Who's Your Holy Trinity?

[The Nth Doctor]

Most influential
Isaac Asmiov
Arthur C. Clarke
Philip K. Dick

Personal favorites
Philip K. Dick
Kim Stanley Robinson
Michael Crichton

 

[Mistral]

Tank, DPS, and healer?

^bad gaming joke.

Heinlein, Niven, and Asimov

With H. Beam Piper as first apostle.

the voice of knowledge has spoken. All other replies are superfluous.

 

[jadcox@mindspring.com]

Does Ray Bradbury really count as SF? Hard SF? To me, he's closer to magic realism. Outside of Fahrenheit 451, most of his stories trend to literary fiction, mythic/contemporary fiction, fantasy, or the magic realism of, say, Isabel Allende, Alice Hoffman, or Gabriel García Márquez. I adore Ray Bradbury. He's one of my very favorites. I am even in one of his books. ;-) But I wouldn't list him in my trinity of hard SF. Anyone else agree?

 

[Lapis Exilis]

You guys are all such modernists with the Bradbury, Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov business.


Ursula K. LeGuin, William Gibson and Samuel R. Delaney.

 

[The Comedian]

Tank, DPS, and healer?

^bad gaming joke.

Heinlein, Niven, and Asimov

With H. Beam Piper as first apostle.

Tank: Heinlein
DPS: Ellison
Healer: Asimov

 

[Admiral2]

ASIMOV-God
CLARKE-Jesus
HEINLEIN-The holy spirit

SERLING-The archangel

L.RON HUBBARD-[Church Lady]SAAAYY-TANNN![/Church Lady]

 

[Winterwind]

Where's the love for John Wyndham? As simple as it is, Day of the Triffids remains my favourite sci-fi story.

My top three would be:

John Wyndham
HG Wells
Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut didn't consider himself a sci-fi author, and I don't really either but since there's a lot of sci-fi in some of his novels, he makes the list.

 

[Kegg]

Vonnegut didn't consider himself a sci-fi author, and I don't really either but since there's a lot of sci-fi in some of his novels, he makes the list.

Still, The Player Piano and The Sirens of Titan are great sci-fi novels, and there isn't a more memorable depiction of sci-fi authors than Kilgore Trout.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Does Ray Bradbury really count as SF? Hard SF? To me, he's closer to magic realism. Outside of Fahrenheit 451, most of his stories trend to literary fiction, mythic/contemporary fiction, fantasy, or the magic realism of, say, Isabel Allende, Alice Hoffman, or Gabriel García Márquez. I adore Ray Bradbury. He's one of my very favorites. I am even in one of his books. ;-) But I wouldn't list him in my trinity of hard SF. Anyone else agree?

Well, he writes both SF and Fantasy, but I would definitely consider him an SF writer. The Martian Chronicles is a series of SF stories told through the eyes of a poet.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I figured Asimov and Clarke were slam dunks, but I think I'd have to put Wells at the top of the list just for being the founding father. I think his work is more pure Sci-Fi then Jules Verne's so I'd have to go with him.

 

[SG-17]

Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Harry Turtledove.

Though Arther C. Clark and Isaac Asimov are very close.

 

[Daneel]

Where's the love for John Wyndham? As simple as it is, Day of the Triffids remains my favourite sci-fi story.

>Ahem.<

Eh, just to be different, I'll say John Wyndham, as I highly enjoyed both The Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids... I should really check out more of his stuff someday.

 

[Winterwind]

Heh. Sorry, I missed that. It was buried under an avalanche of Asimovs and Clarkes.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

I figured Asimov and Clarke were slam dunks, but I think I'd have to put Wells at the top of the list just for being the founding father. I think his work is more pure Sci-Fi then Jules Verne's so I'd have to go with him.

SF had a founding mother, not a founding father. Mary Shelley wrote what is generally considered the first ever science fiction novel - Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus.

 

[Kegg]

Shelley's The Last Man is also a sci-fi novel, and the first to deal with the now cliche notion of an apocalypse with a handful of survivors.

So she didn't exactly write just one sci-fi novel and then give the idea a rest.

 

[Jan]

In no particular order:

Robert A. Heinlein
Spider/Jeanne Robinson
John Brunner

Jan

 

[Ben Sisko3]

Phil K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, and um.... Harry Lime?

I'd better get out of here before someone gets that terrible, terrible joke.

The ghost of Orson Welles hates you and your terrible, terrible joke.

My list...
Kurt Vonnegut
H.G. Wells
Mary Shelley

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Personally, Douglas Adams & Neil Gaiman would be my top 2. The 3rd would probably be Alfred Bester, although Robert A. Heinlein stands a chance of unseating him.

 

[Vendikarr]

I figured Asimov and Clarke were slam dunks, but I think I'd have to put Wells at the top of the list just for being the founding father. I think his work is more pure Sci-Fi then Jules Verne's so I'd have to go with him.

SF had a founding mother, not a founding father. Mary Shelley wrote what is generally considered the first ever science fiction novel - Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus.

So what we would have are the Titans, or progenitures,

Mary Shelly
Jules Verne
H.G. Wells


And then the Olympians

Asimov
Clarke
Bradbury

 

[Lapis Exilis]

I figured Asimov and Clarke were slam dunks, but I think I'd have to put Wells at the top of the list just for being the founding father. I think his work is more pure Sci-Fi then Jules Verne's so I'd have to go with him.

SF had a founding mother, not a founding father. Mary Shelley wrote what is generally considered the first ever science fiction novel - Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus.

So what we would have are the Titans, or progenitures,

Mary Shelly
Jules Verne
H.G. Wells


And then the Olympians

Asimov
Clarke
Bradbury

Hmm - I like this idea of eras. But if you want to use the classical categories it might be:

The Primordials
Shelley
Verne
Wells

The Titans
Asimov
Bradbury
Clarke

The Olympians
Heinlein
Dick
Blish? Sturgeon? Bester? (Personally I'd go with Sturgeon)

The Philosophers
LeGuin (since she's the major figure in feminist SF)
Gibson? Burgess? Delaney? (all great philosophical/ postmodern society SF writers)
Vonnegut? Ballard? (Two of the best surrealist SF writers)