# Science fiction author Brian Aldiss dies aged 92 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310 "2017-08-21T21:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/1 "2017-08-21T21:41:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Brian Aldiss, the “grand old man” of science fiction whose writing has shaped the genre since he was first published in the 1950s, has died at the age of 92. > > Aldiss’s agent, Curtis Brown, and his son, Tim Aldiss, have announced that the author, artist, poet and memoirist died at home in Oxford in the early hours of 19 August. “Brian had celebrated his birthday with close friends and family and spoken to many close to him,” wrote Tim on Twitter as he announced the death of “our beloved father and grandfather”. > > Aldiss was the author of science fiction classics including Non-Stop, Hothouse and Greybeard, as well as the Helliconia trilogy, which his agent said bridged “the gap between classic science fiction and contemporary literature”. His numerous short stories include Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, which was adapted into the Steven Spielberg film AI, while his Horatio Stubbs saga was based on his time during the war in Burma and the far east. > **[Science fiction author Brian Aldiss dies aged 92](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/21/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92)** > > The prolific writer behind more than 80 books and editor of 40 anthologies died at his Oxford home after celebrating his birthday I remember liking his writing when I was young, but I haven’t read any of it for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/2 "2017-08-21T21:48:58Z")
This is sad. He never had the major fame outside the genre that his writing really merited. The Helliconia books, in particular, were an amazing combination of compelling storytelling and remarkably insightful anthropology. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/3 "2017-08-21T21:56:47Z")
I fondly remember his short story “Old Hundredth” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/4 "2017-08-21T23:01:43Z")
☹ RIP Mr. Aldiss; you done good. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/5 "2017-08-21T23:56:25Z")
I always admired his collection, “Galaxies Like Grains of Sand.” It’s a rich mixture of tones, but mostly optimistic and humanist. He could deliver mood very skillfully. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/6 "2017-08-22T01:29:17Z")
He started in the 1950s and was a conspicuously better writer than most of his peers, but also more baroque and not interested in the commonalities of what science fiction was supposed to be at that time. I think he was more admired in his native England than in the U.S. and didn’t give a hang about it. I have the two issues of _SF Express_ that he and Harry Harrison put out in 1963. They slagged the whole science fiction writing scene with few exceptions. (Harrison did like one writer, some guy by name of Aldiss.) It’s incredible to look back and realize that almost everybody thought that sf was dying a hideous death in the early 1960s. Aldiss and the New Wave upended everything that people understood as science fiction over the next few years. They saved the field and most of the old-timers hated them for it. SF is a weird little culture. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/7 "2017-08-22T01:30:30Z")
**Frankenstein Unbound** is one of all-tine favorite SF books. The Roger Corman movie, though, is pretty bad. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/8 "2017-08-22T01:33:51Z")
No slap intended at Aldiss, but I’d say the title of “Grand Old Man” goes to this guy. > **[James E. Gunn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Gunn_(writer))** > > James Edwin Gunn (July 12, 1923 – December 23, 2020) was an American science fiction writer, editor, scholar, and anthologist. His work as an editor of anthologies includes the six-volume Road to Science Fiction series. He won the Hugo Award for "Best Related Work" in 1983 and he won or was nominated for several other awards for his non-fiction works in the field of science fiction studies. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 24th Grand Master in 2007, and he w Gun... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/9 "2017-08-22T03:30:41Z")
[Gunn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Gunn_(writer)) (fixed link) is probably the biggest name still living, but many older writers are still alive as seen on [this page](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/oldest.cgi). (Obviously, the earliest ones just haven’t had a death date entered into the database.) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/10 "2017-08-22T06:19:55Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > [Gunn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Gunn_(writer)) (fixed link) is probably the biggest name still living, but many older writers are still alive as seen on [this page](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/oldest.cgi). (Obviously, the earliest ones just haven’t had a death date entered into the database.) I’d say Silverberg is still the biggest name of the 1950’s generation. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/11 "2017-08-22T06:42:22Z")
RIP. One of the biggies from my youthful geeky days. (as opposed to my current, geriatric geeky days.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/12 "2017-08-22T07:44:42Z")
Even if his fiction writing were cack (it wasn’t), he’d be a giant for _Billion Year Spree_ alone. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/13 "2017-08-22T14:59:52Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’d say Silverberg is still the biggest name of the 1950’s generation. Or Ellison. But I meant of those older than Aldiss. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/14 "2017-08-22T17:24:16Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Or Ellison. But I meant of those older than Aldiss. Or Le Guin, now that I think of it. But yeah, I see what you were trying to say. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/15 "2017-08-22T18:08:57Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Or Le Guin, now that I think of it. But yeah, I see what you were trying to say. She’s 88. Wow, I hadn’t realized that. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/16 "2017-08-22T21:20:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I have the two issues of _SF Express_ It’s SF _Horizons_. Drat my failing memory. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/17 "2017-08-22T22:55:40Z")
He’s one of those SF writers I know more for his observations on the genre than his own stories. Is he the one who promulgated the term ‘skiffy’? I kind of forgot about him as I was reading less SF. I may have started attributing quotes of his to other writers. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92/794310/18 "2017-08-22T23:28:12Z")
No, it appears that it was David Hartwell who first used the term"skiffy" in print.