Kick-Ass Authors Who Write Both Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Those of us who are self-acknowledged sci-fi or fantasy addicts already have our favourite SF or fantasy authors. We’ve read all their novels, their trilogies, sagas and chronicles, and we look forward to their next book or series with panting anticipation. We know who we like and what we like, and we tend to stick to our own genre and a few select authors, and turn up our noses at the rest. But here’s the thing. While some authors are prolific and churn out novels or even series one after the other, many do take their own sweet time. And all of us know that there’s nothing so soul-destroying as having to wait for the next book in the most recent series.

To counter these soul-destroying intervals of reader’s drought, I offer you an alternative. After all, SF and fantasy are often grouped together under speculative fiction. While that may be a questionable classification at first glance (most SF readers do not for the most part read fantasy and vice versa), perhaps the speculative nature of these genres’ premises will encourage readers to cross genres.

Now, before you throw up your hands in horror and unfollow me for all eternity, let me explain. Yes, I do realise that SF is SF, and fantasy is fantasy, and never the twain shall meet. And yet, there are authors (highly talented and vastly prolific) who write in both genres, authors who straddle the Great Divide with verve and panache, who write with equal mastery in both genres and have not only garnered serious awards (Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy Award, to name a few) but legions of fiercely loyal fans to prove it.

No doubt you will have heard of some of them, but have you read their best work? Perhaps you’re already a fan of one, but only read her SF novels or only her fantasy novels. Even better, you already know how great a writer she is. Now all you have to do is give her other books a chance.

In Kick-Ass Authors Who Write Both SF and Fantasy, I will present five SF/fantasy authors, most of them critically-acclaimed but not all of them well-known (even to readers of the genre), with their representative works in both genres.

SF

A giant in the field, having won four Hugo Awards for her novels (more than any other SF writer except Heinlein), Bujold is best known for her Vorkosigan series. Featuring the stunted, slightly manic but immensely lovable Miles Vorkosigan on rambunctious space adventures, this highly readable and extremely addictive series has garnered for Bujold three of her four Hugos (for The Vor Game, Barrayar, and Mirror Dance). She also won the Nebula Award for Falling Free, while The Mountains of Mourning, which appeared in Analog, went on to win both Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella.

[NB:The Hugo Award is one of the most prestigious science fiction awards, and has been described as "among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing", while the Nebula Award is administered, voted and presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) to acknowledge excellence in science fiction writing, i.e. an award determined by their peers.]

The many novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan in the Vorkosigan series are best read in sequence, and it should also be noted that the ones with Miles’ mother, Cordelia Naismith, as protagonist (Shards of Honor and the award-winning Barrayar, the two combined in Cordelia’s Honor) are sort of prequel-ish to the ones with Miles as protagonist.There are many sites with Bujold’s bibliographical information that will help the interested reader choose and pick which books to read and in what sequence.

FANTASY

In the midst of her Vorkosigan series, Bujold published The Spirit Ring, a historical fantasy. Another fantasy novel, The Curse of Chalion, won the Mythopoeic Award, while the sequel, Paladin of Souls, won both the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, as well as her fourth Hugo Award for Best Novel. Paladin of Souls is followed by The Hallowed Hunt, the third instalment in this epic fantasy series.

Bujold’s novels have been translated into nineteen languages, and she’s arguably more famous abroad than at home, which is a huge shame, considering her critical acclaim and reader appeal. The writing in her novels is such that there are webpages dedicated solely to quotable quotes from her various books.

[NB: The Locus Awards are presented to winners of Locus Magazine’s annual readers’ poll and established in the early ’70s to provide recommendations for Hugo award voters. The Locus Awards often draw more votes than the Hugos and Nebulas combined, so can be considered a ‘popular’ readers’ choice. Locus Magazine is the definitive magazine covering everything in the science fiction and fantasy fiction field since 1968.]

Another giant in the speculative field is C. J. Cherryh who, like Lois McMaster Bujold, writes with equal ease in both SF and fantasy. One of her three Hugo awards is for a short story, Cassandra; the other two are for her SF novels Downbelow Station and Cyteen, the latter a double-winner as it also won a Locus Award.

A classics scholar who counts both Latin and Greek as well as archaeology among her forte, Cherryh’s novels tend to go in for serious, elaborate world-building (possibly unsurpassed by any other writer in the speculative genre) and often include detailed aspects of human genetics, astrophysics, climatology, technology and of course anthropology. Her characters are of many species, usually culturally-advanced, vividly imagined, and her protagonist often a sympathetic lone human struggling to fit into a non-human world and to understand and connect with his humanoid companions.

A truly prolific author (a cursory reading of her bibliography is awe-inspiring), with many series and some stand-alone novels that would give a true fan years of happy reading. Most of Cherryh’s works can be classified under the time-line of The Alliance-Union and other universes. However, it’s probably more instructive to the new reader if I separate the books under SF and Fantasy, although this in itself may be a dubious distinction, as you’ll find out if you read the entire Morgaine series. Here I give just a small fraction of the best of her best work.

SF

• Down-Below Station
• Cyteen
• The Chanur novels
• The Foreigner universe (Foreigner, Invader, Inheritor, and many more)

FANTASY

• The Morgaine Chronicles (Gate of Ivrel, Well of Shiuan, Fires of Azeroth, Exile’s Gate) –-my introduction to Cherryh and I fell hard for her work from this point on; reads like sword-and-sorcery, but with depth and style; a memorable, fully-fleshed, three-dimensional female protagonist who turns the usual trope of heroism on its head.

• Ealdwood Stories (The Dreamstone, The Tree of Swords and Jewels; note that Arafel's Saga is a single-volume ed. of The Dreamstone and The Tree of Swords and Jewels, while The Dreaming Tree is a single-volume ed. of the same but with revisions) –with Celtish, Welsh and Old English undertones, and all manner of fey, magical creatures at odds in an unearthly world; nobody gives mythological fantasy quite that dark stylish touch as Cherryh.

• The Russian Stories (Rusalka, Chernevog, Yvgenie) –drawing form Russia’s rich history of folk legends and Slavic mythology, Cherryh has crafted a dark other-world of magic and mystery, wizards and ghosts, tales of loyalty and courage that explore the pull of the past and revenge, and the redemptive power of love.

• The Fortress Series (Fortress in the Eye of Time, Fortress of Eagles, Fortress of Owls, Fortress of Dragons, Fortress of Ice ) –not as accessible as her other fantasy, with a very slow start to the series, but picks up considerably for the determined reader who will find it an ultimately rewarding read.

Lois McMaster Bujold and C. J. Cherryh are only two of the SF/fantasy authors whose work I'm presenting in this first part of Kick-Ass Authors Who Write Both Sci-Fi and Fantasy. In my opinion, they are the very best and my all-time favourite authors in the speculative fiction genre.

In Part II, I will present three more authors who write both SF and Fantasy. They are Patricia A. McKillip, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Stephen Donaldson. Please click the link below to read more about these talented authors and their fantastic novels.