The Day of the Triffids is a definite favourite. I was awarded perfect marks for a Year 10 assignment. Seeing the 50/50 mark really made my day. It’s stuck in my mind ever since

I really enjoy the 90s FM radio vibes I get from your videos :)

Great list. Love all the ones you mentioned. Just finished a re read on caves of steel so glad to see that on there. Love left hand, Dune. And Martian Chronicles of course and great to see all the classics there too.

Thanks for a fun video! I get a kick out of favorites and least favorite lists for some reason, and this one was fun. Great picks as well, and I agree about thinking on The Left Hand of Darkness long after finishing the book, but many of these works have that same characteristic. The only one I 've never heard of is Earth Abides, so I'll have to look into that one.

Love seeing Earth Abides here! One truly, truly memorable book. Extremely moving. Kudos to all the other great choices too!

Great list! The Left Hand of Darkness is 100% one of my favorites as well and I added City and The Day of the Triffids to my tbr 😄

Great list! Earth Abides sounds very interesting, and I keep hearing good things about The Left Hand of Darkness. I'm also curious about The Martian Chronicles and The Shrinking Man! Hooray for Dune-I finished my first reread last night! Cheers!

Really enjoyed this video. Would love to see more top 10’s from you… looking forward to the horror one.

You always have books I've never heard of and you make them sound interesting and I want to read them.

You just earned a place in my heart, with Clifford D. Simak’s *CITY* as your #1. Mr. Simak is my favorite speculative fiction writer, but not for his novels. I prefer his shorter fiction, starting with The Big Front Yard, winner of some serious SF awards in the late 1950s. It impressed me so much that I sent Mr. Simak a three-page handwritten (printed) letter, telling him what I thought it was about. A few months later, I received a three-page handwritten (cursive) letter in response to mine, from Mr. Simak. And what a letter! His first sentence: “Yours is the kind of letter seldom received from an author.” (I’m paraphrasing, being too lazy to get the letter - still in pristine shape, since 1985.) In the middle of the second page, he wrote this: “Your analysis of the thrust of The Big Front Yard is a welcome surprise to me. I knew, of course, what I was writing about, and I thought I’d spelled it out sufficiently for anyone to understand. But of all the comments that have been made of it, all the words that have been written of it by critics and science fiction historians, you are the first and only one who has put an unerring finger on what I tried so hard to say. Thank God for you.” This is verbatim because it’s in my Photos. If I may make some suggestions, here are my top Simak short stories, in order from #1 on down: The Big Front Yard, Desertion (from *CITY),* Immigrant, New Folks’ Home, Drop Dead, and Skirmish. If you read any of them, I’d love to discuss, if you’re interested. P.S. I hate *EARTH ABIDES,* your #10! The people are stupid and intellectually lazy. They lose not only the beauty of modern civilization but also everything else except the practical life skills (which they have to relearn), and religion (worship of Ish’s hammer). Nevertheless, I’ve read it twice and it’s in my Audible library, where I can read it again and again until I understand why so many people think it so great.

That is an impressive list. I’ve read just four of those, and now I want to purchase The Left Hand of Darkness and City right away. And also reread The Time Machine yet again. (It is my favorite SF book).

Great list. I recent Great list. I recently got myself a copy of Earth Abides, so can't wait to get around to reading it. I always thought I was the only one who preferred The Time Machine to War Of The Worlds (although they'd both make my top ten as well). Good to see I'm not alone! Fantastic video in general though, definitely a couple in there I'll be adding to my TBR. Thanks

A fine, fine list of books! Well done!

YES. Day Of The Triffids!! I absolutely love that one! It's in my top 3!! And no one ever talks about it!

Great video! Interesting choices and omissions! City is great! And sad.

Great list. I’ve never heard of the City. I will check it out. I also want to reread Left Hand of Darkness.

It was lovely to find Simak’s City at the top of your 10 favourite science fiction books. I wrote my end of year English Higher School Certificate examination paper on City. Clifford D. Simak was one of my favourite authors. I enjoyed collecting his novels and short stories through my schooling years, and I am pleased to report I recently purchased an 11 volume short story collection, 32 years after reading my last work by him. Two science fiction novels I really loved was Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Both books have stuck in my mind over the years as science fiction greats. Have you read these? What do you think of them? - Peter LONGWORTH Newcastle, Australia

When I was very, very young -- back in the mid-1960's - I found in our local public library my favorite science fiction novel of all: Galactic Derelict, by Andre Norton. This hardback edition had a gorgeous cover illustration showing the scene where the protagonist is descending on a rope ladder from the side of the spacecraft which has landed on a ruined ancient spaceport. On the ground is the ancient maintenance 'bot & refueling line, and in the background are ancient, ruined alien buildings. I wish I knew the name of the artist of that cover because it was a wonderful example of sf artwork -- the picture told the story. The main character of this novel was the Apache Indian cowboy/archaeologist/time traveler/astronaut, named Travis Fox. This novel had every theme I love in science fiction: ancient aliens, derelict spaceships, ftl travel, & time travel. It was pure science fiction gold!

Great video Michael. The only surprise about Dune is that you dropped it to number 4 haha. It’s ok though, I forgive you. I’ve wanted to read the Time Machine, and I’m hoping to read Caves of Steel eventually as well. Left hand of Darkness is another book on my short list. I’ve never heard of City. It sounds interesting.

Just started watching and am excited to see if I have read any of these books! 💕

THE ALIEN PLAN by Jack Fleming with follow-up book PILLARS OF HONOR also by Jack Fleming. These books can be found on Amazon.

I am going to read The Caves of Steel this month. Dune is a top 3 book for me. I just finished my first Ursula K Le Guin this month (The Dispossessed) and it absolutely blew my mind, so I can't wait to get to The Left Hand of Darkness. I've never heard of City but I'm keen to check it out now.

Frank Herbert, Robert E Howard and HP Lovecraft my three favourite authors.

Great top ten list. There are so many I’ve never read. I’ve been hearing a bit about Úrsula K. Le Guin recently but I wasn’t sure where to start. Now I do. Thank you for the recommendations. That edition of War of the Worlds is so cool looking.

So many I need to read! Day of the Triffids sounds awesome! Wanna read Dune so bad, gotta make it happen this year.

Michael I just downloaded the audiobook the Earth Abides from Hoopla & put the City on my tbr!! Thank you!!

The Martian Chronicles is one of my favorites too (honestly, anything by Ray Bradbury). I love how it seems like random stories about Mars but then ties together in a perfect conclusion. The War of the Worlds is great too! So many good looking books on this list, and I'm adding at least a couple to my TBR. I look forward to seeing your Moby Dick video (lol, that's the only book about a whale I can think of)!

The Day of the Triffids 👍 War of The World's 👍 The Shrinking Man👍 Dune🤷‍♂️😁 The Time Machine 👍 So everything I put up I've read. More then once , but You have a few I haven't read. 5 actually. I put all of them on a list. So I will check them out. Your reading taste is 2 close 2 mine 2 not check them out. Great Video 👍😁👍

I have read most of these but I particularly like - The Shrinking Man War of the Worlds The Day of the Triffids Earth Abides It has been 30 or 40 years since I read ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’, or any books by Clifford Simak (I think I read City many years ago). I read the Martian Chronicles either just before or just after the miniseries which I think was back in the early 1980s. War of the Worlds is the first sci-fi book I remember reading when I was about 12 years old and it is my favourite sci-fi book of all time.

Great list!!

I just finished the time machine and currently reading I am legend 🙌

The ones I’ve read are the Martian Chronicles, the Shrinking Man, the Time Machine, and the Left Hand of Darkness. I agree that they are all amazing. Some I would put on my own list are (I know no one asked but it’s fun!): Dawn by Octavia Butler Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick

So glad to see The Day of the Triffids on the list. It is my all time fav novel. I've lost count of the number of times I've read it. The Kraken Wakes and The Midwich Cuckoos are great too. Also his short story collection The Seeds of Time. Wyndham, like Stephen King was able to make the unbelievable believable. No coincidence that King called Wyndham the best ever British science fiction writer. Good to see The War of The Worlds on the list too. Wyndham was a great fan of Wells and saw himself as Well's heir.

Interesting list here. I really liked The Day of the Triffids, The Martian Chronicles, and thought The Caves of Steel was pretty good. I didn't care for The War of the Worlds very much even though I like Wells' other stuff. One of my favorite science fiction novels of all time is definitely Jack Finney's Invasion of The Body Snatchers. Some of the other ones you have on the list I have copies of, but have yet to get to. I hadn't heard of Earth Abides, but that looks fascinating.

I just bought a copy of _The Left Hand Of Darkness_ really need to bump it to the top of the tbr!

I just finished “The left hand of Darkness” today. Incredible read; I know I’ll be thinking about it for some time and I’m glad to see it so high on your list. I’m curious if you’ve read The Dispossessed and how, in your opinion, it stacks up?

i enjoyed this thanks

A proper top 10 .. love it

I love writing. My fave writers include George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Ursula K Le Guin, Arthur C Clarke, Philip K Dick, Stephen King, Joey Vimsante, Bob Gale, JK Rowling, George Lucas, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, J R R Tolkien and Tim Schooch, They are from lots of different places.

I loved War of The Worlds! It's one of my favorites!

I never knew "Day of the Triffids" was a book. I was only introduced to the movie as a kid and I'm surprised my mom never mentioned this to me as she introduced me to the film. "Left Hand of Darkness" is a book that I will need to revisit. I am sure I missed a lot on the first read and it is such a great book. "City" is now on the TBR pile. Thank you for a great top 10!

Your snark is on fire today! Wow! I had no idea you had high-tech projector technology - very impressive. The themes in The Caves of Steel sounds like something I would enjoy. Dune? I've never heard of this tome of which you speak. Hm.

I think you got me into sci fi…. (I often revisit your oldies)

Wonderful Video

Great list. I’ve read 8 out of 10: No joy for Caves of Steel or City, though I own both.

Great video! Now I want to do one of these Top 10 for Sci-Fi videos. The Martian Chronicles is only at #7? War of the Worlds only #6? Dune not in the top 3? Nothing recent on the list? That's fine. You're allowed to have your own opinions. I haven't read City; I guess I need to take a look at it. :)

Loved Simak's "Waystation", "Time and Again", "Ring Around the Sun", and "The Visitors". Really liked Asimov's "Caves of Steel" and the other Lije Bailey novels. Loved the Foundation Trilogy and "Prelude to Foundation" and Foundation novel "The Stars Like Dust.". "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky brothers was a lot of fun-- would love to see a modern remake of that film that was more true to the book than "Stalker", though I did like that film, along with Tarkovski's other sci-fi film "Solaris," Liked Robert Silverberg's "Man in the Maze" and "The Glass Needle". Last but not least I was very moved by Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep."

I have a soft spot for Micheal Moorcocks Behold the Man. The book that got me into reading sci fi. Vids like this are great to dip into for reading navigation. Thanks.

Did you ever see the movie, Time After Time? One of my favs....with HG Wells versus Jack the Ripper....traveling to the future (which was the 1970's (?)

So happy to see The Caves of Steel on the list. Elijah Baley's detective whodunits are my favourite Asimov books, so underrated.

Nice to see Earth Abides, and your critique is spot on.

Interesting, just downloaded City to my Kindle, and am reading Triffids atm. My top 10 would certainly include Neuromancer.

Very strong list LOVE the Triffids British sci fi authors are critical and foundational I would like to ad Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein and Childhoods End and 2001 : A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke please ? 🤩

I got nothin.' Hey, Have you ever seen the original TV series _V?_

Nice list, thanks. I'd have to put Dune at number 1. How about Fahrenheit 451? Not only was it a good book, it also made it easy to remember at what temperature paper burns.😊 As much sci-fi as I've read, I've never read any HG Wells or Jules Verne. Not sure I'll take the time at this point in my life. I've read Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Silverburg, Anthony, Ellison, et al. Too many new works on my shelf to bother with Wells and Verne when I basically know the stories anyway. Just curious where you put Douglas Adams in the pantheon of sci-fi gods? I would have to include his works somewhere on my list of favorite sci-fi. I've read some of Simak's work, years ago, but, for the life of me, I can't remember what I read of his. All I remember is his name, so I must not have been overly impressed. I'll check out City to see if I've matured enough to appreciate him. Thanks again!

I read City as a young whippersnapper and was converted to science fiction all my life! That and early to mid-Bradbury are incredible for sci-fi prose.

I've read Dune and Time Machine. I've added the others to my tbr. Thanks for more books to read.

My favorite science fiction novel (so far) is Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Have you read it? I love it because of the complexity and the way in which he is able to involve so many different science fiction concepts in a single story. I especially love the philosophical question at the root of much of the story, involving the relationship between language and knowledge/understanding.

With so many books to read, I have trouble convincing myself to re-read novels. The only novel I have read more than twice is "1984" which I skimmed once in high school, and read thoroughly twice since. I enjoyed the movie "...Shrinking Man" especially the last line "...to God, there is no zero". The novel was not as good as the novel, which is unusual. Great review.

I have seen many best 10 SF books videos, and this one is more to my liking. In general, I often was a bit disappointed by the writing style of SF authors in general. Some outstanding books for me never mentioned by top 10’s are ‚The Wanderer‘, ‚Way Station‘, ‚Gateway‘, ‚2001 Space Odyssee‘.

Earth abide, Martian chronicles and The days of triffids I never those read yet. Thise are great books. I recommand : - Replay by Ken Grimwood - The miracles of Namiya bazar (not really SF but the idea is close, it is so similar time travel stuff) - Flower for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - THE CARPET MARKERS by Andrea Eschbach (please read this !!!). - Old man's war by John Scalzy - Asimov : Robots, Foundation and a lot of stuff - Planet of adventure by Jack Vance

There is one scene early in The Day Of The Triffids that was so emotionally moving to me that I tear up whenever I hear the novel mentioned.

Great list. Very interesting. And I'm sure I speak for many when I say I don't mind the occasional comment from your dogs. They are wonderful bundles of love and happiness, and if they want a cameo appearance in your videos, I'm all for it.

I Am Legend also in my top 3!! Made me cry. It just ripped my guts out. But yes I agree with you. Fits more into the horror category!

How interesting... I've read many of these and agree with your choices. I must check out Simon and Matheson and that new( to the

Dune is my favorite SF book of all time, bar none. I’m reading The Left Hand of Darkness at this time. Very early into the book, so, can’t really comment on it as of yet. Several of your list are on my TBR list.

Earth Abides seems very interesting. And I dislike zombies so not having them is a plus. All of the other books were added to my TBR. I read only 3 books from your list. Is that Steve and his dog on the cover of City?

I've only read 1 of these books (Dune) - I'm not worthy 😌 12 months ago I'd never heard of Simak, but thanks to this channel I now have him on my TBR shelf ! I better read City next. 😉

I am reading Simak at the moment, the time travelling dog, couldn't resist!

Solid list.

Have read all of these most of them many years ago. All my favorites.A bit biased towards “City” I did expect to see Arthur Clarke on the list perhaps “Childhood’s End”. …Woof

I really want to read The Day of the Triffids. The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine were really great. Dune is one of my faves as well.

What, no Frankenstein? Perhaps you classify that more as a horror book? Interesting choices, thanks!

OK, I've read most of these, but not for many, many years, and I'm not sure I'd put any on my favorites list... alright, Martian Chronicles. My problem is that I'm more impressed by good, short fiction. I believe I see The Essential Ellison in your bookcase -- THAT would be on my list. But if we must limit it to novels, there would have to be room for Alfred Bester (Demolished Man), and Phil Dick (there are some diamonds in the trash), and Michael Moorcock (Behold The Man). Stuff like that there.

Nice list -- I think I've ignored City for the dumb reason that I've mixed it up with Cities in Flight by James Blish. There's a few here that are due for a reread, perhaps the LeGuin in particular, as it's one that I didn't much care for at all way back when, but which keeps coming up. The Asimov i never read, but am curious about now. I enjoyed the nerdy puzzle aspect of I Robot, in a way i never did with whodunnits, but a recent reread of Foundation was such a bad reading experience that I'm a bit leery of him now. And yeah, certain complaints people make about Dune always makes me want to spoil where Dune Messiah leads us 🚩

Ray Bradbury is my absolute favorite author, and thus my all-time fave book is "Martian Chronicles."

Have you ever read the Caine series by Matthew Woodring Stover? Man, this is good. You can't define it, is it sci fi, fantasy, sword and sorcery , or about sort of an eternal champion? It is all of this, and more. Matthew Stover claims humbly, that everything you need in life can be learned in his books, and may be he is right..

Hey, Clifford Simak! That man doesn't get enough love nowadays.

Interesting that all of your choices have 1900-1980 pub dates. So many top lists have few of these. these books have aged well. More recent books have not ‘yet’ stood the test of time. How about a list of most influential SF?

No Heinlein?

Those aliens have all the best technology. The Caves of Steel is the only one I've read and it's not my favorite Asimov. I need to read the rest of your list, although Earthsea has scared me off of Le Guin for a while.

The novel "LOGAN'S RUN" by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, upon which the 1976 MGM film was loosely based, is in my Top 5 all-time favorite SF books. It's the ONLY book I know of which has chapters numbering 10, 9, 8, 7, etc. rather than 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. It's a time-is-running-out countdown that chapter-by-chapter reveals the world of 2116 and the personality of its protagonist (Logan 3 on 'Lastday', when his 21st year comes to an end) in a concise approximately 150-pages in the mass market paperback version. Nolan & Johnson have trimmed the fat off the book, so that it tells us what we need to know and really nothing beyond that -- so, no 'filler' to pad out the text -- making it one of the most concise texts I've ever read. I'm still a huge fan of the 1976 film adaptation starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter (which I saw in theaters when I was 11), but the source novel is the superior work of art. Written in the mid-to-late '60s, it of course 'predicts' a future which has passed us by, so that there was no 'Little War' in the year 2000, where the angry Youth started a revolution that resulted in the execution of all 'Old' people -- 21 and over in the novel, versus 30 in the movie. The story is about how one man living in a society where nobody is really allowed to grow up into real adulthood is able to overcome a State indoctrination into a sense of 'patriotism' that necessitates willingly submitting oneself to being euthanized at 21. I read it soon after the film came out, and that theme of overcoming indoctrination was quite the formative influence in my youth, from which I primarily credit my healthy skepticism regarding 'Authority' figures and institutions. And it's a quick read, unlike a thousand-pager like LES MISERABLES and WAR AND PEACE, etc. So, I highly recommend the novel "LOGAN'S RUN" (as well as the entertaining -- if dated -- MGM film loosely based on it). Nolan wrote two sequels on his own, "LOGAN'S WORLD" and "LOGAN'S SEARCH" which were both decent in their own right, yet come nowhere near close to being as great as the original.

Regarding post-apocalyptic novels, I really liked "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank. Dystopian? I really enjoyed Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We".

You can watch The Day of the Triffids on KZfaq. Funny, I started watching the movie a few days ago.

Ursula K. Le Guin is simply one of the best writers ever - particularly within science fiction. As I see it, her main focus is on culture and what makes us human - where is the point that finallly divides us so that we don't anymore identify ourselves with one another.

Love TIme Machine and its sequel Time Ships

thank you

Doh.. I pressed the wrong dawned key! The Ursula Le Guinn title: thanks!

I've read all of the books on your list except "The Left Hand of Darkness." Try as I might I cannot get into it. Same thing with "Stranger in a Strange Land" which consistently appears on Top Ten lists.

3 of 10. I would include in my list Brave New World, Childhood End and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Surprised there is no Arthur C Clarke here. The City and The Stars along with Imperial Earth are books I revisit every decade or so...

CURRENTS of SPACE. Is classic ASIMOV

Great list but without any Philip K. Dick novel(?!)...And, frankly, from my point of view, Caves Of Steel and some of the Martian Chronicles stories are now really updated, they are not getting older very well....

DUNE IS QUASY FANTASY.......THE OMEGA MAN IS PURE SF!!

I read The Time Machine in one sitting, in the dark of the night. I was terrified by the subterranean scenes, and couldn’t leave to use the restroom because of it...

Thank you. I will take--most of-- your advice. You don't mention Asimov's Foundation series which I found intellectually exciting at the time, and you don't mention Robert Heinlein at all, nor Arthur C Clarke

The dogs in the background take over soon …

Do you do book clubs ? Groups of like minded people all reading the same book and discussing it.

Used to have them all on HARD BACK ETC. BUT Due to crazy ex. Destroyed my collection. I’ve got half my books on kindle or Audio. .. it’s nice if you have a good Narrator. Earth abides is great. But I’m old school. Pure. EEDOC SMITH. EDGAR RICE. ! P J FARMER . BLUSH. ALDISS HARRISON. CLARKE. EARLY ASIMOV. ( very early. ) the robot books are boring

Jules Verne