Favorite Science Fiction Authors

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brotherhrolf

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Let’s differentiate between fantasy and “hard” science fiction. My first introduction to science fiction was when I was in the 5th grade ( a long time ago and a galaxy far far away ca. 1960?) Isaac Asimov had a whole bunch of science fiction novels for kids - Lucky Starr and the… (e.g. Moons of Jupiter). So, who are your favorite science fiction authors? Asimov? Clarke? Heinlein? Bova? Benford? It’s really too bad that there is so much fantasy and not enough hard science fiction.
 
Hey, good question!
I like Asimov, Clarke, Nancy Kress, Larry Niven (the books, not his politics!), Heinlein, Greg Bear, Poul Andersen, Bruce Sterling (but he may be more termed “cyberpunk”), Jules Verne (a lot of phony science, but WTH!) and more, but I can’t come up with any more names right now.

Peace.
 
I like Niven and Pournell too. Unfortunately there is very little hard science fiction being written today. I really like Peter Hamilton’s work (e.g. Fallen Dragon) and, I am ashamed but I’m really drawing a blank, the guy who wrote Hyperion. Mea culpa!
 
Poul Anderson is another one of those writers I’ve read since I was a child. My screen name comes from his Hrolf Kraki’s Saga.
 
Nancy Kress (I liked the Beggars books anyway)

Catherine Asaro (despite some um, graphic stuff I skip over)

Sheri Tepper (in small doses, the angry feminist thing gets old after a while; she’s very imaginative, but not for the timid)

Robert Sawyer (an atheist who writes interesting things trying to explain God away in nearly every novel)

Amin Maalouf (OK he only wrote one SF novel that I’m aware of, but it was really good)

Michael Crichton (State of Fear was really good)

Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child (some of their stuff is SF anyway)

I liked David Brin quite a bit for a while, but it got bogged down by its own message. Too much “uplift” and not enough good storytelling.
 
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wabrams:
Heinlein and Bradbury, hands down.
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I’ve been a huge fan of Bradbury for many years, but I wouldn’t really call his writings “hard” sci-fi, myself. I’ve always found it to lean more towards anything from gentle fantasy to outright horror (all time favorite Bradbury: “Something Wicked this Way Comes”, “The Small Assassin” and “The Watchers”).

Peace.
 
H. Beam Piper! Little Fuzzy! Loved 'em. Gave 'em to my kids to read when they were little. Which begs another question: have you passed on your reading proclivities to your kids?
 
Michael Crichton (State of Fear was really good)
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i’m reading that now.

i’d say bradbury and cs lewis are my top favs, followed by orson scott card, sondra marshak & myrna culbreath, madeline l’engle, janet kagan, and diane duane.

neither bradbury nor lewis are hard-core sci-fi, which is why i like them best. they write great FICTION, and in it you find alot of great sci-fi. i’m reading ‘october sky’ right now.
 
i almost put philip k dick, but i got lost in the ones i DID list, and forgot him.

he’s excellent.
 
She tends more to the social sciences, rather than the nuts and bolts, but I really like C. J. Cherryh, especially her Morgaine series, closely followed by the Merchanter books. “Hunter of Worlds” was the first book I can say truly boggled my mind.
 
thanks alot, thread… now i’ve reordered several sci fi books that i read and enjoyed in high school.

the nerve! sheesh!

😉
 
I always liked Isaac Asimov better than the other ones I read. I have also enjoyed reading Orson Scott Card.

Random question - is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of Sci Fi authors are atheists?

I used to enjoy reading Arthur C. Clarke, but after a while I noticed that most of his books include some pretty blatant jabs against religion. One of the things that I like about Asimov is that, even though he was an atheist and not ashamed to say so, he didn’t generally beat you over the head with it in his fiction. He just wrote interesting stories with good plots. And part of what I like about Card (who is Mormon) is that he will sometimes include spirituality and religion as positive things in his books.

Heinlein really annoys me. Some of his books are more like straightforward sci-fi adventure stories, e.g. “The Red Planet”. But then I read “Stranger in a Strange Land”. It’s just like 500 pages of Heinlein pontificating about everything from sex to popular music.

In my limited readong of some of the other “hard” sci-fi authors, like Larry Niven, Frederick Pohl, Poul Anderson (sorry, I get those two confused) seem like they also include a lot of gratuitous sex and buxom babes, as if they are pandering to the adolescent males. That annoys me too.
 
i like cs lewis

larry niven’s inferno

i like all the star trek series…

i need to reread tolkien in a different light.
 
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CanonAlberic:
I’ve been a huge fan of Bradbury for many years, but I wouldn’t really call his writings “hard” sci-fi, myself. I’ve always found it to lean more towards anything from gentle fantasy to outright horror (all time favorite Bradbury: “Something Wicked this Way Comes”, “The Small Assassin” and “The Watchers”).

Peace.
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My fav Bradbury books are *Something Wicked This Way Comes *and The Martian Chronicles. As far as Heinlein goes, Starship Troopers and Stranger In A Strange Land.
 
…seem like they also include a lot of gratuitous sex and buxom babes, as if they are pandering to the adolescent males.
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i don’t think it stretches reality much to say that alot of sci fi writers ARE adolescent males - that never grew up.

and i second your remarks about orson scott card. he’s a great writer - and i often appreciate his take on religion and spirituality. his religious aspect in his books is rarely, if ever, demonstrably mormon.

philip k dick has an interesting slant on his religious views, too. has anyone read ‘the three stigmata of palmer eldritch’?

VERY interesting take on the fact of transubstantiation… kind of weird, and pretty much loses any sense of good story toward the end. but the CONCEPT is pretty intriguing.
 
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dirtydog:
L. Ron Hubbard - Dianetics was a real mind opener.
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What was so eye opening about his work? I admit I did not read Dianetics but his earlier “pre-delusions of godhood” works like Battlefield Earth were class B material at best. It wasn’t all John Travolta’s fault that movie bombed you know.
 
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