5 Metaphysical Sci-Fi Books You Need To Read

Today, we're going to tackle a special sub-genre in sci-fi - the Metaphysical Sci-Fi, and dive into 5 books you need to read.

Thanks for watching and don't forget to check out my sci-fi books below.

#scifi #metaphysics #books

0:00 - Intro
0:31 - What is "metaphysical sci-fi"?
1:27 - "Blindsight" by Peter Watts
3:32 - "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem
5:32 - "The Quantum Thief" by Hannu Rajaniemi
7:15 - "VALIS" by Philip K. Dick
9:21 - "Excession" by Iain M. Banks
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MY STUFF
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vvv MORE vvv

MY SCI-FI NOVELS

DELPHINE DESCENDS
After her family is killed and her homeworld occupied, young Kathreen Martin is sent to the distant world of Furoris for re-education. She will live the rest of her life as a serf – to be bought and sold as a commodity of the Imperial Network.

When her only chance of escape is ruined, a chance mistaken identity offers her a new life as the orphaned daughter of a First-Citizen Senator and heiress to a vast fortune.

She vows to claw her way into power to sit among the worlds’ elite. Then, with her own hands, she will reap bloody vengeance on them all.

But to beat them, she must play their game. And she must play it better than them all.

BLACK MILK
Prometheus has the chance to bring his wife back from the dead, but doing so will mean the destruction of Earth.

Spanning time, planets and dimensions, Black Milk draws to a climactic point in a post-apocalyptic future, where humanity, stranded with no planet to call home, fights to survive against a post-human digital entity that pursues them through the depths of space.

Five lives separated by aeons are inextricably linked by Prometheus’s actions:

Ystil.3 is an AI unit sent back in time from the distant future to investigate Prometheus’s discovery...

The mysterious Lydia has devoted her life to finding a planet that the last remaining humans can call home…

Tom Jones (he’s a HUGE fan!) is an AI trapped inside a digital subspace, lost and desperate to find his way back to his beloved in real-time…
Dr Norma Stanwyck is a neuroscientist from 24th Century Earth whose personal choices ripple throughout time...

Prometheus must learn the necessity of death or the entire universe will be swallowed by his grief.
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GOODREADS
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IMAGE USE
The images in my videos are mostly licensed stock photos. However, occasionally I will use images found online. I always seek to properly credit artists and offer a link back to their amazing work but sometimes it's hard to find the original source of the work. If I've used an image you own and I haven't credited you, please feel free to get in touch as I am always more than happy to do so.

[bazoo]

4:00 - Limitations of communication is Lem's recurring theme - "The invincible", "Fiasco", "His Master's Voice"...

[shara]

Excellent visual images in your video. Great job!

[HakimALIGHT]

I loved the ideas presented in Blindsight, but I found the prose horrendous. Very frustrating. Love all of the other books in the list! Well done.

[jasperdoornbos]

I took notes, Darrel! Just downloaded Blindsight on my kindle, because of you. They should pay you for this, my friend! Kind regards, Jasper

[autumnaticfly]

Like always, you never disappoint. Of all the books you mentioned, I've only read Blindsight and I was blown away by how good it was. Peter Watts is on a whole different level.

Great video, brother. Keep up the good work. 💙

[RSEFX]

Pre-dating all of these is David Lindsay's A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS you need to read.
Olaf Stapleton's writings also signal us to venture within to grasp the "without".
THE SHRINKING MAN is a more intimate, less "showy" metaphysical journey that hits home with more immediacy than most of the titles discussed.

[maxwellread]

Excession is probably one of my favorite books of all time… incredible!

[creatancremanova]

exactly the topics I am dealing with right now: consciousness, reality, existence. Thank you for that inspiration!

[splifftachyon]

Excellent choices. VALIS is one of my favourite novels of all time. Blindsight is a more recent read for me and it profoundly affected me and is now right up there amongst my favourites too. I'm reading The Outside trilogy by Ada Hoffmann right now. It delves into the nature of reality, and its intersection with neurodivergence and mental illness, but it's also a really engaging sci-fi story with powerful AI gods and even post-human angels and even a dash of the Lovecraftian unknowable.

[indianastoned]

Great recommendations! Loving the channel so far

[winsomehax]

Blindsight is a phenomenal book that I read back in 2007 or so. I just read it again recently and it's only become more relevant. Excession is also wonderful and this makes me want to read it again. Those two books feel like they should be higher profile today than ever. AI is racing down on us, and discussions about what things like GPT4 represent (Chinese room etc) are rife.

If I had the power to greenlight TV or movies I'd be looking at blindsight and banks' books and getting adaptations moving.

[juliannacolombo]

I am excited to dive into The Culture series. I just picked up a copy of Consider Phlebas two days ago. Had to have it ordered for me. I was told that is a good place to start with The Culture.

[phillipj]

Blindsight And echopraxia By peter watts one ship is going to the outer system and the other go's to the inner system (closer to the sun to check on the array). there both exploring the same problem and are loosely connected to each other being that the timeline sync up. I like the audible versions of both books and they paint the picture.

they both poke at the idea of awareness conscious thought and the like being a lesser evolutionary trait. There might be a third on the same timeline a under water mining crew but haven't read it yet.

[willinnewhaven]

I read a great deal of all of them, only finished two, and the Banks is the only one I would recommend.

[blindlama]

Out of these i've only read Blindsight, which was fantastic. Got to stock up on these for my summer break 😎

[Vadrian]

Hello. Nice video.
1. I just recently heard about Blindsight--maybe a few months ago or so.
It was randomly in an online discussion or maybe another sci-fi video. But it sounded interesting.
I've since bought the book but haven't read it yet.

2. I usually avoid/dislike older sci-fi but Valis sounds like something I'd like.
I'll have to give it a try.

3. As soon as your video started, I scoured your shelves for Iain M. Banks...
And was happy to see the books there.

**Spoilers ahead**

4. Excession is, in my opinion, of the stand out novels of the series--and one of my favorites.
I read all the books a thousand years ago, but, if I recall,
the very beginning of the book was kind of nightmarish-like--
as everything is mysteriously and ruthlessly killed off/consumed.
At least that's how it read to me. Almost like a sub-horror story to set the table.
Even the small sub-mind couldn't hide.
Anyway. As much as I loved the Culture and the Minds--
the idea of something much bigger and more powerful than them was kind of satisfying--or more like intriguing.
The other thing that imprinted itself on me from that novel was the Sleeper Service
and the idea/fantasy of having my own
continent sized starship--complete with an entire ocean and lighthouse inside.
And on top of that--being the only/solitary occupant of the ship.
I absolutely loved it and still fantasize about such a setup.
As an extreme introvert it was quite appealing
(and maaayybe I might have one or two handsome male android companions---maybe.)

5. However, the Culture novel I immediately had in mind when I first started watching your video
and listening to what dictates "metaphysical space opera" was Surface Detail.
Again, I read these a thousand years ago but Surface Detail still haunts me.
A super/mega advanced interstellar society that no longer has death--but still believes in an eternal Hell--
and would actually send millions of it's citizens there.
That was quite mind-blowing. Terrifying.
I cannot recall the one race that was in the book--they were the race that I don't think
had ever been mentioned in a Culture novel before--not that I can recall.
But I believe they had either sublimed or gone dormant--
but their ships and AI were still intact running their Hell virtualities.
The images of all those substrates in those empty haunting ships ships full of tortured souls. Just chills.
It really gave me the creeps.
And the one character (Parvel? Pervaul?) getting trapped in her race's Hell was devastating--
and also very nightmarish.
It was so hard to read that book--and her journey.
But it prompted, at leas tone of the things it prompted for me,
was that whole discussion of how civilizations can vary vastly in belief and societal systems
and how that is tolerated or not tolerated by other equally advanced civilizations--ones,
like in the Culture's case, are highly aware of what they deem repulsive and barbaric behavior by others.
I believe they were disgusted enough to send secret agents to try to disable these Hells.
Ugh. I don't know if I can read that one again.

Sorry for the long post.

I've always wanted to start my own Culture Club here in Chicago.
It seems to be rare that I meet anyone who has read The Culture novels though.
I think if done correctly, they'd make for some really good dark tv (Netflix series, etc).
Anyway. Good night.
RIP Iain M. Banks.

[Moloch]

Just to note, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, although thematically linked to the unfinished trilogy, it is not part of it. Dick died before finishing the final novel in the trilogy The Owl in Daylight. Great list though! Blindsight is on my TBR pile, as is Solaris.

[WordsinTime]

Great list! Blindsight and Solaris are 2 of my favourites. I own The Quantum Thief and Excession and plan to read them this year. I’ve read 4 PKD books so far and I’m looking forward to getting to VALIS!

[summerkagan]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Anathem by Neal Stephenson, Magister Ludi or The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse, The Last Men and the First Men by Olaf Stapleton, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and A Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky.

[MGCaverly]

Excellent presentation, thank you for that. How about Moorcock’s “The Dancers at the End of Time” trilogy?