Patternmaster (Patternist, book 4) by Octavia E. Butler

[james_davis_nicoll]

Patternmaster (Patternist, book 4) by Octavia E. Butler

Comments

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

" I wonder if the issue might not have been that at this stage of her career, Butler was still so steeped in the sexism of the 1970s that it didn’t occur to her Amber could be the protagonist. "

Or, if 70s publishing was so steeped in sexism, that getting a first novel published with a female protoganist was unlikely to impossible, especially as a black female author.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

That's what came to mind for me also, especially thinking of the bit from Norton that James has quoted in the past (more or less, that her first female protagonists were a tentative experiment forced on an unwilling publishing industry).