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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
How being a writer helped me rewrite a sexist trope...for real. [Edit 3 (7/25/13): I speak to some of the more common comments, questions,...
-
Well....it finally happened. My "can't even" about the comments on my Facebook page went from figurative to literal. At o...
-
So if you've been on Facebook sometime in the last fifty years or so, you've probably run across this little turd of a meme. I...
-
My suspicion is we're going to hear a lot about mental illness in the next few days. A lot. And my prediction is that it's going to...
-
Come see the full comic at: http://jensorensen.com/2016/11/15/donald-trump-election-win-reactions-cartoon/ If you are still trying to ...
-
Image description: A fountain pen writing on lined paper. These are the brass tacks. The bare bones. The pulsing core of effective writi...
-
Ready to do some things for your craft that will terrify you even more than a sewer-dwelling clown? Oh what I wouldn't give for a si...
-
I don't normally mess with author gossip here on Writing About Writing . Our incestual little industry has enough tricky-to-navigate g...
-
This might be a personal question, but I saw that you once used to be Muslim on one of your other posts. Why did you leave? It's fun...
-
1. Great writing involves great risk–the risk of terrible writing. Writing that involves no risk is merely forgettable–utterly. 2. When yo...
Ray Bradbury
ReplyDeleteSecond.
DeleteSecond second. Wait, is that allowed?
DeleteYeah, 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.)
DeleteSecond.
DeleteSecond.
DeleteSeconded
DeleteRobert A. Heinlein
ReplyDeleteAlfred Bester
ReplyDeleteSecond
DeleteOctavia E. Butler
ReplyDelete[Trying to pick just one was murder.]
Butler's whole career was post 1970, though, so maybe I can make it a tiny bit easier.
Delete(She'd be SO SO SO GOOD for the contemporary poll next month though.)
Bah. Time is meaningless in spec fic? :-P
DeleteSince this is voided I will make a new rec below.
Ursula LeGuin
ReplyDelete-Alisha
SECONDED SO HARD!
DeleteWhat Princess said... I can't second this with enough enthusiasm!
Delete2nd Ray Bradbury
ReplyDeleteGeorge Orwell, Andre Norton
ReplyDeleteThat's two. So I'll take your first one (Orwell) and hopefully someone else will put Norton back on here.
Delete(Yes, I know you could just do it in another comment since this was anonymous, but I'm generally a trusting sort.)
Second Orwell
DeleteSecond Norton
DeleteH G Wells
ReplyDeleteOh good. That would have been my second choice. Seconded.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSecond Andre Norton and and Ursula K. LeGuin.
ReplyDeleteMy Nomination? C.L. Moore
Isaac Asimov (difficult to choose between pre- and post-1970!)
ReplyDeleteI would have been surprised if he didn't end up on both month's polls. I will second this.
DeleteSecond.
DeleteSecond.
DeleteSecond
Deletesecond
DeleteSecond
DeleteSecond Moore.
ReplyDeletesince LeGuin has already been nominated (and Bradbury, and Andre Norton), I'll nominate Frank Herbert.
ReplyDeleteMeryl
Arthur C. Clarke
ReplyDeleteSecond
DeleteAnne McCaffery
ReplyDeleteYou know she had a FEW books before 1970, but most happened after. But if you liked her earlier stuff, that's cool. :)
Delete