Wow, where was this book last year, when I was working on a project on race and gender in different generations of SF?

I don't know about all that, but ok. And is our century still really nascent? We're almost a tenth of the way into it.

@zeppelined: Yeah, when does the nascent century just become the century? Maybe when we're in a decade that people can agree on a name for? I still don't know what to call the 00s. The oughts? The noughties?

Octavia will always be one of the best scf-fi writers that ever lived. And she could have turned the vampire genre into a reinvigorated imaging. RIP.

ugh...
not really caring if I sound like a jerk but...
why should I give a shit if you are black/white/gay/straight/male/female/etc/etc?
the LAST thing I want* is to finish a book and say to myself "Boy, that black science fiction was the most exciting literature of the nascent twenty-first century that I've ever read!"
just write good books and shut the hell up.

* you know, besides cancer etc

Off to pre-order!

@mgoldfarb: Yes, but would you buy them?

I buy books based on the little blurby thing on the back, or a good review, or a rec from someone who's views I respect...and sometimes if it has a cool cover (this last method is running at about 40% right now - not too bad really)...
I have a ton of Delany, some Butler...cj cherryh, S. L. Viehl, Sinclair etc etc...
I don't really care...

Frankly, I have to agree with MGOLDFARB. I don't think pigeonholing yourself into "black sci-fi" or "gay sci-fi" or what have you is very beneficial, as all you are doing is perpetuation gender/race discrimination and stereotypes. Just write a good book, and let the work speak for itself.

@mgoldfarb: Because all of those groups of people have unique experiences and perspectives to share. Looking at the world through different eyes is what makes literature in general, and science fiction in particular, so worthwhile. If you deliberately blind yourself to them, you might end up missing something important.

This always confuses me about representations of future earth. As global travel and larger diasporas become more and more common, I can't help but think we will all essentially be "Braziliao-Filipino-Mediterranean."

Am I just too naive in believing that in 500-1000 years our collective ethnic "make-up" will be remarkably similar, as we all continue to travel and "inter-marry" at greater rates every year, and not stay in isolated geographical pockets for 1,000s-10,000s of years?

So much for Dr. King's dream of a color blind society. Why do we need "black science fiction"? If you are a black author, just write some good science fiction. WTF does the color of your skin have to do with anything?

@Antiheroine:

I agree that an authors tales may and should reflect their background, and would fully expect a black author to write about black characters, just as I would be pre-disposed to write about white characters, but I would feel pretty uncomfortable labeling my writing "white science fiction". Labeling yourself seems counter productive and the exact opposite of what has been fought for for years.

@Antiheroine: I don't avoid the books of a particular author based on anything other than book descriptions and reviews etc, if they are a new author for me, or my own experience with their work if I've read them before...
my point was that I don't care who they are - at all...of course they're writing from a particular perspective, every author does...this ubiquitous and it seems, desperate need to construct a unique identity based primarily on gender and race is very strange to me, I don't consider myself naive about the issues but the description of the above book frankly makes me sick and sad at the same time...
if there is going to be a separate section of a book store or library just for 'black science fiction', at it almost seems like this is the way things are heading then there should be a water fountain there just to drive home the irony.

G'head, check out some early sci-fi. Make it a drinking game. Spot an asian person, take a drink, spot a black person, take two. Bet you'll end up being pretty thirsty. You'll even be able to drive home afterward.

Hell, I'm just glad we have a future to belong to. I've noticed that (not counting Uhura and from the original star trek) black people didn't really exist in the future until about the 1980s, and even then they were more in there as an afterthought! We didn't even get red shirted!

So now that we got a dialog open, how about letting us into your mythological/middle/swordsandsorcery/alterna-earths, too? Can we get a brotha in Mordor?

@mgoldfarb: This was my first thought as well. I don't see a reason to read or avoid a book just because of the race/sex of the author.

It seems kinda degrading to feel the need to point out their race/gender. Like... "Man, this sure is some good sci-fi... even though it was written by a black woman!"

Ursula LeGuin has been writing sf of the mythological/alterna-earths for many years, always having black people, men and women, as her main characters.

.. Does this mean I've been reading white sci-fi all my life?

=o

@ TONYTRIPLE , a dialogue would mean admitting there's something worth talking about, from the point of view of most people here, race should not be acknowledged.

It's bullshit, and it's a common bad attitude in F/SF culture. They pat themselves on the back about being tolerant, and then go on to claim there's no need to point out where they might be.