Something to Ponder: Joan Slonczewski

[jesse_the_k]

I've adored Joan Slonczewski's writings since A Door Into Ocean. She focuses on gender roles, politics, and symbiotic biosystems. She's a college teacher by day (or by term time) and writes SF in free time she finds I don't know where. A Canadian fan helpfully maintains a Joan S website. Joan herself has begun book blogging at http://ultraphyte.com/

Here's Charlie Stross blurbing her latest book: The Highest Frontier and introducing her guest-blogging:

begin quote  Her latest novel, The Highest Frontier, shows a college in a space habitat financed by a tribal casino and protected from alien invasion by Homeworld Security. Her best known book, "A Door into Ocean", depicts an ocean world run by genetic engineers who repel an interstellar invasion using nonviolent methods similar to Tahrir Square. In her book "Brain Plague", intelligent microbes invade human brains and establish microbial cities.
 quote ends

And if you're wondering how to pronounce her name, let her tell you directly:

begin quote 
[W]hen my grandfather came over it would have had the barred-L letter, and sounded something like "Swine-chevski". But as paws4thot suggests, the pronunciation quickly Americanized to "Slon-ZOO-ski." The students call me "Dr. Zeuss" behind my back. quote ends

Kirkus liked it a lot and Publishers' Weekly found it a sedately paced narrative an delightfully amusing read. The drawback is published in hardback on 1 September, so the softsover won't be along for at least a few months.

I just learned that Joan S wrote her first book, A Door into Ocean as a response to DUNE. That could be a very interesting contrast-and-compare discussion, but a fearsome page-count.