* Lois Bujold * Connie Willis * Vernor Vinge * Kim Stanley Robinson * Neal Stephenson * Larry Niven * Hell, even John Scalzi If it weren't for the "alive" requ

* Lois Bujold * Connie Willis * Vernor Vinge * Kim Stanley Robinson * Neal Stephenson * Larry Niven * Hell, even John Scalzi If it weren't for the "alive" requirement, I'd include Iain M. Banks. :-( Regardless, I highly recommend anything Banks has written over anything of Card's. If we're willing to include fantasy... * Brandon Sanderson * Patrick Rothfuss * George R. R. Martin * Terry Pratchett * Mira Grant * Jim Butcher This just from a brief glance over my most-recent on Goodreads. There is lots and lots of good Sci-Fi and Fantasy out there, and I'd be willing to argue any of these authors over Card in terms of quality. (Though -- to be fair -- I was monumentally unimpressed with Card even before I knew his politics.) A few of the authors on my list have politics I disagree with as well, but they at least are much less obnoxious and hateful about it.