Because this has been bothering me since Wiscon

[starlady]

Poll #7183 Greatest living SF writer?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

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Greatest living SF writer?

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Ted Chiang (source: owner of Dreamhaven Books)
0 (0.0%)

Samuel R. Delany (source: me)
2 (5.9%)

Ursula K. LeGuin (source: me)
28 (82.4%)

Gene Wolfe (source: Neil Gaiman)
0 (0.0%)

someone else I will name below
4 (11.8%)

Write-in candidate?

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I just can't believe someone would put Ted Chiang over the woman who coined the term 'ansible,' but maybe I shouldn't be all that surprised.

Comments

[futuransky]

It was a hard choice between Le Guin and Delany for me (and then I was sad for a while about Russ not being on the list), and I might answer it differently another day, because they do such different things with their work... But Le Guin has my heart and my soul in the end, though Delany has more of my intellect in many ways.

*edited to use my new icon, sorry for the extra email!*

[starlady]

I nearly put Joanna Russ on there even so.

I went with LeGuin because I read more of her work at a younger age, though ironically it was more of her fantasy than her SF. If I did this poll again tomorrow I'd probably vote Delany.

It also seems telling to me that all of them (with the partial exception of Chiang) write SF and fantasy in equal measure.

that icon is awesome!