10 best SciFi authors of all time?

I am out to creat a science fiction series to be published.

Yes laugh it up if you want but my teacher's say I could eaisily do it with my intellegence. My first assiment is to identify the top 10 scifi authors of all time. Any suggestions?

 

Learn to spell, before you write novels...

Orson Scott Card, Isaac Asmiov and Michael Crichton are up there...

 

If the masters, Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven are not on it, throw the list away. Chissdude, get a spellcheck for Xmas and let me use it too, huh?

 

Potentially:

H.G. Wells
Jules Verne
Robert Heinlein
Arthur C. Clarke
Isaac Asimov
Alfred Bester

 

Excellent choices Mastadge, but who is Alfred Bester? I have not heard of him.

Hey, Chissdude 10 is that you travelling the galaxy with that missiltoe stuck up on your helmet's antenna in search of Jaina or Taherie (I really need that spell check)?

Put Greg Bear on it (for Darwin's Radio not Rogue Planet and Kim Stanley Robinson too.

 

Is she asking which writers you consider best? Or does she want a list of popular writers? Or of those who have received praise from numerous critics?

If it's the first, it would be difficult for us to help.

If it's the second, I'd go with Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Michael Crichton... can't seem to think of any more at the moment.

 

Orsen Scott Card's already been mentioned a few times so lets see....oh yeah. Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams.

 

Excellent and critically lauded writers, which I'm familiar with are:

Peter F Hamiliton
Julian May
David Brin
Iain M Banks
Gene Wolfe

A classic author is James Blish

Others who are oft mentioned but whom I've not read are Ken Macleod.

One worth looking at is David Zindell.

Jedi Ben

 

H.G. Wells
Jules Verne
Robert Heinlein
Arthur C. Clarke
Isaac Asimov
Alfred Bester <-- Before or after he became a Psi-Cop?

To this list I would add...

William Gibson
Spider Robinson
E.E. 'Doc' Smith
Greg Bear
Gregory Benford
Keith Laumer
Fred Saberhagan
David Drake

 

Tolkein! don't forget Tolkein!

But this only applies if we go by the recent trend of lumping fantasy into the sci-fi category, as most bookstores seem to be doing now.

has anyone else noticed this? I mean, maybe it's just a McNally Robinsons thing to organize books that way.

 

I'd say this was nit picking.

However, since both genres are flights of fantasy as based in speculative fiction and imagination, no reason why they should not be in the same section.

 

Who is Alfred Bester?? You mean, you've never gone on a Jaunt???

"Gully Foyle is my name,

and Terra is my nation.

Deep space is my dwelling place,

the stars, my destination."

(from The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester)

 

If your assignment is to come up with a list, then why are you asking us to do it for you?

Tolkien is a fantasy writer.

 

Agreed, Tolkien is a fantasy writer. No Anakin SkySolo, I have never been on a jaunt, however, if you'd like, I'll let you take me on one over the holidaze.

Put Stanaslaus Lem on that list too.

 

I don't really have a problem with bookstores lumping fantasy and SF together. If they kept them separate, they would constantly have to deal with Star Wars fans asking why books were shelved in the wrong section.

 

Don't forget Phillip K. Dick. He is probably one of the more underated, but if it wasn't for him there would be no Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report.
This may be a stretch but there might not even be a Matrix without his influence.
His books go places most wouldn't dare.

William Gibson and Frank Herbert would be excellent choices.

 

Well, too imply that the Matrix is in someway Philip K. Dickian is filthy, filthy lie, it does deal with the concept of reality but lacks the sharp wit and keen insight that is a key element of Dick's writing.

I also think that Bladerunner was a poor translation of Dick's work into a movie.

But anyway, the best sci-fi authors I've read are:

Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (he was so a science-fiction writer, no matter how ardently he denies it).

 

Roger Zelazny
Fritz Leiber

EDIT:
Also, "Doc" Smith & Philip K. Dick. Possibly Frank Herbert.

 

Arthur C. Clark
Orson Scott Card
Timothy Zahn
Frank Herbert
Michael A Stackpole
Michael Crichton
Brian Wilson Aldiss

 

By the way, Bester wrote The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man.

And Stackpole, besides not being much of a sci-fi author, is also not a very great author either.

 

Mastadge, I agree that Stackpole is not a great author, science fiction or otherwise, however, he is VERY entertaining, and enjoyable nonetheless.

 

Kier, you'll get no argument from me; I was just pointing out that he isn't anywhere NEAR the sci-fi top 10, or any top 10

 

I must admit I have never heard of Alfred Bester.

 

I am out to creat a science fiction series to be published.

Yes laugh it up if you want but my teacher's say I could eaisily do it with my intellegence. My first assiment is to identify the top 10 scifi authors of all time. Any suggestions?

First of all, what does identifying the top 10 sci-fi authors have to do with writing a science fiction series? Second, you better be able to write, and to accept rejection. Most of the major publishing houses won't accept unsolicited manuscripts, and those that will take a long time to get back to you, send out lots of rejections for reasons that may seem silly to you. You need to be able to write, have something worth writing about, and care enough to write it well. And...well, if you have to rely on us to supply names for the top 10 list...I dunno.

 

I think he's looking to read good authors as examples.

In that case then I would add Freidrick Pohl and Pol Anderson.