'Author of fiction' and philosopher aren't in any way mutually exclusive. If a fictional story contains new philosophical ideas, it's both philosophy and fictio

'Author of fiction' and philosopher aren't in any way mutually exclusive. If a fictional story contains new philosophical ideas, it's both philosophy and fiction, and should not in any way devalue the philosophy as somehow less serious. Some of the most famous philosophical books are formatted as fictional stories- like Nietzsche's Zarathustra. Even Plato's Socratic dialogue uses fictional conversations to explain philosophy. Rand's fiction books seem like thinly veiled philosophy- there is not much story or character development, and very long rants about ideas. I think it's worth mentioning in the context of Rand that Terry Goodkind is a very popular fantasy novelist whose books are also all based on Objectivism.