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What are your favorite science fiction/fantasy authors?

and your favorite story of any of those authors. Please share.

Posted - February 21, 2018

Responses


  • 343
    I like Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, John Wyndham,  

    (The list is long, but) among my favorites short stories (rather than novels, note) are:

    'Window' by Bob Leman

    'The Emissary' by Ray Bradbury

    'The Accountant' by Robert Sheckley

    'The Last Castle' by Jack Vance

    'Fire Burn' by John Dickson Carr

    'Consider Her Ways' by John Wyndham

    'A Spaceship Built of Stone' by Lisa Tuttle

    'The Secret Place' by Richard McKenna
      February 21, 2018 11:58 AM MST
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  • 46117
    Shirley Jackson is a sci-fi fantasy writer?  Since when?
      February 21, 2018 2:16 PM MST
    1

  • 423
    I wouldn't classify Ray Bradbury's The Emissary as science fiction, but more fantasy - there are no doubt many who disagree, they often do. But at the same time it is true that the writer is a well-known writer of science fiction. I would consider The Bus by Shirley Jackson, a good example of fantasy - no doubt you will disagree, you often do.   
      February 22, 2018 7:21 AM MST
    1

  • 23577
    I really like Wyndham, too!
    And Jackson may be my favorite author -- at the least, she's tied for first with some others.
      February 25, 2018 5:44 PM MST
    1

  • 46117
    Welby, unless I am totally mistaken, Shirley Jackson is not a sci-fi writer is she?
      February 25, 2018 5:46 PM MST
    1

  • 23577
    Yeah, I wouldn't characterize her work as sci-fi but there is a "fantasy" quality to some of her short stories, if I think about it. It's an interesting possibility to me, I guess.
    :)
      February 25, 2018 5:53 PM MST
    0

  • 72
    No, but she IS  a fantasy writer. We are keen to categorize but some categories meld one into another and square pegs into round holes don't go, even when bashed in with a mallet, hammer or maul, or, at a pinch, the back of a single-edge machete. I think Bradbury is a good example of a writer who crosses that hypothetical line. 
      February 27, 2018 12:23 PM MST
    1

  • 44619
    (Who...)

    Isaac Asimov. 'Nightfall', 'Foundation Trilogy' and many others.
    Robert Heinlein. Favorite novel...'Time Enough for Love' and all of the other novels with Lazarus Long as the main character.
      February 21, 2018 12:03 PM MST
    4

  • 46117
    George RR Martin
    Robert Heinlen
    Isaac Asimov
    Frank Herbert
    Tolkien
    Harlan Ellison
    JK Rowling
      February 21, 2018 2:15 PM MST
    3

  • 23577

    John Wyndham
      favorite - - hard to choose -- it may be 'The Kraken Wakes' _aka 'Out of the Deeps'

    Ray Bradbury
      favorite - -  it may be his short story "The October Game" -- out of nowhere it becomes absolutely terrifying to me

    and I'm too lazy to look up the author but I really like the short story "The Heavenly Omnibus" -- at least, I think that's the title, ha! I looked it up just now -- "The Celestial Omnibus" by E.M. Forster
    This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at February 25, 2018 5:50 PM MST
      February 25, 2018 5:48 PM MST
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  • 182
    The late, wonderful and unusual, Zenna Henderson was another writer whose literary output blurred the Science Fiction-Fantasy boundary - as those who remember her, and paid attention, will attest.  
      March 9, 2018 12:43 PM MST
    1

  • 41
    Robert A. Heinlein's "Glory Road"
    Robert E. Howard's "Conan The Barbarian" series
    J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy
    Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy
    Lin Carter's "Thongor of Lemuria" series
    Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy
    Roger Zelazny's "Lord Of Light"
    Edgar Rice Burroughs; "John Carter Of Mars" series
    Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep"?

      April 8, 2018 2:17 PM MDT
    1