Vonda McIntyre was definitely one of my favorite writers for a while there, back in the day. I look forward to the interview, and I should really pick up some of her more recent stuff. In the meantime, thanks for this, and especially for the book covers. My copy, which is probably still in my parents' basement…

I'm too far from my bookcase to judge this right now (and look up publication dates to get the decade right), but Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, Connie Willis, and other female greats were all writing over the last decade (despite Butler's untimely death halfway through it). The problem, it seems to me, isn't…

@Mr_Academic: The Speed of Dark and Remnant Population are very adult books that engage interesting themes well. Having read them, I was surprised to read the descriptions of her series books—seems like a different sort of animal entirely.

@joshuaacnewman: Didn't you know that it's only "identity politics" when the identity in question happens not to be the one in power?

@Ghost in the Machine: I think it's the smiling. Both Fauxlivia and Olivia who thinks she's Faulivia are much smilier than the Olivia we're used to. Whom I miss and want back. Hopefully we'll get a bit of her in November.

depressing and disturbing. more, please...

I liked this. I thought it was fun, instructive, and all that other good stuff. But because I'm a pedant and a person commenting on a post online (oops, was that repetitively redundant?), I have to disagree, and express my disappointment, that in accordance with this chart neither a villain nor someone who dies…

@tamahome: She continued to write many more books, win awards, teach, etc. In recent years, she's written some very well-selling mysteries.

Lovely review of a book I love—thanks. In both Where Late the Sweet Birds and in Juniper Time Wilhelm did a masterful job of getting inside the messy, unhappy minds of the people at the center of change and history.

@Cash907Censored: Why is that so unbelievable? Mass publics have been perfectly comfortable with slavery, government-sanctioned killings (genocide, death penalties, wars, etc.), and the like generation after generation, continent after continent

Galadriel the matriarch? Huh?

Dawson's Gates. (OK, I know, it preceded The Gates. But still)

@Poodle_Heart: Cool stuff—and so speaks to the point that if all you read is the middle aged and dead white dudes, you get such an incomplete (and closed off) view of existence and, I think, a much poorer life (whatever your own gender and skin tone)

For many years now, Discworld has been where I go when I'm sad, frustrated, and unable to deal with our own, round world. I am deeply deeply grateful to Terry Pratchett for giving that to me. I am also very excited for the next Tiffany Aching book, and for the book after that, and as many as come after that. But…

@Poodle_Heart: Heh.

sorry—was repeating myself, and can only edit, not delete

@Alasdair Wilkins: Evidently, in a strict literary sense, they are. Maybe? I based that on all the comments here, but Webster's says something still different:

@collex: I didn't say you were a jerk. I said your comment was jerkish. There is a difference. Other people made your point more nicely, and I learned from them.

@Poodle_Heart: Butler (RIP, or whatever the atheist equivalent is) and Delany are both writers of color, feminists, and people whose work raises gay themes. Run for the hills!

@palinode: This is really interesting. I definitely, and in part due to sites like tvtropes, thought of it as synonymous with cliche and now am just fascinated by how the term is evolving in common usage—and wondering why.