[ironmaidenPR2717]

Dittos on George R.R. Martin & William Gibson.

And perhaps this falls into the juvenile category, but I was entranced many years ago by Zenna Henderson. Many write somewhat in her genre now, but back in the 70’s, her style was refreshing and new to me.

[Hacksaw]

Larry Niven

Jerry Pournelle

Ben Bova

William Gibson

[Billthedrill]

Just to echo some others, Heinlein is my favorite of the Big Three. Philip K. Dick, of course, and Ray Bradbury are essential. Clarke's Childhood's End has had echoes in more works than one might imagine. John Brunner is wonderful. William Gibson is brilliant, the more so if you were actually into computers when Neuromancer came out in '84. Neal Stephenson is my current favorite, The Diamond Age being my favorite among his books. Snow Crash is pure fun. Anyone with the brass big 'uns to name his principal character "Hiero Protagonist" and still get it published is my kind of author... ;-)

[Tanniker Smith]

Top 100 Sci-Fi Books

1	1	Frank Herbert	Dune [S1]	1965
2	2	Orson Scott Card	Ender's Game [S1]	1985
3	3	Isaac Asimov	Foundation [S1-3]	1951
4	4	Douglas Adams	Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy [S1]	1979
5	5	George Orwell	1984	1949
6	6	Robert A Heinlein	Stranger in a Strange Land	1961
7	7	Ray Bradbury	Fahrenheit 451	1954
8	8	William Gibson	Neuromancer	1984
9	9	Isaac Asimov	[C] I, Robot	1950
10	10	Arthur C Clarke	2001: A Space Odyssey	1968
11	11	Larry Niven	Ringworld	1970
12	12	Robert A Heinlein	Starship Troopers	1959
13	13	Philip K Dick	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?	1968
14	14	Aldous Huxley	Brave New World	1932
16	15	Arthur C Clarke	Rendezvous With Rama	1973
15	16	H G Wells	The Time Machine	1895
17	17	Robert A Heinlein	The Moon is a Harsh Mistress	1966
18	18	H G Wells	The War of the Worlds	1898
19	19	Dan Simmons	Hyperion [S1]	1989
20	20	Arthur C Clarke	Childhood's End	1954

[SouthDixie]

L. Ron Hubbard, founding father of Scientology.

[JenB]

Great thread. It’s like walking through a used bookstore and nodding at my favorite authors.

Some names I haven’t seen mentioned yet (most of my favorites have been listed):

Connie Willis - best author writing “currently” hands down - but her output is sooo slow, it’s been eight years since her last novel though she’s written some novellas since. Try “To Say Nothing of the Dog” for a wonderful light comedy about time paradoxes, cats, the Blitz, and it’s a Victorian comedy of manners as well. Or “Doomsday Book” for a truly wonderful tragedy.

Keith Laumer - Baen’s been reprinting his great old stuff. Try the “Retief” stories, or just pick up a collection. Conservatives should love his things.

C.L.Moore - haven’t read enough of hers but she wrote such lovely old stories.

Cordwainer Smith - ditto

James Blish

Roger Macbride Allen’s Time trilogy.

Jack McDevitt, Robert Sawyer, Allen Steele - all current authors that are as good storytellers as the old masters, but writing with a more modern viewpoint. Sawyer especially, while I don’t always like his viewpoints, takes on issues that I think will actually be issues for the next century - questions about what is human and where the edges of humanity are.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

Ah, one of my favorite topics. A great topic to start the Memorial Day weekend.

I consider SF and fantasy different genres, so I'll make a list for each.

Fantasy

1. Tolkien - He didn't start fairy tales, but he made the genre popular and respectable. I've read through LOTR at least four times, once out loud to my children. Reading it out loud really impressed me with the beauty and variety of language he used. He has different vocabulary and style for elves, hobbits, orcs, and men. He also used his Anglo-Saxon and ancient Finish studies to create elvish and dwarvish. No one else really comes close with their quality of writing.

2. Patricia McKillip - Patricia is perhaps the most consistently, lyrically, beautiful writer alive today in any genre. The Riddlemaster trilogy is great and still makes me want to read it again. “The Forgotten Beasts of Eld” I enjoy just as much. Her recent books, “Alphabet of Thorn”, “Od Magic”, etc. are like individual gems. She is beautifully descriptive and plots her books as mysteries to be unlocked.

3. Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time series is exasperating because of its immense length and rambling descriptions, but it has scenes that are better than anything except the high points of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I love his complex plotting—in his twelve books of the Wheel of Time, there are over 2400 characters and hundreds of points of view. He has at least nine (!) main characters and typically has four or more main plot threads in each book, plus dozens of subplots. He also extensively uses prophecy and foreshadowing—many prophecies and visions from the first book are fulfilled two, three, six books later. Some are still to be fulfilled. He has created dozens of nations and cultures and maintains their consistency throughout the series. If you want complexity, he's your man.

4. Tad Williams - Many will argue he should be higher than this. Certainly his portrayal of elves in the series “Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn” is as good as Tolkien’s. When I think of elves I think of his vision as readily as Tolkien’s. His major drawback is his slow plotting. He took a hundred pages to get the plot moving in “The Dragonbone Chair.” If you're a patient reader, Tad will always reward you.

5. CS Lewis - Obviously the Narnia series is his major fantasy work. In it he blends legend and Christian allusions skillfully, while making a very entertaining an original series of stories that are accessible to the young and old. Had he specialized in this genre, I suspect he would rival Tolkien.

6. Stephen Donaldson - The White Gold weilder series is at times beautiful and then despairingly dark. Many will put him higher than I do. If you read nothing else of his, read his Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

7. CJ Cherryh - Equally known for her SF, her fantasy is excellent. The “Fortress” series has layers upon layers of reality, moving through space and time.

8. Evelyn Nesbitt - I've only read “The Windboy” and that alone puts her on this list.

9. George MacDonald - “Back of the North Wind” is one of many great stories. He was the inspiration for CS Lewis and many others.

Gotta go. More later.

[BlueStateBlues]

Some good ones already on the list. Some others who caught myt attention and interest,

Charles Stross (should I say the Great Charles Stross)
Robert Anton Wilson (Schroedingers Cat [sp?])
Rudy Rucker
Bruce Sterling
Douglass Preston and Lincoln Child, together and separate works, not all of them S.F.

But lo, I remember Edgar Rice B. fondly from high school, taking me to Mars and back. Bradbury says Burroughs is the best writer, in terms of word usage, of the 20th Century.

[Biblebelter]

I will point to a book that has not been mentioned. I was always fond of Harlan Ellison’s A Boy and his Dog. If anyone has ever seen the movie, do not hold that against the book. It was a God awful movie with Don Johnson who was a complete unknown at the time.

[SJSAMPLE]

Another Pournelle fan, here.

[Ingtar]

Fantasy:

The late Robert Jordan
Terry Goodkind
Raymond Feist
Katherine Kurtz
Frank L. Baum
Susan B Cooper
Roger Zelazny
Lloyd Alexander
JRR Tolkein
Ursula LeGuin
David Eddings
Robert Asprin
Edgar Rice Bourroughs
Michael Moorcock

Sci Fi:
Doc Smith
Fred Saberhagen
Jules Verne
George Orwell
Heinlein
Orson Scott Card
Ray Bradbury

CS Lewis = #1 in Christian Allegory
Harry Turtledove = #1 in Alternative History

Me = #1 unpublished author :)

[Little Ray]

Horace Beam Piper of Little Fuzzy, Space Viking, and Paratime fame is probably the best SF author I know of - he knew how to put a lot of story in relatively small package.

The fantasy book, possibly the best fiction book ever, is Silverlock by John Myers Myers. He wrote some other stuff, but nothing else nearly as good Silver lock.

The rest is just the usual stuff of a Space Opera fanatic:

Robert A. Heinlein
David Weber
“Doc” Smtih
Steve White
Travis Taylor

etc.

[Little Ray]

Poul Anderson - I forgot Poul Anderson! My favorite books from him were the Flandry series. I don’t know WHY Ensign Flandry is not a movie...

[RachelFaith]

Kathrine Kurtz and Jean M. Auel

[sauron]

_Hiero's Journey_, by Sterling Lanier.

And of course, Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Niven, et al.

Btw, I resent fantasy being lumped with science fiction--they're both excellent, but clearly not the same. I read 'em both, love 'em both, but they're SEPARATE.

Just like the mashed potatoes cannot touch the steak. SEPARATE!

(Why then, did I mention _Hiero's Journey_? Because it mixes fantasy and science fiction better than anyhting I have found.)

William Hope Hodgeson (sp?), H.P. Lovecraft, and too many others to mention are great for HORROR, if you're into that. I know I am.

Sauron

[TexasRepublic]

Who are the best science fiction/fantasy authors?

Members of the US Congress. I will cite Al Gore and Maxine Waters as just two examples.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

I posted my first 9 fantasy writers. I've given some thought to #10. I believe it has to be Mercedes Lackey. Aside from the fact she's very prolific, some of her series are very creative. I like the Griffin series and the Bardic voices series.

Now on to SF. SF has been somewhat supplanted by fantasy in popularity, but it was my first love in fiction.

1. Robert Heinlein - I grew up on his junior fiction, written in 50’s, read by me in the 60’s. “Citizen of the Galaxy” is probably his best work for teens. His adult fiction I found somewhat disappointing because it was darker, dealing with death and sex. It was also much more political, representing his values: libertarian and freedom of the individual; meritocracy, honor and loyalty, reflecting his military background. I liked his political views almost as much as his plots and characters. Read "Methuselah's Children" if you read nothing else of his. Lazarus Long is the quintessential Heinlein hero.

After reading almost all his novels, I finally realized he had the same types of characters in each of his novels. This is a defect, but since they were realistic, it's forgivable.

There is not as much of a gap between Heinlein and the others. I give him #1 spot because he was prolific and reliably enjoyable.

2. Keith Laumer - The Retief series is great, but all his novels are great. Try “House in November” or “Five Fates” for some of his later work.

3. Isaac Asimov - Most people would rate him higher. I loved “The Foundation” trilogy and “I Robot” as well as many, many others. He combined mystery with SF. Like Heinlein, he also wrote juvenile fiction: “Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter” is one I remember.

4. Jules Verne - The patriarch of SF. “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “The Island of Dr. Moreua”. His books are still entertaining a hundred years later.

5. HG Wells - “The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon and The Island of Dr Moreau.”

6. Clifford B. Simak - “Way Station” was one of my favorites. Another author who never disappointed.

7. Arthur Clarke - Another author who may be arguably be rated higher. “2001 Space Odyssey” was just one of many prescient books written by him. Do not miss “Childhood's End”—in it, he portrays mankind discovering that time actually flows backward and meeting the future generation moving backward in time.

8. Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan, John Carter of Mars. His books are still enjoyable today, although considered politically incorrect. If you think another modern author should be ahead of him, ask yourself—”Will people still be reading him in a hundred years, as they do Tarzan?”

8. Larry Niven - The Ringworld series is enough for his place here, but he's written so much more. Jerry Pournelle is often a co-author.

9. John W. Campbell - “Invaders from the Infinite” was one of my favorites. Then I discovered “Islands of Space” preceded it. He tells a great, politically incorrect story.

10. Poul Anderson - "Brain Wave" is one of my favorites. In it, the whole human race suddenly acquires super genius intelligence. Naturally, chaos ensues. "Satan's Planet", "Star Fox", "The Dancer from Atlantis" etc. etc. are all good.

[MirrorField]

Vernor Vinge. Output is bit low, but quality is excellent. Specific note: Tomas Nau in A Deepness In the Sky gets my vote for one of the more interesting characters and vilest fictional villain I've encountered.

Robert A. Heinlein. The Grandmaster.

Charlie Stross. Up and coming author whose future will be great, I think.

Neal Asher.

Iain M. Banks. He may be a Scottish communist, but he can write...

Greg Egan.

[RobFromGa]

In addition to the usual suspects:

* John Varley (esp the short stories such as The Persistence of Vision)
* Halperin (The Truth Machine, The First Immortals)
* Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game...)
* Nancy Kress (Beggars and Choosers)
* Robert Sheckley (Immortality Inc)

[hinckley buzzard]

Azimov's Foundation Trilogy is the defining epic space opera. Herbert's original Dune (the series goes downhill fast after that.)