[Blacula]

Hi, can anyone name some SF stories or perhaps novels that were written by authors who usually didn't write science fiction. Like I know that Tolkien was writing a SF story, "The Lost Road", a tale connecting his Middle-earth mythology and the modern world, was never completed.

[vortexreader]

My favourite would have to be (the criminally ignored) A Creed For The Third Millennium by Colleen McCullough (yes, that Colleen McCullough). It's been many a year since I read it but some of the imagery is still with me. It's not 'spaceships and robots' SF...more near-future SF.

[odo]

"Never let me go" by Kazuo Ishiguro

[KatG]

"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro as Odo noted

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
"The Handmaid's Tale" and "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood
John Updike wrote one, I forget the title.
Caleb Carr wrote "Killing Time"
Walter Mosley has written a couple.
Tess Garitsen writes a number of science thrillers that are sf.
Michael Crichton wrote "The Adromeda Strain," "Jurassic Park" and some others.
Robin Cook writes medical thrillers, some of which are technically sf.
Audrey Niffenegger wrote "The Time Traveller's Wife."
Max Brooks wrote "World War Z"
Michael Cunningham wrote "Specimen Days"

There are dozens of these. If you want fantasy writers who have also done sf, there are hundreds.

[jamieem]

John Updike wrote one, I forget the title. Toward the end of time?

[phil_geo]

"The Handmaid's Tale" and "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood

Oooooooo you just pissed off Margaret Atwood!

[KatG]

Appreciate the attempt to find the Updike title, but the question was asked a year ago, so there's really no need to continue it. I think the poster has moved on. :)

I didn't piss off Margaret Atwood. Margaret Atwood said something stupid because she makes the classic mistake -- as many SFF fans also do -- of thinking of current category SF as very specific types of stories and having fans who only want those types of stories -- space exploration, spaceships, aliens. Her stories weren't those and being ignorant, she concluded that fans would not consider her stuff SF and said that her stuff wasn't SF.

After being properly roasted for her mistake, Atwood apologized, said she loves SF and guessed her two novels were SF after all. Which doesn't necessarily make us forgive her, but she is from an older generation. She does seem to be getting it -- she hosted a special show interviewing Stephen King about his work as literature, and other things. It's no good alienating the people who might be helpful, and her SF novels are interesting.

[jamieem]

i was just excited at *finally* knowing the answer to something on here...

[B5B7]

Gore Vidal 'Messiah'
Howard Fast ('Spartacus', etc) wrote some SF short stories; his son Jonathan Fast started as an SF author (& continued to be one).
Richard McKenna ('THe Sand Pebbles') also started as an SF author.
Russell Braddon wrote 'The Year of the Angry Rabbit'.
Robert Conquest wrote 'A World of Difference' and also edited Spectrum anthologies (5 volumes).
Daphne du Maurier wrote 'The Birds' short story collection & title story [superior to the movie].
Adrian Mitchell - 'The Bodyguard'.
Colin Wilson - 'The Space Vampires' & 'The Mind Parasites'.
Yvgeny Zamyatin - 'We'.
George Orwell - '1984', 'Animal Farm'.
Ivan Southall - 'Simon Black' series.

[JebStryke]

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy


YES! Definitely check that book out. Do it soon, they're making it into a movie.