a true loss. he was an amazing writer. definitely in my top 10 sci-fi writers of all time.
On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 10:15 AM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected]>wrote: > > Got this from the writer David Brin's Google PLus posting: > > David Brin <https://plus.google.com/u/0/116665417191671711571> > Shared publiclyYesterday 8:45 > PM<https://plus.google.com/u/0/116665417191671711571/posts/bo4hV6nBFum> > > Science Fiction Grand Master Fred Pohl passed away today September 2, 2013. > Even expected, it rocks me back in sorrowful reflection. (especially > after the recent departures of Iain Banks and Bruce Murray.) > > Beyond a personal sense of loss of a friend and colleague, I must note how > tremendous was Fred's influence on our field. Fred was always the one I > called the "essential" science fiction author. In much the same way that > the other "pole" of science fiction -- Poul Anderson -- was the greatest > natural storyteller I ever knew, Fred Pohl was the SF writer who cared most > about the gedankenexperiment or what-if thought experiment. Fred would > start with a question: "what if *__*?" and fill in some fascinating > possibility. Only then the magic would ensue as he fleshed out a vivid > world of possible consequences from that one whatif -- consequences that > might be good, bad, and weird, but always strikingly plausible. > > This was especially notable in one of his most obscure works, a novel > called "Age of the Pussyfoot," in which he explored the implications of > Cryonics, the freezing of people for possible later tech resurrection. As > a side element, his future folk carried "joymakers" which we would now > recognize as highly plausible near-future descendants of our fast-improving > cell-phone-plus-personal-(Siri-style)assistant - a leap of accurate > prescience that I think may be unique. > > Fred won the Hugo Award six times including the 1978 Hugo for Best Novel - > "Gateway" - (the first Hugo I ever voted for). He tied for 1973 Best Short > Story Hugo for "The Meeting;" and the 1986 Best Short Story Hugo for "Fermi > and Frost." > http://www.frederikpohl.com/ > > I had the honor of helping to get an asteroid named for Fred. I hope > someday his asteroid will be melted down and turned into wonderful things > by a civilization that he helped to inspire. > > > -- > Larry C. Lyons > web: http://www.lyonsmorris.com/lyons > LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/larryclyons > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:366852 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
