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?

View Answers

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

[louderandlouder]

Wolfe vs. Le Guin is a hell of a contest, but my heart is with her even though I appreciate Gaiman's answer. So many of the SF greats are still alive; it makes a poll like this very crowded, happily.

[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!*

[sara]

...I am sad at the idea of having to rank them, really. Any contest in which I have to decide whether Delany or LeGuin is "better" does them both an injustice.

[lilacsigil]

LeGuin or Delany for me, but I've read more LeGuin. I think it's a bit unfair to start putting Ted Chiang (or any writer under 60!) up against that kind of competition or claim he's the best of anything yet.

[melannen]

I'd be willing to entertain Delany as outranking Le Guin, except that I *still* haven't read any of his stuff. (Dhalgren is just so... intimidating.)

Wolfe... I've never read any Wolfe either, but I've also never seen his work talked about in any context other than "Best SF writer" - ie nobody talking about how he had an influence or did new and different things or stirred up everybody in the genre or brought them into reading SF, or any of the other things people say about Delany and Le Guin (and Zelazny and Heinlein and a bunch of other non-living ones...) In fact I have no idea what Wolfe wrote about, whereas I have a pretty good idea about Delany just from following fan discussions.

[seekingferret]

I went with Delany. LeGuin and I get along only about half the time. (By which I mostly mean I'll love anything Hainish and dislike anything not). The writer I think is closest to Delany in my rankings is Ray Bradbury.

I don't understand how Chiang is even in the conversation.

[kindkit]

I like Chiang's work enormously, and I do think he's an important and underread writer, but . . . no.

I wonder whether that claim may be coming from folks somehow interpreting "living SF writer" as "currently working SF writer." LeGuin's best work, in my opinion, was written in the sixties and seventies, while Delany doesn't write SF anymore. Gene Wolfe I don't know about. But if the question was understood as "who's the best SF writer right now?" naming Chiang is much less ridiculous. Especially if SF is being defined narrowly as pure science fiction.

[troisroyaumes]

How incredibly bizarre--I love Ted Chiang, but he hasn't written nearly enough to even be in the competition.

I didn't vote because I haven't read Delany so I don't know how I would vote if I were familiar with all the authors, but out of the rest, I would definitely say Le Guin.

[coriana]

So, I have to confess I don't think I've read any of these people except Le Guin -- I don't actually read much "in the genre," I'm just an unabashed devotee of UKL. But I very much appreciate your posting this poll, because the struggle everyone's going through in the comments suggests I should go to the library tomorrow and check out some Delaney!

(Suggestions about where to start?)

~ c.

[outou]

I know his most recent works are, uh, incomprehensible, but why hasn't anyone mentioned Ray Bradbury yet? Does everyone think he's dead? (Do I have terrible taste?)

[outou]

Also, a belated happy birthday! I'm sorry I missed it.