In all the hype and pomp and circumstance of the new year and all the scheduling changes and baby stories and new blogs I'm writing for, please don't forget that the January poll only has a little over a week left in it.
There was a girl power thing going on for a bit, but then Pratchett burst from mid poll to the top. Currently Pratchett and Le Guin are in a dead tie. However the entire top half of the poll is so close that even a few votes could change things completely. YOU could play kingmaker!
Though I have no way to "check,"try to keep in mind that the cut off line between contemporary and classic is 1970 (chosen fairly arbitrarily), so for the authors who wrote across that divide, please consider only their works on the post 1970's side.
If, for example you thought that without Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula LeGuin's career was unremarkable, then you wouldn't vote for her since that was written in the late sixties. Also, you need to read The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven for goodness sake!
Like our last poll, everyone gets FIVE (5) votes. However, there is no way to rank your responses, so using all five votes will "dilute" the effect of each of them. If you have one or two favorites, you should only vote once or twice.
The poll itself is on the left hand sub menus at the bottom. It's long and black and sleek like the ship of an evil overlord.
Only two votes for Gene Wolfe? It's the goddamn apocalypse, I tell you.
ReplyDeleteThat's a weird collection to start with, and the front runners make no sense at all. If it was 'best fantasy writer' I could see it, but Pratchett's only written about two SF novels (not counting the new forgettable collaboration) and hardly anyone's heard of them. Le Guin's not as weird a choice but even there she's better known for fantasy.
ReplyDeleteWhen people write in nominations, I don't quibble too much. That way it's a reader generated poll.
DeleteI don't believe in a hard line between SF and F.
DeleteI can't believe that Zelazny, Haldeman and Asimov are not listed! For shame... and that's without mentioning Arthur C. Clarke and Orson Scott Card - both of whom have been dual Nebula & Hugo award winners in the timeframe you present. Whilst I like Pratchett immensely and had the pleasure of meeting him twice (the second under unusual circumstances), his work is fantasy - not sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteThe polls are reader generated. You should check back in during the nomination process and help us make our polls more awesome.
DeleteNo one nominated those writers, unfortunately. I wish they had.
As for Pratchett, like I mentioned to the commenter above you, I don't quibble too much with write in nominations.