If anyone is a fan of Vonda N. McIntyre - not great news...

I'm a member of Book View Cafe; we're all in states of shock. Vonda is wonderful--kind and funny and a mainstay of our group. I'm hoping that some of the newer treatments for pancreatic cancer will prove effective.

The only thing of hers I ever read was the Star Wars novel the Crystal Star. I have to admit that afterwards I never had an interest in picking up anything else with her name on it.

My condolences to her family, though. I lost my dad to pancreatic cancer just after Christmas 9 years ago. A year is probably an optimistic prognosis; it's a very aggressive cancer, and unfortunately as I understand it, it's usually not detected until it's already well advanced because of misdiagnoses (in my dad's case it was covered up by his diabetes, and to this day I still wonder if the cancer wasn't the problem all along).

I am sad. I LOVED her fantasy historical The Moon and the Sun, about the court of the Sun King and what happens when they encounter a mermaid from the New World. A very underrated book. The research was extremely well done. She also wrote many short stories, the majority of them dystopic and depressing, but they made you think.

Marissa D what is the Book View Cafe?

Sad news, indeed. Thanks for letting us know.

Cobalt Jade said:

I am sad. I LOVED her fantasy historical The Moon and the Sun, about the court of the Sun King and what happens when they encounter a mermaid from the New World. A very underrated book. The research was extremely well done. She also wrote many short stories, the majority of them dystopic and depressing, but they made you think.

Marissa D what is the Book View Cafe?

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Book View Cafe is an author-led cooperative publisher of (mostly) genre fiction (heavily slanted toward SF and fantasy) that started up in 2008, and Vonda is one of the mainstays. The website/store is www.bookviewcafe.com

Loved her Star Trek novel The Entropy Effect when I was a kid. I need to read Dreamsnake, which is buried in my book shelf somewhere.

Oh crap.

I love her work, and her generosity towards other writers.

Dreamsnake had an enormous influence on me as a teen.

I really liked Dreamsnake, and The Moon and the Sun, and her Starfarers novels. This is really sad. I really hate cancer.

Vonda passed away this evening, peacefully and with little pain according to the post on CaringBridge.

Damn.

Marissa D said:

Vonda passed away this evening, peacefully and with little pain according to the post on CaringBridge.

Damn.

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Damn. She was a lovely person and a wonderful writer. This is a loss to so many people; my condolences and deepest sympathies.

She left a fine body of work and, it seems, a lot of people who loved her.