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Top Ten Science Fiction Writers #1 - Nominations Stage

   Posted by gryphon  Promoted 109 days 8 hours ago  3309 views   

    Entertainment / Books  |   Comments 35 comments  | 

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This is the first part of many lists on science fiction writers and is an experiment in democracy.


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Immaculate1, on 5/20/2008 4:09:24 PM
Total Posts: 7129, Joined: 7/16/2006
Oh man, you're breaking my balls here, you're breaking my balls. Why these weird restrictions?

^ Anyway, I'm not gonna hold myself to these restrictions.

1. Isaac Asimov. - I'd put Frank Herbert as #1 because I think Dune is better than any Asimov book by itself, but the sheer amount of highly enjoyable Asimov books greatly outnumber Herbert's single hitter. The foundation series is very good, and further the Robot series and the Galactic Empire series. I think his idea of the Three Laws Of Robotics is ridiculous though. It is a shame too much of his books have a plot centered around his 3 laws because it does add some weakness to their plots.
2. Frank Herbert. - Dune. Pure genius. Only the first Dune is genius though, the sequels suck.
3. Brian W. Aldiss. - Many good books.
4. Larry Niven. - Ringworld, the idea Halo used.
5. H.G. Wells. - War Of The Worlds & The Time Machine.
6. Frederik Pohl. - Gateway & Man Plus.
7. A.E. Van Vogt. - Many good books, like Supermind & Rogue Ship & Empire Of The Atom.
8. James Blish - Various books, forgot any title though.
9. Star Wars books writers Timothy Zahn & Kevin J. Anderson. Not that they are truly remarkable writers on their own, but their trilogies read nicely away as they are situated in the SW universe.
10. Jules Verne, Robert Silverberg, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Robert A. Heinlein, and more.
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ParticleMan, on 5/20/2008 11:50:07 PM
Total Posts: 1714, Joined: 12/5/2005
unlike some, i can read rules, so here are 2, but not in order

Isaac Asimov
Arthur C. Clarke


i might add frank herbert, but really, 1 good book doesnt equal great writer (the first 3 were ok, then fell apart)

i havent read enough Heinlein to know, but out of the 2.5 books of his (1 a short story collection) i'm not sure.

Kurt Vonnegut is good too, but even his sci-fi arent really scifi (not counting cats cradle).

possibly H.G. Wells, but again, i havent read many, and 1 of them was him ripping himself off later in his career.

shit i could even add stephen king in here, since his sci-fi-ish stories (particularly the short stories) are as good as alot of the classic scifi stories (far better than bradbury, for example)

so, just the first 2, possibly with Stephen King at #3
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Jairus, on 5/21/2008 5:05:41 AM
Total Posts: 55, Joined: 3/25/2007
Surely L Ron Hubbard wins this hands down? That cunt has the biggest cult following the world has ever seen.
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scuzzmonkey, on 5/21/2008 7:53:24 AM
Total Posts: 6, Joined: 7/31/2007
Philip K. Dick
Arthur C. Clarke

hands down, best Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk writers of all time.
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Hanafi, on 5/21/2008 7:56:43 AM
Total Posts: 3820, Joined: 3/30/2006
I nominate L.E.Modesitt.

Not very well known, but he's my favorite author. He bases a lot of his sci fi + fantasy on actual scientific principles - Like how Order and Chaos in his Recluse books strongly allude to the second law of thermodynamics, etc., that kind of jazz.

Just throwing his name into the ring.
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r4mcok, on 5/21/2008 3:49:00 PM
Total Posts: 250, Joined: 9/16/2007
Peter F. Hamilton, he barely makes it onto the list having only had shorts written before '93. But his books are a good read and fucking huge so you can really get into them. He presents a convincing high-tech reality with fucked up sex. What more can you ask for?
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GunWillTravel, on 5/22/2008 12:54:36 AM
Total Posts: 619, Joined: 4/25/2006
@scuzzmonkey

I'm with you voting for PK Dick, author of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" on which Blade Runner was based.

And the list is ridiculously incomplete without Harlan Ellison.
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dichroicwash, on 5/23/2008 2:12:32 PM
Total Posts: 33, Joined: 1/6/2006
Let's not forget Piers Anthony- The man for which the term "Anthology" was coined. His classics "Chthon"-(circa 1969) and "On A Pale Horse"-(circa 1972)-the first of the "Incarnations of Immortality" anthology were some of the best pieces of Sci-Fi I have ever experienced. The criteria you put forth says "The ten BEST Sci-fi Writers" not The ten most well known sci-fi writers. So with that, I will give my Anti-vote to Hubbard because his work is just a crappy attempt at making the tenets of Scientology reasonable. Heinlein is boring. And I don't find that P K Dick and Vonnegut fall into the sci-Fi genre per se.

Well here's MY list. Hope some of you can agree with some of the entries.
(In no particular order)
Piers Anthony(Incarnations of Immortality--The Blue Adept Series--The Xanth Chronicles{hehe)--ad infinitum)
Larry Niven(The Inventor of "Known Space")
Roger Zelazny(Chronicles of Amber)(Hanafi, You'd like this one all about Order and Chaos)
Ben Bova(Orion Series)

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jkzfixme, on 5/23/2008 4:58:38 PM
Total Posts: 1, Joined: 6/11/2007
I would like to nominate a less known author in the genre, Mr Edgar Rice Burroghs for his Martian novels. Although he wrote more of an action novel and the scope was less then epic, A Princess of Mars was possibly the first fiction of the 20th century to feature a constructed language; although Barsoomian was not particularly developed, it did add verisimilitude to the narrative. What is also imperative to remember is the time frame he wrote in. The first novel was published in 1912.
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gryphon, on 5/23/2008 5:12:20 PM
Total Posts: 468, Joined: 6/16/2006
nominations will remain open till tuesday
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