One of the things that appeals to me about science fiction is that the storytelling need not have any limitations at all. In a similar way to fantasy, if there is a barrier to the story, it can often be worked around, redesigned, or just plain ignored. Good science fiction writers are some of the most imaginative and creative people on the planet. The best of them have combined that with a good grounding in science and a (sometimes) quiet intelligence.

The depth of storytelling can be quite varied. Some authors will take a single interesting idea and then explore it for all it’s worth. Others will rapid fire a thousand brilliant ideas superficially in a single narrative. Some can be quite clinical in their writing, and others can be almost poetic.

I must admit, however, to an overall preference for some of the classical masters, as this list will attest. That’s not to say there aren’t good modern writers, but the path has already been forged for them to some extent by the greats of the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and (to a lesser extent) 70’s – what some fans would call the Campbell-era – and of course by those that created the field decades earlier.

So, having set the scene, time to take a deep breath and dive into it.

 

My favourite science fiction authors

 

Isaac Asimov

Easily my number one favourite, standing head and shoulders above all others. I have never read a bad Asimov book or short story, and I’ve read a hell of a lot of his fiction (and a few of his non-fiction as well). This guy wrote or edited more than 500 books in his incredibly prolific career (covering nine of the ten categories of the Dewey Decimal system), so forgive me if I still have a few items to work my way through.

Asimov is almost universally acknowledged as one of the greatest literary minds of the 20th century. He has been described as having the ability to absorb and immediately understand all of the mathematics and theory around real science, and then explain it quickly and easily to non-scientists in a way that didn’t make them feel stupid. And then wrap a thought-provoking and entertaining story around it to boot.

Gaining a PhD in biochemistry in 1948 while a struggling writer, I love the story of his doctoral review panel asking him about “Thiotimoline”, a fictitious compound that could predict events. It was a teasing reference to a spoof scientific paper titled “The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline” that Asimov had just had published in a science fiction magazine. For a terrifying moment, he thought his writing hobby had cost him his doctorate!

That short story is an excellent example of Asimov’s warm (and sometimes cheeky) sense of humour. Many of his stories are peppered with subtle humorous gems and puns, and his non-fiction is a surprisingly rich store of examples of his lighter side.

The robot stories are immediately recognisable as pure Asimov, and many non-science-fiction fans know of his famous Three Laws of Robotics. Asimov created and developed an entire fictional universe for his robots that he explored and built on over many decades and dozens of difference short stories and novels. Through these he also explored his love of murder mysteries, and several of his robot books have an almost Agatha Christie sub-plot that forms the framework for the themes he wants to explore.

His Foundation series of novels are often cited as the best of their kind in the genre. Starting with a trilogy, Asimov expanded the series with four more books, and now his estate has commissioned another trilogy. Apparently Warner Bros is developing a movie series around the initial trilogy.

It’s unfortunate that Asimov’s work has not translated well to the screen over the years. The Will Smith movie “I, Robot” bears little resemblance to the book of short stories of the same name (one of my favourite Asimov books), and is easily the poorer for it. Robin Williams’ “The Bicentennial Man” did a little better, perhaps because it was more respectful to the novella of the same name. One can only hope Warner Bros sticks to Asimov’s vision, or that series will go nowhere.

Born in Russia in 1920, Asimov left us far too early in 1992. One can only imagine how much more he would have produced if he’d had even a few more years.

Asimov is the bar that every other science fiction writer aspires to. Asimov is the man.

 

Arthur C Clarke

When an author has as many books on my favourite books list as this author, then his inclusion on my favourite authors list is a foregone conclusion. I’ve always enjoyed his writing style and his amazing imagination.

I’m not sure which was the first Arthur C Clarke novel I read. It was probably either 2001: A space odyssey or A fall of moondust. Whichever it was, I followed it up quickly with Imperial Earth, and I was hooked. Then I discovered Rendezvous with Rama and there was definitely no turning back.

I had the very great pleasure of talking to Arthur C Clarke by telephone in the mid 1990’s. We were both very big fans and advocates of Amiga computers, trying desperately to save it from its criminally negligent management. We only spoke for a short time (maybe fifteen or twenty minutes – the phone rates from Australia to Sri Lanka were rather terrifying), but it is easily one of the highlights of my life.

Like Asimov, Clarke was not a casual outsider or neutral observer in the world of science. He is credited with many real scientific achievements, not the least of which is the geostationary satellite, which makes very large parts of our technical lives today possible. He also shared his fascination with the unknown in a number of television documentary series.

Clarke lived to see the year 2001 fail to live up to his predictions, but didn’t make it as far as the sequel, 2010. He died in his beloved Sri Lanka in 2008.

The fact that he is responsible for the story and much of the script of my favourite science fiction movie, 2001: A space odyssey, thus crossing two of my favourite diversions, only places his star even higher and brighter in my firmament.

 

Robert A Heinlein

It really is a total coincidence that the first three names on my list of favourites are also the trio often referred to as “The big three” of science fiction. I only heard of that title recently, but my top three had already been decided years ago.

Some have said that Heinlein was one of the most science-conscious of the big three (Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein), but to my mind he always seemed more interested in the people than the hardware. His stories are filled with explorations into social issues as well as scientific possibilities, and his humour is also legendary – especially when it was used to highlight the stupidity or senselessness of the world he lived in.

Stranger in a strange land is always cited as a classic of science fiction, and it was the first Heinlein I read. Again, that was enough to hook me for life, and I eagerly chewed through every other example of his work I could find. Time enough for love is another favourite, as are Glory road, Number of the beast and Job: A comedy of justice.

Heinlein had the knack of getting you totally involved in a story, and then suddenly you realised that you were being preached to about some aspect of modern society, sexual liberation or organised religion and you were totally won over by the argument before you knew what was happening. Then, just when you needed it, you were straight back into the story at a mad pace.

Bad health kept his typewriter silent for most of the 1970s, but he started writing science fiction again around 1980, producing several more books. A winner of an amazing FOUR Hugo awards, Heinlein was taken from us in 1988 from smoking-related problems, just as he was getting back into his stride.

 

Ray Bradbury

This is the guy I was referring to when I spoke about some science fiction authors being poets. Some of his stories are just plain beautiful. Others are a little more on the horrifying side.

Everyone knows Farenheit 451, and that’s a brilliant book, but this is also the man responsible for The illustrated man, The Martian chronicles and Something wicked this way comes – which is one of my all time favourites. He bridges so many genres – science fiction, horror, fantasy, even whimsy – with masterful ease.

There are those that will argue that Bradbury was a fantasy or “speculative fiction” writer, not a science fiction writer (and that includes Bradbury himself). I disagree, and this is my blog, so that’s an end to it. He also wrote for the screen (including most of the screenplay for the 1956 movie Moby Dick) and has the rare distinction of being a writer with a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

He is a man of infinite imagination, and he writes beautifully.

 

Robert Silverberg

During the golden years of science fiction (up to the late 50s), Robert Silverberg was averaging around five published stories a month – a remarkable achievement for any author in any field. To ensure there was no perception of a Silverberg glut, many of these were written under a range of pseudonyms.

He is often considered one of the later generation of science fiction masters, because his output of novels really only kicked off in the 60s and 70s. The world inside comes from this era, and is a personal favourite of mine.

Some of my favourite Silverberg novels come from the period after he declared his “retirement”. These include the entire “Lord Valentine” or Majipoor series, which I devoured with ravenous gusto. I thoroughly recommend the entire series. There are also a large number of anthologies of his huge store of short stories, all of which make excellent reading.

The fact that Silverberg collaborated with Issac Asimov on a number of books in the early nineties (all based on original ideas or short stories by Asimov) only increases the value of his stock in my books.

 

Richard C Meredith

Not everyone has heard of Richard Meredith, but that’s their loss.

Living a short and problem-plagued life, Meredith started writing relatively late, selling his first two novels when he was 32. He managed seven more novels, a number of short stories and some poetry, before dying from a brain haemorrhage in 1979 at just 41 years of age.

My favourite of his novels is Run, come see Jerusalem, an amazing and action-packed mix of theocracy, time travel, paradoxes and biological warfare. His writing is clear, plain and easy to read, and this style cleverly hides a continuing litany of unusual and sometimes bizarre ideas. For example, in We all died at Breakaway Station, his cast is populated with soldiers that have been patched together from artificial prostheses and the pieces of dead soldiers blown up in previous conflicts!

Well worth checking out.

 

Mick Farren

Many of my favourite writers are scientists (Asimov, Clarke) or the like (Heinlein was an engineer). Mick Farren comes from a completely different place – lead singer with a proto-punk English rock band!

After a bit of a hiatus in his musical career, Farren began writing fiction in the early 1970s, and to date has completed more than 20 novels (and some non-fiction as well). His writing is edgy, definitely not subtle and sometimes has got him in trouble with the obscenity laws. He has no problems calling a spade a fucking shovel, and will often then hand it to a scantily-clad, buxom female and put her in some sort of dire situation.

Many will know of his “DNA cowboys” series, but his best work is in novels like The song of Phaid the gambler, The Armageddon Crazy, CORP*S*E, and The feelies.

 

E. E. “Doc” Smith

Mr Smith (and yes, he was indeed a real doctor) is often referred to as the father of the space opera. Don’t expect any mind-altering, brain-shattering cutting-edge science fiction concepts or premises here. His writing is clear and simple, his plots much the same, and it all feels very easy and comfortable like sitting through a Buck Rogers movie matinee.

Smith is the earliest of the writers on my list, being born in 1890. His first attempts at writing came about following a evening with friends around 1915, in which he was encouraged to write down his thoughts about interstellar travel. He tried, but felt that some sort of love interest would be needed, and this was not something he was comfortable with! He and a family friend began work on The Skylark of space, using his own family and friend as inspriration for the characters, but the effort eventually petered out.

Smith earned his PhD in Chemistry in 1918 (or 1919), and earned his living as a food engineer. Smith restarted the Skylark book around 1920 and received countless rejections for it before it was finally accepted by the magazine Amazing Stories and published in 1927. In fact it was so successful that he was commission by the magazine to write a sequel (Skylark III), and was offered 50% more than the standard rate.

A rival magazine later offered him another 30% on top of that to write for them, and the result was Triplanetary. That magazine ended up having financial difficulties, however, and the story eventually went back to Amazing Stories.

This was a remarkable period for Smith, earning and being offered enormous sums for his space operas. The magazine Astounding saw its circulation rise by 10,000 when they published the third Skylark novel, sending rival magazines to the wall. Such was his reputation that when he suggested an outline for a whole new series of four books (the Lensman series), Astounding committed to purchasing all them, sight unseen. The first instalment was published in 1937.

There were other novels, including other series (such as the Family D’Alembert series,  which I also enjoyed, though that was almost entirely written by collaborator Stephen Goldin), and other short stories, and several essays. All of which make for entertaining reading.

“Doc” Smith is now best remembered for the Skylark and Lensman series of short novels, each set in a universe where scooting across the galaxy is as commonplace as popping down to the corner store for some milk.

In 1963 he was presented with the first ever science fiction Hall of Fame award. Smith died in 1965, a highly respected pioneer in his field, admired and loved by many of his contemporaries.

 

Honourable mentions

There are, of course, other great science fiction stories I’ve enjoyed over the years, even if their authors didn’t make my list of favourites. Among the best of these I’d count:

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

1984 by George Orwell

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Contact by Carl Sagan

The Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton

Out of the silent planet by C S Lewis

Dune by Frank Herbert

and many others!