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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.

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  1. Writers Who Will Pass Through the Singularity... by Mentifex · · Score: 5, Informative

    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)

  2. Not mentioned so far by xigxag · · Score: 5, Informative
    I'd like to see some authors that no-one else has yet mentioned.

    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.

    --
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