In Which Yr Hmbl Hostess Has Not Had Enough Caffeine

[rolanni]

Bruce Sterling is trying to make a point over here.  Mind you, I’m not sure what his point is.  It sorta smacks of the old assurance from A Certain Male SF Writer that his female colleagues didn’t have to write fantasy!  They could, with only a little research, learn to write science fiction, too.

Lack of caffeine, right.

Anyhow, Mr. Sterling provides a list, lifted from a Must Read SF posting at The Galaxy Express, with the note that there is not a single male author appearing.  One of the authors listed is Steve Miller, who, last time I checked — quite recently, in fact — was male.  And an author.

When this was pointed out to Mr. Sterling, he amended his editorial to exclaim that there was a male author of half a book! on the list.

Since there were three books listed by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Mr. Sterling clearly can’t do arithmetic, either.

Back to the point of the thing.

If there is only a single male author of SFRomance on the list compiled by Galaxy Express, does that mean there are no men writing SFRomance?  I confess that I can’t think of a name — ref. lack of caffeine — but perhaps someone else can?

And!  If there are “no” men writing SFRomance, does that automatically make SFRomance an Inferior Form, as Mr. Sterling’s commentary seems to suggest?

Discuss.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[berneynator.livejournal.com]

Well, mostly I would agree with you, but the two Bujold books mentioned are Shards of Honor, which definitely focuses on Cordelia and Aral and pretty much ends with them getting together; and A Civil Campaign, which covers Miles' courtship of Ekaterin. Like the Lee and Miller books on the list, I can see these particular choices even if I would not have thought of these authors as Romance authors, necessarily.

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

true. I guess when I see Bujold I think more about MIrror Dance and Memory, which are my faves. Civil Campaign is definitely a Romance - guess I overlooked the books listed as specific recommendations. I concentrated on authors more than titles.

[readinggeek451]

I've long thought that if I were recommending books to a romance reader who had to read SF (for a class, some such), Shards of Honor and A Civil Campaign would be on my shortlist.

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Along with many Lee/Miller titles. Sharon Shinn would be good for that list too.

[readinggeek451]

Anne McCaffrey would also work.