{democracy:4}
About S. K. Sloan
Samuel K. Sloan's love of Star Trek brought him to Slice of SciFi, where he was Managing Editor from 2005-2011, and returned from 2013-2014 before retiring once again from scifi news gathering.
This is How We Geek Out: Interviews, Reviews & More
Samuel K. Sloan's love of Star Trek brought him to Slice of SciFi, where he was Managing Editor from 2005-2011, and returned from 2013-2014 before retiring once again from scifi news gathering.
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PaulJ says
No Arthur C. Clarke? You’ve gotta be kidding!
russ says
I picked Tolkien due to the huge influence he had. Not only for his stories and breath of readership, but also for the authors, stories and cultural impacts that came after him. But it was also tough to reject Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and yes, Arthur C. Clark.
PJ says
OMG! How could you ask us to pick just one from that list? I picked “other” – not only because I had others in mind, but because I had too many in mind.
Bob says
Dudes… Neal Stephenson, any day
JFStan says
No Douglas Adams!? wtf?
Shawn S. says
Samuel R. DeLaney is the best. Him or Ted Sturgeon.
LeeR says
PLease…David Weber or Piers Anthony.
Anna in Washington says
Anne McCaffrey is the only woman on the list, unless all of the other female authors are included in “Other” like second-class citizens. That is the problem with these sorts of lists – they’re all filled with the big name authors who were first writing in the 50’s and 60’s (or earlier) when sci-fi was an all-boys club. How about Ursula Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, Sheri S. Tepper, or any number of great authors who didn’t have a dick?
Summer Brooks says
Don’t forget Alice Sheldon, aka James Tiptree Jr, Kate Wilhelm, and others.
I think this might have been a bad list of choices, since there are many whose collective votes in “Other” would outweigh any single author listed… and the list isn’t broad enough.
Maybe offering choices of one dominant or preeminent author per decade, then picking from them? It’s too easy to leave a lot of influential and good writers out.
And since including Roddenberry kicks opens the doors beyond the realm of novels, you’ve got to include the writers/creators of Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the X-Men, and people like Gerry Anderson and JMS and whomever’s truly credited with the creation of Doctor Who.
zagreus says
why is Terry Pratchett not on the list
Sam says
I started out with a list of over 100 great authors and needed to narrow it down, so I used several criteria to determine who would make the top 20 (# of novels, awards received, which were made into films or TV, etc). From there I narrowed it further down to 12 (noticed that one of my collegues must have added Clarke to the list to make it 13). Clarke was in my top 20. A list of 20 looked entirely too long so that is why I took it to 12. I generally like to keep any poll list at 10 to 12 at the most.
I also had two other women authors in my top 20 list that got narrowed down and only one made it to the list of 12 (now 13). You have to cut somewhere lest the list extends ad infinitum. I was quite aware that many names would be suggested in the comments section; the only way around that was to add the Other category…and no, it is not demeaning to your favorite author to choose Other. My favorite author is not on the list either (and I chose the list of 12), so Other should work fine for everyone.
Natalie says
Wow – what a tough choice. I went with the author I’m most willing to buy when I see his books in a book store, not that at least four people were high on my list of “best”.
Summer Brooks says
Hm. Sam, I’m guessing since Clarke’s name was spelled incorrectly, and now I know you didn’t do it, I think I know who did… ๐
Sam says
Yeah, I corrected the spelling after I saw it added. I too figured out who probably added it. ๐
We_are_Borg says
Holy Cow Pies Batman! This was worse than the dessert
menu at OutBack! Which to choose, which to choose???
And then there are the ones not on the list, Bradbury,
Wells, Silverberg, Card. No matter who you put up there
Sam, you would have gooten grief about it…
Amazing that just after 24 hours of postings, Asimov and
Heinlein were tied for the lead!
michael t says
Tough call. I went with Heinlein. Back in High School I was a big fan, plowing through all of his book I could get my hands on. Who as a teen did not love Stranger in a Strange Land?
tinkoo says
I think there 3 different genres that get discussed as scifi/fantasy – causing confusion because they tend to have different audiences:
1) Pure fantasy bordering in religion. E.g., Clarke’s Childhood’s End
2) SciFi for which we don’t even have enough science today, forget technology. E.g, A lot of Asimov’s work.
3) Realistic SciFi – Very complex problems, but only barrier is doable technology rather than science. E.g., Clarke’s Deep Range, or “Issac Asimov’s Inferno” (I think by Brin – not sure).
Splitting your list among the 3 genres may simplify producing such lists.