I never heard of this author before, but I recently (recently to me means in the last year or so) heard someone on NPR talking about her. It seemed apparent from the interview that she had died, as they were praising her in the past tense.

 

Does anyone know her work? I am intrigued by her being the first black female sci-fi writer. And then on top of that, someone commented about her on a blog I read and I thought wow, this is too many coincidences. But when I looked her up on Amazon her body of work was huge. Anyone know her? Have any recommendations?

 

Also, there was a comment about a book about a family of (multigenerational?) witches or something in San Francisco? That sounded like a fun book. Help?

I hadn't heard of her, but your post prompted me to look her up on amazon and I have just added 'Lilith's Brood' to my wish list. Not normally a great sci-fi fan, this story sounds really very intriguing and I would be interested if anyone has read this particular book (which was originally published as the 'Xenogenesis' trilogy).

I've heard her name, but not read anything. She's supposed to be fantastic though.

Brilliant author (Egwene, you've heard of her because she's on my 100 list) and her voice of reason resounds throughout the gerne. She subtly weaves her racial and gender-based concerns into the structure of her novels without letting them overtly dominate them.

 

IMHO the Patternist sequence is her best--beginning with Pattermaster. It deals with an aeons-long debate between two alien immortals who are planning to shape the human race to a form that best suits their needs.

tremendous author - though I always confuse her with Barbara Hambly