Who is the best Science Fiction author out there, /lit/?
>>8094661
Kurt Vonnegut
>>8094661
Gene Wolfe
Pynchon
>>8094661
Best living writer is Harlan Ellision
Best active writer is Neal Stephenson
Best dead writer is Philip K. Dick.
Ted Chiang and this is the only correct answer.
>>8094661
Larry Niven is pretty good.
>>8094661
Omg Op, stop what youre doing right now and go read anything by Earnest Cline, you'll thank me later.
>>8094661
Greg Egan.
>>8094661
C. J. Cherryh
>>8095111
>Best living writer is Harlan Ellision
HAHAHAHAHAA oh, wait, you're serious? let me laugh even harder.
>>8095170
I don't know about that. I only read ring world and I can't imagine the person who wrote that being any good
>>8094661
Stephen Baxter
>>8094661
Stanislaw Lem.
>>8094661
The Dick.
>>8096371
you want the D?
>>8095806
david foster wallace loved larry niven, and he loved ringworld
are you calling david foster wallace an asshole?
>>8096555
Sorry that last one should be Adam Roberts, writer of pic related, which I highly recommend.
>>8096555
>Orson Scot Card
really? i tried reading three different books by this guy, and there was a boy being beaten up by his older brother in the first chapter of each one. i decided that's his thing, when he isn't claiming that Krypton was destroyed by gay marriage.
Gene Wolfe is the most "literary", skillful and intelligent science fiction writer of all time. I can't bring myself to say he's the "best", though, because the ideas at the core of his stories are unoriginal and uninspired, and because there are severe problems with his characterisation of females.
If we're talking hard SF designed to inspire the reader with wonderment about the cosmos, maybe Larry Niven is the best.
Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov are mostly overrated.
Philip K. dick is TERRIBLY overrated. His stories just blur into a big trope-filled pile of kipple. A.E. Van Vogt is the patrician's alternative to Phillip K. Dick; an immensely prolific short-story writer, preoccupied with unusual aspects of thought and logic, whose stories all have a strange immediacy and dreamlike progression of events.
>>8097455
you are a faggot
>>8095775
Is this because you don't like his work, or do you think there's a better living SF writer?
>>8097455
How can you even compare Van Vogt with PKD?
- Van Vogt - golden age SF, super-fun but rarely novel ideas, lots of space exploration + cold war, often wrote to pay the rent and it shows
- PKD - a bit later, more "decay", darker themes, tons of mindfucks, often wrote to pay the rent and it shows
>Clarke + Asimov mostly overrated
reeeeeeee
>>8097455
That's probably the point. Dick and V are more surrealist than science fiction writers. I've only read Androids, Cats and Slaughterhouse and the emphasis is less on how humans live in the environments, or the potential of new technology, but rather how these specific characters deal with personal and social problems. Ironically, Cats Cradle is the closest to a traditional sci-fi novel because it deals with the mankind's connection with and technology and science, even though the latter half of the book mostly deals with lying to oneself in order to feel.better.
>>8096363
This, he is one of the few crossovers to literary fiction
>>8094661
pic related
>>8094661
Arthur C Clarke if you want hard scifi
>>8097476
>how can you even compare AEVV with PKD?
easy. as you pointed out yourself they both churned out pulp to pay the rent. Yes, PKD's themes were darker and more contemporary / relevant to 50s/60s USA, but they both wrote a shit load of "mindfuck" short stories, both were slightly insane in their own way, etc.
PKD's a bit more socially acceptable because of the subversive element to his work, that's all.
>>8097476
>asimov
>write over 9000 stories about oppressed robots
>never had the balls to just come right out and write a story about racial segregation and prejudice in the USA
>>8097509
He said 'is,' not 'was.'
>>8097472
Well, there is.
>>8097548
I do and he is.
>>8097738
She's been dead for 30 years as far as her writing goes and Wolfe is superior to almost every.
>>8097455
Out of all the sf writers it makes no sense to pick out Wolfe as someone who has characterisation problems with women.
And his body of high quality work is massive and I don't see how you could call it uninspired and unoriginal.
>>8097762
With regard to Wolfe's treatment of women, it is true that it is no worse than that of many other science fiction writers. I'm not singling him out as such, it's just that his writing is so awesome in so many respects, that his madonna / whore complex is especially disheartening.
The actual SF high concepts in BOTNS, BOTLS, and BOTSS are pretty standard (dying earth, world ship, alien planets, AI etc). It's just the execution that sets him apart from other authors. That said, 5th Head is pretty unique.
>>8097455
>his characterization of females
Fuck yourself
>but muh strong female characters
His female characters get a good amount of characterization, which is what really constitutes a "strong character"; a strong character is not necessarily a character with literal strength. Most brain-dead feminists can't seem to comprehend this.
>>8097979
He has much more to offer than that, especially since say drocas is both a Madonna and a whore.
>>8096249
my nigga
>>8096363
a man of refined taste and culture
>>8094661
David Weber
>>8094661
Olaf Stapledon
>>8099281
Last and First Men is my favorite book
>>8094661
Asimov's Foundation series is a masterpiece.
Card's Ender novels are also excellent.
Herbert's Dune has got to be the crown jewel of the general, though.
I find Clarke boring because he doesn't delve into the implications of his described technologies enough.
>>8099423
>Ender novels
Novel.
Lets not give praise when it certainly isnt due
>>8099426
I enjoyed Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, but you're right, they're not the classic Ender's Game is.
>>8094661
Huxley's Brave New World is most certainly sci-fi, and it's one of the most important, interesting, and fun to read novels ever.
>>8097733
>>never had the balls to just come right out and write a story about racial segregation and prejudice in the USA
i take it you never read his stories "The Half-Breeds" and "Half-Breeds on Venus"? about prejudice against human-martian half-breeds?
P K D
K
D
>>8097472
it's because i am still pissed off about "The Last Dangerous Visions". just because Harlan likes to run off at the mouth, he collected several hundred thousand words of other people's stories and REFUSES to release them or publish them or EVEN DISCUSS THEM.
guy is a relentless self-promoter, but, frankly, i think he only ever did one half-way decent story: "God bless you little life hutch". all the rest is wild apocalyptic ranting about not much.
