Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Scott, Melissa
Tagged: Author.
(1960- ) US writer who has been publishing sf since her first novel, The Game Beyond (1984), but who has written two fantasies of interest, both with Lisa A Barnett (1958- ). The Armor of Light (1988) is set in an Alternate-World sixteenth-century Scotland, whose king is threatened by a conspiracy of Witches; John Dee figures in the complex action. Point of Hopes (1995) occurs in a world with two suns and whose nature is shaped – and the destinies of whose inhabitants are governed – by the configurations of the skies as interpreted by Astrology, which in this world is a respectable science. Scott and Barnett make clever use of their premise, positing a culture where occupations and other roles are determined by individuals' charts rather than by (for instance) their Gender – by indirection, and without undue foregrounding, a sharp feminist lesson is conveyed. The plot itself is a somewhat cumbersome detection; the leisurely telling allows for much Fantasy-of-Manners detailing of the workings of society. [JC]
Melissa Scott
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