Ranking the 21 Books I Just Read (Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Lit Fic)

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00:00 The Female Man by Joanna Russ
01:37 The Third Eye by T. Lobsang Rampa
03:25 He Died With His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond
04:54 Fury by Henry Kuttner
06:05 Eric John Stark: Outlaw of Mars by Leigh Brackett
07:34 Change the Sky and Other Stories by Margaret St. Clair
09:28 The Snail on the Slope by the Strugatsky Brothers
12:22 The Compleat Traveller in Black by John Brunner
13:51 The Garments of Caen by Barrington J. Bayley
15:00 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
16:43 The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
18:42 The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
19:52 Conan Stories by Robert E. Howard
21:57 Lilith by George MacDonald
23:10 Gypsy by Carter Scholz
24:42 The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
26:34 Amerika by Franz Kafka
28:15 Moderan by David R. Bunch
30:30 We Can Build You by Philip K. Dick
31:37 Eden by Stanislaw Lem
32:44 Midworld by Alan Dean Foster
34:18 Wrap-up

[qwertyuiop]

Project Hail Mary is the first book I’ve read in over five years, and I’ve historically disliked reading for a long time. It worked great for me, easy to digest, and since I don’t have much references to compare it to, it served its purpose. I’m excited to read more well-written works in the future.

[patrickocallaghan]

It's incorrect to say that The Lord of The Rings was originally published as a single book and then split up to make money. Tolkien wanted to publish it as a single novel but paper shortages in post-war Britain made it impractical. This is well-documented.

[MartiniBlankontherest]

Love so much how 'to the point' you approach your videos. Thanks for not wasting my time with intros and yammerings🙏

[SgtWicket]

Yeah Weir definitely writes his characters as “look at me! I’m a scientist but I’m also irreverent, isn’t that wacky!” They seem written with the intent to be adapted into movies.

[fattymcfatso]

Naturally Project Hail Mary gets an F.
Dude hates Heinlein. The Hail Mary protagonist is a Heinleinian hero:
Intelligent; brave; self-confident, and -ultimately-selfless.

[micdavey]

1. I like this format
2. Thank you for the "The Sorrow of War" rec. My father (a Vietnam vet) has recently been reading these types of biographies by US authors. I had him watch your review of it and he quite quickly got the book. I'm going to try to get to it myself
3. I'm right there with you on Weir in finding his writing utterly tedious to read. The Martian was just barely good enough to get through, but Hail Mary is so bad that I DNFd pretty early on

[mudgetheexpendable]

The way you characterize MODERAN made me smile all over my old-man face. My 5* review says of these stories: "they are brilliant tours-de-force of a man's vision of a future no one could possibly want, but they're likely to get anyway." Such a delight to find someone else who appreciates Bunch.

[old_geeky_Michael]

Thanks for this, always enjoy your videos. I loved your description of the writing style on Hail Mary 😆 You have single-handedly summed up what I hate about the dialogue in many modern movies and tv shows...

[jakefromstatefarm]

What I have learned, as a subscriber, is that our tastes are polar opposite. If you say you hate a book, I'll probably check it out 😅

[daniellemckinney]

I really appreciate your reviews! You've introduced to me new authors, and renewed my love of reading, thank you for what you do!

[cmmunrd]

Just want to say thanks for doing what you do. I’ve found so many great books because of your channel! Appreciate you

[chrisw]

I only read The Long Tomorrow by Brackett, and it is not pulpy; it is a grounded post-apocalyptic story. Now I’m curious about her wilder stories if you dare compare her to Robert E Howard.

[awldune]

Hail Mary is a fun beach novel if you can get past the author's voice and one-dimensional characters. The friendship between the protagonist and his non-carbon-based counterpart is memorable.

[KatharineOsborne]

Oh no, I loved Hail Mary 😅 I did listen to the audiobook, which is really well performed, so I don't know if reading the book itself would be more of a slog. But I see where you are coming from. The main character is VERY similar to Mark from The Martian, so yeah if that's not your jam, it would be hard to get through. I did however really appreciate how the physics of space travel (and Rocky's dilemma with it) was depicted.

[nathancroft]

So happy to see this pop up just now! Love when you do these.

[geekokur]

Project Hail Mary", in my opinion, is the embodiment of Science Fiction. Greetings from Turkey

[kufujitsu]

I agree with your take on Margret St Clair. I've read her short story collection Change the Sky several times. The standard is remarkably high, & the stories are diverse & interesting.
I haven't read Amerika by Kafka, but I have read his short story collection Metamorphosis, & he's very high on my list of writers who write fiction that feels like SF, but which probably isn't. Anyway I recommend his works to SF readers.
For those who are leery of short stories in general, the best way to read them is to treat each story as a separate entity - like it's a novel - there's no need to finish the collection in one sitting.

[cloudbloom]

I dig these ranking lists they're a fun way to get a quick rundown on many books. Thank you Bookpilled, very cool!

[bartsbookspace]

Eden is one of the few Lem books I have yet to read. I'll have to fix that soon.

[fanuluiciorannrxd]

MODERAN sounds worthy of checking out.
Usually when I speak with my friends about programmable body parts we joke that in the future you'll have to pay subscriptions for all your organs or else their creators just shut them down or reudce their function till you pay again or die.