# 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:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/101 "2024-07-06T17:31:38Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Yea, Larry Niven is still alive; he should be more famous than he is, although (like Orson Scott Card) I have a feeling I wouldn’t enjoy his company. > [@silenus](#): > > Too bad. He’s really a very nice person. Every interaction I’ve had with him over the years has been memorable, at least. I do like his writing, well, most of it, when he keeps away from politics. I just can’t see myself getting on well with a Republican, though. Similarly, I’d have reservations about Orson Scot Card’s homophobia, and Gaiman’s scarily-close relationship with Scientology, for that matter. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2024, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/102 "2024-07-06T18:16:16Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Ferguson was probably the most intellectual late night talk show host there has been in a long time. What about Stephen Colbert? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/103 "2024-07-06T18:33:44Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Shatner named the ghostwriter of each novel in the acknowledgements. The first two thanked Ron Goulart, for instance. If Goulart wrote them, I might actually try them out. He did a great job continuing The Avenger series, in addition to his own work. As for the question in the OP, I’d go with Gibson just because he gets mentioned so often in the general press as the inventor of the term cyberspace. I haven’t heard anyone in the general press mention Card in years. If we’re talking dead writers, I’d put Philip K. Dick above either Asimov or Clarke. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/104 "2024-07-06T18:44:09Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I haven’t heard anyone in the general press mention Card in years. Indeed, and I strongly suspect that there’s a correlation between his lack of visibility in the general press, and when he started using his bully pulpit to oppose homosexuality and same-sex marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/105 "2024-07-06T18:46:23Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > If we’re talking dead writers, I’d put Philip K. Dick above either Asimov or Clarke. Everyone is familiar with adaptations of Dick’s work, but how many are aware that he’s behind them? I’d argue that the only people who would know about him would be science-fiction fans (who would thus also know Asimov, Clarke, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/106 "2024-07-06T19:27:54Z")
Oh, his name stands for the “what is reality” kind of plot. He also is big in academia and literary circles. There is a Library of America edition of his works. I see him mentioned in the pages of the Times Book Review far more often than Asimov or Clarke, and especially more than Heinlein. Asimov might be a runner up because the three laws of robotics are becoming uncomfortably relevant as people get scared of AI. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/107 "2024-07-06T20:09:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Ah, true, but individual episodes don’t really count for what we’re looking for, here. The only people who ever know who wrote an individual episode of a TV show are folks who are already fans of that writer. It won’t expand their fame. Probably mostly true, but as an adolescent, if I liked a Star Trek episode, I’d hunt up print work by that writer. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/108 "2024-07-06T20:27:47Z")
Holy smokes, has this thread blown up! I’m sorry I can’t reply to all who deserve it, but these back in the pack caught my eye on my return. > [@wolfpup](#): > > What “other reasons” dragged Arthur C. Clarke to fame? Clarke was a distinctly minor writer - of sf or anything else - until his book _The Exploration of Space_ was chosen as a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. That got him a front page review on the _New York Times Book Review_ and shot him to massive fame. By 1955 eight of his books were released or re-released. He exemplified the future as a scientist and a writer. I wrote a condensed version of the story [here](https://gnomepress.com/21-sands-of-mars/). > [@MrDibble](#): > > In terms of fame, the popular YA authors like the aforementioned Suzanne Collins , James Dashner or Patrick Ness are going to eclipse any adult SF writer, barring King, IMO. > [@Alessan](#): > > I’m just amused, as usual, by the alleged SF/fantasy dichotomy. Only fans seem to care about the difference; actual writers obviously don’t. The distinction among genres has historically in the US been driven by publishers. Publishers care only - well, almost only - about sales. They firmly believe that buyers - a much, much larger number of potential sales than fans - want to read specific genres and that their books must be siloed into those genres. Covers of paperbacks must instantly inform browsers of the contents. For a very long time, cross-genre works were extremely hard to sell, until paranormal and romantasies became major subgenres within romance. Fantasy was a respectable mainstream genre for most of the first half of the 20th century, with science fiction a bizarre and subliterary offshoot. Until WWII. Suddenly sf was as hot as all things atomic and fantasy was a silly abandonment of the real world. For the next 20 years publishers built lines of sf, both in hardcover and later in paperback. (YA was considered a totally separate area, as were children’s books. That was because the best stable customers of book were libraries, and libraries also liked to group books separately for perceived groups of readers. Mysteries and westerns also continued to be important genres with their own publishing lines. Romance hardcover lines followed a bit later.) That changed with the Tolkien paperbacks in the 1960s. Suddenly publishers saw an audience for fantasy and Lester and Judy-Lynn Del Rey started a fantasy line in the 1970s that was wildly successful. Tolkien imitators crawled out of the woodwork like an ant swarm and they all sold. By 1991, the Science Fiction Writers of America changed its name to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, over the loud protests of the purists who insisted that the two were separate and, _sotto voce_, those damn fantasists can get their own organization. That most of the members of SFWA wrote both sf and fantasy and other stuff was ignored. But the old school lost because the publishers always win and most of the new fantasy crowd wrote little or no sf, yet they wanted recognition and most of them sold to the same publishers. Fantasy brought a wave of women into the field, both as authors and fans. They’ve dominated the Hugo and Nebula Awards for the past few years. But there is a measurable difference in their reading preferences. See this [You.gov page](https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/48239-54-percent-of-americans-read-a-book-this-year) for a breakdown in 21 categories/genres. Scroll down to “Mystery and romance books were read by more women in 2023, while men read more history and sci-fi”. (Disclaimer: I’ve read repeatedly for more than a decade than romance sales are 50% of all paperback fiction sales and that women read far more fantasy than men. This chart doesn’t say that. Take either one with a grain of salt.) So when I asked for the most famous living science fiction writer (and, dammit, I used the word “living”) I was making the distinction along historic, publishing, and fan lines, knowing that fantasy, especially YA fantasy, outsells all sf by a huge margin and has hugely more recognition in books. No consensus candidate has appeared, either. I wouldn’t have foreseen that as someone who started reading _The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction_ 60 years ago. ---
**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 6, 2024, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/109 "2024-07-06T22:55:59Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > The Dope is interesting, because there’s a ton of interest in science fiction here, but relatively little interest in any science fiction written in the current millennium. So many folks are interested in stories about the future, but only if they were written in the distant past. Hey, I like plenty of modern SF. Scalzi, Egan, Jemisin, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Pinsker, Naomi Kritzer, Ted Chiang, Cory Doctorow, etc. All folks who are currently active (and several of which who started in this millennium); not very famous other than Jemisin. Doctorow and Chiang write the kind of “think pieces” that get picked up by newspapers and news magazines - the kind of thing that Asimov and Clarke did when they were famous, but it hasn’t translated to the kind of public awareness that Isaac and Arthur got. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/110 "2024-07-06T23:50:12Z")
Since January 2021, I’ve read Jemisin, Doctorow, Scalzi, Collins, Le Guin, KS Robinson, Butler, Wells, Griffith, Egan, Bujold, Yu, Nix, Robson, Addison, Liu, Winterson, Schrefer, Vale, Mandel, Kowal, Edwards, Chambers, Brennan, PD Clark, Leckie, Walton, and Rather, most of whom are female, people of color, a/o queer, as well as Zelazny, Heinlein, Blish, and Clifton and Riley. I’m looking forward to The Last Dangerous Visions. I just don’t have a lot to say about most of them, here, most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/111 "2024-07-06T23:57:21Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I do like his writing, well, most of it, when he keeps away from politics. I just can’t see myself getting on well with a Republican, though. > > Similarly, I’d have reservations about Orson Scot Card’s homophobia, and Gaiman’s scarily-close relationship with Scientology, for that matter. I’m guessing you haven’t been reading a lot of Marion Zimmer Bradley retrospectives either. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/112 "2024-07-07T00:25:41Z")
–Oh, yeah, and Okorafor. ---
**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 7, 2024, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/113 "2024-07-07T00:39:15Z")
She still gets mentioned with respect more than I would have expected. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/114 "2024-07-07T02:41:59Z")
Joe Haldeman mentioned? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/115 "2024-07-07T02:58:21Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > much of it seemed to be Asimov trying to poke at Ellison to get a reaction. Considering that by every account I’ve heard Ellison was an unbearable asshole and Asimov was a lecherous old pervert, that can’t have been too difficult. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/116 "2024-07-07T02:59:56Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Considering that by every account I’ve heard Ellison was an unbearable asshole and Asimov was a lecherous old pervert, that can’t have been too difficult. My recollection is that it was both very funny, and rather painful. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/117 "2024-07-07T03:23:18Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > What “other reasons” dragged Arthur C. Clarke to fame? > > Clarke was a distinctly minor writer - of sf or anything else - until his book _The Exploration of Space_ was chosen as a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. That got him a front page review on the _New York Times Book Review_ and shot him to massive fame. By 1955 eight of his books were released or re-released. He exemplified the future as a scientist and a writer. I wrote a condensed version of the story [here](https://gnomepress.com/21-sands-of-mars/). What I disagree with is the idea that any single event “dragged” Clarke to fame. As you say yourself in that article, Clarke was “perhaps the most famous science fiction writer of all time”. I agree. He was always my favourite SF writer because he was brilliantly imaginative and tended to base his stories on plausible scientific premises more than most other SF writers. And everyone starts out being a “minor” writer early in their career. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/118 "2024-07-07T07:28:43Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Writers like Peter F. Hamilton, Neal Asher, Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, etc. Books that in the middle of the action dedicate ten paragraphs to describing the precise mechanism by which the sentient missle operates. I like the intricately imagined technology to be a main character. I was looking for a mention of Peter F. Hamilton’s name. Not only did I find one, I got another author (Neal Asher) to recommend to my husband. He’s already read Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds. Depending on the upcoming Murderbot series on Apple TV, maybe Martha Wells’ name will become better known. And that’s the point. Heinlein, Clarke and Asimov became famous without movie deals or television shows. I don’t consider J.K. Rowling a science fiction writer, but she is one of the of the few recent sci-fi/fantasy authors that became well known based only on their book sales. When doing a little bit of searching, I did find that [Barack Obama](https://seattlereviewofbooks.com/notes/2019/08/16/barack-obama-joins-the-ted-chiang-fan-club/) included one of Ted Chiang’s books in his 2019 reading list. I never heard of Ted Chiang until the movie Arrival. And having a movie made from his book isn’t enough to make him a household name. I think Stephen King is much better known than Alan Dean Foster. And he’s still writing. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/119 "2024-07-07T08:00:33Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > I think Stephen King is much better known than Alan Dean Foster. And he’s still writing. For people who write movie/tv tie-in books I’d think Timothy Zahn is more famous than ADF. But still virtually unknown outside of genre fans. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/120 "2024-07-07T09:16:26Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Not only did I find one, I got another author (Neal Asher) to recommend to my husband. Asher is imaginative, but not someone that I would get on with politically, either. His Polity universe reads like a right-wing riposte to Iain Bank’s The Culture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796.md?page=7)