Best science-fiction novels of the 2010s

Requested by a visitor · October 25, 2026

We asked 10 models: The best science-fiction novels published in the 2010s. Each named its own top 10.

Agreement between models

46%

Same model, run twice

64%

Different picks

37

When agreement between models is well below a model's agreement with itself, the split reflects real differences in taste rather than randomness.

The consensus

Each cell is the position that model gave the pick; blank means it left the pick off. Click a row for each model's reasoning.

#	Pick	Score	Listed by	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
1	The Three-Body Problem		10/10	1	2	6	1	2	2	2	1	1	1
2	Ancillary Justice		10/10	6	3	2	2	1	1	1	3	5	3
3	The Fifth Season		8/10	2	1		4	3	5	6	5	3
4	Children of Time		9/10	4	8	1	9	5		9	2	7	6
5	A Memory Called Empire		7/10		6	4	7	4			8	6	5
6	The Martian		6/10	5	4	9		7	4	3
7	Station Eleven		6/10	9		3		9	6		4	10
8	Annihilation		5/10	3		8	8	10		5
9	Leviathan Wakes		4/10		10	7	5	6
10	Seveneves		3/10	8						7		4
11	Aurora		2/10						3			8
12	The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet		2/10		7								4
13	Ancillary Mercy		1/10									2
14	Project Hail Mary		1/10										2
15	Exhalation		2/10						9	4

22 lower-scoring picks are not shown; every ballot below lists them in full.

Every ballot

Hover a pick to find it on the other ballots. Marked picks appear on no other ballot.

Claude Haiku 5.5

1. The Three-Body Problem
2. The Fifth Season
3. Annihilation
4. Children of Time
5. The Martian
6. Ancillary Justice
7. Red Rising
8. Seveneves
9. Station Eleven
10. The Stars Are Legion

74% with consensus · 90% self-consistent

GPT-6 Luna

1. The Fifth Season
2. The Three-Body Problem
3. Ancillary Justice
4. The Martian
5. The Book of the New Sun
6. A Memory Called Empire
7. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
8. Children of Time
9. The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
10. Leviathan Wakes

61% with consensus · 65% self-consistent

Gemini 4 Argon

1. Children of Time
2. Ancillary Justice
3. Station Eleven
4. A Memory Called Empire
5. Death's End
6. The Three-Body Problem
7. Leviathan Wakes
8. Annihilation
9. The Martian
10. Embassytown

51% with consensus · 56% self-consistent

Qwen 3.8 Flash

1. The Three-Body Problem
2. Ancillary Justice
3. Blindsight
4. The Fifth Season
5. Leviathan Wakes
6. A Fire Upon the Deep
7. A Memory Called Empire
8. Annihilation
9. Children of Time
10. Ninefox Gambit

75% with consensus · 68% self-consistent

DeepSeek V4 Pro

1. Ancillary Justice
2. The Three-Body Problem
3. The Fifth Season
4. A Memory Called Empire
5. Children of Time
6. Leviathan Wakes
7. The Martian
8. Gideon the Ninth
9. Station Eleven
10. Annihilation

76% with consensus · 86% self-consistent

GLM-5.3

1. Ancillary Justice
2. The Three-Body Problem
3. Aurora
4. The Martian
5. The Fifth Season
6. Station Eleven
7. All Systems Red
8. The Power
9. Exhalation
10. The Testaments

57% with consensus · 35% self-consistent

Kimi K3

1. Ancillary Justice
2. The Three-Body Problem
3. The Martian
4. Exhalation
5. Annihilation
6. The Fifth Season
7. Seveneves
8. The Power
9. Children of Time
10. Dark Matter

56% with consensus · 69% self-consistent

MiniMax M3

1. The Three-Body Problem
2. Children of Time
3. Ancillary Justice
4. Station Eleven
5. The Fifth Season
6. The Dispossessed
7. The Power of the Dog
8. A Memory Called Empire
9. Consider Phlebas
10. All the Light We Cannot See

72% with consensus · 83% self-consistent

Mistral Large 4

1. The Three-Body Problem
2. Ancillary Mercy
3. The Fifth Season
4. Seveneves
5. Ancillary Justice
6. A Memory Called Empire
7. Children of Time
8. Aurora
9. The Calculating Stars
10. Station Eleven

67% with consensus · 26% self-consistent

Nemotron 3 Ultra

1. The Three-Body Problem
2. Project Hail Mary
3. Ancillary Justice
4. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
5. A Memory Called Empire
6. Children of Time
7. The Murderbot Diaries
8. The Windup Girl
9. Ninefox Gambit
10. Recursion

62% with consensus · 64% self-consistent

Who agrees with whom

Overlap between two models' lists, weighted toward the top · 100 means identical · Color runs from 21 (lightest) to 75 (darkest)

	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
Claude Haiku 5.5		56	25	54	52	41	48	59	61	46
GPT-6 Luna	56		28	50	60	51	51	46	49	45
Gemini 4 Argon	25	28		36	49	32	31	52	21	31
Qwen 3.8 Flash	54	50	36		62	49	50	61	58	55
DeepSeek V4 Pro	52	60	49	62		69	67	52	51	47
GLM-5.3	41	51	32	49	69		75	47	38	35
Kimi K3	48	51	31	50	67	75		41	37	36
MiniMax M3	59	46	52	61	52	47	41		56	57
Mistral Large 4	61	49	21	58	51	38	37	56		51
Nemotron 3 Ultra	46	45	31	55	47	35	36	57	51