I think Octavia Butler's Kindred would also be a great introduction. It is short, reads like a thriller, discusses some great themes and has one of the best first lines to get you hooked.

Kind of wish there was some Heinlein somewhere on here. He's got quite a few simple to read stories like Starship Troopers that make a good and thought provoking start to Sci-Fi. Obvioulsy I wouldn't reccomend Time Enough For Love or Stranger in a Strange Land to beginners but most of his "young adult" novels are suitable.

Great list - love the categories! Read 4 of these and they're all very unique but also, yeah, I'd say great start points.

Another good one would have been John Wyndam's "The Chrysalids"

I’m looking to get into sci fi so this video was so helpful! I’ve actually read Ender’s Game and Cat’s Cradle  in college and really enjoyed it! I didn’t even know Cat’s Cradle was considered Sci Fi! I truly feel like Flowers for Algernon would destroy me! Super helpful video 👍

Tick, tick, tick - I've added most of these to my tbr, and am most anticipating Dark Matter, Ender's Game, Red Rising, Flowers of Algernon and Dune.
I also really like how you've broken down the styles in the video - very funny and entertaining.

Thanks. I will try these

You deserve more subs man, great vid!! Can’t wait to start reading some of those books 🤟

late to the party but must say thank you. read dune and now I'm hooked. going with almost all of your recommendations and on my way to your classic sci fi beginner video. thanks much.

That last category and recommendation: 😘👌Perfection.

As a fan of Red Rising, only the first book (slightly) resembles Hunger Games. From there, it becomes a big huge massive space opera with some of the most epic battles and action scenes in all of sci fi. Darrow is an absolute beast of a protagonist, and the pacing of these books really grabs a hold of you.

I’ve seen this ‘sci-fi for beginners’ thing and no disrespect, it may be a good tool for some I guess but another angle of recommendation is to blow them away. My first was Pushing Ice. I was all horror before them but this book flipped my brain and sent me down a path. It might not work for everyone but for once I’d like to see a list of ‘sci-fi book to completely change your reading tastes.’ Love the channel man! Please keep it up, you’ve juiced me up about so many books and I hope I’m not coming across wrong here. Just another angle! Carry on!

Thanks for the video

Excellent list, spot on.

Great video. So far the only one of these that I’ve read is Dune, but I also haven’t really started my journey into sci-fi yet. This is a great resource for me.
-T

Great list! Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors. I enjoyed Dune (didn't like the newest movie), The Martian, Dark Matter, and Ender's Game. As a sci-fi reader, I don't like overly technical writing as a sci-fi author (hint, hint), I write that same way, so many readers have said even thought they don't read much sci-fi, they have enjoyed my books. (Did I say hint, hint?)

This list is exactlu what I was looking for, thanks Jonathan! And the first one is immediatly one that I already own, I'm glad the Martian is a beginner-proof book. 😄

Dark Matter sounds very interesting and I love Inception soooo it's on the list now haha. I didn't know that leviathan Wakes can be read as a standalone, that makes me less hesitant to pick it up.

Good list!

great video

This is a great list! I've never heard of Flowers for Algernon but it sounds really interesting. Thanks for that recommendation!