My 10 Favorite Science Fiction Books (2024 Update)

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Since it has been about a year and a half since the original video, I wanted to update my top 10 science fiction book list. I hope you enjoy the discussion.

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→ Timestamps
00:00 - Beginning
01:10 - Here There Be (Minor) Spoilers
01:24 - Books I Removed
03:48 - Dune
06:12 - The City & The City
11:28 - Earthseed
13:58 - The Left Hand of Darkness
16:46 - A Canticle for Leibowitz
19:50 - The Culture
22:11 - Book of the New Sun
24:38 - Cloud Atlas
27:42 - Anathem
29:34 - The Dispossessed

[CainOnGames]

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.

[David-uegk]

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.

[arjun]

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.

[DUFMAN]

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.

[Jbirdsprings]

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.

[olgadelmolino]

I do agree with your list, especially retrieving C.S Lewis and the Three Body Problem

[gilbertc.]

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 :)

[gamingsfinest]

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.

[RozMazov]

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.

[flotilha]

I really love all dune's books... Mainly God Emperor

[Johanna_reads]

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!

[nahuakang]

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.

[dylcor]

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.

[donaldshelton]

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.

[murmeli]

Thank you for the reading inspiration. Great video as always.

[arinako]

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.'

[willgould]

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.

[BrianBell]

Loved this list and, congrats, you've added to TBR Mountain :) I really must get LeGuin moved up the reading order.

[hellogoodbye]

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.

[AdrianaElizabeth]

The way you describe The City & the City reminded me of the series Fringe.