Sci-Fi Great Frederik Pohl Passes Away At 93 57
damnbunni writes "Frederik Pohl, one of the last Golden Age science fiction authors, passed away on September 2nd of respiratory distress, as reported on his blog. Pohl is perhaps best known for his Heechee Saga novels, beginning with Gateway in 1977, but his work in pulp magazines in the '30s and '40s helped give rise to science fiction fandom."
Re:The Cool War (Score:5, Informative)
"Outnumbering the Dead," one of the best science fiction novellas I ever read. But the guy had so many greats. He was one of the greatest modern serious science fiction writers ever, and active almost right up until the end. I don't think he ever had a slump.
Re:Inevitable but sad still the same (Score:5, Informative)
Verne was a fave as a kid, but not the first - it started with Homer, and then Zeke and Johnny's sci-fi in the bible.
Verne, however, made it much easier for the reader to suspend disbelief, which is a good quality measure for fiction.
Pohl will be missed. There aren't a lot of the old style masters left now. Brian Aldiss, Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. LeGuin, Silverbob, Cherryh, Joe Haldeman, and (no matter how much he protests writing SciFi) Harlan Ellison.
The last few years have been hard:
Robert Jordan
Fred Saberhagen
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Robert A. Wilson
Robert Asprin
Arthur C. Clarke
Michael Crichton
P.J. Farmer
Phyllis Gotlieb
William Tenn
Anne McCaffrey
Harry Harrison
Ray Bradbury
Jack Vance
Iain M. Banks
Frederik Pohl
The times spent as a kid reading under the blanket with a flashlight will never be forgotten. May there be more authors of the same caliber to come, for future generations, and not just parasmut and angst books.