It is not possible to read all the Sci-Fi books out there. So you must have a process for selecting what you do read. Reading a book is an investment in your time. Your time is valuable. No one wants to waste that time reading unworthy books.
I have never codified my criteria. And it has changed and evolved over time. I suspect it will continue to change moving forward, as who I am tomorrow is not who I was yesterday.
What is your criteria to date?
Mine is that it must meet ALL the following criteria, some objective and some subjective.
- it must have at least 1,000 reviews
- it must have at least 70% 5-star reviews
- if after reading about it I get the suspicion that it’s a romance disguised as Sci-Fi, I automatically reject it no matter what
- if it’s YA, it really needs to be exceedingly compelling to choose it
- Space Opera also needs to be exceedingly compelling
- if I get the feeling it’s trying to preach I’ll reject it
- if i get the feeling it has (messaging, strong opinions, or political overtones) about today’s societal issues, I probably won’t choose it. Not judging; I primarily read for escapism.
I guess that’s about it. There’s probably more but I just haven’t put that much thought into it yet.
I’m very interested in how y’all decide to choose a book to spend your valuable time reading.
I agree it’s not possible to read everything, but I promise that if you are a habitual reader, you will run out of truly excellent books to read really rapidly. Both because there just aren’t that many and because everyone’s tastes are different.
These days my criteria is: if I heard of the book and it sounds interesting to me I’ll try it. If it fails to capture me within a chapter or two I’m putting it down.
I have a strong preference for queer books (especially queer scifi) and will totally overlook even dramatically negative reviews to read those. But that’s the only bias I have in my selection.
What does queer Sci entail that’s different from inguess hetero Sci fi?
Queer authors and/or characters and themes. There’s a fair amount of scifi like this as people have used the genre to explore gender and sexuality basically from the start. Historically, think Ursula Le Guin in Left Hand of Darkness. For more recent examples, consider A Memory Called Empire by Arcady Martine or Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.
I recently bought the audiobook for Gideon the Ninth. Glad to see another recommendation.
The cover
Does the cover have a painted Fabio?
No Fabio, no read!
First off the concept, as introduced on the back of the book, or in book-yakking circles (like this) or such must be something that interests me in some way. This means that if the books seems too political in focus (“left” or “right”), for example, I don’t engage. That’s not what I read SF books for.
Second, if the concept intrigues, I have to get a hint that it isn’t just a rehashing of something I’ve already read. I need to read a new take on a concept, not Yet Another Evil Empire Cut Down By Rebels space opera, complete with laser swords, say…
Third, if it gets to this stage, I’ll find a free ecopy somewhere and I’ll read the first 50 pages in a “try before you buy” thing. The author has to grab my interest in 50 pages, no more. If by page 50 I’m not sufficiently intrigued that I’m willing to shell out money, I don’t shell out money. The ebook is deleted and the book is put into my mental “do not enage” bin alongside books whose very concepts don’t interest me.
If, however, by page 50 the book intrigues me, I’ll start the difficult task of hunting down hardcopy and buy it when I find it.
Play Books has ~50pg samplers for just about everything I’ve been on the fence about. If it’s got me by 50pg in I’m probably interested enough to read the rest of it. They (Play Books) don’t always have the best eBook quality so I try to buy from Barnes and Noble when I can but I end up buying a lot of ~$2 sale books on the play store as well.
Play is not accessible to me; that’s not an avenue I can travel down. I basically have to pirate as a try-before-I-buy thing.
And I don’t buy e-books for reading. (I’ll by them for reference works, game rules, etc. but not reading books.) I buy books. It’s a quirk of mine.
I understand and agree regarding a stale take on an existing trope. It is hard to find a new take on a concept, but just as you, that is exactly what I’m looking for too.
That is quite a restrictive list.
I generally go for:
Is it by an author I like? Is it well written? (Judging by samples).
Then I start to read. Normally I will make it to the end, even if some way in I decide I don’t like it that much. Sometimes I will just give up, if it is too tedious, or too many characters/plots I can’t keep track of, or it turns out to be badly written after all.
Too restrictive? Yes maybe so. There are always exceptions which I haven’t verbalized in my post.
Nevertheless, I fear if I used your method, in total I’d spend years reading samples. It’s good it works for you though.
I read so much, I just don’t have time to invest in reading samples.
UPDATE: I’ve been wondering why the down votes. I suspect there is tone in my response which I did not intend. I get a lot of recommendations I want to weed through to find something I’m interested in. I couldn’t possibly read all the samples. That’s all I’m saying.
If I’m interested. I open it up to a random page. And read a paragraph. And look at the tone of the author, the quality of the writing, on the quality of their content. And then I make a determination if I’ll read the rest of the book
After a couple hours of reading, do I still care?
I know I may miss some gems this way, but my reading list is longer than my available time.
I read the back cover and open the book on a random page and start reading. If that page doesn’t make me want to read more, then its not for me.
Honestly I just read the biggest classics and hits. Usually they’re classics for a reason, and even if it’s not to my liking, at least I learn something new and can cross it off the bucket list.
Now that I think about it, scifi is somewhat monocultural - is that a word? - this way. The consensus what’s good and what’s not, and why, seems to be higher than in real world fiction.
I do listen to more audioshows than books and it’s kinda the same. If something becomes very popular, it’s likely to be better than average. Although I’ve found some sleeper hits too, and nothing really bad. Producing an audio show is probably harder than writing a book.
I check cover and blurb, maybe see if there are other books by the author, and give it a chance.
1000 reviews? Nah. I like to read new authors with fresh ideas.
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Well, when the award nominee lists come out, I jump on those if they sound like books I’d like. And of course, new books by past authors I like. And generally books that I start seeing a lot of people reviewing favorably or just getting a lot of buzz I will at least evaluate.
My method is very similar! I don’t read a lot of sci-fi anymore, but I pretty much ran out of classics to read in my teens. Now it’s either recommendations from irl friends (they know what I like and it’s always a hit) or award winners. Sometimes, some recommendations from there internet hit home with a good elevator pitch, but doesn’t happen often.
I like the front cover and it doesn’t have an obnoxious sticker on it.
Edit: the 1k review thing isn’t bad but the 5 star thing is. I’m too jaded with people giving 5 stars because the item was delivered quickly…
“I haven’t read it yet, but it arrived two days faster than I expected, and the box was really pretty. 5 stars!”
My decision is primarily based on if the concept of the book appeals to me, and general reviews, but reviews don’t make or break the decision. If a book is for YA but sounds like an interesting concept, then I’ll go for it!
I’m a newbie when it comes to reading novels. But I realized that a lot of movies or series I’ve seen are based on books. It’s far easier to get through a book if you already have visual references for the characters and scenes. It’s also nice to go back and experience the story from a diffrent perspective. It’s like reading with training wheels.
Understood. I like seeing the movie or series after reading the book, for some reason.
@nkiruanaya @LouNeko I love reading the book after because it is almost always even better than the movie… more detail, richer character development, bonus extra scenes, 😁.
Where the reverse is rarely true. If I love a book, someone is going to butcher that book when they make a movie about it.
Watched all the Expanse series and started reading the Expanse books. I’m now on book 4 (Cibola Burn). When I watched the series, I really could figure out or understand what was going on. I just kept watching due to the charismatic enthusiasm of the fans online. I finished the TV series but still didn’t quite “get it” and still felt lost. But now that I’m reading the books, I now understand what’s happening and am enjoying it.
Do I crave to read it today? If that happens every day the book is good. If it feels like a chore the book is trash.
