When you think of your favorite Science Fiction writers,
which ones come to mind? There are five
sci-fi writers and sci-fi crossover writers that you should be reading if you
call yourself a true sci-fi fan. I ranked them, not by who is the greatest, but
by the year of their birth. Each of
these writers is outstanding for different reasons, and it would unfair to rank
one above the other. They are all
masters of their craft in different ways and all have warned us of the need to
be responsible with the advances we make in Science.
1. Isaac Asimov (1919- 1992): I think most die-hard sci-fi fans appreciate
Asimov. In my opinion, Robot Dreams was the most disturbing
piece he wrote. It’s a story about a
robot infused with Artificial Intelligence that has become self-aware. The horror creeps in when the people who
created the robot begin to ask it questions and learn that not only is the
robot connected to other robots, but that it dreams about itself as a new dominant
species that will enslave humans.
2. Ray Bradbury (1920-2012): There isn’t
an American child alive who has gone through the public school system who
hasn’t read at least four Bradbury short stories. It’s impossible. My personal favorite (and, believe me, it’s
hard to pick) is Sound of Thunder. The story starts by announcing trips through
TIME SAFARI, INC and promises to give you the hunting experience of a
lifetime. Time traveling hunters are
invited to go back in time and kill a T-Rex.
The only important part of the deal is that you don’t go off the
path. Of course, someone does go off the
path, killing a butterfly, and altering the rest of human history. Sound of Thunder exemplified the Butterfly Effect before Jeff Goldblum
made it famous in the film version of Jurassic
Park.
3. Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007): As Ray Bradbury is to high
schoolers, it is college kids who usually get their first introduction to
Vonnegut. He is another short story
staple in high school with pieces such as Harrison Bergeron and EPICAC,
but my favorite is his war memoir, Slaughterhouse
5. The crux of this book
is based on Vonnegut’s own memories of being a survivor of the horrific burning
of Dresden in WW II. However, the main
character, Billy Pilgrim, slips out of time and space when things go bad to
live in an alien zoo as an attraction from Earth.
4. Michael Crichton (1942-2008): A man who left this world way too early,
Crichton made dinosaurs the coolest things to ever hit the planet in his novel Jurassic Park. It’s a well-researched novel that covers
everything from genetic engineering and mutations to archaeology to Chaos
Theory. You won’t be able to put it
down.
5. Stephen King (1947- still truckin’): Although toted worldwide as the “King of
Horror,” and oh he is, King is also an amazing sci-fi
writer as well, as seen in his short stories, such as The Mist where a
government experiment gone wrong opens a portal to another dimension and lets
giant man-eating bugs into our dimension.
However, my most favorite sci-fi King novel is The
Cell, which will do for the reader and cell phones what Jaws did for the beach. In this novel, a pulse goes across the cell
phone airways, turning people into monsters that gradually develop
extraordinary networking capabilities. I dare
you to read this novel and not want to throw away your cell phone afterward.
In all, these are just a few of the most incredible sci-fi
writers who ever scared the gremlins out of us.
Who did I leave out on my list?
Please tell me in the comments below!
In the meantime, please check out my Sci-Fi novel, Luke
Aloysius: Bloodline, on Amazon and Kindle.
I don’t presume to hold a candle to the men I mentioned above, but I hope
my novel makes them proud, wherever they are!
https://www.amazon.com/Luke-Aloysius-Bloodline-Laurie-Jeffers-ebook/dp/B01GD9X8BE/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?i
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