Very interesting list from SF magazine. Found some of the comments supprising, esspecialy Orson Scott Card. If you need cat litter see David Eddings. My favorites came in at number 46 and 7, where did yours come?
http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2008/06/sfx-top-100-list-continued.html
and
http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2008/06/sfx-top-100-list.html
My favorites are peppered all over the list, the top ranking being 14. The first four have their own cults so it doesn’t surprise me that they placed at the top.
As per usual these lists make me want to run amok with a light sabre in my local Forbidden Planet. Pratchett #1!!! Fuck off! Neil Gaimen in the top 3!!! Really!!! Some of his comics are okay (if a tad gothy/teen-angsty) but are his novels better than Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, Moorcock, PKD, etc… Nonsense! He’s a fad. Maybe enjoyable but nothing more. I know these polls are just popular opinion but even so this one seems rubbish. I’m no Stephen King fanatic but he barely makes it in the top 20! While Iain Banks is #7 (an author who can sell for toffee outside the UK). I wonder where he’ll be in 10-20 years time? My betting is well outside the top 50 or maybe not in the top 100. While Aldiss only just makes it in this top 100. Grrrr…. Proof that democracy just doesn’t work. The only pleasantly surprising thing is JK Rowling doesn’t cut the top 10. Woohoo! 
Perhaps we should have a poll and generate our own list? If everyone posted there top 20 say. Or perhaps Tony could get together with some of you and put a list together and make a show of it?
pdackerman wrote:
Perhaps we should have a poll and generate our own list? If everyone posted there top 20 say. Or perhaps Tony could get together with some of you and put a list together and make a show of it?
That might be interesting. I wonder who would top the poll? My bet would be that Arthur C Clark would poll quite high.
On the back of recently listening to the podcast I am reading a short story by Tiptree and it is brilliant. If there was a list of short story authors I would consider Tiptree. Novel authors I would go with either Asimov, Clarke or Doc Smith.
pdackerman wrote:
On the back of recently listening to the podcast I am reading a short story by Tiptree and it is brilliant. If there was a list of short story authors I would consider Tiptree. Novel authors I would go with either Asimov, Clarke or Doc Smith.
Oooh!. Now *that* would be an interesting list.
One of my favorites was #53 Octavia Butler… I think most people aren’t familiar with her work or she would have rated near the top. Most of the bottom 50 I could take or leave — they are heavy on fantasy, I think, except for Butler and Lem. Otherwise my favs are #73, 53, 36, 23,22,8, 4. My second tier would be 41,27,25,19,20,15,14,9, 6. I would have placed A. E. Van Vogt at the top of the list. Stanislaw Lem would have been nearer the top of my list… NOT 73.
How could they overlook Van Vogt while including all those 3rd and 4th-raters?????? A glaring omission.
Ted Chiang I’d rate in there somewhere near the top.Another glaring omission.
Greg Bear is also missing.
Whatsamatter with that mag???
Greg Bear is also missing.
 ]
While I’m not a big fan of GB that is a surprising ommision. I imagine if this poll was taken in the 80s or the 90s he would have finished somewhere near the top.
Persoanally I feel these polls should ignore any author who is under 50 years old or isn’t dead: that way the younger hyped authors would be taken out of the running. After all, how can you judge an author until he’s writen a body of work. The only problem with this is hardly anyone would bother voting but… meh…
Ted Chiang is 40-ish but a superb writer. Perhaps he is too succinct while ripping our minds apart?
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