good because I have no sound and he timestamped in cream color over a cream t shirt so they are 90% invisible

​@@ossian1977 he's got CC. And it's in a black band, so it's readable.

¿No Ursula K. Le Guin? It is one of the first writers to come to mind when thinking about philosophy and sci-fi. She has so many different ideas and concepts merge in her writing.

I just saw your previous video and then my comment is now irrelevant.

@@Larckov admiring LeGuin is never irrelevant.

Absolutely! You can really feel the influence of Anthropology in her writing in the best possible way.

Yes, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, and any of several short stories or novellas, particularly those set within her Hainish Cycle.

LeGuin was mentioned in his previous video!

Ooh, The Dispossessed, yes, yes!

@@fordhouse8b Definitely both of these! They had a strong influence on me and got me thinking about the structure of our society.

yes!

Monday begins on Saturday... xD too hard

„Hard to be a god“ also worth mentioning

One of the best sci-fi novels out there . The word underrated is overused. But Roadside picknick is truly a underrated novel.

Hi mate!! I have found "Roadside Picnic" and "Stalker: Roadside Picnic"... Which do you recomend??

This one is so beautiful. I actually cried at the end. One of the best books ever.

My absolute favorite book

Must read by everyone in modern society, sad to see how underrated it is, way more relevant than 1984 nowadays

That's because he was a Fabian socialist who helped plan our current technocracy as did his brother Julian who coined the word transhumanism and promoted it in UNESCO.

Stephen, same age as you. Have tried Canticle several times. Haven’t gotten far. Not usually a SF reader but will give it another go after seeing your comment. Thanks!

I read it forty years ago,

I also read Canticle... about 50 years ago when I was in my 20's. It was not an easy read, but haunting. I will read it again.

In 1974 read it in an AP class called "Utopian Novel." Had a big impact on me. Others in that class included 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World.

@@delavan9141 Those are the best. I also read those.

Solaris is also just one of a list of Lem's critiques of alien contact stories, which he sees as Cowboys and Indians in Space. Fiasco, Eden and His Master's Voice are more examples of how you could tell an alien contact story that doesn't mimic human history. The most philosophical is His Master's voice. Imagine SETI detecting a highly complex clearly interpretable signal from an untraceable source in space. Lem comes up with an amazing set of questions about what that could mean. Little green men is low on the list. Another very philosophical book is Thus Spake GOLEM.

@@bernardfinucane2061 I argue that you can add The Invincible to that list.

@@AndDiracisHisProphet Never heard of it! I'll check it out.

@@bernardfinucane2061 it is not exactly about an alien CIVILIZATION, but on concepts of life in general. also it is really creepy :) I also agree with you about Thus Spoek GOLEM. One of my favourite books, period. Although not really a novel, more an essay I haven't read Eden, though.

Have you seen the 1972 film?

I have read a lot of Stephenson, and Anathem is by far my favorite. It should be more well known, but gets overshadowed by some of his other works. All of the other books on this list are great, too, but Anathem might be my personal fav.

yea, that's a good one. reminded me of The Glass Bead Game and Candide.

Anathem is one of my favourites! I was not expecting the journey I was taken on!

I’ve read 3 of his books but not this one. The other the endings were… not great. Great storytelling but can’t finish a book. The Stephen King of SciFi. Does this one have a decent ending?

@@BrandtHambrick That's so interesting! This was my first book from him, haven't read others yet. I actually really liked the ending of Anathem, I highlighted and have revisited some of the closing dialogue because it felt close and resonant to me.

Read it in my youth when I was greedily gobbling up SciFi. Got to revisit it.

a great book. but was it science fiction? maybe speculative fiction. the only science was the bombs that wrecked everything.

I read "Canticle" too many decades ago. I remember liking it a lot. That it was about monks. Sort of. Really can't help much. I am pretty sure it would be in my top 100 novels, and I've read a few hundred novels over the years.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is my favorite book! I’ve read it six or seven times. I plan to reread it this Spring. A great book!

Just me putting it out there but I can see two reasons why people might not be interested. I'm old and a Brit so this might not apply to younger readers elsewhere. I was interested in science, science fiction and to a lesser extent fantasy from a young age. It became clear to me as I grew up that C.P. Snow's "Two Cultures" still held sway. 'Real' people were supposed to be interested in the arts and humanities: only emotionally-stunted nerds who'll never get boy/girlfriends are interested in science and science fiction. I've taught both maths and science in my second career until retirement and I still meet those who proudly say "I don't do maths" when confronted with anything beyond arithmetic. Same with scientific concepts. Because it's science fiction is enough to drive half the people away. For the rest, I think the popularity of C.S. Lewis's Narnia series (and perhaps 'Out of the Silent Planet' which was on our reading list when I was at school) may be responsible. Great fantasy, sure but there's a lot of Christianity pushing as well. Knowing only that Canticle for Leibowitz is about monks keeping knowledge alive is enough to cause many adults to consequently expect they will be in for a dose of heavy Christian propaganda, especially as it is set post-nuclear apocalypse (See, those wicked atheist scientists are going to destroy civilization.) It is a shame as the novel is a much more subtle reflection on the interplay of science, morality and religion than that.

Agreed ! I just read notes from the underground because jared is such a big fan of dostoevsky but I haven’t been able to borrow crime and punishment from the library yet

I think if your 8 or 10 year old child wanted to read something that inspired his/her creativity, you could suggest the Narnia Chronicles, and just not mention the religious symbolism. Kid wouldn't be hurt by all that reading. I've read only a small handful of fantasy novels, don't really care for the genre, but CS Lewis really knocks it out of the park. Good stuff.

I had a very different experience. I read Out of the Silent Planet while still at school not long after I had rejected Christianity. I liked it and even wrote a book review on it for my English O-level. The fantasy world-building , the mixing of (very limited) science fiction with mediaeval and mythological astrology and Christianity worked well for me. I didn't like the caricature of the atheist materialist scientist Weston very much (I didn't know at the time it was meant as a parody of H.G. Wells) but I could ignore that. I read Perelandra a year or so(?) later and again, the fantasy was very good. His fantasy Mars, cool and subdued in pastel blues, his fantasy Venus all warmth, abundant with life in pinks and vital reds - great! Unfortunately, the religion became more heavy-handed. Weston was transformed into a clawed demon and a literal mouthpiece for Satan making convoluted, dishonest, theological arguments: Ransome, the protagonist had to fight with his bare hands. I finished the novel and planned to read the final volume, That Hideous Strength but on taking it off the public library shelves and reading the blurb, I decided against it. As far as I remember, being set on Earth back in Oxford University the plot was some evil conspiracy by a cabal of atheistic scientists (no doubt bent on some materialistic wickedness), lead by the ubiquitous Weston which was only going to be defeated by the reappearance of Merlin from the Arthurian Romances and no doubt other mediaeval fantasy and Christian forces of good. I just decided not to bother. The thing is, H.G. Wells was a socialist and gave a lot of thought to the moral implications of scientific progress. The Invisible Man explores the same ground as Frankenstein, asking the question "Just because you can do something, should you try and do it." The Time Machine addresses the dehumanizing consequences of an extreme mechanized society also pushing social stratification to its extremes and The War of the Worlds explores what would happen if a technologically superior civilisation did to us was Europeans had done the the native Tasmanians. Of course, this cuts no ice with C.S. Lewis because H.G. Wells had rejected Christianity.

yes!

Don't forget Vonnegut's fantastic, off the wall, sense of humour.

Lost count of how many times I've read that book.

What a fantastic book.

I think Mary Shelley destroyed her manuscript and then rewrote it? (She wrote very fast.)

I absolutely agree with your comment. In fact I was thumbing through it just yesterday and thinking about giving it a read again. It will be my third time, but has been a few decades since I last did. This time will be more interesting knowing what I know now all these years later.

@@bill_jennings yes it's definitely worth a reread. It's a whole different experience. You'll enjoy the book even more.

I'm reading it through Frankenstein Weekly's email list and I'm loving it

i want to say "nice to finally see some dick" but i know what happens when i say things.

I agree with your entire list -- especially delighted to see Childhood's End at the top! Thank you.

The only one I've read so far is Brave New World. I really want to read Clockwork Orange but I fear it may be too intense for me

I can't speak for the print form but Brave New World did not translate well to audio book. The flood of information with no distinction when changing perspective was maddening.

A great list, but only English-speaking authors, no? So I'd really recommend Lem to reach outside of the bubble : )

Stapeldon was a philosopher, but a lot of people find him dry and hard to read as a fiction writer

I guess I'm in the minority. I found his prose to be exceptionally beautiful and expressive.

@@McampanellaWork That's true, he's not a remarkable stylist. He is however the single most imaginative writer I've encountered, as well being one of the most prescient. Last And First Men is indeed a hard read, long and densely packed, and as you say, his style takes some getting into. I'd recommend Odd John or Sirius to start with him, they're more typically "stories". He also provided a number of impressive tropes for modern science fiction writers, particularly Bruce Sterling.

Thanks for the recommendation - I'll check him out. Have you read the Three Body Problem Series?

@@darkestafrica3 i have not but I've heard good things. I'm in the process of learning Mandarin so I hope to read it in the original language someday.

It's not an easy read, but the presented ideas and the overall mood is something really uniqe. I read it years ago and I still remember the questions raised there.

love Banks, trust in Banks. the Hydrogen Sonata asks the tricky question, what if an alien race dropped a Bible that actually gave scientific answers? Banks is like Dr. Suisse in Grimms fairy tales with ultra technology. he inverts the Trekkie prime directive on it's sharp edge into heavy messing into alien civilizations with ultra subtle means. i loved the way he gave more clues to the Excession in the Hydrogen Sonata.

Star maker is by turns beautiful and terrifying, a true achievement

Agree totally. Read it twice in a row and it was even better the 2nd time. I also recommend his novel The Diamond Age.

I'm about halfway through The Fall of Hyperion and I can't help but agree with you. Also I really like Stephen Baxter's "Ring". It's more hard Science Fiction, but definitely has some great philosophical elements.

The Hyperion Cantos and The Baroque Cycle are so good they have spoiled me to the extent I struggle to find anything comparable

The Baroque Cycle series is my #1 fiction that was written in my lifetime. I'm still hoping that someone will make it into a decade long series.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/opd8aLekmsm3o58.html

Dang, I tried and couldn't keep going. I kept getting confused.

Its mainly hated for political reasons.

This is my all-time favorite sci-fi book (and I read a lot of sci-fi)! I also strongly recommend Gene Wolfe’s “The Fifth Head of Cerberus”.

@@thomshrikeI’ve yet to read gene wolfe. I have a few of his books on my shelf that I picked up from a charity shop. Most people I talk to about him tell me to read them asap!

Care to reveal how the idea of a first contact gets challenged? That would be much appreciated It's one of my favorite subjects (and I'm on the sceptical side, firmly in Lem's camp when it comes to contact :) ) I know I could just google it out, but I don't want to run into some major spoilers.

Please tell me that you are not serious. You are joking right? His dead, ex gf, who has never been on this planet. And so must, HAS TO be a manifestation of the planet itself. And he tries to kill it. This is a mature response...

@OmnivorousDeb I was definitely being sarcastic on the 2nd part. I did find it mature that instead of saying, " oh no a ghost," he calmly tests himself and then tests her... he will of course deal with the conflict he feels later on relative to shooting her off on the rocket...

Love banks. Quite a few of my "morals" are from the books. He put into words what I always felt. Gender, identity, humanity without baggage. Death and ritual. Afterlife. We may not exist in the universe that he presented but I hope we do.

Embassytown 💜

I would concur - decidedly a big picture guy