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

[masgramondou.livejournal.com]

I think for greatest you need works that work at many levels and which are read by as wide an audience as poss. It also helps if the writer has more than one book that people rave about.

Bradbury - I read F451 and enjoyed it (and it stuck in my mind) but although I've read other Bradbury I don't remember them without recourse to google/wikipedia. Therefore I consider Bradbury to be almost a 1 trick wonder.

I also think it helps if something the author has written has entered into wider popular culture. Pratchett gets a nod here as does Bujold since both have produced quotes that one sees in odd places.

Another possibility is Orson Scott Card. Enders Game and Speaker to the Dead work on multiple levels, are popular as introductory works and have some memes that have entered culture (Speaker to X is one).

Larry Niven isn't dead yet. Lots of stuff there that is well known (on the gripping hand...). I think Niven is more influential that Pournelle in literary terms although in political terms it's the other way around. Niven's non collaborative work is stronger too and better known even though I prefer Pournelle personally as someone to read.

I think JK Rowling needs to write something other than HP and see it also be successful to count otherwise she drops into the one-hit-wonder category.