Ann Leckie’s new novel, following the triumphant success of her multiple award-winning novels Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, is Provenance, and it is not at the same level. Her invention and world-building are still top quality, but the plot of Provenance sags, and the characters feel like marionettes, moving without feeling. Yet I read to … Continue reading Ann Leckie’s Provenance
Category: Elizabeth Moon
Collaborating with Anne McCaffrey: An interview with Elizabeth Moon
The science fiction novel that moved my reading tastes from adolescent dragon wonder to feminist space opera was Sassinak (1990), by the then immensely prolific Anne McCaffrey and the fairly unknown Elizabeth Moon. I had been a teenage McCaffrey completist, but once I’d read Sassinak – an engrossing space opera about planet pirates, orphan enslavement, naval … Continue reading Collaborating with Anne McCaffrey: An interview with Elizabeth Moon
Choosing to remain autistic: Elizabeth Moon’s Speed of Dark
I am kicking myself for not having got around to reading this Elizabeth Moon novel before. In this house we have a long shelf full of her excellent space opera (I posted a happy note about the first one, here), but Speed of Dark arrived unnoticed, and stayed on our shelves for years unremembered. But oh what a treat … Continue reading Choosing to remain autistic: Elizabeth Moon’s Speed of Dark
The joy of genderless space opera: Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Sword
Some time ago I reviewed Ann Leckie’s debut and multiple-prize-winning sf novel Ancillary Justice. I loved it, and was highly impressed by what I still think is an immense technical achievement: writing fiction in which gender is simply of no importance at all. Leckie has invented a culture in whose language all pronouns are female … Continue reading The joy of genderless space opera: Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Sword
Gender-neutral military service in Elizabeth Moon’s Once a Hero
Elizabeth Moon writes sf about the space navy, making combat and military command truly gender-neutral: I did a podcast on her back in 2012. I first came across Moon when she co-wrote volumes 1 and 3 of a space trilogy with Anne McCaffrey, called Sassinak and Generation Warriors. I was powerfully struck by these novels because … Continue reading Gender-neutral military service in Elizabeth Moon’s Once a Hero
Kate Macdonald 