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21. John Scalzi
The multiple Hugo award winning author of Old Man’s War and Redshirts established his reputation as a bombastic blogger before branching into fiction. Scalzi’s frontline role in the Sad Puppy wars and long running feud with the far-right of science fiction have also contributed to his renown.
20. Beeple
Even before selling the NFT collage Everyday’s: the First 5000 Days for $69,400,000 (yes you read that right) Beeple had a cult online following for his iconic imagery, that often subverts the symbols of scifi to create its baroque and hilarious effects.
19. Liu Cixin
It’s hard to overstate the centrality of Liu Cixin to Chinese science fiction, or count how many times he has won their biggest awards. His fiction captures the hard edged scientism and cultural conservatism that once characterised American SF literature. Cixin has controversially supported the state persecution of Uighur muslims.
18. Jenova Chen
As the founder of Thatgamestudio, Chen was the creative visionary behind Journey, a watershed moment for video game storytelling. Chen’s narrative style is beautiful, resonant and transcendent. Many describe his games as a near spiritual experience. His thesis on narrative design is required reading for anyone entering the game industry.
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17. Tamsyn Muir
The Millennial generation has begun to express itself in science fiction through authors like Tamsyn Muir. Harrow the Ninth captures many of this generation’s concerns about power and identity, all permeated with the post-ironic humour and meme play of the digital native.
Damien Walter 
My wife and I turned “Dune” off after an hour. We didn’t like it at all.
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I went ahead and watched it. Part 2 is much better. But still, it does not tell the complete story as the previous movies.
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Great article, you’ve fueled a half dozen Holds to be placed at my local library. I like your spread of formats/media, I feel that your fascination with technology and medium-as-message (as you put it) really enrich your insights and analysis.
I love Denis as much as anyone, but I’m sad that his new entry into Dune’s canon means we won’t see someone attempt to produce Jodorowski’s Dune for at least another decade or two now.
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