McINTYRE, Vonda N(eel)

(1948-)

   US writer and geneticist, one of the earliest successful graduates of the CLARION SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS' WORKSHOP, which she attended in 1970. So far as the editors can establish, she began to publish sf with "Only at Night" in Clarion (anth 1971) ed Robin Scott WILSON, and gained prominence with "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" (1973),which won a NEBULA for Best Novelette and served as the initial section of DREAMSNAKE (fixup 1978), her best known novel to date, which won heranother Nebula as well as a HUGO. The female protagonist of both story and book is a healer in a desolated primitive venue, the violent and destructive superstitions of whose inhabitants lead to her losing her healer snake, with which she was linked through complex imprinting. The book version goes on to recount her quest for a replacement snake, a search through a strongly depicted post- HOLOCAUST environment which includes gruelling experiences in the city that had served as the central venue for VNM's first novel, The Exile Waiting (1975; rev 1976 UK). That book likewise features a female protagonist with singular empathic powers: she is a sneak thief - the plot is complicated - who manages to escape Earth's last city with a Japanese poet from the stars and a virtuous"pseudosib" (the bad "twin" having been killed in the city) and in due course Earth entirely, with the prognosis that she will become a successful starfarer.After Fireflood and Other Stories (coll 1979), which assembled her best short work, VNM became associated with the STAR TREK enterprise, producing the RECURSIVE Star Trek: The Entropy Effect * (1981) and 3 film ties - Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan * (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock * (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home * (1986) -as well as Star Trek: Enterprise: The First Adventure * (1986). Her next independent novel, Superluminal (1977 as "Aztecs" in 2076: The American Tricentennial ed Edward BRYANT; exp 1983), places its female protagonistin a rite-of-passage situation - she must replace her organic heart with an artificial device in order to become a starship pilot, but manages nonetheless to retain her humanity - and is significantly open to a FEMINIST reading. Barbary (1986) is directed to a younger audience. TheStarfarers series - comprisingStarfarers (1989),Transition (1991), Metaphase (1992) and Nautilus (1994) - is likewise written with deliberate clarity and ease. VNM's recent work is considerably less demanding than the novels and stories of her first professional decade but it continues to demonstrate her argued, numerate and humane approach - via the instruments of sf - to feminist concerns.Aurora: Beyond Equality (anth 1976) ed with Susan Janice Anderson is a collection of feminist sfstories, not all by women.

   JC

   Other works: The Bride * (1985), a film tie; Screwtop (1976 in The Crystal Ship ed Robert SILVERBERG; 1989 chap dos); Star Wars: The Crystal Star * (1994).

   See also: CYBORGS; FASTER THAN LIGHT; SPACE FLIGHT.