Depends on what you mean by "the great SF writers." If you mean Clarke and Heinlein and such, then I would agree; their prose tends to be utilitarian. But as c

Depends on what you mean by "the great SF writers." If you mean Clarke and Heinlein and such, then I would agree; their prose tends to be utilitarian. But as counter-examples I submit J. G. Ballard, Samuel Delaney, Ursula LeGuin, John Crowley, Gene Wolfe, William Gibson, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, and Theodore Sturgeon — and there are surely others I'm forgetting. All great prose stylists, all masters of characterization, and arguably among the greats of the genre.