S D Perry she has written some of the Best Star Trek Deep Space 9 Novels.

I am dead, I go into battle to reclaim my life, This i do gladly for I am Jem,Hadar.

what about Larry Niven and Isaac Asimov? As a kid i used to look up at the stars and try to figure out where Trantor would be, and imagine the Mule's warships tearing through nebula to surprise attack Terminus. As for Larry, he's just sublime; a far more entertaining universe than the run-of-the-mill sci-fi creations, the Kzin were superb. And what about Fred Pohl? Gateway was pure class, I'd love a blast in a Hee-Chee ship even if i didn't have a clue where it was going.

good choice with Heinlein though, FF.

Would Kurt Vonnegut count as a Sci-Fi author? If so then I definitely put him near - if not at - the top. He's witty and sardonic but you still get a sense that he doesn't think the world has to be a great big ****house.

great choice with Vonnegut, Code

D C Fontana. Did a lot of the old trek stuff and a few others.

Hmm... that's a really tough one with me... I probably own 500 books... most've which are sci-fi. Many are trash, some aren't.

I think that I'd have to vote for "favorites":

Dan Simmons (Hyperion is one of the best novels I've ever read, period).

Neal Stephenson (The Diamond Age is also one of the best novels I've ever read).

Ray Bradbury (the poet of science fiction, with some of the most beautiful short stories ever written).

Stanislov Lem (by far, one of of the most brilliant deep thinkers in the genre- Memoirs Found in a Bathtub is a great novel).

David Drake (action has fewer great authors than this guy).

William Gibson (who just about defined what we think of as "cyberpunk" ).

Orson Scott Card (teaching us about the consequences of Big Thoughts).

Robert A. Heinlein (whose two-dimensional characters serve his Big Thought stories, instead of diminishing them).

Joe Haldeman (if The Forever War isn't a great novel, then what is?)

I can't say who's "best" out of all of these folks... but they're all wonderful. If you haven't read any of the more obscure writers, like Lem, I strongly suggest that you seek them our on Amazon...

my opinion of you just rose by about 1000%, Argh, based on those choices. You're actually on the evolutionary scale now.

(don't get big headed, i didnt say where on the evolutionary scale)

Edited by - The All-Seeing Eye on 12/20/2004 11:21:07 AM

I'd need too much time and space to list them all. Lem, Haldeman (hehe, I got the forever war in three different languages... oops, sorry, four - forgot the original ), Bradbury, Heinlein, A D Foster, etc.etc. There's a rising generation of authors writing in Russian (real shame youo guys can't read them), such as Nik Perumov (his "Deathshead on the sleeve" is ace), Sergei Lukyanenko, and a number of others. Having sold out or given away all the scifi books I didn't like, I still got sth like 6-7 hundreds of them, which causes me headache - both considering finding a place where to store them all and my wife's constant threats to throw them out and thus to clean the house.

Life is only given once ... and most often by accident

Looks like a visit to the library may be in order, mainly as I have never even heard of half of those authors........or their books. Mind you, never read sci fi books either tbh.....

I'd answer but then I'd have to delete my post because my answer would be construed as political in nature.

Glock36
"No Comment"

You don't ***have*** to explain yourself, Glock.

Or are their names so clearly political that the slightest mention will cause TLR to descend into political flaming?

My favorite sci-fi writer would have to be either Roger Zelazny--Lord of Light-- or Isaac Asimov.

Lord of Light is in essence a bridge between pre-axial mythology, post-axial religion, and modern science. Cataclysmic forces that affect every persons life--for what is life in this century but a conflict of those 3 aspects? It is a story of thought, philosophy, morality, wisdom, oppression, rebellion, heroism...a brilliant work of literature.

Isaac Asimov I love for The Caves of Steel series and Foundation and Earth. His books, though possessing action, are not focused around action but rather around discussion.

Those people who made I, Robot into a movie perverted Asimov...grrr

Edited by - [ACWilde on 12/21/2004 11:06:37 PM

I've been a huge Vonnegut fan since High School (many many years) and he personally doesn't feel comfortable being listed as a sci-fi writer, his alter ego, Kilgore Trout, is. So Kilgore Trout is my fave. Most are already mentioned, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Lem, and one I didn't see, Aldous Huxley.
Edit: Gawd, how could I forget Frank Herbert??? (the "Dune" series)

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
The Next Thing I Say To You Will Be True
The Last Thing I Said Was False

Edited by - Boscoe on 12/22/2004 4:39:48 AM

my personal favourite is anne macaffrey
just based on the sheer variety of the books dealing with all from esp /telekinesis to bioengineering to some almost mythological content yet still retaining good storylines with believable characters (if not creatures)