Favorite Science Fiction Authors

[Mr. Lothario]

     I figure it's probably a safe bet that most of the people here read at least some science fiction, so I'm wondering: who is on your short list of favorite authors who publish in that genre, and why?

     My top five are Heinlein, John Varley, David Brin, Poul Anderson, and Kim Stanley Robinson, with Neal Stephenson, Harlan Ellison, and James P. Hogan just barely missing out.

     Heinlein: The Dean of science fiction himself. His better books, such as Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers, did much to shape and codify my personal philosophy.
     John Varley: The best author that nobody's heard of. Hit your library and pick up a copy of his anthology The Persistence of Vision. He's a masterful writer in general, but the title story of that anthology is just fscking amazing. It's hard to find strong enough words to accurately reflect how great that story is. I've never read a bad book, or even a mediocre one, by Varley.
     David Brin: His Uplift series is excellent, as is his book Earth. He writes a mean short story, too.
     Poul Anderson: This guy's been around forever. He's a Golden Age author, having started publishing in 1947. I really fell in love with Anderson's writing while reading his anthology The Gods Laughed. Every story in it is thematically related, in that they all have an element of smallness struggling against greatness. Some really great stuff in there.
     Kim Stanley Robinson: The Mars trilogy. 'Nuff said.

[Shade]

Well seeing that I may not be old enough to know about most of those authors I do know and like Heinleins books. I doubt you could call George Orwell a science fiction author, but 1984 was considered science fiction when it was written and thats a damn good book, nuff' said.

[Bondo]

Well, I don't really think that 1984 would be considered science fiction...it deserves the category dystopian fiction along with A Brave New World by Huxley.

As for Sci-Fi...I don't consider it myself a fan of the genre...I prefer true fantasy (but more the children's fantasy series like Harry Potter and Lloyd Alexander's books) and mystery (Patterson, Jackson Braun).  But I'd have to agree on Heinlein...also, my brother seemed to like that dude who wrote Rama.

[Ace]

I haven't read that much sci-fi, but by far and away my favorite author has to be Asimov because of the Foundation trilogy. To me, that embodies what sci-fi should be: a unique view of the future that doesn't focus on the different aspects on the civilization but rather uses these different aspects to enhance and further the plot.

[Mr. Lothario]

      The Rama series was written by Arthur C. Clarke. He's another great, great author, and one of the few remaining Golden Age authors. I completely forgot about him; he should have been listed in my post. : )

     1984 is somewhat science fiction. It's more proper to call it dystopian fiction, as Bondo said, but for that category, it's pretty far towards sf.

[Jeb]

My favorite science fiction book is Frankenstien. Yes it is science fiction dispite the fact that the book is really old. it is infact classified as the root of modern science fiction.
Generaly science fictoin books are classified as a escape on reality.
 Like bondo mentioned, A brave new world by huxley. that is indeed within the genre of science fiction, take into acount that the book used social classes, free sex, and heavy drug use (i forget the name of the drug strangly), all of those factors are exscapes on modern reality with a harsh social message behind them.
If you look at the meaning of most science fiction books, they usualy are warning about what the future could hold if we continue on a certain path. That is why so many sifi books concern wars, invasions, and desease.
The entire genre of science fiction is apart of Romance novels, horror, fantasy, and science fiction books are all similar in the fact that they concern a hero, and usualy are fantasy based.
I hated harry potter, simply because Lord of the rings pwned it. If you haven't read lord of the rings, read it. The Book  creates such a great and indepth world that suround the charicters, its more seen within the book than in the movie. Also a little fact about lord of the rings, is that it was orginaly 1 large book, but was split up into 3 smaller books by publishers.
My favorite sifi author is Ray bradbury, with Fahrenheit 451, and The Illustrated Man.

[Bondo]

Oh yeah...forgot about Bradburry, Martian Cronicles is awesome.

I have to disagree with you about Lord of the Rings being better than Harry Potter.  They are both excellent, but Harry Potter I think is better in that it has the fantasy element but also it makes it seem as if it could actually be happening in the year 2002 in this world.  Not some other world in a world more like the middle ages.  Artemis Fowl has that same thing as Harry Potter but isn't really what I'd call a work of literature but rather is just a novel.  It doesn't have quite the same level of overridding messages that the Harry Potter series...it is merely for entertainment.

[Geek USA]

im not one for sci-fi books, however, ray bradburry and kurt vonnegut own. i love welcome to the monkey house, the martian cronicals and all that good stuff. lately i have been into more nonfiction

[Ace]

Oh yeah...forgot about Bradburry, Martian Cronicles is awesome.

I have to disagree with you about Lord of the Rings being better than Harry Potter.  They are both excellent, but Harry Potter I think is better in that it has the fantasy element but also it makes it seem as if it could actually be happening in the year 2002 in this world.  Not some other world in a world more like the middle ages.  Artemis Fowl has that same thing as Harry Potter but isn't really what I'd call a work of literature but rather is just a novel.  It doesn't have quite the same level of overridding messages that the Harry Potter series...it is merely for entertainment.

Dude, Harry Potter is Tolkien's bitch. No two ways about it. Then again, most any sci-fi is Tolkien's bitch.

[(SiX)Ben]

Well... I dunno authors names... Frankly mos thte of the books named off were boring to me (*cough* Frankenstein...)

As a kid I was totally into the Wing Commander Game... (It still owns) So I decided to read the series... It was pretty damn addictive... I liked Ender's Game too....

I know I'll bury myself by saying this... I read Harry Potter and thought it a pretty damn good book... Regardless of what others say it's pretty addictive... I'd challange someone to read the whole first book and see what they think... For me it started as an assignment in school, and ended as a hobby... The Hobbit put me to sleep in an hour reading... So I just stopped that series... No clue what these two have to do with Sci Fi though...

Ben

[*DAMN Silent Killer]

if you want really really good navy seal/spec ops

try Richard Marchinko

[Shade]

oh  yea.... I forgot about Ender's game, funny thing is I'm reading one of Orson Scott Card's books right now. Silly me. For all of you who think Ender's game is childish keep reading on in the series, Xenocide definatly isn't for children like mattster =P  ... im jk... anyway they're good books

[Bondo]

Ben, I'm there with you, I just couldn't get into The Hobbit at all, it is so slow.  Harry Potter has characters you can better imagine and be right there with.

Ace, way to defend your opinion...by providing no argument at all.  I'm glad to see you are adding a lot to the discussion.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Don't worry, Ben. I'm completely with you about Harry Potter. It's a great series, no two ways about it.

     Ender's Game is a good book. Card is a highly competent author. The thing about Card is, about half of his books are excellent, and the other half are super-Mormon. He wrote an anthology titled Folk of the Fringe. Post-apocalyptic survival stuff. Quite well done. I got about 100 pages into it, and suddenly every line was, "MORMONMORMONMORMON!" Exceedingly annoying, and it ruined the rest of the book. I only got a little further and stopped reading it.

[Brain]

my short list is as follows:
chrichton

there were actually some others on my list, but their names escape me at the moment

[(SiX)Ben]

Nice LOOOONG list Brain

Lothar... Thanks ... I'm so happy I'm not buried...

Ender's Game was awesome... I was forced to read that book too... Most books I'm forced to read were awful just to the sheer fact it was forced on me... This was awesome....

Ben

[Ace]

Ace, way to defend your opinion...by providing no argument at all.  I'm glad to see you are adding a lot to the discussion.

If I stated 2 + 2 = 4, would anyone ask for supporting evidence? No. If I said the Earth was round, would people want me to provide facts to prove it? No. If I said the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, would anyone beg to differ? No. In sci-fi there are two stories above all else (two stories to rule them all so to speak ): Star Wars and LOTR. I feel there is no need to go into length as to why; anyone in their right mind should realize it already.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Actually, Star Wars is intentionally based on the quintessential heroic fantasy plot. Badly paraphrased, it goes like this: young hero, coming of age, is ripped from his family/home/the life he knew. He meets an older mentor, wise, knowledgeable and powerful. The mentor bestows an item of power upon the hero, and tasks him with a quest. There's more, but it's been awhile since I read it. To the best of my knowledge, the Lord of the Rings is based on the same story.

[Jeb]

i really feel like such a dork argueing about books,
however...
LOTR (the book not the movie) created such a indepth world, maps, its own alphabet and such...
and harry potter is some homo kids story,
If you enjoy reading quality books LOTR is surely one to check out
If you like gamecubes iceskating (and other things pretaining to childhood) then surely go pick up Harry potter.
jeb
ps. i get my knowledge of science fiction from a sifi class i took in highschool, i'm not the type to read books out of fun
 

[Mr. Lothario]

     Heh. People who haven't tried the Harry Potter series: "Gaaay... it's for kids. You've read it? You're some kind of a homo, aren't you?" People who have tried it: "Man, that's one great series. When does the next book come out? Aww, that long?" The question of the day, class, is "what is the first group missing out on?"

     On a related (and funny) note, here's the Book-A-Minute version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.