Here are my 3 picks for overlooked science fiction you should check out!
Have your own recommendations? Here’s the Goodreads topic for this week: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18079046-week-7—april-14th—overlooked-science-fiction
THINGS MENTIONED
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13651.The_Dispossessed
Lockstep by Karl Schroeder
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910135-lockstep
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223380.Stories_of_Your_Life_and_Others
AND ALSO…
A few of Ted Chiang’s other stories are available online for free. Here are some links!
“The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling”
https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of_fact_the_truth_of_feeling_by_ted_chiang
“Exhalation”
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/
“The Lifecycle of Software Objects”
http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_lifecycle_of_software_objects_by_ted_chiang/
ME ELSEWHERE:
Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/koenix
LibraryThing: http://www.librarything.com/profile/Koenix
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Koenix
Instagram: https://instagram.com/kalanadibooks
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I completely agree about the title story. It definitely stands out the most. I read it about two weeks ago and still find my self pondering the idea the story is asking us to entertain.
On a side note, It might be a good idea to do a full review of the book if you get a chance. I say this because I originally decided to check the book out due to the up coming film (Arrival – Based on the title story) and it was difficult to find booktube reviews. The film is generating a little bit of buzz, so i think there will be more people starting to take interest in the source material.
My favorite from Ted Chiang’s “Stories of Your Life and Others” is “Understand” – audio read here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLsGfN-F2rs
Hooray! Someone else who liked Lockstep.
Lockstep sounds fascinating! I love the sound of the time lockstep system because it’s always a good puzzle for authors to solve. And Ted Chang is for sure someone I need to read so we can talk about things. 🙂
Was probably too young when I first read The Dispossessed. Might be ripe for a revisit. All I remember is a person visits two planets. I was aware of the political systems but had no understanding.
I’ve read “Story of your life and other stories” and it blew my mind. I really liked it. Ted Chiang has become one of my favourite authors ever.
I’m so glad I have found a booktuber who talks about science fiction, my favourite gente. I wish u the best for your channel!!!
I enjoy your videos, and you have turned me onto a lot of great books. Look forward to reading these.
Stories of your Life and Others sounds amazing! I’ve just added it to my wishlist, a book of short science fiction stories sounds great since sci fi books I feel tend to be quite long and epic, it’ll be good to get little snippets of different worlds and ideas 🙂
Seeing The Dispossessed made me smile as it wasn’t long ago we read and talked about it 🙂
You made me interested in Lockstep with your description and enthusiasm for it.
I’m also definitely going to have to look into Ted Chiang too, sounds kinda ideal; especially considering the liveshows and all.
I so need to reread The Dispossessed. It’s been about 10 years. I loved it the first time around. Really interested to see how I would feel about it now.
“The Dispossessed” was my first Le Guin and founded my deep and growing love for her work. So I’d definitely second that.
And I wanted to go and get “Stories of Your Life and Others” the last time you mentioned it, now I’ll go and check out the stories that can be found online first. Sounds very intriguing!
I love The Dispossessed so much, it’s one of my favourite books ever. It’s so nuanced and it actually made me cry. I possibly care waaaay too much about politics.
From Story of Your Life and Others, one of my favorite stories from the collection is Understand. It is just brilliant how Chang takes topics that seem indescribable and break them down so they can be easily digested.
Interesting list.
I read “Story of Your Life” yesterday. It´s so good to find somebody talking about it on booktube! Don´t you think that this story is extremely visual, but its writing is incredibly non-visual? This is amazing, we are not overloaded (or confused) with descriptions, but I´m afraid sometimes there is too much dialogue with scientific terms (linguistics). I feel that we have so much to gain with a movie, BUT so much to lost too because Hollywood can´t think of a contact with aliens without war, without guns, without “lets save our planet, we humans and heroes, kings of the universe”. And the absence of answers about the arrival and the departure of that “tourists” is a great achievement of the story. : )
A book I really like that I feel get’s overlooked is “The Man Who Fell To Earth” by Walter Tevis. Some people know of the film version made in the ’70s starring David Bowie, but not many know the book.It’s about an alien that comes to Earth because he needs water. His home planet has been devastated by nuclear war, and there’s no water left. He comes to Earth hoping to build a fortune by building a corporation selling his planet’s superior technology to the human race. He becomes corrupted by Earth’s Culture, especially TV and Alcohol, and is taken prisoner by the US Government.It’s an Adamic fall, rather than a Luciferan one. About how we can lose our way even with the best of intentions.
Story of your Life is getting a movie adaptation later this year, by a good director (Denis Villeneuve).
I absolutely loved The Dispossessed. Such a fantastic book. I need to read more of her work. Well, Stories of Your Life and Others is definitely on my list now.
I definitely didn’t know Lockstep was hard sci-fi. I so thought it was something completely different. Ted Chiang’s stuff sounds good, thank you Rachel.
I will read anything by Le Guin, and it is an awesome coincidence that the only other book I have by Le Guin IS The Dispossessed. 😛
I’ve been told before that Stories of Your Life would be totally right up my alley. Seems I should really get on that.
And my TBR just rose by three books 🙂
Great Video, I really need to get to Le Guin
Ted Chiang seems like this mystical being who comes down to earth every few years to grace us with a perfect science fiction story.
I feel like I could list my whole Hugo ballot for this topic, which doesn’t bode well for those books’ chances alas!
some great recommendations that I hope to read:-)
When it comes to Ursula’s novels, so far I have only read The Left Hand of Darkness but this novel knocked me off my feet. I was so impressed by it! It is so profound, so deep, so inspirational and masterfully written….Thank you for these recommendation. Right now, I want to read The Dispossessed asap!!!