She Blinded Me with Science Fiction Multiple Choice Quiz | Literature

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Alice B. Sheldon was the author of many SF short stories and novellas including "The Last Flight of Doctor Ain" (1969), "The Women Men Don't See" (1973) and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" (1974). Under what pseudonym was most of her work published?

Answer: James Tiptree, Jr

Tiptree's actual gender was not publicly known until 1977 after the death of her mother. Racoona Sheldon is another pseudonym used by the same author. Andre Norton is another SF author (birth name Alice Mary Norton). In addition to winning awards for several of her stories, Tiptree has an award named for her. The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is "an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender" and was announced in 1991 by author Pat Murphy. (James Tiptee, Jr. Award website)

2. Who was the first woman to be presented with the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) Grand Master Award, which is awarded to a living author for a lifetime's achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy?

Answer: Andre Norton

Norton, who was born in 1912, was presented with the Grand Master Award in 1984. When she died in 2005 she had written over 130 novels and nearly 100 short stories. Norton's works included science fiction, time travel, and fantasy for both adults and youth.

After her death the SFWA created the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America website)

3. In 1970 Ursula Le Guin became the first woman to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for the same novel. Which book was it?

Answer: The Left Hand of Darkness

Winners of the Hugo Awards are chosen annually by registered members of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). Voting is open to anyone who pays the registration fee, whether or not they actually attend the convention. The Nebula Award is issued by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Membership (and therefore voting for the Nebula winners) is only available to published authors. Winning both awards means that the book was not only popular among fans, but considered to be the best by the author's peers.

Le Guin won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel again in 1974, this time for "The Dispossessed".

4. What science fiction author, better known for her "Vatta's War" and "Serrano Legacy" series, has published collections of her short stories as "Lunar Activity", "Phases" and "Moon Flights"?

Answer: Elizabeth Moon

Elizabeth Moon won the Compton Crook Award, given by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, in 1989 for her fantasy novel "Sheepfarmer's Daughter". Her novel "The Speed of Dark" won the Nebula Award in 2003.

5. Lois McMaster Bujold won the Hugo Awards for Best Novel for "The Vor Game" in 1990, "Barrayar" in 1991 and "Mirror Dance" in 1994, all for books in her "Vorkosigan" series. She also won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1988 for "Falling Free", set in the same universe. Which of the following books by Bujold was NOT set in this universe?

Answer: The Curse of Chalion

"The Warrior's Apprentice" and "The Vor Game" are the first novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan. "Barrayar" features Miles' mother Cordelia. "Mirror Dance" alternates between Miles' story and that of his cloned brother Mark. Although Miles does not appear in "Ethan of Athos", Elli Quinn, an agent of his mercenary company, plays an important role in the story. "Memory" is described in the timeline in the back of many of the Vorkosigan books as "Miles hits thirty; thirty hits back". "The Curse of Chalion" is the first book in a fantasy series by Bujold.

She has also written a fantasy/romance series "The Sharing Knife".

6. Which author won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her short story "Even the Queen" and for her novel "Doomsday Book" in the same year?

Answer: Connie Willis

"Even the Queen" is set in the not-so-distant future and addresses women's control of their reproductive cycles. "Doomsday Book" is a time travel story featuring a graduate student at Oxford who is sent back to the Middle Ages for historical research. These both won the awards in 1993.

7. Who was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for writing fiction and the third woman to be awarded the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) Grand Master Award? Her first Hugo Award was for Best Novella for the story "Weyr Search" which introduced readers to telepathic dragons who destroy poisonous thread.

Answer: Anne McCaffrey

Le Guin was the second woman to win the Grand Master Award. Asaro and Wilhelm are also science fiction authors.

"Weyr Search" is the first story in McCaffrey's series "Dragonriders of Pern". Although the series originally seemed more fantasy than science fiction, later books were prequels which told how the inhabitants of Pern landed there on a spaceship and how the dragons were genetically engineered.

8. Marion Zimmer Bradley is well-known for her fantasy works such as "The Mists of Avalon" which won the 1984 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. She also wrote a science fiction series based on a planet where telepathy had developed as a form of technology. What was this planet's name?

Answer: Darkover

The human population of Darkover was founded by Terrans who crashlanded on the planet. Centuries later, it was rediscovered by Earth (Terra). Many of the books deal with the conflicts between the largely feudal Darkovan culture and that of the Terrans. Another theme of some of the books is the role of women in the culture. Bradley created the Renunciates or "Free Amazons", a guild of women who have sworn never to marry or accept either domination or protection from men.

Barrayar is the home planet of Miles Vorkosigan, created by Lois McMaster Bujold. The planet Pern was created by Anne McCaffrey. Valdemar is a Kingdom created by Mercedes Lackey in her "Heralds" fantasy series.

9. Octavia Butler, author of "Kindred", "Parable of the Sower", "Parable of the Talents" and the "Patternmaster" series, was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010. True or False: She was the first African-American woman to be given this honor.

Answer: True

Butler's works have addressed issues of race, social class and religion, while telling interesting (and not "preachy") stories.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame and information about the 2010 inductees can be found at the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum (EMPSFM) website.

10. Although this author's works are more often considered mainstream, rather than science fiction, her novel "The Handmaid's Tale" won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for the best science fiction novel published in the UK in 1986. Who is she?

Answer: Margaret Atwood

Atwood herself does not consider her novel to be science fiction.

From an interview with Atwood on the publisher's website:
Q: "It's hard to pin down a genre for this novel. Is it Science Fiction?"
A: "No, it certainly isn't Science Fiction. Science Fiction is filled with Martians and space travel to other planets, and things like that. That isn't this book at all. 'The Handmaids Tale' is Speculative Fiction in the genre of 'Brave New World' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was written not as Science Fiction but as an extrapolation of life in 1948. So, too, 'The Handmaids Tale' is a slight twist on the society we have now."
(Random House, Inc. website)

I don't know whether this statement was made before or after winning the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Source: Author Julia103

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LadyCaitriona before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

She Blinded Me with Science Fiction Quiz

Science fiction has often been considered a male-dominated genre. This quiz highlights many award-winning women SF authors.

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