Back when I was a young lad, I read a lot of used sci-fi,and so my ideas of the field are centered around the old masters: Anderson, Niven, Pohl, Asimov, Clarke, etc. The most recent stuff I read was probably Moorcock. Nowadays I’ve read some Greg Bear and John Varley, but for the most part, when I browse the sci-fi shelves, I don’t recognize any of the names. So: who are the best sci-fi authors to arise in the last 10 years or so? What are their best books?
-Ben
Orson Scott Card has written some of my favorite science fiction. I’d start with Ender’s Game and its sequels. Pastwatch is another good one.
Neal Stephenson has some very good books to his credit. I’d go for Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. Trust me, they’re worth the time. Although I don’t think of it as technically science fiction, Cryptonomicon is often filed in the sci-fi section in the bookstores, and is a terrific read.
Dan Simmons and his Hyperion novels rank as some of the best science fiction I’ve ever read. Period.
Jonathan Lethem has a somewhat edgier style than the others, but I thourougly enjoyed the sci-fi books Gun, With Occasional Music and Amnesia Moon.
Frank Herbert wrote what many regard as a classic, the novel Dune. The sequels are hit and miss–usually miss–but the first is a gem.
Willaim Gibson would get my vote.
http://www.slip.net/~spage/gibson/biblio.htm
Modern, last ten years or so, huh…
Lois McMaster Bujold. She started writing in the late '80s, but became awesome in the '90s. I’d read the phone book if she wrote it. Her pacing, characterization and dialogue are wonderful. All of her Miles books are great, but I loved her newest one…A Civil Campaign (but don’t read it first…it relies on far to many events in the previous several books)
Vernor Vinge: Been around since the late '70s, but came into his own with “True Names” in the mid '80s and became awesome in '93 with his masterpiece “A Fire Upon the Deep”
Greg Egan: He deals with…IDEAS. So-so characterization, but who cares? His ideas are so big that they “make muh haid hurt” when I read 'em. But boy is it fun having my brain stretched. Quarrantine is a personal favorite.
Stephen Baxter is hit-or-miss. When he’s good (Raft, The Time Ships) he’s very, very good. When he’s bad (Silverhair, Titan) he’s very, very, very, VERY bad (and he has NO idea about American Politics.)
Terry Pratchett: Not Science Fiction, and not quite last 10 years, but I’ve enjoyed every word he’s ever written. Funny, profound, brillantly characterized. A master
Nancy Kress wrote a three book set (Beggars In Spain is the first) that’s excellent. John W. Campbell would have liked them.
I agree with Shy Ghost completely about Neal Stephenson.
It’s late. I’ll add more later.
Fenris
Spider Robinson
I’ll cast in a supporting vote for Stephenson and Simmons, as well. John Barnes’ work is worth a look–just read Candle and it was one of the first sci-fi in quite awhile that contained ideas that had “wow” factor. (Based on it, a major subplot in Mother of Storms, and a collection of his short stories I’ve read, he does seem to have a strange fixation on rape, though).
David Brin started his career more than ten years ago, but in a poll of SF professionals held in 2000, he was voted the most important SF author of the last twenty years.
Had the feeling a name was slipping my mind. Marc Stiegler’s written only two novels that I know of, the out-of-print David’s Sling, which ranks as one of the books I’m most thankful for having read in my childhood, and Earthweb, also very nifty on the idea-factor.
Sci-fi? What the hell is that?
Repeat after me: Science Fiction. Fantasy. Speculative Literature. There is no such thing as that lazy editor’s shorthand: sci-fi. It’s a rude diminutive that diminishes the greatness of certain writer’s work.
Anyhoo, the best speculative fiction writer currently working is Harlan Ellison.
Stephen R. Donaldson. He’s nominaly a fantasy writer, but he wrote the terrific Gap Cycle (first book: The Real Story) in the early-to-mid nineties. Really good, hard-edged space opera. Considering that it was his first Science Fiction writing, I think he’s worth inclusion.
Bear in mind, though, that he cares more about his philosophy and the psychology of his characters - and not very appealing characters, at that - than he does about hardware and science. Soi\ he’s not for every taste.
Robert Sawyer. He’s Canadian!
Half his heroes are Canadian, and all of them are scientists. Plus the Really Big Issues are tackled: why are we here? Who’s controlling everything? It’s not uncommon for one book to tackle several different scientific subjects. Most of the books deal with human immortality in some form.
“Illegal Alien.” An extraterrestrial visitor is tried for murder in an L.A. courtroom.
“Starplex.” A multi-species starship crew discovers dark matter, the fate of the universe, time travel, other groovy stuff.
“Flashforward.” Physicists at the CERN facility try to find the smallest particle and end up giving everyone on the planet a two-minute glimpse of their future, twenty years from now. One guy finds out he’ll be murdered and spends twenty years trying to find his own killer.
“Calculating God.” Turns out all the other intelligent species in the universe believe in a Created universe, and they want to know: why don’t we?
Guy has a sense of humor, too. Check out the phony “interviews” at his website, scifiwriter.com .
Give me five years, and hopefully I’ll be on this list of great Sci-Fi (Take that, Joseph!) writers.
(Although I prefer the “Space Opera” genre over anything else.)
I agree with tclouie: Sawyer’s really good. I didn’t like Starplex at all (which is strange since it pushed all the right buttons for me), but I loved The Terminal Experiment (Guy invents an AI version of himself, makes three copies, with varying knowledge of mortality, and lets them run. One of them begins committing murder…) and Factoring Humanity.
The only problem I have with Sawyer is that his endings tend to dribble off. (Factoring Humanity really had this ‘problem’) It’s not necessarily bad, just a stylistic thing, but I prefer more “solid” endings. Greg Egan has the same ‘flaw’ with big, exciting novels that just sort of…trail…off.
Also, going from the sublime to the rediculous, I’ve just discovered Simon Green’s SF work. I’ve read most of his fantasy, and he’s an excellent fantasy author but he’s written a multi book SF series that I’ve just begun and so far love: The Deathstalker cycle. It’s such unabashed Rockets ‘n’ Rayguns Space Opera that you’ve gotta love it. Evil despotic queen of a vast galactic empire has put a price on the head of our hero Owen Deathstalker. Owen goes looking for a lost device that turns off a thousand suns at a shot. Green is channeling the ghost of “Doc” Smith here. Heroic heroes and heroines, villianous bad-guys (you wanna boo and hiss when the queen comes on stage)…I’m having a ball.
Fenris
Iain Banks. Writes mainstream and SF. Particularly love his ‘Culture’ Universe - “Consider Phlebas”, “The Player of Games”, “Use of Weapons” being the first three.
Pat Murphy!
I like her even BETTER than Sawyer, even though I’ve read all of Sawyer’s and only one of hers.
She recently published “There And Back Again,” a space version of “The Hobbit.”
“Norbits” are short-statured people who lead a quiet life in the Asteroid Belt. A tribe of female clones invites him to find their long-lost sibling. On the way they get captured by Resurrectionists, a cult that likes to chop up clones for spare parts. The Norbit escapes and steals an artifact of the Old Ones from one of the Resurrectionists’ escaped victims, a creepy half-human, half-machine. The artifact lets our hero become “invisible” by slowing down or speeding up time. He also steals Fluffy, another Resurrectionist victim who combines the body of a fighter ship with the intelligence of a human and the impulses of a cat (no Tolkien parallel here!). The expedition party reunites and gets waylaid in a dark cosmic “cloud” by spidery metal-eaters. Then they get imprisoned by Space Pirates (who are really good guys at heart) and escape via trash pods!
And yes, there is an Elrond, a beautiful female Gandalf, and a Cosmic Dragon at the end!
Wonderfulwonderfulwonderful!
You seem to have overlooked the SF writer who has won the more major awards – (Hugos and Nebulas) – than any other writer in SF history: Connie Willis. (She’s also the only author to win either award in all four of the major categories.) It’s hard to pick her best; a lot of people liked “To Say Nothing of the Dog,” a time-travel comedy, though I didn’t. I preferred “Bellwether” (with its connection to the Avram Davidson clasic “And All the Seas With Oysters”) and “Remake.”
There’s also Tim Powers. The man is incredible. Try finding “The Anubus Gates,” “Dinner at Deviant’s Palace,” “The Stress of Her Regard,” or “Last Call.”
Terry Bisson is also great, but probably not for everyone. His “Talking Man” and “Voyage to the Red Planet” are delightful. I just finished “The Pickup Artist.”
Jim Morrow writes fantasy that’s both funny and philosophically challenging. Try “Only Begotten Daughter” or “Towing Jehovah.”
Ted Chaing is by far the best writer of the past ten years. Unfortunately, his output is small – four short stories. Two (“Tower of Babylon” and “The Story of Your Life”) have won Nebulas, and a third (“Understand”) is even better (all of his work has been nominated). When he starts writing novels, watch out!
Pat Murphy is a good choice. She’s written a thematic sequel to “There and Back Again,” BTW – “Wild Angel.” It seemingly has nothing to do with the first novel, and she’s written a third that will explain the connection. “The Falling Woman” is also pretty good.
How’s a guy to show off when there are just too damn many knowledgeable people on this board?
A huge second to **Spider Robinson ** who manages to exude a sense of wonder along with his wicked sense of humor and a life-affirming humanity worthy of Ted Sturgeon.
Have to go also with David Gerrold whose “War Agaist the Chtorr” series will be entering its 5th book soon. Gotta love a guy who, for $500 donated to the AIDS Los Angeles project will use YOUR NAME as a character in his next book. (For details, check “http://www.gerrold.com/gerrold/special_offers.htm” Here)
**Kevin O’Donnell, Jr ** started a few years back, but his work has given me many hours of pleasure. Get his
And **Jack Chalker ** who is also no newbie, but who turns out huge quantities of reliable, entertaining stuff. I’ve lost track of how many 3-, 4- and 5-book series he’s done, but I have most of them and enjoy them all
Sorry Hometownboy, I’ve gotta disagree with you on one point. The fifth book in the “Cthorr” series probably won’t be out soon. 
I’ve been reading the series since, what…1976? And the gap between books keeps getting longer and longer. His website, well…lies. He’s been promising A Method For Madness will come out “Real soon now” for about three years. There was even a brief time where he said he’d release it as a limited edition self-published chap-book type thing. <sigh> I love the series, and I want the next book the way a junkie wants heroin, but I’ve lost my illusions that I’ll ever see it. Especially given how well recieved his Jumping of the Moon was (excellent book, too), he’s going to do at least two more books in that series before getting back to Method. <double sigh>
By the way, great to see another Chalker fan! My favorite series is the Soul-Rider stuff, followed by the first(5 book) Well-World series (the second and third series are too horrible to contemplate). I also really like “And the Devil Will Drag You Under”. Did you know that Chalker, early in his career wrote a biography of Uncle Scrooge (the Disney character?) I just got my hands on one and it’s pretty fun.
Fenris
I submit for your approval… Kim Stanley Robinson.
The Mars trilogy is the best-researched, best-written hard-science thrill-ride I’ve ever gotten my paws on. (Which uses up my supply of hyphens for the week.) Redefines the epic. Get Red Mars to start with, and see if you don’t get completely addicted.
Dang! That’s what I get for believing his website (which I just discovered recently). Yes, I am fixated on Book 5 as well, though I have to say, as Spider Robinson once did about Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series (rough paraphrase here): “I’ve been following this series for a long time, and there better be a pretty damn big rabbit come out of the hat at the end.”
I am also lucky enough to have a copy of the McDuck biography that somehow made its way into a bookstore/comic book shop in Eugene, Oregon before he published even the first “Well World” series. Having been a huge Carl Barks fan for ages, I snapped it up. And my interests were so compartmentalized that I didn’t even notice author’s on it until I read a reference to it in one of the later Chalker books and went back to look. It’s a great biography, particularly considering the @$&! at Disney wouldn’t let him use any of the copyrighted Barks stuff. (One of the reasons I’m proud to own copies of “Dan O’Neill’s Comics and Stories” and “Air Pirate Funnies.”)
I had a chance to talk briefly with Mr. Chalker five or so years ago when the Westercon came to Portland, Oregon. I even sent him a blueprint for a ferry that my family’s boat works made for the lower Columbia, since he’s such a ferry fan.
I will have to get the “Jumping Of the Moon” book, then, I suppose. ::echos sigh::
BTW, I accidently posted too soon last time and left off a piece of my reference to Kevin O’Donnell, Jr.'s McGill Feighan series (which also is stalled on a fifth book. Written, but not published yet. It’s a long story).
[fixed italics code and eliminated double post-Czarcasm]
[Edited by Czarcasm on 04-02-2001 at 08:31 PM]