SciFi authors top 3:modern and old-skool

[elevendayempire]

Stephen Baxter, William Gibson, Ian Watson, PKD, John Wyndham. I don't really have much time for recent writers...

SG

 

[Kaka Tim]

Old School -

Never liked Asimov. Arthur C Clarke was Ok when I was 10 but no desire to go back there - all very bright new modernity stuff.

John Wyndham - I always had some trouble with his somewhat reactionary, littel englanderism - but always enjoyed his dark visions of human society being smashed by alien forces.

Ray Bradbury is top. Eric Frank Russel did some classic cold war sci-fi and agree that heinelen could right a good yarn.

'Canticle of Liebowitz' by Walter Miller is top post- apocolypse sci fi classic.

New School -

I'd say PK Dick is 'new school' - in that his stuff rpresdnts a celar break with the Asimov generation and still seems far more precient and relevant today - techno paranoir, altered reality, dystopian societies.

Another shout for Haldeman - 'Forever War' is an absolute classic.

Not so keen on Kim Stanley Robinson - the science and scale are impressive - but his characters and dialouge are dull dull dull and the plots lack pace and energy. I never even finhsed Blue Mars becasue Id given up caring about the characters.

Ms Kak keeps encouraging me to read Ian Bank's Sci FI - but Ive been put off by reading 'Wasp Factory' and 'Walking on Glass' - can see the skill of the writiing but I found them pretty grim reading.

 

[Blagsta]

No other Pat Cadigan fans? Great cyberpunk writer, up there with Gibson.

 

[Wilf]

I would probably end up putting Philip K Dick on a list like this. But when you read some of his books you do sometimes end up thinking 'did i really enjoy that?' In some of them its so unclear what is actually going on - and not in a good way. Equally, in some of them, not very much happens at all (Man in the HIgh Castle). Bladerunner is so much better as a film than Do Androids Dreamm of Electric Sheep.

p.s. Like to put a word in for Kurt Vonnegut.... and Ballard

 

[Idaho]

I don't enjoy PK Dick. I think he is a good ideas man, but a poor writer.

Vonnegut is a good writer, and has some good ideas - but I find his relentless, rythmic, repetitive style a bit grating - although I do acknowledge Sirens of Titan and Galapagos as classics.

 

[fudgefactorfive]

Ms Kak keeps encouraging me to read Ian Bank's Sci FI - but Ive been put off by reading 'Wasp Factory' and 'Walking on Glass' - can see the skill of the writiing but I found them pretty grim reading.

His sci-fi doesn't really have that flavour - WF and WOG are actually two of my all-time favourite books ever, but he hasn't really done much else like them. His other stuff can be a little grim, yes, but not in the same queasy way. His sci-fi tends more towards the space opera and deals with wider social issues, while WF and WOG are very narrowly focussed on a small number of people.

 

[Blagsta]

although I do acknowledge Sirens of Titan and Galapagos as classics.

I found Galapagos to be tedious shite tbh.

 

[onemonkey]

Douglas Adams

 

[Wilf]

Modern
H.G Wells. Got me started on the whole sci-fi trip with time traveller

Starts his career with a handful of well crafted stories - that have rightly become classics (time machine, war of the worlds, Island of Dr Moreau etc.). After thant first few years though he somehow becomes a terrible writer. Books like the Sleeper Awakes are just inept.

(hmm.. perhaps History of Mr Polly - from his mid-career I think - possibly an exception)

 

[onemonkey]

and for proper old school.. you could go back to

Cyrano de Bergerac

author of

VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1657)
and L'HISTOIRE DES ÉTATS ET EMPIRES DU SOLEIL (1662).

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bergerac.htm

 

[Blagsta]

The Bible? Guiding star, miracles, resurrection etc. Sounds like sci fi to me!

 

[Radar]

Charles Stross.... Very good writer... Tends to focus on very wacked out dystopias... Singularity Sky includes a Stanlinist empire in space, and Iron Sunrise goes into into the details of who you would defuse a nuclear bomb being threatened to use by some wack-job terrorist.

Oh, and Iron Sunrise has a great (if chilling) description of what it would be like to be in the middle of a supernova...

And you can download Accelerando (set about 15 years from now) from: http://www.accelerando.org/

Oh yes, Stross is fucking well

Atrocity Archives is a great read too, a change in style from the first 3. Not available in the UK until 2007, but Waterstones occasionally stock the US import.

Also on the hard side of things, Peter F Hamilton and Richard Morgan are well worth the read. Morgan, in particular his novels featuring Takeshi Kovacs (all bar Market Forces, imo his weakest) have a very gibsonesque feel to them and are corkers. Hamilton, like Wyndham before him puts a very english spin on the genre for his Grey Mandel Mindstar books, as well as demonic possession & space opera with The Night's Dawn trilogy

Another good read is China Mieville. Perdido Street Station, King Rat, The Scar, vary black and gothic with an interesting mix of technlogy past and future, reminds me a bit of Sterling/Gibson ala difference engine.

Joe Haldeman is one of the oldies I still like. He doesnt leave the same dirty goosestepping aftertaste Heinlein leaves me with. Also Philip K Dick, in a class all of his own. I just reread "A scanner darkly" and he captures the junkie paranoia perfectly.

Honourable mentions to Rudy Rucker too, I never read anything else of his after Wetware, but I'm very tempted to start through his back catalogue

 

[Idaho]

I found Galapagos to be tedious shite tbh.

Different Strokes. I have no interest in reading any more of his books, but would re-read that one.

 

[Blagsta]

Different Strokes. I have no interest in reading any more of his books, but would re-read that one.

I found it quite hackneyed.

 

[Idaho]

All of Vonnegut is a bit like that though. It's like reading books written by someone's dad.

 

[bi0boy]

one modern writer not mentioned, perhaps because he's not as prolific as others: Vernor Vinge. Not written much, but it's all top-notch.

Just read A Deepness in the Sky, great stuff.

Space Opera always used to conjure up things like "Captain Smith grabbed his ray gun and dived for the airlock" type crap, but this is epic stuff. Venor Vinge used to be a mathematics and computer science professor, so he doesn't talk crap.

 

[ada]

I'm a big fan of Sheri S. Tepper. Especially the Arbai Trilogy.

 

[mentalchik]

Me too ada !


got and read most of her stuff !