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.

Comments

Douglas Adams

[crashnbur]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will forever be remembered - by me - as the greatest work of science fiction ever. The nonsensical stories and characters fit together perfectly as the longest "trilogy" of all time. He was a master of the English language, which helped him to give each of his novels a timeless quality. Sure, he's one of the more recent 20th century sci-fi authors, but that's why he'll still be around in fifty years.

I also find it interesting that, of all the names listed in the body of this article, I had only heard of Heinlein, Asimov, and Tolkien...

Writers Who Will Pass Through the Singularity...

[Mentifex]

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)

Re:mmmmm sci-fi

[dschl]

Have not read Prachett, but definitely not Feist. He cannot go a single page without using the phrase "mystic" or "mystic powers". It took me a long time to notice, but once I did, I could hardly bear to read his books anymore.

Guy Gavriel Kay might make the list though. He is actually a decent writer, and has mastered the little things most pulp fiction writers miss - characterization, plot, beautiful descriptive language,broad vocabulary, etc. Books like Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, and The Lions of Al-Rassan have permanent residency on my bookshelf. Kay immerses the reader into his works.

dschl

Anyone who thinks hunting is barbaric should try visiting a chicken farm someday

Nonfiction (science) picks

[pq]

I'm seeing all these SF authors being tossed around, but come on, people - will they be read 50 years from now? By a small and committed minority, perhaps, but by a large number of people? I doubt it very much...

On the other hand, historical accounts will survive, I'm sure of that. So, for example, The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes will still be read, much like William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is still a must-read. The Atomic Bomb is a fantastic book, a towering and comprehensive work - I recommend it most strongly.

Then, for example, there are biographies: I doubt that James Gleick's Chaos will still be read - there will be other, better expositions of the Feigenbaum Constant - but his biography of Feynman, Genius, will still be read by anyone interested in the mystique of Feynman. (And trust me, with nanotech's rise, his mystique will only grow!)

And of course, I agree with everyone who nominated Dr. Seuss. That, and Alice, and Tolkien, will survive and still be relevant. Harry Potter - it's too early to say, though they are great fun to read...

Anyway, that's my $0.02.

Re:Robert Jordan

[Anonymous Coward]

Robert Jordan will be read 50 years from now because he still won't have finished the WoT series by then!

Re:Douglas Adams - literature

[PopeAlien]

I noticed a strange thing at my local used book store - Right after Douglas Adams died his books were moved from the 'Science Fiction/Fantasy' section to the 'literature' section.

I'm wondering what their thought process was on this one? 'Science Fiction/Fantasy' is not 'serious' enough? He's dead now, so his writing is classic literature? ..wierd.

Very few SciFi Authors

[overunderunderdone]

Unfortunately relatively few scifi authors will stand the test of time. Not because there is anything wrong with scifi but because "nothing is so dated as yesterdays vision of tommorow." Too many scifi authors are just glorying in a clever "vision of tommorow" (or of the mythic 'past' in the case of fantasy) and are not using that vision as a medium to tell a great story or display any insight into larger truths. They will be entertaining and popular for a day and then quickly fade. I have read many of the authors mentioned in other comments and many were very entertaining but few of them will be read 50 years from now.

I have loved scifi since I was a kid, but I often stand before rack upon rack of scifi novels at the local bookstore despairing of finding anything truly worth the time it takes to read. More and more I have turned to the classics section to find novels that have already proven themselves over time. For obvious reasons there seems to be a higher "signal to noise ratio" in that corner of the bookstore, the writing is better, the stories are less shallow and if many of the themes are sometimes familiar it is because of all the cheap knockoffs I've read before, often from the scifi aisle. I'm sure that there are a few, maybe even a lot of books in the scifi section that would satisfy but finding them is frustrating among so much dreck.

Not mentioned so far

[xigxag]

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.