or die.
Really liked ur take on Dune, I really like the first book on its own and also the dune messiah because of how ti kind of ties up Paul's strory a bit. thank you so much for making videos that make me want to read more instead of just doom scrolling on my phone all day :)
1) Since you have Dune on here I will endorse this list (even with the downplay of its greatness) 2) Planning to read Canticle this year 3) Thanks for this, I have added a handful to my TBR list!
Great video as always, Jared. Our opinions and preferences aren't static and as we read more, we also evolve. Looking inward to find out what has changed and bringing in new book recommendations and new ideas is what makes us better readers and writers. Looking forward to this list in 2025.
Thank you for the updated list! I have read many of the books from your last lists, thanks to your recommendations, and loved many of them dearly. Blood Meridian changed my life.
Loved this! I agree with your thoughts about authors not trusting readers and valuing the human element in sci-fi. I'm now looking forward to reading The City & The City!
The Dispossessed was the book that got me back into reading. It took a long time to finish but I was always glad to get back into it, and the final half of the book kept me gripped and flying through so much I finally came out the other end a reader reborn. For something as dense and complex as Anathem, you should consider making a chapter by chapter bookclub-esque series analyzing it, or even just praising it and mentioning your favorite parts and giving a different perspective in a lowkey fashion. Idk the chapter layout so maybe that's too much and it should be grouped by a few chapters at a time, but just an idea. A book club podcast REALLY helped my understanding and appreciation of Dune which is why I suggest such a thing. You could make it a paywall exclusive of some kind.
Jared, thank you! So many new titles for me. Les Robinsons du Cosmos (The Robinsons of the Cosmos) by François Bordes is my number one: 'A piece of French land is ripped off from the Earth during a galactic collision and planted on an alien planet.'
i dont even really consider cloud atlas as scifi so much as general fiction with speculative elements so when i saw you list the book it came completely out of left field for me and i just yelled "YES! YES!!" because it's possibly my favourite book of all time
I read The Dispossessed thanks to you and sunbeamsjess and fell in love with it! I adamantly considered myself not a sci-fi reader prior to it, but I’m so excited to explore the genre now :) thank you!
Happy to see some Miéville on here! The broken binding is doing a release of the bas lag trilogy with incredible covers, but aside from that you're completely correct about his covers lol.
Thank you for these lists! About two months ago, one of your (older) videos showed up in my feed (I hadn’t seen your content before that), and you were describing Anathem on a similar list. Your description influenced me to order it, and I was not disappointed. After finishing Anathem, I realized I needed to come back and subscribe to your channel. My only issue is that now that I’ve read Anathem, I fear I won’t be able to enjoy Stephenson’s other novels as much. From the descriptions of the others, I think I’ve started with the best one, at least for my interests. Just ordered Cloud Atlas, again from your description. Looking forward to it. I’m curious if you’ve read any Susanna Clarke, and what you think of her? I just Piranesi, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I’m debating whether Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is worth the commitment.
What a great list! All winners, not a mediocre book in sight. Btw, if you liked "The City & The City," you might just love "The Other City" by Michal Ajvaz (original Checz title: Druhé město). Less crime, more mesmerising Eastern European parallel cities hallucinations.
As a scientist myself I was so excited to know your taste in science fiction and if it is as awesome as yours in philosophy….and yeaaahhh it is…thanks that list would be very helpful to everyone ✅
Thanks for the vid...and I'm glad you used "my favorite" instead of "greatest" or "best". That would be like stating that sky blue or alizarin crimson is the "best color".
Thanks for sharing this video! C.S. Lewis' Perelandra, H.G. Wells Time Machine and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Jules Verne were what hooked me into sci fi when I was young. In the 80's to early 2000s I loved Ursula K. Le Guinn, Roger Zelazny, C.J. Cherryh's early foreigner series, Larry Niven, Gordon R. Dickson and the Star Trek Novels TNG Novels :) I'm looking to ignite my passion in sci fi again so your video is a good place to start :)
You got me to read A Canticle for Lebowitz this year! While I didn't always agree with the worldview or world-building of Miller, I could not deny that it was a an excellent work of sci fi, honestly one of the best sci fi books I've ever read. I almost think of it as anti-sci-fi. It even sort of reminded me of Blood Meridian and The Road - I feel pretty confident that Cormac McCarthy read this one at some point. It's also incredible how well it holds up after being so old. A totally unique and distinctive perspective.
I'd like to recommend His Masters Voice by Stainslaw Lem. It is supposedly sci fi but it reads more like a philosophical memoir. I don't think it'll reach your top 10, but it definitely worth reading.
Other fun fact. The structure of Use Of Weapons was suggested to Banks by his friend and fellow sci-fi author Ken MacLeod. That way the significance of the white chair would not have been a mid-novel shock reveal but a the opening blow of a devastating one-two punch right in the feels of the reader. He actually came up with the story and started writing it before the first two books, just couldn't compete it until he cracked that structure and how to fully exploit the twists and turns of the plot.
Fun fact China wrote The City and The City in honour of his mum, who wasn't into the type of genre stuff he likes to write but did love Detective fiction. His non fictional work is excellent too.
I'm curious about _The City and the City_ and put it on my reading list . It reminds me of Philip K. Dick's experience that he described in _Valis_ where ancient Rome was imposed on modern day California. The added mystery component is intriguing. I like these reviews. Based on your last review of your 10 Favorite Science Fiction Books, I read _A Canticle for Liebowitz_ . I agree with your assessment in this video.
Adding Cloud Atlas and the City and the City to my TBR. They both sound wonderful. I agree about the TBP trilogy. I had loved it, but when I reread it, I thought it didn't really hold up. It was more a series of interesting ideas strung together. And it draaaaged. I still love Lewis's trilogy, but only because I came to the books young. You're absolutely right about his pedantry, though, and it's been a long time since I could read his Christian apologetics.
I totally agree with a TOP rank you gave to The Dispossessed, especially from a writers point of view, I think, this book is done very well and the harmony between form and content is adorable. I have one question I would really see your answer on: Why did you not include anything from Stanislaw Lem on your list? Although it may be hard to pick one book from him that stands out, his way of treating science fiction is philosophically interesting, full of subversive humor and very entertaining.
The Culture series is absolutely amazing. I find Consider Phlebas very underrated. I think it shows a different side of the culture series and a different style by Banks.
Thank you!! I think it can be too self reflective for those with a leftist revolutionary mindset or just being young and wanting to change the world. I love the philosophy within and feel it just fits exactly to a post human demi God. I prefer to explore more Machiavellian or nihilistic characters within fiction. I'm more inclined to believe technology and life extension with great cruel gods and stagnant culture
I read a lot of Larry Niven as a kid and loved it. The Integral Trees was complete escape fiction, awesome setting in every sense of the word. Maybe not in my top ten, but it was fun.
@kacpercichosz465 Yes he's gone off the deep end (check out his highly offensive views about organ harvesting). I don't recall sexism in his novels and short stories but it's been 40 years since I last read them.
@kacpercichosz465 Rereading the first few chapters of Ringworld - yea, the relationship between Teela and Louis Wu is sort of gross. She's 20 and he's 200 years old. :-( Her character is pretty naive, too (in part due to her supernatural luck I guess), which makes it even worse.
@@RobertWF42 There are two female characters. First Teela who is all the time being described as silly. Then later on you have Prill, who is literally sex worker and all what she does is TRYING to have sex with main character. So both female characters: silly, horny and only useful when they open their legs. Definition of sexism in my eyes.
thanks for the very informative and interesting video. Could you (or someone else reading here) mention the arguments that lead you to demote the three-body problem series from this list? Also, what do you think about the red rising series?
I keep telling myself I need to reread Cloud Atlas. At the time I first read it a decade ago I found myself agreeing with Le Guin’s review of Bone Clocks wherein she felt Mitchell’s writing is too self-conscious rather than freewheeling. I’m hoping that I can look past that and get immersed in his writing, because I’d really like to enjoy Mitchell the way other people do. I love The Dispossessed and like you I rank it above Left Hand of Darkness. And I love it for many of the same reasons, most especially its honesty about its own themes, which is to say that Le Guin, unapologetic though she is about her anarchism and her critique of capitalism, doesn’t suggest an egalitarian society just happens and self-perpetuates. It’s a powerful story because it brings us to a crucial insight about the labor a society requires. I need to get on a few of these, especially Canticle and Earthseed. Though I also need to reread New Sun so I can read Urth and then Long Sun. Well, now that the dissertation is ended perhaps I’ll have time…
I hope you can answer my questions? Why should I read many books if I always forget maybe more than 80% of what I have read? Isn't reading articles is better? If so what are the best sites to read ? Why should I read a certain book? What is the best books of all time and they are a must read in your opinion? Why I can finish whag I have started??
There's 3 in your 10 I haven't read (numbers 4, 3 and 2) , and the other 7 are some of my favourites too... guess i have my next 3 reads lined up - very happy I clicked on this :)
Ouch to CS Lewis, but you're not wrong. I've been rereading some of his Christian work, and though it was like visiting an old friend, it felt dated and wanting for some freshening up.
Cloud Atlas is so good. I thank the international edition of The New York Times for putting that book in my radar. I love it so much, and I think it deserves a re-read, because I read that back in 2015 I believe. Also Bone Clocks from Mitchell, very good!
The City & The City is incredible, glad to see it on here. I loved Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, but could not deal with the faux-18th century writing of the Quicksilver books, which is done less absurdly than Pynchon in Mason & Dixon but still unconvincing and irritating. Will need to check out Anathem though, I've always been intrigued by some of his other works.
I love the Culture so much I legitimately have a hard choosing a favourite, there's 5 or 6 at any given time I could is my favourite SF novel. Need to do a re-read.
I liked the comment “sometimes science fiction writers can get too caught up in ideas and lose the human element”, and to me that applies to Anathem. It felt as though Stevensen was constantly trying to show how widely learned he is in philosophy, science, etc. It was fun, but when I think back the characters just kind of felt one dimensional. They discussed a lot of philosophical concepts sure, but it’s just not a book that changed my perspective on much or has stuck with me. I feel like all the energy in Anathem went into making interesting in a “left-brain” intellectual way but didn’t have the soul some other novels do. It seemed like a book for people who want to analyze and think rather than feel. Some books just linger in my consciousness and throughout life get invoked through various situations I find myself in. Anathem just hasn’t done that for me. I find whenever people are singing the praises of Anathem it is always “look at how interesting this premise for a novel is!” “Look at how they discuss all these different intellectual concepts” but it’s rarely about the actual characters or about how it was truly formative. Just my perspective
I agree - tried to get through Anathem but got stuck. If I want to read about philosophy or geometry I've got plenty of non-fiction options. I don't need to learn about big ideas secondhand through fictional characters having discussions.
im sure you've read the classics - The Machine Stops, Brave New World and 1984 - just to say they are on my 10. others - one is also in yours "15 years haha", "its still not him" - gotta love the immortal wandering jew Ben Eleazer in Canticle for Leibowitz (which were originally many short stories publcished in Amazing Stories - and compiled into a book a few years later. and you are right, the third part is the lesser part, mainly because Father Zercky is a man of action but not a deep thinker - he shows this when he cannot understand how Mrs Grayles "hates God" at the end. I always wondered what the character of Ben Eleazer represents - still not sure. I also would like to understand what the character Rachel represents (any insight into your views on this two characters I'd love to know about, I may gain wisdom from your insights into these characters). BTW the 1980 multipart RadioDrama is EXCELLENT!!!!! as good at the book (which is RARE i find with "remakes/adaptations of classic books). Highly recommend the old RadioDrama "X-Minus One" sci from the 1950's - its a great radioshow, also the radio-readings/plays 1970's-80's series "Mindwebs" is excellent too - both are over on Internet Archive. "Stranger in a Strange Land" - first 2/3 excellent, but last 1/3 terrible ;-/. (its like Hienland wrote most of it - then stopped - then wrote the last years later forgetting the first part! (not sure if that is what he did, but thats the feeling i got when i read it decades ago. 'Ender's Game" and "speaker for the dead" by Orson Card were excellent (met the guy once 20 yrs ago - kinda a rude dk - but those two works are excellent the man notwithstanding). BIG TIME SLEEPER that no one has heard of would be "Night of Light' by Phillip Farmer famous for his "Riverworld" series, "Night of Light" is excellent and one of his earliest works. and finally "Dying Inside" by Robert Silverburg is excellent - as is the late 90's BBC Radioplay of it. 2 cents.
Have you read the "Gap Cycle" series. It can be a slog at times but it's such a unique, foreboding amd claustrophobic setting...the themes are challenging psychologically but it's an experience.
Some great books on this list. I love China Mieville's books, including The City and the City. I would enjoy hearing you speak about the Bas Lag books once you finish them. The Scar is one of my favourite fantasy novels. If you haven't checked it out, I'd recommend reading Blindsight by Peter Watts. It has some great philosophical themes that were pretty eye-opening to me. With your background in philosophy, they may not be as revelatory to you, but I think you'd enjoy it nonetheless.
I agree with you on the dune sequals. They have two problems. One is that they are following up one of the greatest novels ever, and two is that they cover the same themes that the original book did only not as good. Part of the problem is that the original was so dense with theme and meaning that i think herbert had truley put everything he had into it and how do you follow that up, without repeating yourself, unless your worldview changes?
I would like to read the Hainish Cycle and the Culture series, but I am a bit hesitant about which books to start with in each series. Which reading order do you recommend?
I forgot to mention my fav author below!!!!!!!! (how could I?) Robert Sheckley!!!! Short story author of the 60's - he combines Philosophy with the Absurd, and adds a boatload if insanely funny humor in all his stories. You will laugh out loud serval times when reading him, and he aways has some sort of social commentary in all his stories. He is a forgotten name today, but had minor fame in this time. Douglas Adams used to read his stuff as a kid and admitted to pulling some of his ideas when he wrote Hickhicker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Culture is such a mixed bag for me that I don't know if I can really recommend it as a series. The run of Player of Games through Inversions is golden for the reasons that you said, but Consider Phlebas and the later books are the kind of rambling space operas I've never really liked, though occasionally there are some solid philosophical ideas thrown in. I've never gotten very far into any of his other novels either. I'd probably just recommend for people to read Player of Games and Use of Weapons tbh.
Found your channel. Many thanks! Already made a short list of what to read next. Well not read... I'm in to audio books, since 2022 (I have a 2:h30 commute every day, can´t read while driving.... so...welcome audio books) The short list will be heard after the Solaris. By he way... your thoughts about audio books?
I recently read The Dispossessed. The idea of depicting anarchy is intriguing, and Ursula K. Le Guin's intentions are admirable. However, I have some issues with the book. --I don't think I am a fan of Shevek. The only thing going for him is that he is a brilliant physicist, and people either like him or not. Stuff just happens to him. He is super passive and gets dragged by circumstances or other people most of the time. --Some decisions he makes regarding his family are incomprehensible to me. Why does he have to move to the other side of the planet if he could work everything out from where he is? --There is a chapter where he steps over the line with a woman (in the present timeline). If someone grew up in a feminist, anarchist society, it is hard for me to believe that he would do this. Afterwards, he doesn't feel remorse, just shame that people saw him intoxicated. --In general, he has scientific "breakthroughs" after "encounters" with the opposite gender. --For an anarchist, he has a pretty condescending view of others. So yeah, Shevek wasn't my cup of tea. He is quite problematic, in my opinion. --The two timelines and the looping of them is a nice idea, but the form doesn't correspond with the content. They are not interwoven. I don't gain a deeper insight by reading them in order. I can decouple them, and it would actually be a more coherent story. So, this all ends up being a little bit gimmicky. --I really like the conversations-they are pretty strong. But there is no progression or character development for any of the characters. --America-centric: Shevek visits A-Io (a representation of the USA and UK (West)). It's the only place where aliens land. Shevek has to learn A-Io's language. Other languages are not worth learning. Saying this - I also can say that I like the idea of the book and of course Ursula K. Le Guin is very likeable. But it is still important despite sympathy to talk about the problematic parts. So My two cents.
Check out Salt by Adam Roberts. It's about a conflict between an Anarchist and a fascist society on a newly settled planet, with both being very well realised and some very interesting and problematic characters as your POV.
Speaking of Lewis's pedantry: 1. As his best, Lewis has a visionary and even beatific style that exemplifies his doctrine of sehnsucht. This is on display in Perelandra and the final chapters of the Voyage. But the flipside of this coin is that the style flattens when he leaves the silver sea and floating islands behind. In That Hideous Strength, there are moments, such as the entry to Brangdon Wood and the Descent of the Gods, when the old magic returns, but Lewis, unlike Eliot, lacks a knack for finding the sacred in the mundane. 2. There was, with Lewis, the ubiquitous risk of naked ideas streaking through the story. His first, semi-autobiographical, entry into the fantasy genre (Pilgrim’s Regress) suffers from this disproportion, as does the final installment of the Space Trilogy (That Hideous Strength). Although a literary failure, the Pilgrim’s Regress is useful as an exposition of his Platonic spirituality. It resurfaces in The Last Battle. But Platonism is the subterranean stream that runs under his mythopoetic art and outlook generally. 3. There are also times when Lewis cultivates an expectation on which he cannot deliver. In the climactic chapters of Perelandra, the elida treat the reader to the accumulated wisdom of the ages. The only problem is that Lewis is no angel, and must therefore feign a pompous, eonian profundity. Less would be more. But whatever its flaws, Perelandra is a work of creative imagination that sticks in the reader’s mind. 4. Like Bunyan, only worse, Lewis doesn’t trust the reader to draw the right conclusions. It may again be owing to his Platonism, with its primacy of the idea, that Lewis feels the need to turn the narrator into an editorial voice. Or maybe it’s carryover of his classroom lectures. Or maybe it’s just a lack of skill. But whatever the reason, this is an artistic flaw. A skillful narrator does not so much speak to the reader as speak through the character, and plot, and setting. Even this has to be handled with some delicacy, lest the character become a walking, talking treatise or dummy for the narrative ventriloquist. Such speeches must be "in character" with the character. In addition, the reader should not only hear what the character says, but see what he sees. In Dante, the main character describes the journey, like a tour guide. And, in Dante, the scenes are symbolic. These are all oblique ways of making a point without stepping outside the story, which destroys the illusion. 5. Lewis was in part an allegorist because this was a way of presenting the faith to those for whom the traditional coinage was worn smooth. Whatever the theological propriety of this exercise, its principle utility is to a culture in a transitional phase. But we are now at a terminal stage where the challenge is not so much with those for whom the Christian story is overly-familiar, but unfamiliar. What is mainly needed, therefore, is not an allegory of the faith, but straightforward evangelism and apologetics. 6. Although Lewis apparently believed in the basic biographical facts of Christ, including the miraculous stuff, yet his Platonic outlook is such that what seems to matter most are not the historical particulars, but the universal truths, and as long as a given story exemplifies these general and perennial themes, one story is pretty much as good as another- be it literal or allegorical, factual or fictitious. 7. This can be seen in his rejection of justification by faith for an essentially Greek Orthodox soteriology. Since theosis is a Neoplatonic construct, it dovetails with his philosophical bias. This can also be seen in his embrace of Purgatory. And this goes back to an old divide. Is the plight of man primarily moral or noetic? Is it owing to guilt or ignorance? Lewis sides with eastern philosophy and theology. In that case, salvation is a matter of revelation rather than redemption, of enlightenment and right ideas rather than a historic fall and redemptive deed. What matters is not a wrong righted, but a falsehood corrected; not the unique, unrepeatable, and vicarious event, but the universal, accessible and instantiable idea. 8. Still another aspect of Lewis’s platonism is his evident distaste for the sensual side of life. Sex doesn’t exist in a Lewis novel. Every birth is a virgin birth. This prim attitude is especially irritating when he puts the reader on a tropical island with a Botticellian beauty and then proceeds to admonish the reader against entertaining any untoward feelings. Of course, Perelandra was written before he met Joy Davidman, and one wonders if married life knocked some of the starch out of his collar. This marks a major step back from Dante and Racine. Dante, as an Italian male, and one, moreover, tutored in the troubadour tradition, handles women with exquisite tact, as does Racine-a Frenchman and heir of the chivalric ideal. This is something distinctive to the Christian vision of the sexes. You don’t get it in Gilgamesh or the Ramayana or Arabian literature or the Classics or Lady Murasaki. 9. In yet another Platonic turn, Lewis’ own sympathies seem closer to annihilationism than universalism, by pressing the privative theory of evil. However, the privative character of evil is ethical rather than metaphysical. Evil is the negation, not of being, but of well-being. And whatever the entailments of such a theory, our doctrine of the afterlife must take is cue from revelation rather than speculative metaphysics. Steve Hays
If we take “sensual” in the broader literary understanding of that term (“gratification of the senses for the sake of aesthetic pleasure”), I’d classify most of Lewis’s novels as being filled with sensuous details. As for sex specifically, That Hideous Strength is a very sexually charged book. It even ends with - SPOILERS - most of the surviving characters all having sex simultaneously as the goddess Venus descends onto earth. It’s Lewis at his most Charles Williamsy
It's a pity that the novel "Inne pieśni" by Jacek Dukaj has not been translated into English, I think you would like it. This is unusual science fiction, assuming that Aristotle was right in describing how the universe works and that science has begun to implement practical applications of his philosophy.
I know you like Sci fi and fantasy books, but I would be interested to see what do you think of Historical Fiction genre and if have read any interesting works. Im of a similar taste and I would be interested to hear of idea you may have on that.
I just finished Le Guin's Hannish Cycle and surprisingly my favorite (by a lot) was The Word for World is Forest. I had read Left Hand of Darkness decades ago and enjoyed it, but The Word for World is Forest grabbed me much more...it actually made me so angry!
Your comment about China Mieville’s bland book covers reflects a larger problem with the way today’s genre fiction is packaged and marketed. I guess publishers are afraid that pulpier cover art (or anything that screams “science fiction”) won’t sell, but I think they don’t understand the audience. I mean, look at how many SF BookTubers collect vintage books and rave about the cover art!
Loved your list! Is Le Guin the best science fiction writer of all time? If quality wins over quantity, I think she just might be. One can make a strong case for it with the two books you have in your top ten. BTW, I strongly recommend The Lathe of Heaven if you haven't read it yet.
Suggestion: place a picture of the book cover off to the side...leave the book cover picture on screen as long as you are talking about the book.
It's a great suggestion. I'm in on it.
Bookpilled
That was a great video, and I applaud your ability to go back, examine your previous choices, and make changes based on new perspectives gained from discussions with others. Very few people examine their own thought processes as intensely as you do. A lot of people don’t examine them at all. So I appreciate it seeing it happen.
One of my favorite game authors interacting with my one of my favorite philosophy/lit channels? Amazing! RUclips is an incredible place :)
P.S. Tim I still hold out hope that Arcanum 2 (or even an Arcanum remaster) will grace this world one day.
It’s nice of you to boost him up, but everyone does self-reflect and evolve to some extent. It’s just internal and often imperceptible to those around them.
Jared you went from doing a phd in philosophy to working in a tech company. Could you make a video on how you made this transistion. Like did you do any tech related stuff while doing your phd or was it like a completely new jump.
Would like to know how you made a transition from philosophy to tech. Would also help people who are considering of leaving academia after phd.
I second this
I have to thank you Jared for these videos. I have in the last 12 months picked up both Le Guin novels and Canticle after hearing you speak so highly of them. I myself loved them very deeply also. I read mostly classics but am now really enjoying dipping back into sci-fi every so often as a nice change of pace.
I've always felt that books read the reader. Listening to you and observing your all-time list gives me a feel, I believe, for your mind and worldview. Even though I don't feel there would be a lot of commonality with my own, hearing a video like this is still helpful in my selecting the books I will give the time to read.
Jared thanks for making this video . Your discussion points are excellent and I also agree with your reasoning as to why top ten lists can change over the years.
Would love hear more of your thoughts on your souring view on Three Body Problem. I read it several years ago, and while it definitely stuck with me, I too have found myself looking more negatively upon it. There are several reasons for this, from the misogyny (that is supposedly worse in the native text) to poorly written one-dimensional characters, and perhaps most importantly issues that I have begun to have with the entire concept of the "Dark Forest Hypothesis". I personally feel that Blindsight by Peter Watts far more effectively harnesses ideas of terror that may be lurking within the unknowns and indifference of our universe, a presentation of cosmic terror that holds beyond the alien species of this particular first contact novel. Where the unknowns of our universe could easily break down the assumptions and axioms of the dark forest hypothesis, the very fact of the unknown props up the core of Watts' Blindsight regardless of how that unknown actually manifests. I much prefer the terror induced by the cold indifference of our universe over the (far lesser) terror induced by the limit of logic that the human psyche has reached insisting that any sufficiently advanced civilization must become unwaveringly xenocidal or die.
Really liked ur take on Dune, I really like the first book on its own and also the dune messiah because of how ti kind of ties up Paul's strory a bit. thank you so much for making videos that make me want to read more instead of just doom scrolling on my phone all day :)
1) Since you have Dune on here I will endorse this list (even with the downplay of its greatness)
2) Planning to read Canticle this year
3) Thanks for this, I have added a handful to my TBR list!
I do agree with your list, especially retrieving C.S Lewis and the Three Body Problem
Great video as always, Jared. Our opinions and preferences aren't static and as we read more, we also evolve. Looking inward to find out what has changed and bringing in new book recommendations and new ideas is what makes us better readers and writers. Looking forward to this list in 2025.
Thank you for the updated list! I have read many of the books from your last lists, thanks to your recommendations, and loved many of them dearly. Blood Meridian changed my life.
Loved this! I agree with your thoughts about authors not trusting readers and valuing the human element in sci-fi. I'm now looking forward to reading The City & The City!
The Dispossessed was the book that got me back into reading. It took a long time to finish but I was always glad to get back into it, and the final half of the book kept me gripped and flying through so much I finally came out the other end a reader reborn.
For something as dense and complex as Anathem, you should consider making a chapter by chapter bookclub-esque series analyzing it, or even just praising it and mentioning your favorite parts and giving a different perspective in a lowkey fashion. Idk the chapter layout so maybe that's too much and it should be grouped by a few chapters at a time, but just an idea. A book club podcast REALLY helped my understanding and appreciation of Dune which is why I suggest such a thing. You could make it a paywall exclusive of some kind.
The way you describe The City & the City reminded me of the series Fringe.
The BBC actually did a TV adaptation of The City and The City.
Thank you for the reading inspiration. Great video as always.
Jared, thank you! So many new titles for me.
Les Robinsons du Cosmos (The Robinsons of the Cosmos) by
François Bordes is my number one: 'A piece of French land is ripped off from the Earth during a galactic collision and planted on an alien planet.'
I loved both Le Guin's books you mentioned, it is dry in a sense but indeed wants YOU to think and find the meaning.
An excellent video. Your channel is an invaluable gem on youtube and you are such an icon Jared. Thank you for this video. Keep up the good work!
A live story and Science Fiction thriller.
The Car Tribe Universe
Would be interested in hearing about what has changed your opinion of 3 Body in detail.
i dont even really consider cloud atlas as scifi so much as general fiction with speculative elements so when i saw you list the book it came completely out of left field for me and i just yelled "YES! YES!!" because it's possibly my favourite book of all time
I read The Dispossessed thanks to you and sunbeamsjess and fell in love with it! I adamantly considered myself not a sci-fi reader prior to it, but I’m so excited to explore the genre now :) thank you!
Definitely checking out The City and the City, Cloud Atlas, and the Dispossessed because of this video.
Happy to see some Miéville on here! The broken binding is doing a release of the bas lag trilogy with incredible covers, but aside from that you're completely correct about his covers lol.
Thank you for these lists! About two months ago, one of your (older) videos showed up in my feed (I hadn’t seen your content before that), and you were describing Anathem on a similar list. Your description influenced me to order it, and I was not disappointed.
After finishing Anathem, I realized I needed to come back and subscribe to your channel.
My only issue is that now that I’ve read Anathem, I fear I won’t be able to enjoy Stephenson’s other novels as much. From the descriptions of the others, I think I’ve started with the best one, at least for my interests.
Just ordered Cloud Atlas, again from your description. Looking forward to it.
I’m curious if you’ve read any Susanna Clarke, and what you think of her? I just Piranesi, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I’m debating whether Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is worth the commitment.
Ahh just saw another video where you mention Piranesi 👍
What a great list! All winners, not a mediocre book in sight.
Btw, if you liked "The City & The City," you might just love "The Other City" by Michal Ajvaz (original Checz title: Druhé město). Less crime, more mesmerising Eastern European parallel cities hallucinations.
I'll check it out
As a scientist myself I was so excited to know your taste in science fiction and if it is as awesome as yours in philosophy….and yeaaahhh it is…thanks that list would be very helpful to everyone ✅
Thanks for the vid...and I'm glad you used "my favorite" instead of "greatest" or "best". That would be like stating that sky blue or alizarin crimson is the "best color".
Thanks for sharing this video! C.S. Lewis' Perelandra, H.G. Wells Time Machine and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Jules Verne were what hooked me into sci fi when I was young. In the 80's to early 2000s I loved Ursula K. Le Guinn, Roger Zelazny, C.J. Cherryh's early foreigner series, Larry Niven, Gordon R. Dickson and the Star Trek Novels TNG Novels :) I'm looking to ignite my passion in sci fi again so your video is a good place to start :)
You got me to read A Canticle for Lebowitz this year! While I didn't always agree with the worldview or world-building of Miller, I could not deny that it was a an excellent work of sci fi, honestly one of the best sci fi books I've ever read. I almost think of it as anti-sci-fi. It even sort of reminded me of Blood Meridian and The Road - I feel pretty confident that Cormac McCarthy read this one at some point. It's also incredible how well it holds up after being so old. A totally unique and distinctive perspective.
I LOVE your lists, you can make as many as you wish, go ahead. 😊❤
Loved this list and, congrats, you've added to TBR Mountain :) I really must get LeGuin moved up the reading order.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on Jeff VanderMeer and Murakami. I would put them in that Mitchell/Mieville category of quasi-scifi literary fiction.
I'd like to recommend His Masters Voice by Stainslaw Lem. It is supposedly sci fi but it reads more like a philosophical memoir. I don't think it'll reach your top 10, but it definitely worth reading.
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So much respect, The Dispossessed is one of my most cherished books to read and re-read. I don't think it gets the praise it deserves.
Other fun fact. The structure of Use Of Weapons was suggested to Banks by his friend and fellow sci-fi author Ken MacLeod. That way the significance of the white chair would not have been a mid-novel shock reveal but a the opening blow of a devastating one-two punch right in the feels of the reader. He actually came up with the story and started writing it before the first two books, just couldn't compete it until he cracked that structure and how to fully exploit the twists and turns of the plot.
Ursula has become my favorite also. I loved both "The left hand of darkness" and "The Dispossessed".
Since you enjoy Le Guin so much I wanted to ask if you have read more of the new wave writers like PKD or JG Ballard.
Yes. I've read a lot of PKD, though I liked him more in high school than I do now. I also quite like Samuel Delany, who is another New Wave writer.
Fun fact China wrote The City and The City in honour of his mum, who wasn't into the type of genre stuff he likes to write but did love Detective fiction. His non fictional work is excellent too.
The Book of the New Sus is an absolute masterpiece. Gene Wolfe!
Thanks for doing these.
I'm curious about _The City and the City_ and put it on my reading list . It reminds me of Philip K. Dick's experience that he described in _Valis_ where ancient Rome was imposed on modern day California. The added mystery component is intriguing.
I like these reviews. Based on your last review of your 10 Favorite Science Fiction Books, I read _A Canticle for Liebowitz_ . I agree with your assessment in this video.
Adding Cloud Atlas and the City and the City to my TBR. They both sound wonderful. I agree about the TBP trilogy. I had loved it, but when I reread it, I thought it didn't really hold up. It was more a series of interesting ideas strung together. And it draaaaged. I still love Lewis's trilogy, but only because I came to the books young. You're absolutely right about his pedantry, though, and it's been a long time since I could read his Christian apologetics.
I figured Blindsight would be a shoe in for one of your favorites.
I am really really happy to hear that you got into Miéville. Very excited about what you think about his other novels :)
The city and the city kinda sounds like “Caves of Steel” by Issac Asimov
I totally agree with a TOP rank you gave to The Dispossessed, especially from a writers point of view, I think, this book is done very well and the harmony between form and content is adorable. I have one question I would really see your answer on: Why did you not include anything from Stanislaw Lem on your list? Although it may be hard to pick one book from him that stands out, his way of treating science fiction is philosophically interesting, full of subversive humor and very entertaining.
The Culture series is absolutely amazing. I find Consider Phlebas very underrated. I think it shows a different side of the culture series and a different style by Banks.
Even your advertising is interesting to listen! Love and respect!
Excellent video. I will check it out to start in sci fi thank you
I really love all dune's books... Mainly God Emperor
Thank you!! I think it can be too self reflective for those with a leftist revolutionary mindset or just being young and wanting to change the world.
I love the philosophy within and feel it just fits exactly to a post human demi God. I prefer to explore more Machiavellian or nihilistic characters within fiction.
I'm more inclined to believe technology and life extension with great cruel gods and stagnant culture
Some of my favorite sci fis are not on your list BUT,,,, I strongly agree with you on Le Guin's Deposessed.
I read a lot of Larry Niven as a kid and loved it. The Integral Trees was complete escape fiction, awesome setting in every sense of the word. Maybe not in my top ten, but it was fun.
Niven is terrible and extremely sexist in his books.
@kacpercichosz465 Yes he's gone off the deep end (check out his highly offensive views about organ harvesting). I don't recall sexism in his novels and short stories but it's been 40 years since I last read them.
@@RobertWF42 Ringworld was very sexist. I never read his other books, because I heard they are not much different.
@kacpercichosz465 Rereading the first few chapters of Ringworld - yea, the relationship between Teela and Louis Wu is sort of gross. She's 20 and he's 200 years old. :-( Her character is pretty naive, too (in part due to her supernatural luck I guess), which makes it even worse.
@@RobertWF42 There are two female characters. First Teela who is all the time being described as silly. Then later on you have Prill, who is literally sex worker and all what she does is TRYING to have sex with main character. So both female characters: silly, horny and only useful when they open their legs. Definition of sexism in my eyes.
thanks for the very informative and interesting video. Could you (or someone else reading here) mention the arguments that lead you to demote the three-body problem series from this list? Also, what do you think about the red rising series?
I keep telling myself I need to reread Cloud Atlas. At the time I first read it a decade ago I found myself agreeing with Le Guin’s review of Bone Clocks wherein she felt Mitchell’s writing is too self-conscious rather than freewheeling. I’m hoping that I can look past that and get immersed in his writing, because I’d really like to enjoy Mitchell the way other people do.
I love The Dispossessed and like you I rank it above Left Hand of Darkness. And I love it for many of the same reasons, most especially its honesty about its own themes, which is to say that Le Guin, unapologetic though she is about her anarchism and her critique of capitalism, doesn’t suggest an egalitarian society just happens and self-perpetuates. It’s a powerful story because it brings us to a crucial insight about the labor a society requires.
I need to get on a few of these, especially Canticle and Earthseed. Though I also need to reread New Sun so I can read Urth and then Long Sun. Well, now that the dissertation is ended perhaps I’ll have time…
Nice to find someone who loves Anathem as much as I do!
I hope you can answer my questions?
Why should I read many books if I always forget maybe more than 80% of what I have read?
Isn't reading articles is better? If so what are the best sites to read ?
Why should I read a certain book? What is the best books of all time and they are a must read in your opinion? Why I can finish whag I have started??
There's 3 in your 10 I haven't read (numbers 4, 3 and 2) , and the other 7 are some of my favourites too... guess i have my next 3 reads lined up - very happy I clicked on this :)
Do another classics video please!❤ Really enjoyed this.
Ouch to CS Lewis, but you're not wrong. I've been rereading some of his Christian work, and though it was like visiting an old friend, it felt dated and wanting for some freshening up.
Thanks for the update vid 🤗
Cloud Atlas is so good. I thank the international edition of The New York Times for putting that book in my radar. I love it so much, and I think it deserves a re-read, because I read that back in 2015 I believe. Also Bone Clocks from Mitchell, very good!
Agree about Perelandra. A lovely book.
The City & The City is incredible, glad to see it on here.
I loved Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, but could not deal with the faux-18th century writing of the Quicksilver books, which is done less absurdly than Pynchon in Mason & Dixon but still unconvincing and irritating. Will need to check out Anathem though, I've always been intrigued by some of his other works.
I love the Culture so much I legitimately have a hard choosing a favourite, there's 5 or 6 at any given time I could is my favourite SF novel. Need to do a re-read.
I liked the comment “sometimes science fiction writers can get too caught up in ideas and lose the human element”, and to me that applies to Anathem.
It felt as though Stevensen was constantly trying to show how widely learned he is in philosophy, science, etc.
It was fun, but when I think back the characters just kind of felt one dimensional. They discussed a lot of philosophical concepts sure, but it’s just not a book that changed my perspective on much or has stuck with me.
I feel like all the energy in Anathem went into making interesting in a “left-brain” intellectual way but didn’t have the soul some other novels do. It seemed like a book for people who want to analyze and think rather than feel.
Some books just linger in my consciousness and throughout life get invoked through various situations I find myself in. Anathem just hasn’t done that for me.
I find whenever people are singing the praises of Anathem it is always “look at how interesting this premise for a novel is!” “Look at how they discuss all these different intellectual concepts” but it’s rarely about the actual characters or about how it was truly formative.
Just my perspective
I agree - tried to get through Anathem but got stuck. If I want to read about philosophy or geometry I've got plenty of non-fiction options.
I don't need to learn about big ideas secondhand through fictional characters having discussions.
@@RobertWF42 yeah for me I did enjoy it and got through it very quickly, but just wasn’t a novel that had any lasting impact on me
Cloud Atlas is now on my wishlist.
im sure you've read the classics - The Machine Stops, Brave New World and 1984 - just to say they are on my 10.
others - one is also in yours "15 years haha", "its still not him" - gotta love the immortal wandering jew Ben Eleazer in Canticle for Leibowitz (which were originally many short stories publcished in Amazing Stories - and compiled into a book a few years later. and you are right, the third part is the lesser part, mainly because Father Zercky is a man of action but not a deep thinker - he shows this when he cannot understand how Mrs Grayles "hates God" at the end.
I always wondered what the character of Ben Eleazer represents - still not sure. I also would like to understand what the character Rachel represents (any insight into your views on this two characters I'd love to know about, I may gain wisdom from your insights into these characters). BTW the 1980 multipart RadioDrama is EXCELLENT!!!!! as good at the book (which is RARE i find with "remakes/adaptations of classic books).
Highly recommend the old RadioDrama "X-Minus One" sci from the 1950's - its a great radioshow, also the radio-readings/plays 1970's-80's series "Mindwebs" is excellent too - both are over on Internet Archive.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" - first 2/3 excellent, but last 1/3 terrible ;-/. (its like Hienland wrote most of it - then stopped - then wrote the last years later forgetting the first part! (not sure if that is what he did, but thats the feeling i got when i read it decades ago.
'Ender's Game" and "speaker for the dead" by Orson Card were excellent (met the guy once 20 yrs ago - kinda a rude dk - but those two works are excellent the man notwithstanding).
BIG TIME SLEEPER that no one has heard of would be "Night of Light' by Phillip Farmer famous for his "Riverworld" series, "Night of Light" is excellent and one of his earliest works.
and finally "Dying Inside" by Robert Silverburg is excellent - as is the late 90's BBC Radioplay of it.
2 cents.
Have you read the "Gap Cycle" series.
It can be a slog at times but it's such a unique, foreboding amd claustrophobic setting...the themes are challenging psychologically but it's an experience.
Some great books on this list. I love China Mieville's books, including The City and the City. I would enjoy hearing you speak about the Bas Lag books once you finish them. The Scar is one of my favourite fantasy novels.
If you haven't checked it out, I'd recommend reading Blindsight by Peter Watts. It has some great philosophical themes that were pretty eye-opening to me. With your background in philosophy, they may not be as revelatory to you, but I think you'd enjoy it nonetheless.
Thank you for the useful video. May I please request a video on 'Logical Paradoxes' when it is convenient?
I agree with you on the dune sequals. They have two problems. One is that they are following up one of the greatest novels ever, and two is that they cover the same themes that the original book did only not as good. Part of the problem is that the original was so dense with theme and meaning that i think herbert had truley put everything he had into it and how do you follow that up, without repeating yourself, unless your worldview changes?
I would like to read the Hainish Cycle and the Culture series, but I am a bit hesitant about which books to start with in each series. Which reading order do you recommend?
I forgot to mention my fav author below!!!!!!!! (how could I?)
Robert Sheckley!!!!
Short story author of the 60's - he combines Philosophy with the Absurd, and adds a boatload if insanely funny humor in all his stories. You will laugh out loud serval times when reading him, and he aways has some sort of social commentary in all his stories.
He is a forgotten name today, but had minor fame in this time. Douglas Adams used to read his stuff as a kid and admitted to pulling some of his ideas when he wrote Hickhicker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I rarely dnf books and consider phlebas I dnf'd. I decided the culture series wasn't for me but now I might give it another shot.
I recommend Hyperions Cantos actually a 4 book series by Dan Simmons. It is probably in my top 5 list.
Very good list. Have you read Hyperion?
Yes. It’s very good. I think the second book is much worse, but I loved the first one.
YESSSSS A CULTURE SHOUTOUT!!! Absolutely love the series
Culture is such a mixed bag for me that I don't know if I can really recommend it as a series. The run of Player of Games through Inversions is golden for the reasons that you said, but Consider Phlebas and the later books are the kind of rambling space operas I've never really liked, though occasionally there are some solid philosophical ideas thrown in. I've never gotten very far into any of his other novels either. I'd probably just recommend for people to read Player of Games and Use of Weapons tbh.
Found your channel. Many thanks! Already made a short list of what to read next. Well not read... I'm in to audio books, since 2022 (I have a 2:h30 commute every day, can´t read while driving.... so...welcome audio books) The short list will be heard after the Solaris. By he way... your thoughts about audio books?
I recently read The Dispossessed. The idea of depicting anarchy is intriguing, and Ursula K. Le Guin's intentions are admirable. However, I have some issues with the book.
--I don't think I am a fan of Shevek. The only thing going for him is that he is a brilliant physicist, and people either like him or not. Stuff just happens to him. He is super passive and gets dragged by circumstances or other people most of the time.
--Some decisions he makes regarding his family are incomprehensible to me. Why does he have to move to the other side of the planet if he could work everything out from where he is?
--There is a chapter where he steps over the line with a woman (in the present timeline). If someone grew up in a feminist, anarchist society, it is hard for me to believe that he would do this. Afterwards, he doesn't feel remorse, just shame that people saw him intoxicated.
--In general, he has scientific "breakthroughs" after "encounters" with the opposite gender.
--For an anarchist, he has a pretty condescending view of others. So yeah, Shevek wasn't my cup of tea. He is quite problematic, in my opinion.
--The two timelines and the looping of them is a nice idea, but the form doesn't correspond with the content. They are not interwoven. I don't gain a deeper insight by reading them in order. I can decouple them, and it would actually be a more coherent story. So, this all ends up being a little bit gimmicky.
--I really like the conversations-they are pretty strong. But there is no progression or character development for any of the characters.
--America-centric: Shevek visits A-Io (a representation of the USA and UK (West)). It's the only place where aliens land. Shevek has to learn A-Io's language. Other languages are not worth learning.
Saying this - I also can say that I like the idea of the book and of course Ursula K. Le Guin is very likeable. But it is still important despite sympathy to talk about the problematic parts.
So My two cents.
Check out Salt by Adam Roberts. It's about a conflict between an Anarchist and a fascist society on a newly settled planet, with both being very well realised and some very interesting and problematic characters as your POV.
@@kohhna Thank you for the recommendation.
Speaking of Lewis's pedantry:
1. As his best, Lewis has a visionary and even beatific style that exemplifies his doctrine of sehnsucht. This is on display in Perelandra and the final chapters of the Voyage. But the flipside of this coin is that the style flattens when he leaves the silver sea and floating islands behind. In That Hideous Strength, there are moments, such as the entry to Brangdon Wood and the Descent of the Gods, when the old magic returns, but Lewis, unlike Eliot, lacks a knack for finding the sacred in the mundane.
2. There was, with Lewis, the ubiquitous risk of naked ideas streaking through the story. His first, semi-autobiographical, entry into the fantasy genre (Pilgrim’s Regress) suffers from this disproportion, as does the final installment of the Space Trilogy (That Hideous Strength).
Although a literary failure, the Pilgrim’s Regress is useful as an exposition of his Platonic spirituality. It resurfaces in The Last Battle. But Platonism is the subterranean stream that runs under his mythopoetic art and outlook generally.
3. There are also times when Lewis cultivates an expectation on which he cannot deliver. In the climactic chapters of Perelandra, the elida treat the reader to the accumulated wisdom of the ages. The only problem is that Lewis is no angel, and must therefore feign a pompous, eonian profundity. Less would be more. But whatever its flaws, Perelandra is a work of creative imagination that sticks in the reader’s mind.
4. Like Bunyan, only worse, Lewis doesn’t trust the reader to draw the right conclusions. It may again be owing to his Platonism, with its primacy of the idea, that Lewis feels the need to turn the narrator into an editorial voice. Or maybe it’s carryover of his classroom lectures. Or maybe it’s just a lack of skill. But whatever the reason, this is an artistic flaw.
A skillful narrator does not so much speak to the reader as speak through the character, and plot, and setting. Even this has to be handled with some delicacy, lest the character become a walking, talking treatise or dummy for the narrative ventriloquist. Such speeches must be "in character" with the character. In addition, the reader should not only hear what the character says, but see what he sees. In Dante, the main character describes the journey, like a tour guide. And, in Dante, the scenes are symbolic. These are all oblique ways of making a point without stepping outside the story, which destroys the illusion.
5. Lewis was in part an allegorist because this was a way of presenting the faith to those for whom the traditional coinage was worn smooth. Whatever the theological propriety of this exercise, its principle utility is to a culture in a transitional phase. But we are now at a terminal stage where the challenge is not so much with those for whom the Christian story is overly-familiar, but unfamiliar. What is mainly needed, therefore, is not an allegory of the faith, but straightforward evangelism and apologetics.
6. Although Lewis apparently believed in the basic biographical facts of Christ, including the miraculous stuff, yet his Platonic outlook is such that what seems to matter most are not the historical particulars, but the universal truths, and as long as a given story exemplifies these general and perennial themes, one story is pretty much as good as another- be it literal or allegorical, factual or fictitious.
7. This can be seen in his rejection of justification by faith for an essentially Greek Orthodox soteriology. Since theosis is a Neoplatonic construct, it dovetails with his philosophical bias. This can also be seen in his embrace of Purgatory.
And this goes back to an old divide. Is the plight of man primarily moral or noetic? Is it owing to guilt or ignorance? Lewis sides with eastern philosophy and theology. In that case, salvation is a matter of revelation rather than redemption, of enlightenment and right ideas rather than a historic fall and redemptive deed. What matters is not a wrong righted, but a falsehood corrected; not the unique, unrepeatable, and vicarious event, but the universal, accessible and instantiable idea.
8. Still another aspect of Lewis’s platonism is his evident distaste for the sensual side of life. Sex doesn’t exist in a Lewis novel. Every birth is a virgin birth. This prim attitude is especially irritating when he puts the reader on a tropical island with a Botticellian beauty and then proceeds to admonish the reader against entertaining any untoward feelings. Of course, Perelandra was written before he met Joy Davidman, and one wonders if married life knocked some of the starch out of his collar.
This marks a major step back from Dante and Racine. Dante, as an Italian male, and one, moreover, tutored in the troubadour tradition, handles women with exquisite tact, as does Racine-a Frenchman and heir of the chivalric ideal. This is something distinctive to the Christian vision of the sexes. You don’t get it in Gilgamesh or the Ramayana or Arabian literature or the Classics or Lady Murasaki.
9. In yet another Platonic turn, Lewis’ own sympathies seem closer to annihilationism than universalism, by pressing the privative theory of evil. However, the privative character of evil is ethical rather than metaphysical. Evil is the negation, not of being, but of well-being. And whatever the entailments of such a theory, our doctrine of the afterlife must take is cue from revelation rather than speculative metaphysics.
Steve Hays
If we take “sensual” in the broader literary understanding of that term (“gratification of the senses for the sake of aesthetic pleasure”), I’d classify most of Lewis’s novels as being filled with sensuous details. As for sex specifically, That Hideous Strength is a very sexually charged book. It even ends with - SPOILERS - most of the surviving characters all having sex simultaneously as the goddess Venus descends onto earth. It’s Lewis at his most Charles Williamsy
I have exams next week, I did not study because of this man. He is guilty of recommending amazing books. (Said with a lot of admiration )
I really appreciate that Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun continues to hold a prominent place.
Great list. My favorite book is Book of the New Sun.
Macroscope by Piers Anthony since u like Le Guin, one of my favorite characters
Thanks for reminding me to order matcha.
The City and the City is my favourite Mieville so far. There are serveral Mieville novels I haven't read yet.
It's a pity that the novel "Inne pieśni" by Jacek Dukaj has not been translated into English, I think you would like it. This is unusual science fiction, assuming that Aristotle was right in describing how the universe works and that science has begun to implement practical applications of his philosophy.
So guess you haven't read Solaris yet?
It was in his top 7 philosophical science fiction novels, along with Dune, Cloud Atlas and Anathem. A little over a year ago.
@@kickpt8153 Thanks for info. I started watching him just lately so I didn't know.
You might enjoy 'Feersum Endjinn' by Banks. Not culture, but a reading challenge and great read nonetheless.
I know you like Sci fi and fantasy books, but I would be interested to see what do you think of Historical Fiction genre and if have read any interesting works. Im of a similar taste and I would be interested to hear of idea you may have on that.
You should definitely read Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer.
I just finished Le Guin's Hannish Cycle and surprisingly my favorite (by a lot) was The Word for World is Forest. I had read Left Hand of Darkness decades ago and enjoyed it, but The Word for World is Forest grabbed me much more...it actually made me so angry!
The Expanse is really one of the greatest Book you can read.
Your comment about China Mieville’s bland book covers reflects a larger problem with the way today’s genre fiction is packaged and marketed. I guess publishers are afraid that pulpier cover art (or anything that screams “science fiction”) won’t sell, but I think they don’t understand the audience. I mean, look at how many SF BookTubers collect vintage books and rave about the cover art!
Wow! The City and The City sounds crazy. Need to check that one out!
Loved your list! Is Le Guin the best science fiction writer of all time? If quality wins over quantity, I think she just might be. One can make a strong case for it with the two books you have in your top ten. BTW, I strongly recommend The Lathe of Heaven if you haven't read it yet.