So, here's the list compiled from the poll run by Dimitra Fimi, listing folk's favorite fantasy author. On the entirely reasonable grounds that including Tolkien wd dramatically skew the results (as it has in so many past polls of this sort, such as the 1987 LOCUS poll and its later follow-up) he was omitted from the poll. Nevertheless it's striking how this 2020 poll reproduced the basic pattern of Tolkien in a league of his own, Le Guin clearly the most popular non-Tolkien choice, followed by a definite gap before the number three position (in this case Pratchett, the first person knighted for writing fantasy.
My thanks to Dimitra for letting me re-post her findings:
Dimitra's List
[Tolkien]
171 Le Guin
111 Pratchett
53 CSL
50 Gaiman
45 Hobb
45 Wynne Jones
31 Pullman
28 R. R. Martin
26 Rowling
23 Sanderson
20 Cooper
18 Garner
17 Kay
17 Peake
16 Dunsany
15 Jemisin
15 Jordan
15 McKillip
14 S. Clarke
14 Moorcock
remainder of the top thirty-three: Feist (12), L'Engle (11), Wolfe (10), Eddings (8), Ende (8), Howard (8), Leiber (8), McCaffrey (8), Novik (8), Rothfuss (8), White (8), Gemmell (8), Pierce (8).
--John R.
--current reading: Woodward's RAGE, Lindsay's DEVIL'S TOR
2 comments:
I'm struck by the paucity of "sword & sorcery" authors on the list, it certainly would have had far more of those 20 years ago!
Yes, sword and sorcery seems to be fading, though the best of it (e.g.Leiber) will stick around, I think.
The TIME list seems to mark a shift towards young adult fiction. Or at least that's my impression; I need to look up the individual titles in the second half of that list to see how they sort out. I also wd like to know more about the date of publication of the books on their list.
By comparison, looking back now at the LOCUS 1987 poll it's remarkable how heavily it's dominated by Tolk-clones.
--John R.
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