Poll: Passing authors

[laurion]

With the recent passing of David Eddings, and the not that long ago passing of Robert Jordan and Madeleine L’Engle (the two died 10 days apart) and Robert Aspirin, I’ve been thinking about authors from my childhood and wondering (perhaps morbidly)… assuming only natural causes,

1) Which of your favorite authors do you suspect will pass next?
2) Which would you be most upset to hear had passed?
3) Which would you be least upset to hear had passed?

I read mostly fantasy and ’soft’ scifi novels growing up, so here are my answers. As it was also common practice for me to read books that came in large series, these names came to mind. First, I have a nagging feeling that any day now I might read about the passing of Ursula K. Le Guin. Not given to lengthy works like some others, I’ve enjoyed much of what she has put out, not just fantasy, but poetry as well. She’s coming up on 80 this year. Second, I’d be most upset to hear about the passing of George R. R. Martin. He’s got a fantastic series in progress, and I’d be dissappointed to see it interrupted. And from everything I’ve read or seen, he’s a genuinely nice guy (his username is grrm on livejournal). Not that I think it likely. Least upset to hear about? Tough choice. Maybe Orson Scott Card. For as much as I couldn’t read Ender’s Game fast enough, and for all his worthy contributions to the Monkey Island dialogue, these days he spends less time writing quality fiction and more time writing political screeds and religious tracts that run completely counter to my viewpoints. He is welcome to have and express them, but he has shifted me more to the ‘love the art, not the artist’ perspective on things.

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[roamin-umpire.livejournal.com]

1) Bradbury. He's just about the last of the great old ones, and he's been one of my favorites since childhood.

2) Gaiman. He's the obvious heir to Bradbury in style and tone, and probably my current favorite author overall, with presumably lots of writing still ahead of him.

3) Um... Card's certainly a thought. Maybe Stephenson - Snow Crash makes my all-time top five, and Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon were both excellent as well, but the newer stuff isn't as impressive.

[laurion]

Given that Gaiman recently announced he and Amanda Palmer were dating, I'd say he's still got some life yet in him. *wink*

[frozencapybara.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? I totally missed that. (Isn't Amanda Palmer, like, my age? Not that there aren't throngs of goth chixors younger than me lining up to date Neil Gaiman, but dude, his -son- is my age.)

[laurion]

Yup. But it seems to make them happy.

[roamin-umpire.livejournal.com]

I had to look up who Amanda Palmer was. Having done that, my response is: Wait, I thought she was looking for a boy that *didn't* have any life in him. :P

[taellosse.livejournal.com]

Ah! I hadn't heard about Eddings' passing. Now I'm sad. :-(

[laurion]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings then.

[taellosse.livejournal.com]

Not your fault. I don't comb the obituaries for authors, so I typically find out in this sort of fashion. I didn't even know his wife had died in '07 until I went looking for his obit after reading your post.

[darkoni]

2) Lois McMaster Bujold, Terry Pratchett, Stephen Brust, & Jim Butcher - They all write series that I really enjoy reading; Vorkosigan, Discworld, Vlad Taltos/Phoenix Guards and Dresden Files. I'd hate to see any of them stop writing.

[laurion]

Ah yes, you hit my special addendum that I neglected to add to my post above. Terry Pratchett is not like to die any time soon, but he may stop writing soon due to his early onset Alzheimers.

Brust has recently gotten back to writing, and shows no inclination towards kicking it through natural causes. Unless you count his bad emotional relationships as natural causes.

[paladin-of-gaia.livejournal.com]

Orson Scott Card...both jpicon and I used to love his books. Now, we can't even stand to have them in the house, much less read any of them.

[laurion]

Well yes, I can understand how you'd take his non-fiction articles more personally than I. I mean, I take offense, but I don't usually feel like they're directed -squarely- at me, just in my general direction.

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

I'm terrified GRRM will pass before finishing his series. I only just recently got into it, and now I'm incredibly excited about the next one.

[j-stone-.livejournal.com]

Jeez, I hadn't even thought about LeGuin passing, but it would make me mighty sad.

Honestly? It's been so long since I read GRRM's stuff that I will have to reread it whenever the next book comes out, just so I know what's going on. While it would make me sad to have him pass, I'd just file his stuff next to the War Against the Chtorr, and go on from there.

I would be sorry to hear of Gaiman's passing, though I don't think I need to worry about that any time real soon. Likewise, Timothy Zahn.

REH and Tolkien are already dead, so that hardly counts.