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Top three SF authors

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  • #31
    Heinlein and Spider Robinson definitely; not sure who I'd put in the #3 spot. I like Turtledove a lot better than most of the posters here seem to, but not quite enough to list him. Maybe the Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle partnership, although neither one alone would make my list.
    "THE" plus "IRS" makes "THEIRS". Coincidence? I think not.

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    • #32
      My favourites as of this week:


      Philip K. Dick

      J.G. Ballard

      Samuel R. Delany

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Greg Egan

      Thomas Disch

      Joanna Russ

      Jack McDevitt

      Peter Hamilton

      Paul McAuley

      Robert Charles Wilson

      Roger Zelazny


      with Bruce Sterling and William Gibson and Kim Stanley Robinson bringing up the rear.
      Vive la liberte. Noor Inayat Khan, Dachau.

      ...patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone. Edith Cavell, 1915

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      • #33
        Asimov, Dick, and Herbert
        “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
        - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

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        • #34
          Verne, Heinlen, Le Guin.
          Gaius Mucius Scaevola Sinistra
          Japher: "crap, did I just post in this thread?"
          "Bloody hell, Lefty.....number one in my list of persons I have no intention of annoying, ever." Bugs ****ing Bunny
          From a 6th grader who readily adpated to internet culture: "Pay attention now, because your opinions suck"

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          • #35
            Peter David
            Stan Lee
            I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
            For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

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            • #36
              asimov, clarke, niven.
              I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.
              [Brandon Roderick? You mean Brock's Toadie?][Hanged from Yggdrasil]

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              • #37
                I would say Stanislaw Lem, Philip K. Dick and... Orwell? But I don't think 1984 is SF, it's more satire than anything else. BTW, was Asimov one of those functional autistic persons? I don't remember how they call them. I've heard him in an interview and he sounded somewhat autistic.
                Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy – Lessing

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                • #38
                  Originally posted by PLATO
                  Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury
                  "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." -- JFK Inaugural, 1961
                  "Extremism in the defense of liberty is not a vice." -- Barry Goldwater, 1964 GOP Nomination acceptance speech (not George W. Bush 40 years later...)
                  2004 Presidential Candidate
                  2008 Presidential Candidate (for what its worth)

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                  • #39
                    Originally posted by Jon Miller
                    Turtledove happens to be one of the worse Sci-Fi Fantasy authors that anyone has ever recommended to me

                    JM
                    I have to agree. Kind of interesting ideas horribly wrought. The man is simply a bad writer. I think 95% of all SF I have read is better than the WW2 series that a friend recommended.
                    He's got the Midas touch.
                    But he touched it too much!
                    Hey Goldmember, Hey Goldmember!

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                    • #40
                      My Favourites:

                      Octavia Butler (Xenogenesis Trilogy/Wild Seed)
                      Bruce Sterling (Holy Fire)
                      Heinlein (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress)
                      Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
                      -Richard Dawkins

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                      • #41
                        Best SF writer: Le Guin
                        Worst SF writer: Turtledove

                        Just discover Le Guin in the past year and her writing is incredible: well-developed characters, excellent descriptions, strong plots, well chosen words, etc.

                        Turtledove has some good ideas, but he doesn't seem to understand that books need a central plot. He just rambles on in all different directions. The stories never end. He uses too many characters and too many sub-plots.
                        Golfing since 67

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                        • #42
                          Stanislaw Lem!
                          urgh.NSFW

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                          • #43
                            Isaac Asimov & Ian M. Banks* are my top two without question.

                            The third I'm not sure about...I thought of Douglas Adams, but while HHGTTG is awesome, others have written much more. Dune (Herbert) was interesting, but really waned after the first three(?) books.

                            *Any North American sci-fi fans who haven't read something by Banks (UK author) are doing themselves a disservice. And if you like his sci-fi, try one of his fiction works, which are also great. The first fiction book of his I read was "Wasp Factory" - a delightfully twisted story.

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                            • #44
                              Asimov, A.E. Van Vogt & Philip K. Dick
                              What?

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                              • #45
                                Other than H.G Wells, every science fiction author is a terrible writer.

                                The War of the Worlds is one of the few SF novels I've read more than once. IMHO it is the best SF novel ever written.

                                Dune is another.

                                I don't suppose you would allow me Brave New World or A Clockwork Orange?
                                Only feebs vote.

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