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Writers Who Will Stand the Test of Time?
Embedded Geek asks: "Every year, the online version of Locus (a trade magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy) asks the question: "Name the 5 deceased 20th century SF & fantasy writers you think will still be read 50 years from now." The results favored some of the bigger names (Heinlein, Asimov, Tolkein) as well as a few lesser known figures (Simak, Bester). I would like to ask a broader question: What authors (in any genre, fiction or nonfiction) alive today will still be read (hard copy or online) in 2051?" If I had to answer off of the top of my head, I know William Gibson, Charles Sheffield, and Orson Scott Card would be in my list, but that's not all of them. A few authors who I thought would be classics have since vanished (whatever did happen to Daniel Keys Moran, anyways?) aand of course there are a few iffy ones which I could be convinced on (C.J. Cherryh, anyone). What authors do you feel will stand the test of time? Yeah, these are sci-fi authors, but that's about what I read these days.
Zelazny's blend of dry humor, sarcasm, and underlying amusement with life in general are, unlike any other author I can think of, absolutely unique.
Jordan's Wheel of Time series, now up to 9 novels, has been, IMHO, more definitive of the modern fantasy genre than even Tolkien.
Also, the rumor is that Book 10 is being submitted in early 2002, and will be published later in the year! Not sure why such the long turnaround time.
As we approach the Technological Singularity described so awesomely by that awesome science fiction writer Vernor Vinge, it dawns on us that not only we humans but also our emerging fellow cyborgs will be the readership of classic authors from the current time.
Since by definition we can not see beyond the Singularity, we may only list here a few dark horse candidates who will appeal to the AI Minds of the expanded readership by virtue of having written about artificial intelligence:
Orson Scott Card -- Speaker for the Dead (1986)
Joseph H. Delaney, and Stiegler -- Valentina: A Soul in Sapphire
David Gerrold -- When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One
Robert Heinlein -- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Frank Herbert -- Destination: Void (1966)
James Patrick Hogan -- The Two Faces of Tomorrow (1979)
Victor W. Milan -- The Cybernetic Samurai (1985)
Rudy Rucker -- Wetware (1988)
Thomas Ryan -- The Adolescence of P1
Astro Teller -- Exegesis
Thomas T. Thomas -- ME: A Novel of Self-Discovery (1991)
Don't forget Steel Beach.
But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!
Lovecraft, on the other hand, has been dead for well over 50 years and is already regarded as a classic horror writer, and his works have been in print almost continiously since the founding of Arkham House in 1939.
Since the original question asked for LIVING authors, your choices don't fit the criteria.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I'll start off with the following:
Zadie Smith : White Teeth. I predict this will be required reading in high school by the year 2020. If you haven't checked it out yet, I strongly urge you to do so.
Haruki Murakami : Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World . Really, just about any of his novels would suffice. This particular one is a blowing mixture of magic realism and science fiction.
Gabriel García Márquez : 100 Years of Solitude. He practically invented magic realism. Other than Tolkien, he's probably the most influential writer of the past fifty years.
Kazuo Ishiguro : The remains of the day. His writing is so precise, so exquisite, so flawless, I don't believe there has been an English-language novelist to compare. I actually prefer his The Unconsoled, but I don't think it has the same aura of classicism.
Stanislaw Lem : Memoirs found in a bathtub. I think this will stand the test of time as his most "excellent" book, even though gems like The Cyberiad and The Futurological Congress are undoubtedly greater crowd-pleasers.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
I am sure that by this point in the thread, many of these authors will be redundant. Here goes anyway (single author per genre, living only, pretty arbitrary) ...
/. just loves this guy but I had to add my $0.02 - especially since he didn't make it into the original message.
... and hilarious.
... I can't read 'em all ;-)
Science Fiction: Neal Stephenson - I know
Fantasy: George Martin - If you haven't read his Song of Ice & Fire books, run (don't walk) to your bookstore right now! He stands almost alone in this god-forsaken genre for snappy dialog and compelling character development.
Satire: Kurt Vonnegut - "I've got doctorates in pig shit, horse shit and chicken shit. If you need me, I'll be out back shoveling my thesis."
Farce: Tom Robbins - Consistently brilliant
Thrillers: Tom Clancy - Now if they'd just stop ruining his books with crappy films.
Popular Science (non-fiction): James Gleick - His "Chaos" is a terrific read.
Physics (non-fiction): J.D. Jackson - You're not a super-geek until you've grokked the fullness of "Classical Electrodynamics"!
Computer Science (non-fiction): Donald Knuth - See Jackson in physics above. Replace "Classical Electrodynamics" with "Art of Computer Programming I - Algorithms".
History (non-fiction): Alvin Josephy - His "Patriot Chiefs" is one of the most interesting books I've ever read.
Cuisine (non-fiction): Julia Child - duh!
Sorry about the limited selection of genres
It was 4, and it's out - I have it. I got mine from the Columbia House DVD club.
But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!
For those who are unfamiliar with Lem, I'd recommend starting with the Cyberiad, which is a collection of fables involving two robot builders. It's whimsical, witty, and accessible. My favorite, though, is the vastly different Solaris, which in some ways reminds me of Borges. For those unfamiliar with Borges, perhaps Labyrinths or Dreamtigers would be good starts. Borges' prose and poetry are dense, compact, and carefully wrought; fascinating as his themes are, it's his style that is most distinctive.
I don't have the spare brain cycles at the moment to talk much about either author, but you can find some decent Borges resources at Booklist.com. A google search should net some good Lem sites. Mainly, I just wanted to chime in my agreement with the parent post.
What, you have never even heard of him. Come on, hes relatively new, but that doesnt automatically mean that he is bad!!!
All his novels: a must read!!!!
some of the most intersesting and complex scifi/fantasy stuff around:
1. the illuminatus trilogy(robert anton wilson and robert shea)
2. the Dark Tower series(stephen king)
3. the aprentice adept series (piers anthony)
4. Kurt vonnegut's early stuff is great scifi though his later stuff is more important literatur
5. samurai cat
erm.
I used to think so. But on a complete whim, I picked up the belgariad a few weeks ago and reread it. It was not at all as rich and complex as I had recalled. The plot was plodding, the characters dull. (*)
I guess it is a superbly written fantasy series for young adults, but it is NOT adult fiction.
For that, I prefer the Magician trilogy (first three books only, after that it becomes a franchise) by Raymond Fiest. I mean, a hero called "Pug". What name is less heroic than Pug?
(*) I failed to find the second quintology, so it could be that the depth I recall the series having was mainly taken from those books.
Author of The Cyberiad, starring Trurl and Klapaucius, which inspired the game SimCity.
A articulate Polish universal fiction writer, who thinks that Philip K Dick is a Visionary Among the Charlatans.
Nobody can figure out how he writes in Polish, yet the English translations of his books are full of brilliant poetic puns and neological phonetic jokes. He's got a great translator, Michael Kandel, to say the least.
His son Tomasz Lem created and maintains his father's official Stanislaw Lem Web Site.
-Don
PS: But here's what Philip K Dick, another great writer, had to say about Stanislaw Lem to the FBI:
Philip K. Dick to the FBI, September 2, 1974
I am enclosing the letterhead of Professor Darko Suvin, to go with information and enclosures which I have sent you previously. This is the first contact I have had with Professor Suvin. Listed with him are three Marxists whom I sent you information about before, based on personal dealings with them: Peter Fitting, Fredric Jameson, and Franz Rottensteiner who is Stanislaw Lem's official Western agent. The text of the letter indicates the extensive influence of this publication, SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES.
What is involved here is not that these persons are Marxists per se or even that Fitting, Rottensteiner and Suvin are foreign-based but that all of them without exception represent dedicated outlets in a chain of command from Stanislaw Lem in Krakow, Poland, himself a total Party functionary (I know this from his published writing and personal letters to me and to other people). For an Iron Curtain Party group - Lem is probably a composite committee rather than an individual, since he writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not - to gain monopoly positions of power from which they can control opinion through criticism and pedagogic essays is a threat to our whole field of science fiction and its free exchange of views and ideas. Peter Fitting has in addition begun to review books for the magazines Locus and Galaxy. The Party operates (a U..S.] publishing house which does a great deal of Party-controlled science fiction. And in earlier material which I sent to you I indicated their evident penetration of the crucial publications of our professional organization SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA. "
Their main successes would appear to be in the fields of academic articles, book reviews and possibly through our organization the control in the future of the awarding of honors and titles. I think, though, at this time, that their campaign to establish Lem himself as a major novelist and critic is losing ground; it has begun to encounter serious opposition: Lem's creative abilities now appear to have been overrated and Lem's crude, insulting and downright ignorant attacks on American science fiction and American science fiction writers went too far too fast and alienated everyone but the Party faithful (I am one of those highly alienated).
It is a grim development for our field and its hopes to find much of our criticism and academic theses and publications completely controlled by a faceless group in Krakow, Poland. What can be done, though, I do not know.
-Philip K Dick
From Stanislaw Lem Questions and Answers.
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Jordan is a genius in his own right, but he is different than Tolkien.
His characters are good -- they have their own idiosyncracies, yet their common bonds are evident. Three characters raised in the same village would share many views and mannerisms due to having the same influences, right?
However, others make much better characters (George R.R. Martin, Stephen King both are masters of characterization).
Jordan is a great writer, but he isn't a philoligist like Tolkein.
Jordan has made a plot, a mystery, a suspense, and characters and a world so vivid it cannot be forgotten. That is why he will still be read.
"If God's on our side, he'll stop the next war." -- Bob Dylan