Seattle Metropolitan Magazine has an end-of-decade feature, “Washington Writers Pick Their Favorite Local Books of the Decade,” in which I talk about why, especially now, the world needs Vonda N. McIntyre’s final novel, Curve of the World.
Curve of the World by Vonda McIntyre
Vonda N. McIntyre completed her final novel, Curve of the World, in March, just two weeks before she died of metastatic pancreatic cancer. Vonda was a brilliant writer with huge talent—and an even greater heart. She believed in community and humanity’s ability to solve problems by paying attention to reality and to each other. Curve of the World is an alternate history of the ancient world, three or four thousand years ago, in which Minoans build a global trading community based on mutual obligation and a trust-but-verify approach to communication. We meet people, human and imperfect people of the steppe, Central America, the North American plains, northwest coast, plus the piratical Sea People who prey on them, and see how the Minoan credo—pay attention, communicate, tell the truth (particularly to yourself), and trust-but-verify—can build a working world in which capitalism, global trade, and fairness are not contradictions in terms. There is still conflict—war and famine, fear and hatred, love and friendship, human dignity and human slavery—because people are people, but it is a marvelous vision of how the world might have been, perhaps once was, and might, still, one day be. The world needs this novel.
The article also talks about two other books of note for SFF readers: G. Willow Wilson’s Ms. Marvel and Nisi Shawl’s Everfair. Go read it and find out just how many amazing local author’s there are for you to explore.
Nicola Griffith 
Thank you so much for this. I am a Vonda McIntyre fan from way back with many friends in common though I never met her in person. I found her “Of Mist and Grass and Sand” story in Pamela Sargent’s Women of Wonder and taught it. I used to hand Dreamsnake and Exile Waiting to students. They were always pleased. And the Minoan empire! Another favorite going back to when I was still in grade school. At the University of Washington, one of my architecture history professors had developed a theory about that empire—he was well before his time. Like McIntyre, we need faith that people can do better. We need to do better.
Is this book in print? I’ve searched all my local libraries and the Mass. Commonwealth catalog. I looked at the library of congress catalog and can’t find it there. Amazon has an entry that’s a hardcover book, but it says unknown availability. I searched for it with a web browser and found nothing for sale anywhere else. Thanks for any pointers. (I read your blog because I’ve enjoyed your books, from Ammonite through Hild and everything in between.)
@ruthngoldenberg: It is not yet in print. As/when it’s paced with a publisher, I’ll post about it here.
Thank you for the recommendation. I love her work. We lost a literary treasure when she died.