Samuel R Delany, Philip K Dick, Ursula K Le Guin, and (maybe) William Gibson.

[pmb]

What scifi/fantasy authors would you be willing to defend as writers of high quality literature and not just genre fiction? What authors both have something to say, and say it well?

NB: I'm primarily looking for people who are by default filed in the SciFi ghetto, not "real" authors who have occasionally been filed in SF/fantasy. Because Kurt Vonnegut is widely acknowledged to be a virtuoso writer and has written a bunch of SF, but I'm not sure that most people think of him as a science fiction writer.

Comments

[agthorr.livejournal.com]

I think there are really two questions here. One is: Which authors who are traditionally categorized as scifi/fantasy authors do you feel are writing stories that make use of scifi/fantasy trappings but ultimately are mainstream fiction?

To that, I'd answer "Theodore Sturgeon" because his work isn't really *about* scifi/fantasy or an exploration of a setting, but sometimes uses scifi/fantastic trappings. Some of books don't have any scifi/fantasy elements at all (e.g., "Some of your blood"), but they're still found on the scifi shelf.

On the flip side, there are some books/authors that are definitely scifi that manage to make their way on to the regular fiction shelf. In that category, I strongly recommend "The Time Traveler's Wife", which is a great scifi/romance (an unusual combination, but masterfully executed).

The other is: which scifi/fantasy authors do you feel are generating high quality literature that falls within the scifi/fantasy genre?

To which I'd point to LeGuin and Tolkien. I'm sure there are others, but I'm not thinking of them right now. This question hinges a lot on whether you're looking for high quality writing versus a high quality story. Some authors tell a great yarn and capture the imagination even if they aren't masters of language.