The Holy Trinity of Science Fiction - Last Round (READ CAREFULLY!)

[Mal]

It's come down to just four options. Vote to eliminate ONE, and the remaining will be assumed to be your trinity.

Again, the option with the most votes against it will be eliminated, and the other three will be our holiest of holies.

 

[Kelthaz]

Oh, so now we're eliminating again? Sigh, I've never been so confused by an internet poll before.

I'll go with Clarke.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I eliminated Clarke as well. I think Asimov's contributions to sci-fi go a bit farther, IMO, while Clarke is generally known by the masses only for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[Neroon]

I cannot in good conscience vote to eliminate either Clarke or Asimov, so it came down to a still difficult choice of Trek or Wars. I actually flipped a coin.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yikes! I can't believe my favorite writer is losing, especially to Star Wars. I'm a big Trekkie, but neither ST nor SW are SF.

I'm sorry I didn't notice this contest sooner. My Holy Trinity would be Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein.

 

[Australis]

No, Clarke's contributions to SF and indeed science in general is as big if not bigger than Asimov's Comms satellites, anyone?

I went with SW, as I said before, it's just a SFF recasting of well known story tropes, Hero's Journey and all that.

 

[JuanBolio]

How the HELL is Asimov beating Clarke?

I voted SW.

 

[Goliath]

Star Wars.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Sorry Isaac, I did enjoy Foundation, but I enjoyed the other choices more.

 

[C.E. Evans]

No, Clarke's contributions to SF and indeed science in general is as big if not bigger than Asimov's Comms satellites, anyone?

The sound of crickets quietly chirping...

 

[sidious618]

Asimov. I always thought he was a bit of a hack fiction writer.

 

[RJDiogenes]

How the HELL is Asimov beating Clarke?

That much I can see. I would put Asimov second to Clarke, but I certainly can respect those that would put him first.

 

[Daneel]

Obviously, I'm pretty big on Asimov. And I've grown up watching and loving both Star Trek and Star Wars. Therefore, though I acknowledge he was an important contributor to literary sci-fi, I will reluctantly eliminate Clarke from my list, as I've never actually read anything of his (however, I do like the 2001 movie, for whatever that's worth).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Bye bye Clarke. Star Wars may be fantasy and/or crap, but it's made too much moolah to ignore.

 

[Goliath]

Bye bye Clarke. Star Wars may be fantasy and/or crap, but it's made too much moolah to ignore.

Meh.

When Arthur C. Clarke was 55 years old, he gave us Rendezvous with Rama, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest SF novels of all time.

When George Lucas was 55, he gave us...The Phantom Menace.

I rest my case.

 

[Lumen]

I'm sorry I didn't notice this contest sooner. My Holy Trinity would be Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein.

Ditto to all of that.

I voted Star Wars off.

 

[Mal]

doesn't look like 'wars is gonna make it...

 

[Ryan]

Tough choice but I think I have to go with Star Wars. At the end of the day they're just a couple good sci-fantasy films.

 

[Australis]

No, Clarke's contributions to SF and indeed science in general is as big if not bigger than Asimov's. Comms satellites, anyone?

The sound of crickets quietly chirping...

You do know that Clarke basically developed the idea of communication satellites, don't you?

As Camelopard said, Rondezvous with Rama was a great book, and while not as prolific as Asimov ("And who is?", as Isaac himself would have said), his stories are still solid today.

 

[C.E. Evans]

No, Clarke's contributions to SF and indeed science in general is as big if not bigger than Asimov's. Comms satellites, anyone?

The sound of crickets quietly chirping...

You do know that Clarke basically developed the idea of communication satellites, don't you?

That's like saying Gene Roddenberry invented cell phones.

I'm sorry, but nobody paid Clarke's little article any kind of attention--not in 1945 and not even again in 1951 or 1952. It was John R. Pierce of AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories that made people really take the idea of communication satellites seriously in 1955--and he worked without having read Clarke's article.

Clarke is only being given credit now for being the first to come up with the idea, but that's many years after the fact. It was Pierce who really developed the idea of communication satellites.

As Camelopard said, Rondezvous with Rama was a great book, and while not as prolific as Asimov ("And who is?", as Isaac himself would have said), his stories are still solid today.

And yet, there are many people who only know Clarke through 2001 (more so the movie than the book) and nothing else. Still, he's faired better in this list than Wells, Bradbury, Heinlein, and even Verne (who basically invented the science fiction genre in the first place).