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As a 15 year old and avid science fiction reader, I used to badger my English Lit teacher constantly. He always maintained that Ballard was one of very few SF w
by andybak 3y ago
As a 15 year old and avid science fiction reader, I used to badger my English Lit teacher constantly. He always maintained that Ballard was one of very few SF writers he liked and one of the few that he felt were good writers on a technical level. (I haven't read the article yet, but I sense some irony in the air)
I still disagree with his definitions but Ballard is definitely special.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoI always felt like those who were good at "writing, on a technical level" never had any interesting stories, or even interesting ideas. Still waiting for someone to suggest a counter-example.
- andybak 3y agoWell. Ballard?
- hotnfresh 3y agoBradbury. [edit] also, if you like short stories and novellas, I found the New Hugo Winners series (in which Asimov had taken a back seat as editor, writing in his introduction, to paraphrase, “I do not understand these kids”) has a way higher average quality of writing than the older Hugo Winners series. The ideas didn’t seem a lot worse to me, either. But I’ve also read a lot more of the regular Hugo Winner series so maybe I just got very lucky with the New Hugo volumes I’ve picked up.
- iainmerrick 3y agoThat reminds me of the HN discussion a little while back of Cordwainer Smith: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35978901 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35978901 In SF, I’d suggest James Tiptree Jr as someone with both great writing skills and great ideas.
- caskstrength 3y agoGene Wolfe?
- olddustytrail 3y agoIain Banks
- Pfiffer 3y agoUse of Weapons in particular
- philipkglass 3y agoI agree with sibling suggestions of James Tiptree Jr., Gene Wolfe, and Iain M. Banks. Also: John Crowley.
- dbspin 3y agoPhilip K. Dick, Stanislaw Lem, Ursula LeGuin, Samuel Delaney, Harlan Ellison, Cordwainer Smith, R.F. Lafferty, C.J. Cherryh and well, hundreds of others.