Sci-fi authors with terse styles?

SpiderCrawler2099

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PKD is a favorite of mine. I also finished reading "Fahrenheit 451" recently and loved Bradbury's quick, shaky style (the unusual metaphors and odd sentence structures were great, too). So, do you know of similar authors who share these sort-of "terse" styles?
 
Could you get more into what you mean? I don't usually think of Dick and Bradbury as having similar styles. For more people who don't have similar styles but may be in the ballpark of what you mean, Asimov doesn't waste words. From a slightly different angle, Simak can be pretty plain-spoken. Early Heinlein was a different kind of plain-spoken. (Later Heinlein was mostly outspoken. ;)) Budrys has a sort of stoic vigor in much of his work. Harry Harrison is often lean, clearing away stuff that gets in the way of the comic timing in his humorous works. Bear is often workmanlike. Forward and many hard SF writers are efficient and direct. Terseness of any kind is a vanishing quality these days. John Barnes and maybe Steele are a couple of the - won't say recent - least old examples.

But then there are people like Bruce Sterling who may not be particularly terse but provide a lot of bang for the buck, regardless - very energetic style. And people like Sturgeon and Zelazny, as different as they are, can be very colorful and poetic but aren't wasteful, so have a sort of terseness.

Probably the most concise, clean, vigorous writer - I haven't read enough Hemingway to say it but I feel like it's "Hemingway-esque" - is Joe Haldeman.

Don't know if any of this is what you meant, though. :)
 
Could you get more into what you mean? I don't usually think of Dick and Bradbury as having similar styles. For more people who don't have similar styles but may be in the ballpark of what you mean, Asimov doesn't waste words. From a slightly different angle, Simak can be pretty plain-spoken. Early Heinlein was a different kind of plain-spoken. (Later Heinlein was mostly outspoken. ;)) Budrys has a sort of stoic vigor in much of his work. Harry Harrison is often lean, clearing away stuff that gets in the way of the comic timing in his humorous works. Bear is often workmanlike. Forward and many hard SF writers are efficient and direct. Terseness of any kind is a vanishing quality these days. John Barnes and maybe Steele are a couple of the - won't say recent - least old examples.

But then there are people like Bruce Sterling who may not be particularly terse but provide a lot of bang for the buck, regardless - very energetic style. And people like Sturgeon and Zelazny, as different as they are, can be very colorful and poetic but aren't wasteful, so have a sort of terseness.

Probably the most concise, clean, vigorous writer - I haven't read enough Hemingway to say it but I feel like it's "Hemingway-esque" - is Joe Haldeman.

Don't know if any of this is what you meant, though. :)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll be looking into them. I agree that PKD and Bradbury aren't similar writers, but neither of them is verbose. I also think they are both slightly odd writers. Well, PKD is incredibly odd. But Bradbury is, too, at times. So, while not overly similar, they share some qualities. I wanted something lean and fast.

Also, I want something with a deep theme. I don't need anything too plot-heavy - just something that tackles an emotional or "deep" subject.
 
PKD is awesome! Err no actual suggestions for you though, just thought I'd say that.
 
Depending on which work you go to, J. G. Ballard can be quite terse. In fact, with some of his work (e.g., The Atrocity Exhibition) he compresses the language so that it carries an enormous additional amount of information, both manifest and latent content.
 
Check out Jack Vance. He may be known for being flamboyant and ornate but his action scenes and many of his descriptions are remarkaby brief and extremely effective. I suppose the same could be said of just about anybody but I noticed Vance was different and less prone to waste words when I read THE STAR KING, my first book by him.
 
I'm trying to write a series of 100-word eerie tales. Here is one.

Pillow Talk


Imprudently they’d listened to the late-night news. John’s shadowy dreams were tormented by a moving form and steel’s glint. The serial decapitator was near.


He awoke, sweat-damp, gasping.

His wife turned to him, caressed his face. “John, it’s all right. Go back to sleep.”


Eventually he slept, where nightmare found him: the killer bent over, blade poised.


--“Jane! Jane!” Eyes wide, he stared into the darkness, afraid even to turn his head.


He sensed his wife sit up next to him. He reached out to pat her back gratefully.


“It’s all right,” came her voice hoarsely from her pillow.
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