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The world is a little darker today...

http://neverendingnights.com/archives/1258

Sigh, the last of the SF "ABC" authors is gone now. Real science fiction is a disappearing genre. Ghosts and Medieval fantasies are not SF.

Collector wrote:Sigh, the last of the SF "ABC" authors is gone now. Real science fiction is a disappearing genre. Ghosts and Medieval fantasies are not SF.

Indeed. I have never read Ray's work myself, but I have read other SF from that era (particularly Asimov and LeGuin) and I have always agreed on that point: ghosts and medieval fantasies are definitely not SF; indeed, ghosts aren't even fantasy-fiction (see Caspar, for instance). As for medieval fantasies - they rank more among fantasy fiction, NOT science fiction. 'Science' is the operative word. Speaking of which - would Douglas Adams' work rank as 'science fiction', or 'humourous science fiction', or....? Where would he fit in? And Terry Pratchett, and Robert Rankin, and Neil Gaiman, and...?

But I seem to have digressed (which often happens - mea culpa!) *blush* Alas. My heart goes out to Mr Bradbury's family... requiescat in pace.

One of the truly great storytellers of our age. I haven't read many of his works, but those which I have read are simply stunning, The Martian Chronicles in particular.

Rath Darkblade wrote:I have never read Ray's work myself, but I have read other SF from that era (particularly Asimov and LeGuin)

For those that don't know, the term ABCs refers to Asimov, Bradbury and Clark. They were the basics (hence the term ABCs) that most read first before moving on to more obscure SF authors. They were the ones that even non SF fans would read.

Collector wrote:

Rath Darkblade wrote:I have never read Ray's work myself, but I have read other SF from that era (particularly Asimov and LeGuin)

For those that don't know, the term ABCs refers to Asimov, Bradbury and Clark. They were the basics (hence the term ABCs) that most read first before moving on to more obscure SF authors. They were the ones that even non SF fans would read.

Asimov was my hero when I was growing up. Thanks to his books for children, I was introduced to astronomy and Greek mythology at a very early age. He is the first author I ever read for myself because I wanted to, not because it was mandated by school. Having read some Asimov, I was naturally keen to read more, and I was reading Dickens and Swift, Douglas Adams and Tolkien by the time I was 10 or 11. Around the same time I was also reading satirical books by Erich Kästner, and sad classic children's books by the Polish educator Janusz Korczak. But it was Asimov who got me into reading, and awoke my intellectual curiosity, in the first place - I'm not sure how old I would've been - maybe I was 6 or 7 when I started reading Asimov's books, and I still do.

I loved Asimov, I have all his Robot and Foundation books. Never got into Bradbury and Clark though. Heinlein was my favorite back in the day.

dotkel50 wrote:I loved Asimov, I have all his Robot and Foundation books. Never got into Bradbury and Clark though. Heinlein was my favorite back in the day.

I never got into Asimov's "heavy" sci-fi (Robot/Foundation), but I read his literary criticism and his collection of humourous anecdotes. I still have many of his "mystery" stories (e.g. Azazel stories, Black Widowers, Union Club). They are very hard to find nowadays.

Here's an interesting tidbit I didn't know.....
http://www.howtogeek.com/trivia/spacesh ... ign=090612