SFF Reading Tips for Beginners | #BooktubeSFF Babbles | 2018

It's Babbles time again and this week's topic is SFF Reading Tips for Beginners. Feel free to leave your suggestions below too!
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Intro & Outro music written by M. Gray, performed by K. & M. Gray

[Paige_Y]

Great tips! Another tip that helped me in the beginning was to go for slightly dialogue heavier books as opposed to prose heavy. It really helped to improve my reading endurance until I was comfortable enough to tackle the longer epics.

[davidhook]

These tipps are perfect. I think I would have to think a lot to give beginners tipps on SFF because that's always been the genre I've read with happiness, ever since I was a child. So I can't really think of a period in which I considered myself a beginner...
So, Kudos, hope this brings more people to the SFF family

[ReadandFindOut]

I talked about Sanderson too! I recommended Mistborn in particular as well, though I mentioned Elantris would also work. I agree about needing to be willing to put it down if you don't like it. In my video I talked about subgenres, and you could definitely be reading from a subgenre that just doesn't work for you.

[cinder]

As always, great video! The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Riyria Revelations are my go to recommendations as well. Those books are so easy to fall in love with.

[callmeabookworm]

Thank you Kitty for yet another top video!! Love your work ;-) Kind Regards, Emma

[Zoe-xthp]

For me, 2019 is the year I really want to dive deep into SFF. I spent 2018 reading a lot of historical and literary fiction, so I'm looking forward to switching it up. This video was very helpful both for tips and recommendations, so thank you!

[Bookshanks]

Such an interesting video, Kitty. Thank you! Good advice. I've certainly been intimidated by the size and scope of some fantasy books in the past (early attempts at reading Lord of the Rings, springs to mind!) and I'm sort of rediscovering sci-fi at the moment as it's all I'm reading this month, after not having picked up any of the genre for a few years. I've picked some of the broader appeal sci-fi books to ease myself back in for exactly the reasons you said. I just finished Ready Player One and LOVED it (so much fun and - yes - so accessible) and I have Becky Chambers to look forward to next. I started off the month with Dark Matter, which was sci-fi come thriller, I guess, and also really easy for beginners though I didn't love it. Also trying some dystopians in The Handmaid's Tale, The Power and The Circle but haven't got there yet. Really looking forward to them. Lucy

[chrisbookishcauldron]

Fantastic video! I’m loving all the babbles this year and seeing all the fun videos for the awards. And I so agree about not being put off by the length of fantasy novels. Even the big chunksters move at such a fast clip and keep you so engaged the whole time. Happy reading :) I look forward to more of your babble videos 😊😊

[LynxieDove]

My tips are: 1.) If you like or tolerate ebooks, then go to Amazon (Not sure if the other ebook services have the same option.) which offers free samples of a lot of books to download. Reading samples is my main way to see if a book would be a good read. Of course, it doesn't always play out that way...but that's true of many things. 2.) When you think of Fantasy, what comes to mind? Have you ever seen a movie or tv show with fantasy in it? Did you like it? If so, check out books that follow the same type of story. 3.) Consider Childrens and YA Scifi Fantasy. (Yes, even to adults.) Why? Because they often times tend to be shorter works (And not as wordy.) the violence not quite as heavy, and little to no intimate scenes. (Not including much of the Paranormal Teen Romance genre...which I know nothing about.) 4.) If you have a local library system available, please check them out if you havn't. (Not just for finding good books to read, but the more people in a community that use the library the better for the community because more services offered, more books, and the likelyhood of mileages being proposed and passed.) Many libraries also now have an ebook, eaudio selections thru apps such as Overdrive, Hoopla Digital and others. (As well as movies, tv shows, etc.) I don't read much Hard Scifi, but there have been some samples of hard scifi authors that I've really enjoyed, like John Scalzi, Greg Bear (Actually have liked his stuff for years.) Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles (Any of his stuff is good.) Cory Doctorow (Have only read and liked Pirate Cinema so far, but still worth mentioning.) James Dashner's The Mortality Doctrine (Author of the Maze Runner series, which is also good.) William Gibson, (Frank Herbert (Dune Series, among others.) Anne McCaffrey (The Pern Riders series, among several others.) Some Fantasy Authors: (I don't suggest Mistborn to newbies to fantasy unless they do enjoy thick, thick books, while I loved the books, it took me forever! to get thru them...I really wish that they had split each of them up, it would have made reading them alot more enjoyable for me.) Warbreaker, The Rithmatist or Steelheart are my go to recs for Brandon Sanderson. Mercedes Lackey-The Elemental Magics series, starting with Fire Rose or Serpent's Shadow. The Mage Wars, The Black Gryphon, which goes on to connect with her main series of books Valdemar. The Last Herald Mage is worth wading thru, It does have gay characters, so I usually find out before hand if they have issues. Tamora Pierce Start off with The Lioness Rampant or with The Circle of Magic. Both sets are quartets. Charles de Lint, He writes mainly Urban Fantasy and his stuff tends to be singles. Someplace to be Flying, Forests of The Heart, Dreams Underfoot (Short stories.) Trader, Memory and Dream, etc. Ok this turned out to be a much more epic post then I intended...but oh well:)

[ScruffyNerfer]

Great video Kaitlin. I have recently stopped reading SSF as a lot of the books I have tried recently just don't work for me. That said I LOVED Ready Player One and would also suggest Old Man's War by John Scalzi. On the fantasy side it would have to be The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, one of my all time favourite books.

[josephfernandez]

Some great recommendations here! I few things I would add. People new to SFF might be inclined to start with Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit, but I would recommend to *not* read that first. There’s many reasons why I say that but suffice it to say it’s probably more likely then not to turn you off the genre, especially if you’re used to more modern writing styles.

I’m a bit biased, but I do think that urban fantasy is a good entry point into SFF, as it combines familiar real world elements with the fantastic. With that said, I would recommend the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovich... especially if you’re coming from a background in reading mystery or crime novels.

Also, I haven’t read Ready Player One... mainly because I’ve been hearing that it’s treatment of women and LGBT characters is a bit problematic. Did you (or anyone) notice that? I’d maybe go with Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe if you’re someone with a gaming background and want to get into SFF.

[biggestNWFreak]

I absolutely agree to all of this! My personal start with Science Fiction was The Eternal War by Joe Haldeman and it blew me away. I'm currently in love with Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's past series, but I don't think, it's something for beginners. I also read the Lady trent series at the moment and it's soooo great! Just love it <3

[LynxieDove]

Lol, as much as I love Mistborn/FInal Empire, I did not find them to be easy reads, all 3 books were a bit difficult to slog thru. (Read Steelheart and The RIthmatist before Mistborn.) Warbreaker and Elantris both were a bit easier, (Though did not like Elantris as much as I wanted to, though still am planning to buy it and Warbreaker.) Branching out into books in general or a new genre: Definitely start off with your library 1st. (If you have one local that is.) And/or used bookstores. The majority of used bookstores tend to have more Scifi-Fantasy then they know what to do with! As for recommendations: I start off by asking what comes to mind when they think of Fantasy, and whether that appeals to them. (Like assuming that all fantasy is swords and sorcery, for example.) If they are female and not opposed to YA books, I suggest Tamora Pierce's Lioness quartet or the Circle of Magic series. (Sometimes do suggest Tamora Pierce to guys, though I 1st find out if they have any objections to female lead characters.) As well as Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc. I think it's better to start off on YA because the books tend to be shorter and the content tends to not be quite as heavy emotionally...(With exceptions of course!)

[Amanda-dnld]

Size is almost irrelevant sometimes. Mistborn has a 12+ size font to make it *appear* large because that is so valued in fantasy.
Watching a ton of booktube was what did it for me. I couldn’t find any sci-fi I liked and had given up on it as an adult. Came across this community and it brought me back to a genre I love!

[safinan]

Great video!! 😄😄 I do agree with u!! 😄😋

[adrienneteague]

For me, the stumbling block is the unpronounceable names of people and places. In sci-fi there are space words I don't understand especially related to spaceships. Really throws me out of the story when I don't know what something is.

[karinanam]

Good practical tips! Also, I wanted to ask: do you have plans to read Murderbot whole series? I'm still considering it...

[ryantaylor]

Hey there, Kitty I was wondering if you knew the name that Miles Cameron writes historical fiction under?

[lesliebailey]

Tip the dark tower series by Stephen king they suck in my opinion