Thought of the day – is a characteristic of a ‘literary’ genre SF writer one who writes short fiction?
(By ‘genre SF writer’ I exclude those ‘outsider’ literary authors who happen to write books resembling SF. Like today’s example, Edan Lepucki. Or even the likes of Margaret Atwood, et al.)
There are many very popular SF authors who write only novels, and I realized today that they are not among my favorite authors, or those whom I consider the most important. (Having this thought after chatting with some neighbors who are “sci-fi” fans by very different standards than my own.)
From Andre Norton to David Weber to J.K. Rowling.
My favorite SF authors, from Robert Silverberg to Gene Wolfe to Kim Stanley Robinson, have published substantial bodies of short fiction.
So question for the proverbial Group Mind: are there SF authors who have substantially contributed to the genre and science-fictional thinking, only through novels, without having written much short fiction?
(Actually, Iain M. Banks jumps to mind. Others?)
