Who's the best Sci-fi author?

Everyone's entitled to their own opinions. But the goal of a science fiction writer is to be prophetic. No one tops the three writers I mentioned.

I will definatly take your advice on Stephonson though, thanks!

Exactly my point. Most of the technically possible inventions that were predicted have already been invented. The mark of a master of this genre is the ability to step outside convention and offer up something new and original which is why I recommended Neil Stephenson. He is pretty much the only author that I'm aware of to break new ground since Blade Runner and Neuromancer.

Another mark of Great Fiction in general, is the ability of the author to put me into a trance and instead of reading the words I start to "see and hear" the action and the words become silent.



You'll love Snow Crash. Everyone does. It also has a generous dose of Psudo-Religious-Techno-Mysticism. Technically it's a Cyberpunk Comedy novel. Here is the synopsis.

www.amazon.co.uk...


The Diamond age is a much different book and is written in the Victorian style. Yeah, a Sci-Fi novel written in the same style the Victorians used. It's also very confusing the get your head around the first time through as he writes in a completely different style depending on whos eyes your "seeing" through. Nell, the Main Character in the book has an ever evolving Point of View as she grows up. It start Childlike and ends up Sophisticated and Shrewed. The Judge is written in a more Humorous tone. Nells father is written in a much more disturbing detached way. I won't ruin it for you as it's integral to the plot but if you read this book twice you will appreciate it if not love it. It grows on you like a fungus.

www.amazon.co.uk...


Also, here is a site you all might be interested in.

Sci-Fi Lists

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I appreciate it really. I looked and read the synopsis. It's not my type of story. I just can't dig it.

I'm currently reading "when the sleeper awakes" by H.G Wells. I like dark sci-fi I guess.

But thanks again. Post more reccomendations if you can!

Snow Crash is pretty dark. Most Cyberpunk is very dark at it's core if not on the surface. And it's not HAHA funny, it's more like that's funny cuz it's kinda true. I guess I should say it's more of a Satire rather then a Comedy. It pokes fun at such things as Ted Turner(under a Pseudonym of course), and Television in general.

Here is a much better review.

www.complete-review.com...



This basically sums up my opinion.



[edit on 23-3-2007 by sardion2000]

Iian M Banks has certainly been one of the latest crop of SF authors to have 'broken new ground' imo. Even his general fiction is original, strange, disturbing. Check him out if you havent already. Here's a great interview.



source

I think William Gibson was an iconoclast when he first arrived on the scene with "Burning Chrome" and still plays outside the box with his current style of current day techno romantic prose.

[edit on 23-3-2007 by whaaa]

Each to their own i guess but i never really 'got' Gibson.
Banks, Baxter and Hamilton suck me right in with their style.

Which probably means i'm more of a traditionalist when it comes to sf, the cyberpunk/techno sf leaves me cold.

I'm not a sceintologist, and Heinlein is my fave as with Asimov ( read the I, robot anthology at age 11 and was a confirmed bookworm ever since) but L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series is fantastic as wall as battle field earth.( the Movie was Horrible IMO) Before L. Ron went insane, he was considered one of the grandfathers of science fiction and was (before his insanity) a friend of R.A.H. ( there is a debate that rages as to weather or not he really wrote Mission earth but it's Very topical , more so now then when it originally came out).
if ya have a month or two it's worth the read

Clarity edit

[edit on 24-3-2007 by thedigirati]

All I have to say is that Arthur C Clarke's 3rd part of his Time oddysey series is being released this year. I CAN'T WAIT ! "Sunstorm" was the best sci fi novel I've read in a long time.

I have always like the Dragonlance series. I have read most scienceificion in the book store. And yet The dragonlance series has always cout my eye.

Margueret Waist and Tracy Hickman (names spelled wrong) Are good writers. Maybe not the best, but they're up there on the list.

Alasdair Reynolds,Ian M Banks,Robert Silverberg,Ursula Le Gunn,David Mitchell,Neil Gaiman,Ben Bova are all brilliant authors as well many classics written by Isaac Asimov,Arthur C Clarke,Philip K Dick,H.G. Wells etc.
One of my favourite though is John Wyndam,hes wrote many great books and short stories.
His novella 'The Chrysalids' is excellent and way ahead of its time.

John Varley's book Mammoth was pretty interesting. Gotta love time travel and mega-fauna, right?

Asimov was a genius.

Really liked the robot trilogy, and robot dreams.

PHILIP KINDRED DICK ! he's the one who opened my eyes. He is God !

I like Bester, Simak and Bradbury, buit nowadays the SF is just an Art Show contest for who's gonna draw the best spacecruiser or motojet...

I'll have finished my own SF novel by the end of summer i guess. It's called " l'appel " (the call in english ) and talks about a post-war world in whic people have given up their freedom in exchange for a law and order state. (((where do i get these ideas???)))

YES YES and YES! I also really like Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series.

Well, there's no accounting for taste, I guess; I read the first two books in the Mission Earth series and thought they were the most poorly written and thought out sci-fi books I had ever read. In fact, I wondered to myself on several occasions how such an amatuerish bunch of crap could ever get published. But, hey, that's just my opinion.

For me, the best of sci-fi can be found in the works of authors like the following:

R.A. Heinlein - SIASL; The Door into Summer; Time Enough For Love. Also, great collections of short sci-fi, including one of my all-time favorites, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.

Arthur C Clarke - 2001, A Space Odysee; 2010 Odysee 2; Childhood's End; and short story collections like The Nine Billion Names Of God and Tales From Planet Earth

Larry Niven - The Ringworld Series; The Mote In God's Eye; Destiny's Road

Frank Herbert- Dune; Children of Dune; The God Makers

That's enough for now, although I also enjoy reading the books of Greg Bear, Dan Simmons and Orson Scott Card, as well.