Okay, this quiz is silly, but I took it and was amused. Except I am less-than-amused by who I was determined to be.
Why? I've never heard of him before. Also, I am unemployed, which means I'd have to get a job in science before I could become the writer I am supposed to be. Although, the real Greg Benford took this quiz, and it told him that he was Arthur C. Clarke. So .. does that mean I'll be dead before I realize my inner SciFi writer?
 | I am:Gregory BenfordA master literary stylist who is also a working scientist. |
Humanities & Social Science
Comments
I got Cordwainer Smith, someone I've never read.
Whoever gets L. Ron Hubbard loses.
Posted by: Bob O'H | March 4, 2010 1:15 PM
Apparently I'm John Brunner. Never read the chap.
His best known works are dystopias -- vivid realizations of the futures we want to avoid.I am:
Which science fiction writer are you?
Posted by: cromercrox | March 4, 2010 1:52 PM
I got Hal Clement. Now have to look him up in Wikiapedia.
Posted by: Bob's Big Brother | March 4, 2010 2:00 PM
Woo-hoo! I got Ursula K. LeGuin, one of my favorites!
Posted by: Kate from Iowa | March 4, 2010 2:27 PM
Wow, I haven't read any of it in say, 25 years, and I remember all the names above except for Brunner. BTW, I've added you to my blog list.
Posted by: Matthew | March 4, 2010 2:37 PM
Gregory Benford, who I have read and enjoyed.
Embarrassingly, except for Ursula K. LeGuin I don't really recall any of the others mentioned (so far) in this thread and am not certain I've read any of them. (L. Ron Hubbard is someone I know I never have read, and have no intention of reading.)
Posted by: blf | March 4, 2010 2:58 PM
Philip José Farmer.....I haven't heard of him but will try to remember to seek him out.
Posted by: Gini | March 4, 2010 3:00 PM
I also wound up with Hal Clement. Loved question 11.
Posted by: NoAstronomer | March 4, 2010 3:22 PM
Issac Asimov, which pleases me well enough (though I prefer LeGuin's writings)
Posted by: becca | March 4, 2010 3:36 PM
Uh-oh, I'm, James Tiptree, Jr. I like her work - a lot - but she killed her ailing husband and then herself, which kind of puts a pall on the association. Maybe if I think of her in a parallel universe kind of way. Then I can save them both.
Posted by: Larkspur | March 4, 2010 4:08 PM
I am the next Frank Herbert which is a darn shame as I never cared for the first one.
Ah, if only it had been HPL.
Posted by: Rob Jase | March 4, 2010 4:15 PM
I knew this was never really going to work with me (long story short, I've mixed ideas), but it comes up with Cordwainer Smith (Paul M.A. Linebarger) who I've never, ever heard of. And if "so many deep layers of history that all the world we know is practically lost in it" is meant to indicate what I'd write, it's wrong by a *huge* margin! :-)
Oh, well.
Fun to try, though.
And Bob and I hopefully see eye-to-eye, seeing as we've been picked for the same SF writer?
Posted by: Grant | March 4, 2010 4:48 PM
Grrl,
In curious good timing for you, Tor.com are offering a new short work by by Gregory Benford "The Final Now" online: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view;=story&id;=58849
Posted by: Grant | March 4, 2010 5:03 PM
I am Ursula LeGuin, my husband is James Tiptree, my daughter's boyfriend is Bester and my daughter is Mickey Spillane. Which is hilarious because she doesn't like science fiction (to her mother's regret) and wants to write mysteries. Maybe there's something to this quiz.
Posted by: Diane | March 4, 2010 5:17 PM
I'm Benford, too.
I wish I was Cordwainer Smith, though!
Posted by: The Ridger | March 4, 2010 6:04 PM
I got Cordwainer Smith (Paul M.A. Linebarger), even though I've never read him.
Posted by: JPS | March 4, 2010 6:59 PM
Gregory Benford... Which is ironic because I just dug "Heart of the Comet" out of one of my "too many books for the shelves" boxes and re-read it...
Posted by: Moses | March 4, 2010 7:01 PM
I am Frank Herbert.
For all those curious about Cordwainer Smith--Here's a website maintained by his daughter. I know of him because my father had Analog/Astounding and Galaxy Magazines from the 1930s on, and I grew up reading them. Smith began showing up in the magazines in 1950. Smith's writing is...intriguing, mythical, poetic. His stories are set in the far future, in a universe of myths and legend. There are excerpts from some of his stories on the website.
I remember "The Game of Rat and Dragon", "Scanners Live in Vain", "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell", the Lords of the Instrumentality...oh, my.
Posted by: OmegaMom | March 4, 2010 7:33 PM
your comments make me realize that i have more SciFi reading ahead of me than i thought i did after i stopped reading the genre at age 15 .. perhaps a happy reunion is in order?
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | March 5, 2010 5:38 AM
The people here who've never heard of writers like Benford, Brunner, Farmer and Smith should be ashamed of themselves! -- certainly if they claim to have any knowledge of sf. Tch tch. And tch again.
Brunner's work in particular is very curate's-eggish. Early and late in life he hacked out quite a lot of poor stuff, but the best of his books are among the best in the field. Try Shockwave Rider (arguably the true origin of cyberpunk, long before William Gibson came along), his two major dystopias Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up, or, for slightly lighter fare, Quicksand and The Squares of the City.
Posted by: JG | March 5, 2010 8:51 AM
Oops! And Hal Clement should have been on my initial list @20. Another giant of the field.
Posted by: JG | March 5, 2010 8:53 AM
I got LeGuin, which is perfect. Whenever people ask me what kind of science fiction I write, I say, "If you like LeGuin, you'll like what I write."
Posted by: Eleanor | March 6, 2010 11:09 AM