Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
This is extraordinarily difficult, as most of you have noted.
I suppose I should leave out "one hit wonders" like Daniel Keyes (Flowers for Algernon) and Charles G. Finney (The Circus of Dr. Lao) even though these are brilliant works of genius.
I need to limit myself to authors who have produced a reasonably large number of works of speculative fiction, and to those authors whose work was consistently (with perhaps a few minor exceptions; even Homer nods) of great interest to me.
I'm afraid this not only leaves out authors of immense importance to the field (Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein come to mind, their later works being, shall we say, not indispensable on my reading list) as well as very important authors whom I either admire without being tremendously passionate about (Simak) and those who, for whatever reason, do not appeal to me (Van Vogt.)
I am also going to contradict myself and list some authors who went through periods, either early or late, in their careers when their work was not of great interest to me; yet their "classic" period includes so many fine writings that I find I cannot leave them off the list.
Just to make this immense task a bit easier for myself, I will also not mention any pre-Golden Age writers; farewell, H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon!
You will also notice a lack of "new" writers on the list, simply from ignorance on my part.
It may also be worth mentioning that I am probably going to be prejudiced in favor of authors who excel at short fiction, and against those who produce immense series of gigantic books. (There will be exceptions, I'm sure.)
With all that in mind, and knowing that there will be many, many names I will omit, here goes nothing.
Ray Bradbury -- Excessively sentimental at times, and verging on self-parody? Certainly, but also a writer whose sincere emotions are painted on the page in delicate pastels.
Fritz Lieber -- Extraordinarily elegant and witty, even able to elevate sword and sorcery, not my favorite genre, to the level of literature.
Theodore Sturgeon -- Master of style and wise in the ways of the human heart.
Cordwainer Smith -- Creator of new myths, unique in every way.
Philip K. Dick -- Erratic in many ways, overly mystical towards the end, and perhaps as mad as a hatter; yet what profound visions of reality of the nature of humanity!
Robert Sheckley -- The finest satirist in speculative fiction, worthy of sitting on the shelf next to Swift and Voltaire.
Ursula K. LeGuin -- A gifted stylist who reminds us, gently, of why what we are reading is important.
Harlan Ellison -- Pyrotechnic iconoclast whose best work goes far beyond speculative fiction to embrace all forms of literature.
Joanna Russ -- Polemicist, propagandist, always controversial; but a fiercely intelligent and immensely gifted writer.
Robert Silverberg -- Careless hack at first, but through sheer hard work created a large number of masterpieces.
Bah! That's ten, roughly in historical order, and I haven't even gotten to John Brunner or J. G. Ballard or Geoff Ryman or John Varley or Kim Stanley Robinson.
But one must start somewhere.
I suppose I should leave out "one hit wonders" like Daniel Keyes (Flowers for Algernon) and Charles G. Finney (The Circus of Dr. Lao) even though these are brilliant works of genius.
I need to limit myself to authors who have produced a reasonably large number of works of speculative fiction, and to those authors whose work was consistently (with perhaps a few minor exceptions; even Homer nods) of great interest to me.
I'm afraid this not only leaves out authors of immense importance to the field (Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein come to mind, their later works being, shall we say, not indispensable on my reading list) as well as very important authors whom I either admire without being tremendously passionate about (Simak) and those who, for whatever reason, do not appeal to me (Van Vogt.)
I am also going to contradict myself and list some authors who went through periods, either early or late, in their careers when their work was not of great interest to me; yet their "classic" period includes so many fine writings that I find I cannot leave them off the list.
Just to make this immense task a bit easier for myself, I will also not mention any pre-Golden Age writers; farewell, H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon!
You will also notice a lack of "new" writers on the list, simply from ignorance on my part.
It may also be worth mentioning that I am probably going to be prejudiced in favor of authors who excel at short fiction, and against those who produce immense series of gigantic books. (There will be exceptions, I'm sure.)
With all that in mind, and knowing that there will be many, many names I will omit, here goes nothing.
Ray Bradbury -- Excessively sentimental at times, and verging on self-parody? Certainly, but also a writer whose sincere emotions are painted on the page in delicate pastels.
Fritz Lieber -- Extraordinarily elegant and witty, even able to elevate sword and sorcery, not my favorite genre, to the level of literature.
Theodore Sturgeon -- Master of style and wise in the ways of the human heart.
Cordwainer Smith -- Creator of new myths, unique in every way.
Philip K. Dick -- Erratic in many ways, overly mystical towards the end, and perhaps as mad as a hatter; yet what profound visions of reality of the nature of humanity!
Robert Sheckley -- The finest satirist in speculative fiction, worthy of sitting on the shelf next to Swift and Voltaire.
Ursula K. LeGuin -- A gifted stylist who reminds us, gently, of why what we are reading is important.
Harlan Ellison -- Pyrotechnic iconoclast whose best work goes far beyond speculative fiction to embrace all forms of literature.
Joanna Russ -- Polemicist, propagandist, always controversial; but a fiercely intelligent and immensely gifted writer.
Robert Silverberg -- Careless hack at first, but through sheer hard work created a large number of masterpieces.
Bah! That's ten, roughly in historical order, and I haven't even gotten to John Brunner or J. G. Ballard or Geoff Ryman or John Varley or Kim Stanley Robinson.
But one must start somewhere.
