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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

December Poll Write In Phase: Best Classic Science Fiction Author

Who is the best classic science fiction author?

For December's poll, we're going to do something a little bit different.

But first please go vote in this months poll on the best (non-scifi/non-fantasy/non-horror) book of speculative fiction.

Instead of books, this poll will be about authors. And instead of doing a whole genre with over a hundred years (at least) of history, and forcing your decision between foundational classics and contemporary brilliance, this entire poll will only be classical authors.  So if you've ever thought an author wrote more than one great book or series, and should be recognized for a stunning career, now's your chance to recognize them.

The rules: 

1- You may nominate only one (1) author as your choice.  (My nomination will be in the comments.) Please nominate them HERE rather than on another social media.  I will accept a FB or G+ nomination, but if there's a tie to break, I'll go with the ones written here.

2- You may second as many authors as you feel deserve it.  You also SHOULD second authors because very often there are too many nominations for a single poll and the way I resolve such issues is to take nominations with the most seconds.  On our last two polls, no books without at least one second made it to the polls.  So check back periodically to see what other authors people have nominated and give those you think are worthy a second.  

3- Our cut off for contemporary/classic is 1970.  That lets us do New Wave Science Fiction and has the added advantage of not forcing me to be older than something called classic.  

3a- (This one gets tricky.) Several authors have written on both sides of the 1970 divide (Clarke, Asimov, LeGuin and more).  In this case, please consider the works you feel were the best of their career.  

For example, if you really liked Rendezvous with Rama (which kicked off in 1972) and that series, you should wait to put Clarke on the contemporary poll (most likely next month), but if you thought Left Hand of Darkness (1969) was the best thing LeGuin ever wrote you could put her on the classics poll.

3b- You can go BACK as far as you want as long as it still looks like science fiction.  (Mary Shelly would totally fit on our poll.)

As usual, I will tend to trust your judgement rather than make a lot of picky rules. 

I will put this poll up early in December, so give me all the nominations. If you do two picks, I'll take the first one only.

39 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Second second. Wait, is that allowed?

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    2. Yeah, we've had four and five "seconds" before. It just lets me know which to take to the poll if I have too many nominations. (There were like thirty once, so I only took the ones with three "seconds" or more.)

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  2. Octavia E. Butler

    [Trying to pick just one was murder.]

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    Replies
    1. Butler's whole career was post 1970, though, so maybe I can make it a tiny bit easier.

      (She'd be SO SO SO GOOD for the contemporary poll next month though.)

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    2. Bah. Time is meaningless in spec fic? :-P

      Since this is voided I will make a new rec below.

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  3. Ursula LeGuin
    -Alisha

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  4. George Orwell, Andre Norton

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    Replies
    1. That's two. So I'll take your first one (Orwell) and hopefully someone else will put Norton back on here.

      (Yes, I know you could just do it in another comment since this was anonymous, but I'm generally a trusting sort.)

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  5. Replies
    1. Oh good. That would have been my second choice. Seconded.

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  8. Second Andre Norton and and Ursula K. LeGuin.

    My Nomination? C.L. Moore

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  9. Isaac Asimov (difficult to choose between pre- and post-1970!)

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  10. since LeGuin has already been nominated (and Bradbury, and Andre Norton), I'll nominate Frank Herbert.

    Meryl

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  11. Replies
    1. You know she had a FEW books before 1970, but most happened after. But if you liked her earlier stuff, that's cool. :)

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