I read a bunch of CS Friedman's books back in the 90s. Her Coldfire series is a great fantasy series but also has elements of horror and sci fi elements. Black Sun Rising is the first book. I have the Magistar Trilogy on audible but i haven't listened to it yet. (Thank you online sales).

You sold me on Denial, Souls in the Great Machine and This Alien Shore. Thank you for great recommendations!

Terra Ignota is an amazing series, but you don't really understand what's really going on until the end of book 2.

Great list Beautiful as ever!!!!❤

Already had Ball Lightening on my list from a prior video of yours. Added Wandering Earth! Have not read any Cixin Liu yet so very exciting!!

Interesting list. New books on my TBR.

Thanks for the recommandations!! just found the channel and i'll follow.

Thanks for the recommendation, Electric Forest was the perfect audio book complement to some of the practical projects I was working on this weekend! It was a bit relentless at my normal 1.35x, but what a gem! Thank you!

Great video Rachel. Thank you for always having some new Science fiction for me to read.

These are great recommendations, you totally got me on Denial, Souls in the Great Machine and I will definitely read anything from Cixin Liu. My tbr list just got longer...😄

As someone who’s up to date with wandering inn and reads the latest chapters as they come out… you are so in for a treat. I would say like 9/10 best moments come after volume 6, it just gets better and better !

I love Tanith Lee’s work, my copy of Electric Forest is published by Daw in 1979. Well worth seeking out more of her work in both Science Fiction, Fantasy and weird versions of reality.

Thanks for the recommendations, you have inspired me to want to read even more than I do already!

Great recs, there goes my current TBR 🚀

Just finished the third book of the Lady Astronauts series. Really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve got the Three Body Problem on my list next.

Enjoyed seeing/ hearing about these.

Thank you for the excellent recommendations! I added more tittles to muy TBR. 👍🏼 The Wandering Earth was an amazing collection ❤ but I was a little bit disappointed with his latest collection: Hold Up the Sky. It is good, don’t dismiss it, but maybe reading them back to back was not a good idea 😅. Have you read Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century? Not hard science fiction but very interesting and a little bit unsettling at times.

So glad you have read Sean McMullen. I would continue with the Greatwinter Trilogy and also explore his Moonworlds Saga. For good hidden gems you could be the first to review The Starbridge Chronicles by Paul Park. There is also a direct sequel to This Alien Shore.

Looking forward to getting hold of Ball Lightening and Wandering Earth

I look forward to hearing more thoughts on IQ84; I’ve read quite few Murakami books and he really has some fascinating ideas but also some real eye-rolling moments as well. Enjoyed these recommendations and added a few to my tbr list!

I’m going to order Too Like The Lightning and Electric Forest. And I’m with you on short stories. I’m always left wanting to know more. But i will recommend a novella to you. It’s called Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky and it’s only 144 pages but it is really good.

I really liked Ball Lightning! Liu just takes an idea that would've been a short story, but extrapolates by many more degrees than I would have expected.

recommended short story collections: Vermilion Sands - J. G. Ballard Driftglass - Samuel R. Delany Dying Earth - Jack Vance Four for Tomorrow - Roger Zelazny Dangerous Visions - ed. by Harlan Ellison E Pluribus Unicorn (or anything by) - Theodore Sturgeon The short story collection that got me into SF in the first place was The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.

I am pleased you are reading Pirateaba's The Wandering Inn. It is fantastic 👏

Tons of surprises. Thank you for the recommendations. You should read Monstrilio it’s a literary horror. Beautifully written. You will love it.

hello ms shades always enjoy your videos, your delivery increases my heart rate! I used to read lots of short story collections maybe 40 or so years ago but like you much prefer longer form these days but I have read Ball Lightning and Cixin Liu's trilogy so I am interested in picking up The Wandering Earth collection. I won't recommenrd a specific collection to you but I will recommend these masterpieces of short fiction, 5 of the best. Call me Joe by Poul Anderson A meeting with Medusa by Arthur C Clarke The Tunnel under the World by Frederick Pohl Imposter by Philip K Dick Poor Little Warrior by Brian W Aldiss

Great video! I plan on reading This Alien Shore but want may try their Coldfire Trilogy first. I'd like to try The Wandering Inn but am so intimidated by the length. I loved The Dark Forest and it is my favorite of the trilogy. I really enjoyed Wandering Earth and Ball Lighting as well. I'm looking forward to reading Electric Forest.

good list have made more than one attempt to read 1Q84 but still keeping it on my TBR roster⚛😀

Hi Rachel. I have This Alien Shore on my shelves, sounds like I need to bump it up on my TBR radar. I read Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota early 2023. I really loved the first one, but found the 2nd and 3rd were a bit of a slog. Payed off in the 4th, but I was relieved to finish it! I felt like a history dunce while reading it, the classical references went right over my head. I can't decide if it's worth my time to re-read it. Dark Forest was my favourite of the three too. I almost picked Wandering Earth for my May TBR but went with Yoon Ha Lee's short story collection instead, haven't got to it yet. Strong contender for book of the year to date is Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg from back in 1980. It's sorta science fiction, but also epic fantasy. Very strong writing and world building. The other two strong contenders so far are the first two Suneater books. I'm late to the party but very much enjoying it, right up my street. 👍👍

Great suggestions!👍👍👍 So, I am going with your sure recommendations this time like ball lightning, electric forest to my tbr📚 I am always looking for good space opera; Rachel, have you read the spiral wars or those left behind? They're on my tbr📚 for now.🤖🚀🐲

I finished Death’s End 3 weeks ago and nothing I have read since then has gripped me like it did so I’ve been chasing that high. I think you’ve inspired me to read Cixen Liu’s other work. Have you read any of Ken Liu’s short story collections? He was the translator for the 3 Body trilogy.

For short stories I recommend the newly released "Greatest Hits" by Harlan Ellison - famous for "I have no mouth and I must scream" for instance

I enjoyed Ball Lightning quite a bit. I loved the growth of the characters, mostly the main character as he explores the world as it opens to him. I’m looking forward to This Alien Shore.

Hi, a couple months ago I asked you whether you had read Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling. I choose what to read carefully as I've been quite busy lately. But I finally decided to go for it and finished it a few of days ago - and to put it shortly, I finnally understand why it's said to be an influential work for many younger authots like A.Reynold and his world. Sterling's collection is amazing and has earned its place right next to Gibson's books and I enjojyed it even more then the legendary Neuromancer. Definitely look it up to see if this genre is for you - it's great and so underhyped. Cheers!

Hi Rachel, -I have seen The Wandering Inn mentioned elsewhere, and I may have to bite the bullet and delve into that considerable rabbit hole (last I saw, there were over 65 books in the series…YIKES!) -I am very interested in checking out Denial. It is encouraging to see climate related fiction gaining popularity. That is a topic that is difficult to broach in an entertaining way that is also informative without being, as you pointed out, heavy-handed and judgmental. Another book I think was able to do so very well is Entheóphage by Drema Deòraich, and I am very interested in comparing the approach of Denial addressing climate issues to that book. -The Wandering Earth sounds very intriguing. Your description of the title work reminds me of The Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett (though it is NOT comedy) and Stephen Baxter. That definitely makes me want to check into the collection.

Souls in the Great Machine sounds like it might be up my alley!

1Q84 was glorious.

I’m almost done with 1Q84. I love it!

I think my favorite backlist read of the year so far is either Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, or The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis. Unless we're counting rereads, in which case Marooned in Realtime by Vernor VInge still edges out the top spot.

I like to read Cli Fi too even though it’s potentially the most terrifying reads… I’m glad you included the cli fi’s that you like in this list ❤

Ted Chiang's story collections are kind of unbelievable: Exhalation; and Stories of Your Life and Others. You might like Kij Johnson's collection: At the Mouth of the River of Bees. Any story collections by Neil Gaiman. And the new retrospective collection of Harlan Ellison's classic stories: Greatest Hits.

Just read one book this year: Cage of Souls, which is also Sci-fi, a slow start, but worth it.

Great video, you intrigued me with Denial but what was quite surprising was that when I went to Amazon to give it a closer look I found another book called: The Denial: A satirical novel of climate change by Ross Clark, set in the near future where a storm and tidal surge strikes London and seems to be from more of a political perspective - they both sound good and look almost like companion reads!

I want to read The Three Body Problem sometime this year particularly because The Dark Forest Looks so good. Just hope it’s not a slog to get through the first book. My favorite backlist sci fi book this year is Ender’s Game believe it or not. 😂

Will check out Denial, Wandering Inns, and Electric Forest, thanks for the suggestions. What do you think about people complaining about Remembrance of Earth's Past series not being character driven? Isn't the story more important, does it need to follow a certain formula if it is good without it? Or am I missing something?

Ooh, it's been a very long time since I read C. S. Friedman, but I think I'd recommend The Madness Season (dark SF, vampires, really alien aliens). I also really liked the first book of the Coldfire trilogy, Black Sun Rising (dark epic science fantasy), mainly because of the tension created by having what is essentially a lawful good paladin type needing to team up with a lawful evil vampire sorcerer. The second book suffers badly from middle book syndrome though.

I really enjoyed CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy. It's primarily fantasy, with some sci-fi elements, but it has very interesting characters.

Indeed the Wandering Earth short story collection is top notch Sci-fi stuff, comparable to Philip Dick's short stories. There are movie adaptations of Wandering Earth story as well, also pretty amazing in their own right.

I'm also not a big fan of short stories. But two great examples are "Tales from the White Hart" by Arthur C. Clarke, and "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury. Clark has a lot of great sci-fi ideas about inventions and irony. Bradbury's famous work is poignant and beautifully written.

I mirror the feelings on 1Q84. As I told my friend, it is one of my all time favorite books but find it really hard to recommend to anyone.

The Wandering Earth spawned 2 Chinese movies that have almost nothing to do with the story, but nice effects. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame volume one edited by Robert Silverberg is a classic collection. Or maybe you would prefer the new wave Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison (The Last Dangerous Visions comes out in October).

Woah!! Wandering earth?? Hmm ok i’ll bite. Also Im so thrilled u liked this alien shore!! Also yay for too like the lightning! i didnt know u liked it this much! Yay!! 😃 Souls in the great machine is intriguing… denial sounds like something I need to pickup as is ball lightning. I’m so scared to pickup 1Q84…. Booom!!! Love electric forest made it!! Yay!

As always, thank you for your recent list. My book club is currently reading Artemis by Andy Weir, and it's simply killing me. So bad. I have so much to say about it, I'm afraid I'm going to monopolize the entire meeting with my scathing review. I'm trying to think of something positive to say in order to bring balance to the Force, but alas.

Way backlist but I strongly recommend Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

Wandering inn sounds like an isekai.

Sci-fi with thriller- maybe so. I like thrillers.

I haven't heard of Denial and you've made me very curious about it! Another climate fiction novel you may like is Adrift by Brideau. Came out in 2023 and is really a suspense story (amnesia) that happens to take place in the near future so climate impacts are the setting for the story. I loved it - one of my fave reads of 2023. Not the typical dark, dystopian cli-fi (it's not sunshine and roses, but felt real).

Have you read the Wandering Earth graphic novels yet?

Ted Chiang is the best short story writer working in sci-fi right now. If you want to read more short fiction, that's where I recommend you go next! Both his collections are amazing

I just finished 2061 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Have you read 2001 and its sequels?

Denial seems interesting. Curious if it's more science or more opinion?

Book 1 of 1Q84 was a five star for me, but then the rest just dropped in quality. It's a series which could easily have been half the length and had much more impact. One of my biggest disappointments in books. The Three Body series is one of my all time favourites. You've convinced me to read his other books and Denial.

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Hello there hey there hey Hello hi hello hey there hello there hi

So sad none of this books are available in spanish... We have to settle for older books

1Q84 is the WORST book I've ever read omg. I cant stand it. I posted a rant review because I hate it so much. I dont understand what people see in that book 🙃 Yoo CS Friedman has a trilogy that i think starts with Feast of Souls. I read it like 10yrs ago and really enjoyed it. Its a great fantasy story. I gotta try that soul harvesting scifi book. Sounds great!

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