“There are characters in it who have character arcs” = “it’s full of relationship drama.” Incredible. You’ll love the book.

I read the Mars trilogy when they first came out and I adored them. There is some relationship stuff, but it makes sense as it’s 100 colonists in an intense situation and what happens after all feels very natural. Different characters have different loyalties and viewpoints. As time goes on, things get very tense for friends who find themselves tested in unexpected ways. I have not read the others on your list though I did enjoy the Silo tv series. Happy reading!

I binge read Wool, Dust & Shift in early 2022. I loved the first book and enjoyed the follow-ups enough to want to finish the series. The TV adaptation is excellent as it brings that world to life beautifully. One of the things I wanted when I was reading the books is a set of illustrations depicting the world they lived it. It was thrilling to see it on the screen. Enjoy your 2024 reads!

Daemon was one of my favorite SF books - not the least because Suarez KNOWS his tech. He doesn't just tell you a character hacking into someone's wifi network... he'll tell you the commands that were typed on the keyboard. Silo series was great too, and the TV series does a great job of expressing the feel of the books.

The Silo series, as a whole, is incredible. Hugh Howey is a very talented writer. I was blown away. I think you’ll love it.

The Mars Trilogy remains to this day my favourite set of books ever. I adore them. I'm into the 3rd SIlo book as we speak, have really enjoyed these too. The Wayfarer books look fun, I'd love to give those a go.

I loved season 1 of Silo so I got the Wool book series and plan on reading that in 2024. Highly recommend the show! Currently doing the Hyperion read along with Media Death Cult so it’ll be a few months before I get to them.

Daemon ist really cool, fast paced Technothriller. Daniel Suarez seems to be Very underrated

The Deathstalker Series is one of my All-Time Favorite sci-fi series! I’ve read the entire series three times through the years and the first three books four times!

I’ve been curious about the Red Mars series as well! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on that one all the other ones you mentioned here. 😊

The Mars series is so vivid in its descriptions of Mars that when the Rover started sending images back I kept thinking, "that doesn't look quite right, and where's the polar ice?" 🤣 There's relationship stuff yes, but it's more about psychology than romance. There's also lots of politics throughout, which is one of the things I love the most about SF. The second and third book goes harder on the science, to the point where you have whole chapters dedicated to the seeding and growth of moss and altering gene structures (or at least that's what it seemed like to me). I found them a bit slow going at times, but it's a series that has really stuck with me. I've read the two first books in the Wayfarer series, and they are very charming. I keep intending to read the last two, but they haven't been a priority. It's like a more diverse version of Firefly/Serenity. Which I enjoy, so I don't know why I haven't gotten around to the rest of the books yet. I keep meaning to read Wool too. 😆

Your enthusiasm is infectious, and I’m looking forward to hearing what your experience was with each of these.

Awesome list! I own the Silo Series, so I may join you for the read-along!

I just wanted to say you have quickly become one of my favorite booktubers. Keep up the good work! The Mars trilogy is on my reading list for 2024. Looking forward to starting it. I have quite a few other books I want to read first, and I am considering starting/reading some of the Culture series by Banks before this so it will likely be summer 2024. Can’t wait to see your review for Red Mars, it might influence how soon I read it! Reading order is not etched in stone.

Definitely making it a goal to add more Sci-Fi to my 2024 lineup. Thanks for some great suggestions. Maybe I can catch up with you on the Deathstalker series and follow along. That series sounds really interesting plus love some older titles. - Cheers!

Yay!! We have a shockingly similar list. I am also going to be reading Daemon and Mars trilogy too-- mostly to find out what my opinion is on the series as well. I read Deathstalker (through book 3) on your recommendation, and really enjoyed it. I thought book 2 got better if that's possible. I'm excited for you to get there. I will be interested in seeing what you think about the Wayfarer series. I was one who enjoyed second book. Book 3&4 of that series don't follow same characters which was very disappointing for me. You should also know that Wool is a FIX UP novel, i think knowing that will help.

I really enjoyed Daemon, it has some really cool ideas and is great fun.

Good list - I read Daemon quite a long time ago, and I recall it was pretty software techy, which i liked, but didn't feel it was entirely realistic. I've added it to my list for a reread. I enjoyed the Angry Planet book, but wasn't sure if i wanted to read the subsequent ones. There were some interesting creatures and cultures - i liked those, but your characterization of it was spot-on. Pretty fluffy and a really fast read. I enjoyed it but it wasn't one of those where i put it down and sighed, thinking about all the deep thoughts it brought out. And Wool is pretty good - i got the first two self published "books" and the time period they covered was roughly the first two episodes of the TV series. I saw Wool in a bookstore recently and just opened it up, and it covered some events beyond season 1, so yeah, it's moved beyond self-published status. The series is really true to the environment I had imagined while reading the book, and what i love is the moral ambiguity - who are the bad guys? Are the people in charge really looking out for everybody's best interests? You think "no it's a scam!" then "hmm," very riveting. I never got far enough in the books to discover all that, though. Not sure I'll pick it up as my TBR list is longer than my arm. Red PLanet sounds cool - will have to add that to my list.

Wool is awesome and a very quick read. Shift was really good too. For some reason never got around finishing the series, but I think you will defo enjoy the first two.

I really enjoyed the Silo series. I definitely want to read the Wayfarers series in 2024. I really like Becky Chambers novellas and would like to see how she handles a book series. Two years ago, I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry, Planet, which was good, but didn't continue the series at that time. The Mars trilogy is also intriguing, but further down my TBR.

I enjoy your videos because it gets me to venture off my Asimov, Clark and Herbert reading and try something different.

I read the first book in the Silo series and really enjoyed it. Fabulous world building in an extremely confined space. I believe book 2 jumps back in time to pre-silo days and maybe explains what happened. I might get to it next year. I haven’t heard anyone talk about Dearhstalker. Sounds fun.

Hi Jonathan. When I was a bookseller my customers enjoyed the first Hugh Howey more than the follow up novels. I tried the Mars novels by Robinson some time ago, but they didn't connect with me for reasons I no longer remember. I had a co-worker who enjoyed his work very much. He especially loved a later work, 2312. Happy reading.

First started Wool when it was serialized on Amazon, then read the first book. The show on Apple is one of the few instances where I enjoyed the show more than the book. But I don't feel so bad knowing that Howey is involved in the show.

The Mars trilogy starts hard sci-fi, but then it mellows. The interesting parts are 1992 science, too, which is... suboptimal. I know that I liked it, but I also found it hard to swallow.

Red mars is a lot of geology plus politics and economics and yes, the framing story is a relationship drama. So a typical Kim Stanley Robinson book and I love it. Wayfarer is very much not hard sci-fi, and reminds me of a hyper active Start Trek TNG.

Great list. Daemon and Freedom are great books. I read Wool a long time ago, but never finished. I have been enjoying the TV series. I will have to check out the other books.

The silo trilogy was really good, I could not put the books down for the life of me. Loved all three, I don't get those that slam shift and dust. Brilliant stuff if you ask me. The tv series was... ok.

I hope you enjoy all the series you have plans to read. I tried Red Mars but didn't continue the series. I'm planning on reading the Deathstalker series next year and finishing the Silo series. I really enjoyed Wool and thought the tv series was great. I also want to try the Wayfarer series at some point.

I read the first 2 Wool books when they were still self published. I reread Wool just before Silo aired then read the next 2 after watching. Wool is the best, though I enjoyed all of them. I also very much enjoyed the TV series and am looking forward to Season 2. I understand Hugh Howey was somehow involved in the writing for Silo. There are some departures from the book, but I didn’t mind them. It was almost as if he’d had time to rethink some parts and also incorporate ideas from other writers. The same basic story just told from some different perspectives. Plus allowances for the change in story medium.

Well first of all BIG recommendation for Deathstalker saga. If you're planning reading the whole saga, it's gonna take a while, so I would pump it in the reading order just after The Mars trilogy which is also an exceptional series, but it has already gotten plenty of praises here, so I'll direct my praises for the Deathstalker. In Deathstalker I especially enjoyed all the different perspectives to the story and how ''scifi things'' tend to get bit out of hand sometimes. But it worked, so who cares! Maybe it's not for everyone because of this, but I love space opera mostly because of the extremes and wild ideas. Deathstalker delivers this extremely well to you. First I thought that all the politics that was forced on me was boring and just wanted to get back with Owen, but quite quickly I got fully pulled in the story and to the world of Owen Deathstalker and even the politics got interesting. There are some little inconsistencies, but don't let them bother you. Any ways, I don't know many series that are this long and wouldn't have any inconsistencies. Best just to hang your brain on the rack and enjoy some great space opera. And I mean anyone who has ever dated a red head knows that the constancy left the building when they walked in. Once described the series to a friend as ''Game of Thrones of space opera''. The story moves on many levels, the aristocracy, the sword fights, the empire and the politics. Game of Thrones is basically a medieval story with some fantasy elements, and Deathstalker is a scifi story with some fantasy and medieval/Roman time elements. Then to my other mention on this video: I can and can't recommend The Quantum Thieve by Hannu Rajaniemi. The actual book is amazing if you enjoy hard scifi. The reason why I wouldn't recommend it is that as a Finn I have bit mixed feelings about a Finnish author who writes in English. 😅 And this is even though I read most of my books in English, but that's primarily because not many scifi books get translated to Finnish and on the rare occasion they do, I have no patience to wait for it to happen. 😂

I have the KSR Mars trilogy. I've been putting it off for no reason that I can think of. Maybe I'll read it with you. I read Wool some time ago. It was fine, but I felt like it really dragged. I didn't know there were more books and I don't really want to continue. I've already mentioned my life of Deathstalker. It's so over the top and fun.

Love the mars trilogy. Every character is compelling; Sax Russell is a top character for me. Big scientific and sociological ideas explored here. A+

The Mars series is The Martian if written by a Steinbeck fan.

I read Wool and really liked it. It is an easy read. The TV show is very good too. I haven't read any of the other books but am planning to read Red Mars and the sequels to Wool soon.

The Mars Trillogogy is still on my TBR. But I'm really not into relationship drama lol

Hello Jonathan, I loved the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson so much I then read more KSR such as the Wild shore Series which I also enjoyed but the Mars series is better. The Becky Chambers series is very good, not as hard as KSR but fun and I really liked the opener.

I generally read hard sci-fi. That being said, I really enjoyed KSR's Mars Trilogy although there is more time spent on character development and the interpersonal relationships tend to drive the plot in areas... But, that's what happens IRL. 🤷‍♀️

I really want to read the Mars trilogy. I read 2312 by the same author and although it is not one of his most liked books, I super enjoyed it.

I got Red Mars for Christmas some years back. I put it down because 'relationship drama'. I might revisit though. Daemon has sat on the shelf for a while, but I've read his novel 'Change Agent' which was fun. Very fast paced. Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is very cosy...but I loved it. I'm not sure I've had picked it up if I knew it was cosy, but it worked for me. Not read the followups yet. Also debating the Silo series - very mixed reviews from friends.

I recently finished Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. I would say that if you take all the Hugo and Nebula winners and rank just them, these books would be at or near the top. In no way are these books relationship drama; it would be like calling Neuromancer "crime fiction".

Daemon is amazing! But the first one is much better, while the second comes with some very interesting ideas, but harder to believe.

I read Wool this year after watching the first season of Silo and really enjoyed it so I am looking forward to reading Shift next.I also read my second Becky Chambers this year and was heartbroken to find out that maybe cozy SF is not for me… I absolutely adored To be Taught If Fortunate and was hoping to get into The Wayfarers series but maybe I will have to try again with the second book in the series later. I cannot wait to read a Kim Stanley Robinson in 2024 but I’m not sure if I should start with a nonfiction or a novel/series. Any suggestions? I am relatively new to hard SF.

I tried reading “The Mars Trilogy” a good quarter century ago. My mother gave me the books in actual fact. I don’t recall anymore how far I got - definitely RM, maybe GM, but not BM. “…Angry Planet” was waaaaaaaayyy too cosy for me and I stopped reading “Wayfarers” at that book I am afraid to report. Now, I loved “Wool” (surprise!) and rated the trilogy 5/4/4⭐️ when I read them during 2015 - well, December 2014 through February 2015 to be precise - a trilogy binge! I have just the other day activated an 🍎📺 subscription for a month, so I can catch up on “For All Mankind”, “Foundation” and … you guessed it… “Silo”! 🥳 One or two books in that “Deathstalker” series I see 😳

Mars books are nice, delicious hard sci-fi with a smattering of relationship drama - really, that may be more in the first book and not the rest of the series. Daemon is more thriller than cyberpunk - but still a fun read.

0-2 on finishing Red Mars, much less Green and Blue. Wool is very good. Shift and Dust were a bit of a slog but I made it.

From my friend groups, I see more praise for the Mars trilogy than not. The complaints I see are more regarding the hard sci-fi content or how "dry" it can come across at times, rather than drama or anything like that. But knowing that hard sci-fi stuff doesn't bother you, and that a little bit of dryness occasionally also doesn't bother you, I would be surprised to see you dislike the Mars trilogy based on what I've heard about it. I have it in my sights to try someday as well.

Red Mars is the only one of these I've read. I would characterise it as "hard" sci-fi with deep political and social themes. I was really excited by it, and I'll read along with the sequels! Red Mars made me entirely reconsider the ethics of planetary colonisation. 'Nuff said!

The thing about the Mars books is that if you ask the people who love it to list the reasons they love it. And then ask the people who hate it to list the reasons they hate it you’ll end up with the same list 😂 I’m in the first category fwiw

Silo TV series covers only half of Wool, and does it well.

Awesome list Jonathan! I’ve been curious about the Silo series. I hear good things.

The Long Way to a Small, was not too bad, but not hard enough to be a pick me up book.

I read the mars trilogy many yrs ago when it first appeared in paperback and liked it enough to slog through the whole thing yes there is a lot of relationship and politics stuff in it which I enjoyed even though wouldn't exactly call myself a "people person" as they say in the US but there's also some hard tech like space elevators and mirrors, min-nuke reactors and a lot of details on terraforming my main problem with the story now is I've become much more skeptical about things like terraforming and question if mars could ever be turned into a earth-like planet as the book describes as for daemon did pick it up but never read it so afraid can't help you there!⚛😀

I would like to also get to Wool in 2024.

The only series here I can comment on since I've read it was Wayfarers by Chambers. I was not a fan of it and not sure why so highly recommended.

I'm in a the relationship drama camp 😅

I'm interested in the Mars trilogy- I may join you! Becky Chambers is a no for me- I feel like they'll be too soft. Like Legends & Lattes, which I thought was OK- but it just doesn't grab me when there's such low risk. I've read the Silo trilogy and loved it. Yes, the first book, Wool, is excellent! And 2 & 3 are very good as well- just not as good as Wool (in my opinion). I've watched the TV show and enjoyed it! Rebecca Ferguson is a badass! She's awesome. There were some minor changes made to the plot and atmosphere- but they didn't bother me- and many were, in my opinion, slight improvements on the book. I also listened to the audio versions of the Silo trilogy (narrated by Ballerini) as a 'reread' before watching the show- and they were good too.

Might slip in some sci fi next year with the Gap Cycle, more Gibsom Sprawl and Anubis Gates.

Have you read the reality dysfunction?

I saw the TV series silo lots of mystery tention of what is going on in this world don't think I can afford to buy the book since I have already seen the show

Silo was OK. YA stuff. The TV series is good, too, but I feel that it tries to make it more serious and believable, thus failing to be both faithful and impactful.

The Road is so dismal. It's gripping, intense, horrifying and sad. I found the end to be a bit contrived and unsatisfying but the alternative would have made the story even darker...

The Mars trilogy is half great hard sci-fi and half annoying relationship drama and who slept with whom. Overall not too bad.

I think I'll read the Mars trilogy in 2026.

First? First!

I think it’s pronounced “dee-muhn” and not “day-muhn.” It’s an alternative spelling of “demon” and means computer program running in the background.

The silo tv series is ASS