# Who's the most famous {living} writer of science fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [July 6, 2024, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796 "2024-07-06T01:37:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/181 "2024-07-12T22:46:30Z")
My two favorite SF writers are Charles Stross (who was mentioned in passing above) and Steve Brust (who has not been I believe). You can argue that they are fantasy, but then so are FTL drives. ---
**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:** [July 12, 2024, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/182 "2024-07-12T23:05:02Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Still, these days he is probably better known outside of the sf community than inside, thanks to Empire of the Sun and the movie made of Crash. Yeah, his work seems to be of the allegorical, socially relevant type that many SF fans tend to roll their eyes at. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/183 "2024-07-12T23:34:52Z")
Even if you count some of what Stross does as fantasy, he writes a lot of science fiction ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/184 "2024-07-12T23:49:32Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > if you count some of what Stross does as fantasy, he writes a lot of science fiction His most famous series, The Laundry Files, where Eldritch horrors take over the government, are more political satire than fantasy. Bankers turning out to be vampires is not very fantastical. He also has the problem that real events keep being more absurd and horrific than what his demons from outside reality do. He has written lots of great pure science fiction, too. My biggest problem is he can’t possibly be that famous, because he is one of my 9 followers on Mastodon. I have no idea why he is following me. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/185 "2024-07-13T00:11:47Z")
He’s playing with Lovecraftian tropes, and when Lovecraft was writing, what he wrote fell into the category of science fiction - the setting was a universe vast and old (the scientific universe) and the monsters were aliens or pre-human intelligences, dangerous because they had vast knowledge. Lovecraft and Stross’ magic is explicitly “science we haven’t discovered yet” with mathematics turning out to have a direct influence on reality (an idea that recognizably hard SF writers like Egan, Stephenson and Greg Bear also use - without calling it magic). > [@echoreply](#): > > more political satire than fantasy (In my opinion) Being political satire doesn’t exclude a work from being fantasy or being science fiction or being ‘realistic’ fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/186 "2024-07-13T00:15:11Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > (an idea that recognizably hard SF writers like Egan, Stephenson and Greg Bear also use - without calling it magic) I recognize the Egan and Stephenson works you’re referring to. But I haven’t read a whole lot of Bear. Which one(s) is it? (just looking to add to my reading list) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/187 "2024-07-13T00:34:35Z")
I’m thinking of _Anvil of Stars_ - the sequel to _Forge of God_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796.md?page=9)