Ursula has a review of Jeanette Winterson’s book Stone Gods up at the Guardian.

It’s an interesting, well balanced review that has a cheeky jab at generalist fiction writers who decide to use SF in their stories to get their point across then deny – in the face of all reason – that they have written SF because they’re afraid of being tarred with the genre brush.

I’m with her on this, it’s dishonest and kind of silly. When it comes to fiction, any kind of fiction, I am confirmed worshipper at the alter of Story, within that you use anything you can at your disposal (including the fantastic or the speculative) to make it real for the reader, to make them connect emotionally with the story. Bumbling amateur that I am this is what I believe but I’m not on my own.

This doesn’t mean that genre has no place but merely that obsessing about it or denying it is probably quite a dangerous thing for any writer to do and most of the talented writers that spring to my mind write across several genres.

Anyway it’s a good piece, take a look.

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