The greatest alive?

[onyxhawke]

So who is the greatest living science fiction and fantasy author? Is it Ray Bradbury who has done the rarest of all things for genre fiction and crossed over to being used in English classes from elementary school all the way to college and universities?  Does it go to Stephen King? He's sold oodles of books and even managed to convince the mainstream he isn't (usually) science fiction? Can we anoint Terry Pratchett? Despite his presence, and the legacy of Douglas Adams, People who Matter are still convinced humor doesn't sell. Another reasonable choice is Lois Bujold who has more Hugo Awards for both science fiction and fantasy, and is a perennial nominee for the Locus, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards as well? A case can be made for J.K. Rowling as well, without much need to go into what she's done. Robin Hobb certainly deserves a strong look as well. Mercedes Lackey has helped define SF/F for the last two decades and has written and sold across half a dozen of the subgenres. Another name some might throw out is China Meiville, for lush language and creativity?  R. A. Salvatore has sold well enough that he can make a legit claim to being the greatest too.

 

So is the greatest living SF/F writer one of these? Or is there someone I just don't know?

Comments

Re: Greatest Living SF writer

[bigbananaslug.livejournal.com]

Awards have some value. If you win one award, okay. But if you have won more Hugos, Nebulas, and other awards than anybody else now alive, that says something important about your work. You might try reading some of Resnick's stuff.

And it's okay that you don't like Flint. He feels that he'll never win awards. He is, in my humble opinion, a throwback to the days of RAH where authors wrote stories, not littrachur, and he's created the most popular current shared world in the genre: 1632.

Re: Greatest Living SF writer

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I wasn't aware that Resnick *was* a writer, or rather that his writing consisted of any more than a bit of dabbling before (like Jim Baen) he decided that another part of the industry was more fitting to his strengths.

I tend to hate award-winning stuff. Hugo and especially Nebula voters seem to consider Big Themes And Concepts the vital thing, and the presence of a good story somewhere between "tertiary" and "irrelevant"

Still, I've interacted with him on the Bar a couple of times. Seems like a nice guy, and definitely smart. I'll look him up.