Williams Gibson's stuff mostly isn't about aliens but is damned good science fiction.

Her adult work I found shrilly one-note political.

This is why The Family Tree remains the only book of hers I've read. Really annoyingly strident in her political agenda. I have similar issues with James Tiptree, Jr.--she (Alice Sheldon was her real name) was blatantly anti-male in her writing, but she did write some beautiful short stories nonetheless.

It's not necessarily a shortcoming that any given SF alien species serves as a metaphor for some aspect of humanity, either. It's a reasonable approach.

Did she write "Herland"?

I did find that bias in Tiptree - except in "Brightness Falls from the Air" which is a CRUSHING novel, about inevitability, and cruelty, and vengeance. The writing is so beautiful that I have to re-read it every so often, but not more than once every couple of years; I find it shattering.

(I'm sure this comes as little surprise to most of the Bitches that the "James Tiptree Award" is handed out every year for SF/F that challenges assumptions about gender)

I can totally see how some of Tepper's works could be seen as one-note, ita. Some of her books I just have to roll my eyes at, but some of them, I think she has some gallow's humored, funny scenes.

"Ensign Rock" shows up in 2 (non-canon) Trek novels from the 80s, as a Starfleet Academy trainee.

It's only Ensign Rock because humans can't pronounce Horta, and he's a son of the original Horta (I personally find the series of books quite fun). And I think only the Romulans call him Ensign Rock. Diane Duane, I think, wrote them, and she has some interesting stuff about Romulans and Vulcans.

re: Sherri Tepper-- Grass, Raising the Stones, and Sideshow are the ones I recommend for her, they're something of a trilogy, and there's a lot of her typical gender/social issues involved, though not as strongly as Gate to Women's Country, which I tend to argue with.

poptarts

Naraht! That's his name.

Hmm, yes, Connie- GtWC is a *tad* on the "men are evil, unless they are SNAG's, OMG, run!"

Also, I get the impression that she thinks liking sex makes you an intellectual moron. Heh. Well, I don't have to agree 100% with an author . Sometimes it 's more fun to mentally argue with them!