# 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:** 8
**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, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/141 "2024-07-07T16:35:36Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Hubby keeps telling me I should try reading Peter F. Hamilton, and now that we have some of his novels electronically, that might work. Hamilton was my sister’s favourite author, and I can recommend him, too. > [@Tamerlane](#): > > I was trying to remember the last unequivocal sf I’ve read in the last couple of years and the only name I could think of was C.J. Cherryh, who at 81 now is absolutely old school. She is very good, and a very nice person, unlike some of the bigger names in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/142 "2024-07-07T16:46:10Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Asimov wrote as many or more books outside of science fiction than in. Sure – but he is absolutely famous for writing science fiction. I am pretty sure it is what he is most famous for. I suspect there are very few people who know his name who do not know that he wrote science fiction. Compare to George RR Martin, where I suspect that the large majority of people who know his name do not know that he wrote science fiction. ---
**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, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/143 "2024-07-07T16:47:12Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > > [@eburacum45](#): > > > > His Polity universe reads like a right-wing riposte to Iain Bank’s The Culture. > > Well, crud. But that’s hubby’s decision if he wants to try something different. It is only “right wing” if you consider it “right wing” that in the Polity there are still for-profit companies and people still work for money instead of the massively wealthy post-scarcity Culture. But you can’t call it a “right wing” contrast because there are weapons because both have weapons. You can’t call it a “right wing” contrast because jt has war because both have war. You can’t call it a “right wing” contrast because it has “rough men who stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm” because both have “rough men who stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm”. Asher’s Polity is very much comparable to Hamilton’s Commonwealth and Reynolds’ Revelation Space. Or for that matter any other SF setting where the civilization aims for peace but gives pretty good war when it needs to. Here’s his publisher’s page on the series: > **[An Introduction to Neal Asher's Polity Universe books](https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/science-fiction-and-fantasy/introduction-polity-universe-neal-asher)** > > Neal Asher is the author of four series, four standalone novels and a book of short stories set in the Polity Universe. Here’s everything you need to know. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/144 "2024-07-07T17:29:53Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Sandkings. Worth ten of most SF short stories. I remember reading that in OMNI magazine back in the early '80s. From _The Simpsons_: > **Martin Prince:** > As your president, I would demand a science-fiction library, featuring an ABC of the genre. Asimov, Bester, Clarke. > > **Student:** > What about Ray Bradbury? > > **Martin Prince:** > I’m aware of his work… Bradbury was famous, but I had to look up Bester. ---
**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, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/145 "2024-07-07T17:57:58Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I was just noticing how, in a thread about famous living writers of science fiction, so many posters responded by talking about writers whose works are more than a half century old and who died long ago. I think that reflects that it takes a long time to get famous - and that no SF writer today at all is anywhere near as famous as an SF writer as Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury and Heinlein were. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Because I think that SF is the best that it’s ever been, I wanna encourage folks to check out some of the new writers Absolutely! ---
**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 7, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/146 "2024-07-07T17:59:50Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Asimov wrote as many or more books outside of science fiction than in. If anyone feels like counting, you can find out how many books he wrote in each category in [Isaac Asimov - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Bibliography) . ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/147 "2024-07-07T18:08:36Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Asimov wrote as many or more books outside of science fiction than in. When I read the complete works of Ray Bradbury I was surprised how little of it I would classify as science fiction. True, but irrelevant to @Left_Hand_of_Dorkness’s point about being famous _for writing science fiction_. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/148 "2024-07-07T18:22:34Z")
Right. Someone very famous for anything might have written a science fiction short story. Or someone famous in the horror genre might step across the aisle and write a book that is clearly science fiction. Neither should qualify as an answer to the OP. Things can get worse if you consider a writer very well known for science fiction who insists that’s not the genre of their work, or an author who works in the fuzzy zone between science fiction and fantasy. Just before his death in 1992 I think one could clearly say Isaac Asimov was the most famous {living} writer of science fiction. His name could easily be recognized as an author of science fiction by far more people on earth than any other {living} writer. And most of those people wouldn’t know that he had ever written anything in any other genre, perhaps never having read anything he’d written either. It’s about having a recognizable name because of writing science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/149 "2024-07-07T18:23:01Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I think that reflects that it takes a long time to get famous - and that no SF writer today at all is anywhere near as famous as an SF writer as Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury and Heinlein were. I think it’s partly that, but it’s also related to the music threads where most of the “best of” songs were from the 1970s and 1980s, when a lot of the posters here were kids and were forming their tastes. ---
**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, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/150 "2024-07-07T18:28:43Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > When I think about SF writers who have achieved mainstream fame, one of the first names that jumps to mind is Rod Serling. Obviously he’s long dead, and also the OP specified “must rest on books,” whereas Serling was best known as a scriptwriter for performance media. It’s also arguable the degree to which he is a _good_ writer (as in, original and uniquely talented, versus simply repackaging and adapting ideas he found in the literature), as opposed to simply being an _influential_ writer (we all know what a “Twilight Zone ending” is). Right, Serling was a scripwriter and producer, not an author. A vast amount of _Twilight Zone_ material was sourced from the literature of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. The most common explanation for the euphemism of “wish to the cornfield” is that it comes from an episode of _TZ_. But as with so many other episodes, Serling was just adapting an existing story, in this case the sci-fi short story “It’s a Good Life” by Jerome Bixby. It bugs me that Bixby rarely gets the credit. ---
**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 7, 2024, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/151 "2024-07-07T18:33:44Z")
Asimov published more than 450 books, which I suspect is the largest number by an author that anyone on the SDMB has ever heard of (except for one writer that some of us have heard of). There are authors who published more than Asimov. The Spanish writer Maria Lopez published more than 4,000 novels. The Brazilian writer Ryoki Inoue published more than 1,100 books. Kathleen Lindsay wrote 904 books under 11 pseudonyms. The one exception I mentioned is Enid Blyton who published over 600 books ---
**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, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/152 "2024-07-07T18:36:24Z")
Barbara Cartland, 723 novels. Not one worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/153 "2024-07-07T18:39:06Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > not an author The subject-line prompt is for “writer,” not author. Someone who writes for performance is just as much a writer as a writer who writes for readers, so Serling qualifies. But the OP further specified that the writer should be known “for books” so it’s academic anyway. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/154 "2024-07-07T18:39:48Z")
Heard of thirty; read eighteen. ---
**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, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/155 "2024-07-07T18:42:49Z")
That makes sense, too. I haven’t kept up with music at all… ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/156 "2024-07-07T18:55:48Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > But as with so many other episodes, Serling was just adapting an existing story, in this case the sci-fi short story “It’s a Good Life” by Jerome Bixby. It bugs me that Bixby rarely gets the credit. For anyone who hasn’t read it, the short story is chilling and nightmarish in ways the TV show did not match. And I love the TV episode. IMO the short story is brilliantly written, providing just enough description to set the tone, but no more, so that the reader is horrified by their imagination to a level the “gory details” would not have reached. I’m thinking, for example, of how he describes what Anthony changes the “bad man” into at the party. _:shivers:_ Anyway, if you’ve never read it because you weren’t aware of it, or because you already saw the TZ episode, you really should. ---
**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 7, 2024, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/157 "2024-07-07T19:08:25Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > 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 quoted a blurb on a 1990 book and say it might have been true. Who else could possibly compete with him after _2001_? Wells and Verne are obvious candidates, but I insist that media fame trumps book fame. That the Book-of-the-Month club dragged Clarke into instant fame is based on extensive research in newspaper databases, not just on Clarke but on all sf of the day. > [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > And that’s the point. Heinlein, Clarke and Asimov became famous without movie deals or television shows. Heinlein became famous outside the field because he pushed for and co-wrote the 1950 movie [Destination Moon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination_Moon_(film)). The film, a Technicolor spectacular produced by George Pal, was a huge success. It won the Oscar for Special Effects and was nominated for Art Direction. The astronomical backgrounds were mattes by Chesley Bonestall, who spent the rest of the 1950s contributing spectacular paintings to the big general circulation magazines of the day, illustrating articles by the “space-happy” crowd (a coinage of Heinlein’s) to get the general public enthused about a space mission to the moon and a space station, where they would drink space milk and grow space plants and eat space bread spread with space jam. Ray Bradbury was more famous, by my estimation, than either Heinlein or Asimov in the 1950s. After _The Martian Chronicles_ and other collections from Doubleday, he began selling to _Esquire_, _McCalls_, _Colliers_, the _Saturday Evening Post_ and other prestigious and high circulation general interest magazines. (Heinlein had some in general interest magazines in the 1940s, but by the 50s he wrote very few short stories and gave almost all of those to the genre sf mags.) Then _Fahrenheit 451_ got serialized in early issues of _Playboy_ in 1954, which created a gigantic splash and rocketed him to heights. Asimov became generally famous for his non-fiction, which led people to go back and discover his science fiction. It helped that he never denied being an sf writer. He only wrote ten books of adult science fiction, published from 1950-1957. In the next eight years he published more than 40 volumes of nonfiction. ---
**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 7, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/158 "2024-07-07T19:19:47Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Asimov became generally famous for his non-fiction, which led people to go back and discover his science fiction This is a weird one, because today, if you ask people about Asimov they’re going to know him (if they know him at all) as being a science fiction writer, regardless of what books initially made him famous in the 50s. His legacy is his science fiction, not his popular science explaner books. ---
**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 7, 2024, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/159 "2024-07-07T19:35:22Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > regardless of what books initially made him famous in the 50s Asimov continued to write nonfiction books until he died in 1992. They weren’t confined to the 1950s by any means. It would be necessary to do a very detailed count, but I think that a larger proportion of his books were nonfiction than were fiction towards the end of his life. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796/160 "2024-07-07T19:40:26Z")
I think for awhile, **Gene Wolfe** was holding that title, but poor Gene died…5 years ago. Man, I can’t believe it’s been that long. For fun, I asked ChatGPT. It said: - **Neal Stephenson** - Known for works like “Snow Crash,” “Cryptonomicon,” and “The Diamond Age.” - **William Gibson** - Often credited with pioneering the cyberpunk genre with his novel “Neuromancer.” - **Margaret Atwood** - Renowned for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and other speculative fiction works. - **George R.R. Martin** - Best known for the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, which inspired the TV series “Game of Thrones.” While primarily fantasy, his work often incorporates science fiction elements. - **Kim Stanley Robinson** - Known for the “Mars trilogy” and other works focused on ecological and sociopolitical themes. - **N.K. Jemisin** - Acclaimed for her “Broken Earth” trilogy, which won consecutive Hugo Awards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-famous-living-writer-of-science-fiction/1003796.md?page=9)