My Loncon report is still in progress. In the meantime…
While at the con, I found out I am on a Buzzfeed List. Initially it was called “21 of the Best British Sci Fi and Fantasy Writers you Should be Reading” but then it changed to the more clickbaity headline of “21 of the Best British Sci Fi and Fantasy Writers You’ve Probably Never Heard of.” Aww yeah. Damien Walter, the compiler of the list, said on twitter it had about 60,000 views though, which is roughly the total amount of views of this blog over the past 3 or so years I’ve been running it. *blinks*
At Nine Worlds, I ran a workshop on writing LGBTQI characters in SFF. A few days before this, I put out a call on Twitter for character portrayals in SFF that were either positive, negative, or conflicted. I collated most of them into a table. Initially I was going to print them out for attendees, but I had no idea how many people would show up. I probably would have printed about 20, which wouldn’t have been enough–about 50 or so people came to my workshop! So here’s the list. There’s plenty on here I haven’t read. Feel free to comment with thoughts, additional examples, spark debate, etc. If I have time, I’ll come back and update the table now and again to reflect the comments.
| Positive | Negative | Conflicting Answers |
| Otherbound, Corinne Duyvis | Baron Harkonnen, Dune | The Last Herald Mage Series, Mercedes Lackey |
| Characters in Mark Charan Newton’s books (transgender, gay, etc) | Illario, Mary Gentle | Austin & Robby in Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith |
| Bonnie in Rapture of the Nerds by Charlie Stross and Cory Doctorow | Jack Randall in the Outlander series | The Steel Remains, Richard Morgan |
| The Culture Novels, Iain M. Banks | Problematic portrayal of a gay man in Windrose Chronicles, Barbara Hambly | Andrew in Buffy |
| Malinda Lo’s work | Riddick at one point offers to turn a lesbian character straight in the latest film. | Cutter and Judah in the Iron Council by China Mieville |
| Transgender character in Shadows on the Moon, Zoe Marriott | Izana from Knights of Sidonia | |
| Transgender character in Eon/Eona, Allison Goodman (plus crossdressing-but-straight protagonist) | Orson Scott Card | |
| Vintage: A Ghost Story, Steve Berman | Willow in Buffy (bi-erasure) | |
| Daja in Will of the Empress, Tamora Pierce | Anne McCaffrey (blue and green dragonriders) | |
| Anthem in Coda, by Emma Trevayne | Darwin in The Four Realms by Adrian Faulkner | |
| Nick in The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon | The Forever War, Joe Haldeman | |
| Kylie Chan novels | ||
| Lord John Grey in the Outlander series | ||
| Havemercy & sequels by Jones & Bennett. | ||
| Susan Ivanova and Talia Winters from Babylon 5 | ||
| Okha Soyan in Bloodhouse, Tamora Pierce | ||
| Pen in the Skyscraper Throne series, Tom Pollock | ||
| Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin | ||
| Ro in Owl Stretching by K.A. Laity | ||
| Makaria and Hypatia in Romanitas by Sophia McDougall | ||
| Nyx in Infidel, Kameron Hurley |
