Werthead Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 [i]SFX Magazine[/i]'s new special edition is full of coverage on SF&F literature. It's an interesting read, but the most interesting part is their Top 100 Authors list, as voted for by readers of the magazine. 100. James Herbert 99. Gwyneth Jones 98. Sara Douglass 97. Charles Stross 96. Terry Goodkind 95. Brian W. Aldiss 94. Ken MacLeod 93. Olaf Stapledon 92. Michael Marshall Smith 91. Jon Courtney Grimwood 90. Christopher Priest 89. Jonathan Carroll 88. Scott Lynch 87. David Weber 86. M. John Harrison 85. Jacqueline Carey 84. Kim Stanley Robinson 83. Theodore Sturgeon 82. J.V. Jones 81. Joe Abercrombie 80. Joe Haldeman 79. Simon Clark 78. George Orwell 77. Samuel R. Delaney 76. Charles de Lint 75. Julian May 74. Edgar Rice Burroughs 73. Robert Silverberg 72. Susanna Clarke 71. Stanislaw Lem 70. Larry Niven 69. Alfred Bester 68. Katherine Kerr 67. Jack Vance 66. Harry Harrison 65. Marion Zimmer Bradley 64. Richard Matheson 63. Dan Simmons 62. Elizabeth Haydon 61. Terry Brooks 60. Richard Morgan 59. Stephen Baxter 58. Jennifer Fallon 57. Mercedes Lackey 56. CJ Cherryh 55. Harlan Ellison 54. Jasper Fforde 53. Octavia Butler 52. J.G. Ballard 51. Robert E. Howard 50. Sherri S. Tepper 49. H.P. Lovecraft 48. Mervyn Peake 47. Jules Verne 46. Alastair Reynolds 45. Neal Stephenson 44. Clive Barker 43. Jim Butcher 42. Tad Williams 41. Kurt Vonnegut 40. Trudi Canavan 39. Michael Moorcock 38. David Eddings 37. Alan Moore 36. Orson Scott Card 35. Stephen Donaldson 34. Gene Wolfe 33. China Mieville 32. Raymond E. Feist 31. Lois McMaster Bujold 30. Roger Zelazny 29. Anne McCaffrey 28. Steven Erikson 27. William Gibson 26. Guy Gavriel Kay 25. CS Lewis 24. Diana Wynne Jones 23. John Wyndham 22. Philip Pullman 21. Robin Hobb 20. Stephen King 19. Ray Bradbury 18. Arthur C. Clarke 17. Robert Jordan 16. JK Rowling 15. Robert Heinlein 14. Frank Herbert 13. Peter F. Hamilton 12. David Gemmell 11. Ursula K. LeGuin 10. Robert Rankin 9. HG Wells 8. Philip K. Dick 7. Iain M. Banks 6. Isaac Asimov 5. George RR Martin 4. Douglas Adams 3. Neil Gaiman 2. JRR Tolkien 1. Terry Pratchett An interesting list, especially since [i]SFX[/i] is not primarily literary-focused. There are some dubious votes in there (Goodkind, Douglass, Canavan) but all in all I'd say it's a reasonable list and mercifully non-epic-fantasy oriented. There's a lot of classic SF and Fantasy authors in there (blame Gollancz's Mastworks series, which have done very well in the UK and boosted the profiles of many authors) and the newbies are much further down the list (Lynch and Abercrombie near the bottom, no sign of Ruckley or Rothfuss at all). The Top Ten is the most interesting. I like Robert Rankin but as a good popcorn author. His books are funny but rarely make you think very much. He is also quintessentially British in his humour and I don't think his books travel very well. In nearly three years on this board, I've hardly ever seen his name come up at all. Wells, Dick, Asimov and Clarke are all classic SF authors with a tremendous impact on the genre, no problems there. GRRM's presence is a pleasent surprise: I'd expected him to be in the teens somewhere. That said, [i]SFX[/i] itself has boosted GRRM's UK profile by heaping lavish praise on AFFC and [i]Dreamsongs[/i] when they were released, and made AGoT the most modern entry on their SF&F Classics list earlier this year. Pratchett beating Tolkien? Probably controversial in some quarters, but I think it's a perfectly valid placing, and frankly you'd almost expect it in a UK-centric poll. In the accompanying interview Pratchett says it's a sympathy vote for his alzheimers condition, which I doubt very much. He's simply a prolific author who usually finds something interesting and worthwhile to say in his novels. True, when he overdoes it, it sometimes kills the book dead but 90% of the time he pulls it off to impressive effect. It's also enlightening that Bakker is nowhere to be seen (though he does get a mini-interview at the rear end of the magazine which is quite amusing). Abercrombie's entry also has a 'hilarious' photography accompanying it, if UK-based boarders want to check out a copy ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Terry Pratchett?! Incredibly dubious choice for #1 (and I liked some of his books). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 GRRM's the first non-English entry in the list, and Asimov right behind. Thank god SFX isn't so provincial as to make 70% of its top 10 Brits... Oh, wait. ;) (I am just joking, BTW, for those who are wondering.) Pratchett's sold a _lot_, he seems rather well-loved by his fans, and of course there's the personal angle with his recently being diagnosed with Alzheimer's... so, no huge surprise here. Gaiman's doing damned well for himself, too, but not undeservedly. I need to figure out how to convince Linda to let me get the Absolute Sandman volumes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 GRRM as the top non-Brit is extremely impressive, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 No Bakker? Your subtitle lies Wert!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Any word on what sort of circulation SFX has, or how many people participated in the vote? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuchulain Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I'm pleasantly suprised with Gemmell on the twelfth place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mashiara Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I wouldn't have expected Pratchett to beat Tolkien for the first place but like others said, part of it might be the sympathy vote. Not that he isn't an incredible author whose books I enjoy tremendously.. I'm glad to see Martin doing so well. I agree, it is mostly a British oriented list but that's to be expected. I'm delighted that classic fantasy and SF authors haven't been ovelooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightsnake Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I'd switch Tolkien with Pratchett at least....great to see Gaiman and GRRM so high...and Lynch made the list. Michael Moorcock so high is a travesty, though...and Goodkind being ON the list. And JK Rowling so high is just....ridiculous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 17, 2008 Author Share Posted June 17, 2008 [quote]Any word on what sort of circulation SFX has, or how many people participated in the vote?[/quote] 40,000, and they're being rather coy about the second one. It would be rather amusing if it turned out to be less than who voted in our poll, but I rather doubt that. As for Pratchett, he is a phenomenon. He's 'merely' a big author in the States, but in the UK he's the country's biggest-selling living author other than Rowling. Unlike Rowling, he also gets almost continuous critical acclaim and even the literati seem to have taken to him, after he was endorsed by the likes of AS Byatt (Tony Parsons called him 'our Dickens', which is a fair comparison). I personally am of the opinion that Pratchett will continue to be read a century or two down the line (as will Tolkien) whilst pretty much every other author on this forum will have faded into total obscurity. Personally I would probably put Tolkien ahead, but Pratchett would definitely be up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 17, 2008 Author Share Posted June 17, 2008 180-ish people voted on the [url="http://forum.sfx.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=13514&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=150"]SFX Forum[/url]. More voted by email and snailmail, but how many is unknown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightsnake Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 No doubt Pratchett is HIGHLY deserving of a top spot and Gaiman as well...I do question some of the choices, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 [b]Werthead[/b] [quote]There are some dubious votes in there (Goodkind)[/quote] You know. Besides this forum and Malazan, I have yet to meet people who like fantasy but dislike Goodkind. On a couple of other forums that are not strictly Fantasy/sci-fi oriented Goodkind doesn't have such a bad reputation. I have not read him yet but I wonder what could be worse than The Book of the New Sun ...or Tomas Covenant...or American Gods, although AG is one level higher than TC and TC probably? is better than The Book of the New Sun.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pita Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 I actually find Terry Goodkind a very fun read if you can leave your mind somewhere where it won't say "But that's impossible" or "That's very unlikely" or "Are they retards?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinsdale! Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 It's not too bad a list, as these things go. There's a prominent list of top books in the world chosen by readers (with an accompanying list chosen by literature professors). The top three on that list are: Atlas Shrugged The Fountainhead Battlefield Earth :ack: C.S. Lewis ought to be higher, is my chief complaint. There are a few how ought to be machine gunned off the list (Tad Williams, Donaldson and Pullman catch my eyes), but everybody seems to differ on those choices.* Besides, they all have big readerships. I assume that there are a whole bunch who slipped through the cracks that shouldn't have (ie. Walter Miller Jr.), and a bunch of primarily short story authors who got shafted. * Though for two of the three I mention, my criticism is that they're just awful writers, just not very good at [i]writing[/i] [edit: and dear God, David Eddings at number 38. But, but he just keeps writing the same book! Over and over again... Just changes the character names and scenery around a bit, and republishes. I can't be the only one to have noticed this...] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stego Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Absurd list. Pathetic. Inane. Disgusting. Despicable. Foolish in the extreme. I would print it out and wipe my ass with it, but it would do it too much honor. Clive Barker>Jules Verne? *ETA: Oh, it's a poll. People are fucking stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 18, 2008 Author Share Posted June 18, 2008 [quote]You know. Besides this forum and Malazan, I have yet to meet people who like fantasy but dislike Goodkind. On a couple of other forums that are not strictly Fantasy/sci-fi oriented Goodkind doesn't have such a bad reputation.[/quote] Goodkind, like Brooks and Eddings, does well with people who don't read much and those writers are the only ones they pick up on. Generally, the second people start reading more in the genre and come across the really good writers, these authors are consigned to the dustbin. What is quite amusing is that wherever you go, the people who do really like Goodkind tend not to pick up on his 'important human themes' (unless it's a Goodkind message board) and just enjoy it as a cheesy fantasy adventure with dragons and magic. And even they usually lose the will to live somewhere around Book 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Abercrombie Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 [quote name='Stego' post='1403820' date='Jun 18 2008, 12.30']I would print it out and wipe my ass with it, but it would do it too much honor.[/quote] Too much honour to the list or to your ass? [quote name='Stego' post='1403820' date='Jun 18 2008, 12.30']People are fucking stupid.[/quote] This is news? And may I just say... 81 muthafukas! Take THAT Brian W. Aldiss! In your FACE Chris Priest! Read 'em and WEEP Scott Lynch! Have at you now... Hold on. GEORGE 1984ing ORWELL is supposed to be a better writer than ME???????? MMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE??????????? Hello? Complaints department? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 [quote name='Werthead' post='1403855' date='Jun 18 2008, 08.04']Goodkind, like Brooks and Eddings, does well with people who don't read much and those writers are the only ones they pick up on. [b]Generally, the second people start reading more in the genre and come across the really good writers, these authors are consigned to the dustbin.[/b] What is quite amusing is that wherever you go, the people who do really like Goodkind tend not to pick up on his 'important human themes' (unless it's a Goodkind message board) and just enjoy it as a cheesy fantasy adventure with dragons and magic. And even they usually lose the will to live somewhere around Book 7.[/quote] All true, except for this part. I've introduced alot of people to fastasy. You'd be surprised how many people are HUGE ASOIAF fans, and still love Sword of Truth and Eragon and other utter shite like that. The thing is, as you say, they don't really pick up on the "themes" and just read it the way I did when I read most of the series when I was younger. As pure fantasy. In fact, most people stop reading it around the time the themes really start hitting you in the face. (You start feeling it around Soul of the Fire, and then Faith of the Fallen is most people's breaking point) Alot of people read Goodkind as pulp, and not as a serious thing to be thought alot about. Eragon I can't account for though. That book is an ass stain on the genre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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