Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

A list of authors who haven't gotten (or retained) as much attention as they deserve. Ideally, include a link and a representative book.

Katie Waitman - The Merro Tree
Jim Aikin - The Wall at the Edge of the World
M.K. Wren - Sword of the Lamb

Pretty well known in the '70s (at least in the US), but largely forgotten about by modern readers: Robert Sheckley - Dimension of Miracles

Fortunately, thanks to eBooks, a lot of his work is becoming available again after almost disappearing completely.

I think George Alec Effinger must be underappreciated since I'd never heard about him until I started reading him late last month. I'd never liked cyberpunk / technothrillers, but this book is great and I'm looking forward to book #2.

I'd have said the same. I encountered the Marid Audran series by chance. But apparently lots of people have read and enjoyed it.

Do you mean The Demolished Man? We read that last July, here's the discussion: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Andre Norton

Andre Norton was the mother of all non-Tolkien current fantasy. Her Witch World series - starting with Witch World was the beginning of the first large series and she revolutionized Fantasy. Andre Norton was the first woman to become Grand Master of SFF and there is an award named after her.


Sadly, even though some of one of her series was made into a movie (The Beast Master) she is almost 100% forgotten by the modern reader.

Richard Cowper - The Road to Corlay

Cowper did get recognition for the White Bird of Kinship series, but otherwise seems to have sunk without a trace, and undeservedly so. He's a great writer of slow, contemplative stories.

Bob Shaw - Cosmic Kaleidoscope
As with Cowper, Shaw did get recognition for Orbitsville, but wrote a lot of other fun, light fiction - especially short stories.

MrsJoseph wrote: "Andre Norton

Andre Norton was the mother of all non-Tolkien current fantasy. Her Witch World series - starting with Witch World was the beginning of the first large se..."

I love Andre Norton :)

MrsJoseph wrote: "...she is almost 100% forgotten by the modern reader."

Hmm. She may not be in the top 100 fantasy authors on amazon, but her books on GR have between 2,000 to 10,000+ ratings each. Not too shabby for someone who's almost 100% forgotten. ];P

Rebecca Bradley - Lady in Gil. The first in a very good trilogy. By chance, she's published a new book just this week - not on Goodreads yet, but it's on Amazon as Cadon, Hunter

The very definition of under appreciated is Charles L Harness, responsible for 2 of the most entertaining space operas you could wish for - 'The Ring of Ritornel' and 'The Parodox Men' (also known as 'Journey into Tomorrow ).

Malignos by Richard Calder (more science fantasy than science fiction)

Seeklight by K.W. Jeter

the should-be-classic Dumarest of Earth series by E.C. Tubb

she's far from an under-appreciated author, but I rarely see C.J. Cherryh's Sunfall mentioned anywhere

same thing: well-respected author, under-appreciated book: John Crowley's Beasts

Micah wrote: "
Hmm. She may not be in the top 100 fantasy authors on amazon, but her books on GR have between 2,000 to 10,000+ ratings each. Not too shabby for someone who's almost 100% forgotten. ];P"

Thank goodness that genius is appreciated by some. :)


But try getting one of her books as a BotM read. O_o

Leonie wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "Andre Norton

Andre Norton was the mother of all non-Tolkien current fantasy. Her Witch World series - starting with Witch World was the beginning of ..."

:-D

MrsJoseph wrote: "Andre Norton

Andre Norton was the mother of all non-Tolkien current fantasy. Her Witch World series - starting with Witch World was the beginning of the first large se..."

I remember her! I used to love her books when I was in middle school and have never forgotten her.

MrsJoseph wrote: "Thank goodness that genius is appreciated by some. :)

But try getting one of her books as a BotM read..."

Also see: http://thewertzone.blogspot.ca/2015/0...

SFF All Time Sales List (estimated)
...
10) Andre Norton (90 million+)

She's the 10th highest seller behind the likes of JK Rowling, Stephen King, Tolkien, Stephanie Meyer, Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, CS Lewis, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, and Suzanne Collins.

Hardly under appreciated, no matter how hard it might be to get her on a BOTM list here! ;P

Totally not going to argue with you regarding Andre Norton's genius nor the level of appreciation she receives.

I can only discuss my own experience as a life-long fan and avid "book pusher."

And the fact that she was outsold by Meyer, Koontz, Crichton, Rice and Collins doesn't make me feel that she is appreciated. But that's how I feel.

Bill wrote: "The very definition of under appreciated is Charles L Harness"

I very much agree. They're not all great, but they're fun.

Phyllis Eisenstein - Born to Exile

Not exactly unknown, but undeservedly faded from memory.

New here but a few that come to mind:


T.J.Bass-The Godwhale
Christopher Evans-Mortal Remains & Capella's Golden Eyes

two more recent authors who have been well recieved, but don't seem to get enough reader love:

Kay Kenyon-Rose and the Entire series
Keith Brooke-Harmony (aka alt.human) and Genetopia

I've always felt that Jack Vance was under-appreciated. His Tales of the Dying Earth and Planet of Adventure books are terrific.

Not sure Jack Vance is underappreciated by the SF community--he was a Grand Master and a huge influence on many authors, like Robert Silverberg and I believe Dan Simmons.

He is definitely underappreciated in the mainstream, however.

Another author I did not think of earlier:

James H Schmitz-The Witches of Karres is one of my all time favorites.

The Sime/Gen series - I just adored these as a teenager - House of Zeor by Jacqueline Lichtenberg is the first in the series.

Jack Vance is by far one of the most creative SF and fantasy writers. What I like best is that his work focuses not on technology but on the social, cultural and political side of societies.

He is really underappreciated by the movie industry. See his profile on IMDB and then compare it with the blockbuster profile of Philip K. Dick who is revered by some (myself included) and found truly weird and incomprehensible by many.

I guess Dick's short stories are better suited for the format of a movie than Vance's intricate epics.

I think the vivid imagery in a lot of his work (i.e. Tschai tetralogy, The Blue World, Houses of Iszm, to name a few) would look great onscreen, but it would be next to impossible to capture to feel of his beautiful prose, at least in my opinion.

Jack Vance was definitely underappreciated by the mainstream, but when there are New York Times articles about you, and a serious cult following that puts together a complete edition of all your works (the Vance Integral Edition), and a big name tribute volume, you're definitely appreciated (and deservedly so). Though most of the articles were posthumous or late in coming.

I don't actually see Vance's work being good film, since so much of the appeal relies on his vocabulary and writing style. I fear we'd get a thin name-check version - not quite a Will Smith "I, Robot", but not satisfying, either.

Edwin wrote: "I guess Dick's short stories are better suited for the format of a movie than Vance's intricate epics..."

Short stories are far easier to turn into typical Hollywood chase scene movies. So, yeah, much easier. ];P

There really haven't been many good film interpretations of Dick's stories.

What about Blade Runner? I liked that.

It should be easy to do Ubik -- I didn't understand it anyway so that they should be able to take a lot of license with it.

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "What about Blade Runner? I liked that.

It should be easy to do Ubik -- I didn't understand it anyway so that they should be able to take a lot of license with it."

So did I,as well as 'total recall' and 'minority report' but see my comments in the Philip k Dick thread.

The only PDK I've read is Galactic Pot Healer, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I think it might work okay as a movie as Joe is a very sympathetic character and it is divided neatly into two interesting worlds. Personally, though I would've liked to have more details on the ruins and alien civlization of Plowman's Planet. Still a fine read, though.

Micah wrote: "There really haven't been many good film interpretations of Dick's stories."

A Scanner Darkly, The Adjustment Bureau, Minority Report.

Micah wrote: "Edwin wrote: "I guess Dick's short stories are better suited for the format of a movie than Vance's intricate epics..."

Short stories are far easier to turn into typical Hollywood chase scene movi..."

Hollywood takes a lot of liberty with PDK's stories and novels. Like you said: more chase scenes, less dark humour and tragicomedy.

And there is actually an in-development project on IMDB for Ubik. Don't expect that movie to explain PDK's novel :-). Just compare the novel I Am Legend with the movie, which completely misses Matheson's point.

The Hollywood ending they slapped on I Am Legend was a grievous insult to a great story.

Mike wrote: "The Hollywood ending they slapped on I Am Legend was a grievous insult to a great story."

How about the Hollywood ending to The Scarlet Letter where they gave it a happy ending? Almost like they don't even read the CliffNotes...

Fletcher Pratt

I think he's better known for his work on the American Civil War, but his fiction is fun at the very least, and really underappreciated in the case of The Well of the Unicorn.

I totally agree with being under appreciated. Also, really hard to find there are plenty of his that I never read because I could not locate them.

Two more, Edmund Cooper and E C Tubb. They are both pretty old and pretty obscure though compared to some of the names on this list.

Deborah wrote: There are plenty of his that I never read because I could not locate them.

The good news is that you can now get all of Vance's work in ebook form from http://www.jackvance.com/ebooks/shop/

Scott wrote: "Micah wrote: "There really haven't been many good film interpretations of Dick's stories."

A Scanner Darkly, The Adjustment Bureau, Minority Report."

A Scanner Darkly was the best adaptation I've seen. It focused a bit too much on the comic elements of the story, and pulled a plot change at the end, but ultimately those changes did not fundamentally go against the character of the book.

Haven't seen The Adjustment Bureau.

Minority Report began OK, but they needlessly made plot changes that really departed from the original story. Plus ... it has that guy in it, and I really dislike him. He's also in Vanilla Sky, which was a better movie than Minority Report and was one of the best PKD adaptations that was NOT a PKD adaptation. ;D (But still, it has that guy in it. Yuck.)

Blade Runner/Total Recall: I loved the Final Cut of the former, and the Arnold version of the latter was just very funny. But both of them made drastic changes to the story, and Blade Runner REALLY altered the main character. Total Recall ... well, there wasn't really enough of a story in the original for a full movie. So as adaptations ... not the best. As movies ... I have no problems with them.

I haven't read any of the original stories yet, so I just know that they were good movies on their own merits.

Hated the first Total Recall; the newer one is better but still too much of an action movie. Blade Runner was okay; I did read the novel of that, later.

I am glad no one has named James Blish as an underappreciated author. From reading some of his "best works" recently, I am of the opinion he fully deserves his current obscurity.

which ones have you read and disliked?

The two I always add to similar discussions are:

Dean Ing and Robert L. Forward.

Two authors that by the 'ratings' of some of the others mentioned in this topic should be viewed as underappreciated.

Dean Ing's The Ransom of Black Stealth One is a classic of modern hard science fiction combined with a bit of the thriller genre. His SF Aerospace books are unequaled. Probably no one wanted to try to write something in this area after he was finished.

Robert L. Forward Dragon's Egg / Starquake or Cheela 1/2 are physics SF. Difficult to get better science based fiction.

* Richard Matheson, The Shores of Space.
* Fredric Brown, From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown.
* Cordwainer Smith, The Instrumentality of Mankind.
* Sheri S. Tepper, Grass.
* Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others.
* Hal Clement, Mission Of Gravity (hard scifi, of the good, terrenal kind).
* Greg Egan, Axiomatic.

And in general, I feel that authors who prefer the short story format tend to be underappreciated (too many of them, perhaps?).

CD wrote: "The two I always add to similar discussions are:

Dean Ing and Robert L. Forward.

Two authors that by the 'ratings' of some of the others mentioned in this topic sho..."

Thank you for this recommendation. I love Robert L. Forward but I hadn't heard about Dean Ing before, so I may have found more great reading :)

Btw, I enjoyed Camelot 30K by Forward.

Jose wrote:
* Cordwainer Smith, The Instrumentality of Mankind.
* Sheri S. Tepper, Grass.
* Hal Clement, Mission Of Gravity

I'm a big fan of Tepper and Clement, but I think it's hard to argue they're under-appreciated. Even Smith might be a stretch.

Metaphorosis wrote: "Jose wrote:
* Cordwainer Smith, The Instrumentality of Mankind.
* Sheri S. Tepper, Grass.
* Hal Clement, Mission Of Gravity

I'm a big fan of Tepper and Clement, but I think it's hard to argue the..."

I suppose it depends on our age. I am talking about underappreciated (or undertalked) by people younger than me (I'm 33 right now, but I read a lot of 60-70's scifi as a kid). I do not see their names popping up that much in discussions by youngsters these days...

I am going to put in a word for Anne McCaffrey, sci-fi writer since the 50's, first female Nebula winner (1968 Novella), who no one seems to think of anymore...

And the first person to really write about dragons as anything except monster/adversaries.

One of my hands down favourite classic scifi novels that I don't think is still in print in English (well, it was one of my favourites back in high school--my scifi tastes have changed) was The Ice People by René Barjavel. It's one of the few I read back then where I remember a lot about it, right up there with some of Arthur C Clarke's and Robert Heinlein's books (again, I read almost none of Heinlein's books for younger readers).

I'm guessing I'm in the minority since it's not in print anymore :).

Kirsten **Be A Dragon** wrote: "What about Blade Runner? I liked that.

Do you mean THE BLADE RUNNER, by Alan Nourse, or DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP, by Philip K. DIck?

I can not fathom why the movie makers felt compelled to steal the title of an unrelated work by a different author

I for one had never heard of The Ice People - it sounds pretty good though.