Why is it that no current day sci-fi authors have the same notoriety as past authors like Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Arthur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Phillip K. Dick? Is it because the genre itself is way past its creative peak or maybe it’s just that a lot less people today read science fiction and instead just watch it in film and show format? Just pondering this today. 
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I’ve read quite some modern sci-fi that had interesting and novel ideas, written down in a unique and compelling way.
My favorite sci-fi novels of all time are:
- 3 Body Problem (2008) by Cixin Liu. This is a trilogy of epic proportions with a whole lot of scientific, cultural, philosophical ideas, in addition to being a great and exciting story about war, politics, espionage and power.
- Children of Time (2015) by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The sci is strong with this one. Lots of biology, tech, worldbuilding. For some people, too much. I just love nerding out about these things, and IMO, the way this book changes your view of the world around us is so fundamental that it is absolute top-tier. Not recommended if you’re not a deep scifi nerd though. Coincidentally, this book also has 2 sequels, but these only appear when the author has a novel idea that fits the world. No regular series or grand plan. The third one is my favorite, but they are all great: do start with the first.
I’m sorry for the cryptic descriptions, but like most good sci-fi, they are best enjoyed on an empty stomach: don’t read anything about them but just start reading the book. Pirate them if buying is too difficult, you’ll end up wanting to pay for them anyways.
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I always felt John Scalzi was some sort of a big deal?
Surely he writes like one.
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I had to look him up online. Never heard of him before.
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James S. A. Corey certainly qualifies IMO.
(Actually that’s a pen name for two authors:
Ty Franck and Daniel James Abraham.)
The Expanse is absolutely on par with the classics IMO (and many people seem to agree).
Edit: also weird: some of the greatest classic SciFi authors are not very well known these days at all: I cannot imagine not knowing Stanisław Lem, but I met loads of SciFi fans who had never heard of him.
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Seconded, the Expanse is a must read/must watch.
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But to come back to the real question I think:
The answer is the same as in music. There is so much more of it, the world has become so much more diverse and many many bubbles exist.
Something like we had with The Beatles or Michael Jackson or Elvis will probably never exist again. Not quite.
You can become very famous inside one bubble, but outside nobody will never know you. That’s not uncommon these days.
Back when Asimov, Lem, Heinlein, and Dick wrote, SciFi was new-ish and kinda main stream. And there were many “firsts” in the genre.
Just like Tolkien, Howard, Lovecraft or Zimmer Bradley wrote stuff in Fantasy that had not been seen before. If you read their stuff now, much of it isn’t even that special.
Nowadays it is much harder to become universally known. There is no proper mainstream anymore like there used to be.
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I think you hit the nail on the head
I have been reading sci-fi since I can remember. I had read all of the I Robot books, the Foundation series by Clarke before I was 10. Started with H.G Wells and Heinlein’s books when I was a bit older. I don’t mean to brag, but name a book and I have probably read it. Name an author and I can guarantee that I have read at least one of their books (even - hangs head in shame - L Ron Hubbard).
All of the previously mentioned writers are awesome, especially Tchakovsky… I’m on a bit of a binge with his books at the moment (he has written a lot). All of them are up there with the ‘classic’ greats IMHO. I would also add Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds and Peter F Hamilton to the list of must read modern authors.
One thing there are lot more of now days are very good female writers, ‘back then’ we had Ursula K Le Guinn and Anne McCaffery and that was about it. I would encourage everyone to read Justina Robson (her Quantum Gravity series is good a mash-up of sci-fi and fantasy), Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries) and Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch trilogy)… There are more but that is just off the top of my head.
I think another thing that has muddied the waters (and bugs me a bit) is that with most books stores here, when you go to the “Sci-Fi” section it is 90% Young Adult Fantasy.
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Have you read something by Harry Harrison?
He’s a bit of an obscure one, if you don’t count Soylent Green (based on one of his novels).
I enjoyed Stainless Steel Rat, for example.
Or William Gibson. I still have Neuromancer here unread, which is embarrassing but I just don’t get to reading these days.
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Harrison, I have always placed in the same era as Heinlein & Asimov. Don’t get me wrong, I like his books. I’ve read all the Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld books, War with the Robots (a collection of short stories) and ‘A Transatlantic Tunnel - Hurrah’ but for sci-fi they fit more in the ‘ripping yarns’ category than thought provoking.
Give yourself a slap upside the head 
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Yeah, they are closer to pulp magazine stories, like Conan in space.
Oh, and talking about women authors: have you read “Hunters of the Red Moon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley? Another one that could just as well be Fantasy, but I enjoyed it. “The Survivors” was not as memorable, sadly.
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Haven’t read that, but quite enjoyed Mists of Avalon… Definitely in the fantasy category that one though.
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Yeah she is usually known for Fantasy. Although she has some interesting crossovers. Some of the Darkover novels are SciFi+Fantasy.
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I think you’re right - the greats had the confluence of an audience that read everything, and also got a start in a time where physics was at a stage that there were interesting discoveries that had happened recently that people could conceptually understand and could make an interesting premise for a story (time dilation in space travel for instance).
But I think the biggest thing is the death of the newspaper and magazine as a physical thing you bought and could give to someone else. Certainly Asimov got his start writing short stories for this sort of media.
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Growing up, I straddled two worlds. Because I was quite athletic and tall for my age and played quite a few sports, but I also had a bit of a ‘math brain’ and friends who were stereotypical nerds.
My only loves growing up (until I discovered girls) were Rugby, reading science fiction and D&D.
I would argue that Sci-Fi is less niche today than it was when I was young, these days I reckon you would be hard pressed to find a football player that couldn’t tell you their favourite science fiction show. But yeah the medium has definitely changed.
Like when I was a kid, if you mentioned an author or book (unless the TV series or movie had the same name), then you would probably get a blank stare… and back then Star Trek, Dr Who and Space 1999 was for geeks, not footy players?
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Book store? What’s that? Almost all of those closed down in my city a while ago!
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Still popular enough here to turn a profit… There are at least two or three in every shopping mall in Canberra. All the local towns have a Lion’s community book store, or something similar, as well.
But since I bought an e-book reader a bit over a year ago, I have been getting most of my books online.
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A book is nice for the simple reason it is a thing that exists in the environment, and is lit by the same light as the rest of the room, and you have to carry it with you.
I did the e-reader thing in my phone for a while, but found I was largely consuming repetitive trash that was cheap, but I’d never actually pay for on paper. The free classic literature was good, though. (Yes, this is a “me-problem” 
)
Another good reason for the lack of the famous sci-fi author brought up by Harry: film and TV do not lend themselves to the influence of a single person in the same way a book does!
It also occurred to me recently, a lot of the famous authors we think of were overtly political in their works, or leveraged their fame for a platform to advocate for things they found important. That’s a bit of a death sentence for a product these days!
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I feel the same way, I still love the feel and smell of a ‘proper’ book. I swore that I would never own an e-book reader, just on principle. But when the only hardcopy of an out of print book that I could find was already a bit tatty, going to cost hundreds of dollars (plus postage from the UK) and I could get an e-copy for AUD7.99… I caved.
Whilst I still prefer a real book, I have to admit that I have been sucked in by the convenience and 
my Kobo.
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