“As president, I would demand a science fiction library featuring an ABC of the overlords of the genre – Asimov, Bester, Clarke”. “What about Ray Bradbury?” (Dismissively) “I’m aware of his work.” (Martin Prince running for class president in The Simpsons, “Lisa’s Substitute”, Season 2 Episode 19)

TOP 10 SF BOOKS

(SPECIAL MENTION: CLASSIC)

I’ve ranked my Top 10 SF Books, but science fiction is too prolific – and phantasmagorical – a genre to be confined to a mere top ten books or even my usual list of special mentions.

Instead, as I do for fantasy books, I have two lists of special mentions – one classic and the other cult and pulp.

This is obviously the former – for those classic SF books or works that have iconic status or recognition within popular culture and imagination, albeit perhaps less so (or more niche) than their fantasy counterparts.