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Author Topic: Sci-Fi key authors  (Read 6583 times)

Patriotic Kaz

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Sci-Fi key authors
« on: May 29, 2009, 08:52:45 PM »
This thread is for the compilation of the key figures in the genre and introductory books to them not a list of fun reads... meaning if the person is less known than George R.R. Martin don't list them. I am trying to get a more realistic feel for the genre as a whole (I've always read the genre but i want to expand my knowledge over it). This is adult fiction only so please leave out teeny bopper books like twilight. Also please second other peoples post because without it I'm left with simply one opinion and since i am looking for key figures one nomination isn't enough. Names without a book are open to suggestion also.

List i have read or own and have yet to read:

Robert Heinlein- Stranger in a Strange Land
Issac Asimov- Foundation
Larry Niven- Ringworld
Orson Scott Card- Ender's Game
Kim Stanley Robinson- Red Mars
Rodger Zelazny- Nine Princes in Amber
Steven Erickson- Gardens of the Moon
Robert Jordan- Eye of the World
J.R.R. Tolkien- The Fellowship of the Ring
Ray Bradbury- Illustrated Man
Frank Herbert- Dune

Not Read not owned

Terry Pratchett- Discworld
Terry Goodkind-
George R.R. Martin-
Phillip Jose Farmer- Riverworld
Arthur C. Clarke- Space Odyssey

I'm sure i forgot some but whatever...
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2009, 09:09:33 PM »
Do you only want SF, or do you want SF & Fantasy?
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2009, 07:42:28 PM »
SF and Fantasy
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Reaves

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2009, 01:30:28 PM »
Here's a list I found. Not sure if its what you are looking for, though.
http://www.bestfantasybooks.com/top25-fantasy-books.php

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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2009, 03:59:34 PM »
that list has some good stuff on it. Here are some novels I recommend:

Fantasy
Steven Erikson - Malazan Series
George R R Martin - Song of Ice and Fire
R Scott Bakker - Prince of Nothing
Joe Abercrombie - First Law Series
Scott Lynch - Gentlemen Bastards Series
Simon R Green - Nightside Series
Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn

SF (I don't read much SF, but here are some authors you may find interesting)
Joel Shepherd - Crossover
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep
Dan Simmons - Hyperion
John Scalzi - Old Man's War
David Weber - Off Armageddon Reef

Horror - The reason I put this here is that realistically the line between Urban Fantasy and Horror is very blurred
Brian Lumley - Necroscope
Dan Wells - I Am Not a Serial Killer
F Paul Wilson - Repairman Jack novels (The Tomb is the first)
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2009, 04:26:19 PM »
I think very highly of Brandon Sanderson but i really wouldn't call him a major player quite yet give him 5-10 years and he will be asw big as R.A. Salvatore but he isn't there yet
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Sigyn

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2009, 05:18:04 PM »
Karl Schroeder - Anything he's written
Walter Jon Williams - Implied Spaces
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2009, 06:45:12 PM »
Quote from: Champion Kaz on June 01, 2009, 04:26:19 PM
I think very highly of Brandon Sanderson but i really wouldn't call him a major player quite yet give him 5-10 years and he will be asw big as R.A. Salvatore but he isn't there yet

Seriously? You do know that Brandon outsells many of the authors on your list right (including Erikson)? He is a major player according to readership and according to Tor. How can a guy be finishing up the WoT and NOT be a major player?
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2009, 07:54:55 PM »
Honestly wow i didn't think he was that well known this early in his career wow foot in mouth syndrome and i must say it doesn't taste very good. pardon my ignorance :-\
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #9 on: June 01, 2009, 09:01:12 PM »
No worries, I just think people continually underestimate how well Brandon is doing. I mean, Tor is pushing hard to make Brandon their #1 author.

In all fairness, I think had the whole WoT thing not happened to Brandon, your 5 year estimate would have been pretty accurate.
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Shaggy

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #10 on: June 02, 2009, 12:19:58 AM »
I would like to nominate Patrick Rothfuss for The Name of the Wind. It's amazing.
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Reaves

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2009, 12:20:28 AM »
I think Brandon is doing very well. However, I think other authors such as Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch are more popular/ well-known than him.


Quick unrelated comment. I don't read much sci-fi these days, and the only people I have actually read on Bookstore Guy's list are Weber and Simmons, though I have heard of Scalzi. I have to say, I was not at all impressed by HYPERION, by Dan Simmons. (Although Weber is amazing!)
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2009, 04:40:59 PM »
Comments like that are VERY MUCH RELLEVANT please make more of them when you feel it is appropriate to do so
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Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #13 on: June 02, 2009, 06:03:24 PM »
I hated Weber's On Basilisk Station but I like the 1633/1634 collaborations he's done with Eric Flint. I've been told Weber gets better after Basilisk but haven't tried any.

I would add Lois McMaster Bujold. Her SF series, the Vorkosigan series, is top-notch. Her Chalion fantasy books are also very good. The Sharing Knife fantasy books are better if you consider them as two books in two parts each rather than as four books. Her publisher split the first book into two, and I think it hurt the complexity of the narrative.
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Re: Sci-Fi key authors
« Reply #14 on: June 02, 2009, 07:31:21 PM »
I would add Mercedes Lackey…unfortunately many of her books are co-authored, but The Obsidian Trilogy (with James Mallory) was (IMO) her best series yet. 
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