Top 13 SF Authors

Reviewing To Die in Italbar yesterday got me a-thinking … have I ever listed my top SF authors of all time? Surely in the 4+ years of existence of the Hopper I would have gotten around to something as monumentous as that. I remember a list of top-something SF movies, I remember a gigundo list of my all-time favorite reads (to the left, there). I suppose I could do a search of my blog, but that’d take the fun out of it. I wanna make a list!

So … what’re the criteria for greatness here? Technique? Vision? Popularity? Meaning? Hard SF vs. Soft SF? Memorable plots, characters, twists of fate? Cultural impact? Hmmmm. For a good while these thoughts kept the old mental clutch disengaged, and I couldn’t figure out how to tackle the problem.

Then, it came to me, simply and elegantly. Since everyone’s list will differ, even the most exacting ways of measuring “greatness,” my criterion will be:


ENJOYMENT


These are my top SF authors simply because I enjoy reading them. I look forward to reading their books and stories. I snatch their books off the store shelves when I come across them. These authors are the best enablers of my chronic disease of escapism.

Here they are, thirteen in all in no particular order, with the estimated amount of books / anthologies of theirs I’ve read in parentheses …


Roger Zelazny (6)

Robert Heinlein (5)

Isaac Asimov (8)

Philip K. Dick (7)

Philip Jose Farmer (4)

Brian Aldiss (4)

George R. R. Martin (5)

Lin Carter (4)

Gary K. Wolf (3)

Robert Silverberg (7)

Ray Bradbury (6)

David Gerrold (2)

Alan Dean Foster (7)



13 authors
68 books / anthologies (many read more than once)

Addendum: On the shelf behind me, the On Deck circle of books soon to be read, sit 1 Zelazny, 1 Heinlein, 1 Asimov, 1 Martin, 1 Carter, 2 Bradburys,2 Fosters, and 3 Silverbergs. Along with about forty-five other books by other authors …