) Who are they, what do they write, and WHY?
I can think on a few names:
Orson Scott Card - The Ender sequence is his most famous, but the Alvin Maker Tales are well known, too.
Robert Silverberg - Principally a science fiction writer, he has written LOTS of Fantasy too.
Paul Anderson - somene refresh me? I think he has written quite alot of both.
Orsula Leguin - Should ANYONE intereduce her?
It's Poul not Paul Anderson.
Also, Piers Anthony wrote some nice Science Fiction before he got into juvenile Fantasy -- "Macroscope", "Omivore"/"Orn"/"OX"...
As to why, it's one community of readers and fans. I certainly read both when I was younger (alas, I barely keep up with the SF anymore). It's a natural to explore both.
CS Lewis, best known for his Narnia books, also wrote the Prerelandria series.
Philip Jose' Farmer seems comfortable in both genres. Niven's dabbled in it, mostly in short stories like "Convergent Series," but The Magic Goes Away is one of my favorite novels. Zelazny works in both genres. Heinlein did a few fantasy stories, and his multiworld epics at the end of his life gleefully joined every genre he could stuff in them.
Then there's Isaac Asimov's Azazel stories, some of the funniest fiction I've read outside of P.G. Wodehouse.
P.S. Scott--we still seem to have the Science Nightstand to ourselves. The others are a bunch of scaredycats!
I don't think I'd call Asimov's Azael stories Fantasy...
So, the deeper question must be, why do science fiction fans( me included) also liek Fantasy in almost all cases?
Because they are the same stories, just in a different setting...
How so? What science Fiction piece is like 'The Lord of the Ring?' or (GODS) 'The Wheel of Time' and what's the Fantasy equivallent of 'Foundation' or 'The Hitchhiker's Guide ot The Galaxy'?
Per the original theme of this board:
Stephen Lawhead has written both fantasy ("The Dragon King Trilogy" and his Pendragon Cycle come to mind) and science fiction ("Dream Thief," "Empyrion: 1 & 2").
C.S.Lewis wrote not only the Narnia Chronicles
but also the space triology Out Of The Silent
Planet,Prelandra and That Hideous Strength although he did claim in the foreword to the
last that it was actually a Fairy Tale for grown-ups.
Omer: you might want to check out "there and back
again" by Pat Murphy. It's a version of the Hobbit
set in space. I haven't read it myself yet, but
it's on my reading list. It got a very good review
from the New York Times.
Let us not forget, people, that Ursula K LeGuin has written classics in both the Sci Fi genre (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossesed, The Lathe of Heaven) and Fantasy genre (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore). I'm sure she simply assesses which is the best discipline to convey her underlying theme and goes for it. Highly recommended.
OMER: From what most people say, Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are the fantasy equivalent to the Hitchhiker. I've read both and I agree, although I must say that a) I loved the HItchhiker and b) I tend to get very very bored by SciFi. A) and b) combined mean that the Hitchhiker might not really qualify as SciFi, since it's not very technical.
Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote both SciFi and Fantasy.
Diane Duane has written Fantasy and some Sci-Fi. I know she wrote quite a few Star Trek novels.
Also, Michael Moorcock has written some fantasy and sci-fi. I couldn't really get into Elric, but his alternate timeline stories, The Warlord of the Air, the Land Leviathan and the Steel Tsar appealed to me.
"Silverheart" (with Storm Constantine - is that a REAL name?) isn't bad either, provided you don't mind that the so-called hero is a moron.
I recall seeing at the library a book entitled The Fantasy of Robert Heinlein. That's all I can tell you since I didn't actually check it out (Heinlein has never really appealed to me).
There's no board for LeGuin, so I'm gonna post a nit here.
In The Farthest Shore, it is mentioned that the Master Doorkeeper is one of the seven persons in the world who know the Archmage's true name.
The others are then listed:
If you want an Ursula LeGuin board, just ask. I don't particularly care for her stuff, but that won't stop me from giving her a section if someone emails the titles of her fantasy books.
I didn't think it was worth it for just one nit (though I'm sure there are others in her work )
Peter David has written both.